Donald Trump is the accidental hero of a real-life feelgood climate tale even as a creeping horror story plays alongside | Clear Air
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- World Health Organisation reports the extreme European heatwave has killed more than 1,300 people, with World Weather Attribution scientists finding nearly half of Europe's 850 biggest cities are enduring their worst heat stress in recorded history and temperatures running 5–12C above seasonal averages.
- Donald Trump's attack on Iran alongside Israel and the resulting Strait of Hormuz blockade — disrupting about 20% of the world's oil and gas supply — has triggered fresh consideration of energy independence from fossil fuels, per the column.
- Renewable energy overtook coal as the leading global electricity source for the first time last year, providing a third of total generation, with non-fossil sources including nuclear reaching 42%.
- Solar energy grew 30% in 2025 — the single largest annual increase of any electricity source in history — while battery storage grew 66%; UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted solar costs have fallen 90% and batteries 95% over the past 15 years.
- Pakistan's solar capacity increased more than tenfold in four years, with solar now supplying over 25% of the country's electricity and prompting the government to cancel scheduled LNG imports for this financial year.
- The European Union saw solar and wind provide about 30% of electricity in 2025 (up from 19% in 2021), with renewables now 48% of total generation and fossil fuels falling to 29%, per thinktank Ember.
- China cut coal's share of power generation from about 80% two decades ago to roughly 50%, with two-thirds of cars and at least 25% of heavy vehicles sold this year expected to be EVs globally, according to BloombergNEF.
Why it matters: The paradox the column highlights: Trump's Hormuz blockade is accelerating the clean energy transition his administration fights at home. In the US, solar and batteries supplied 91% of new generation capacity in Q1, while the EU cut fossil fuels to 29% and Pakistan cancelled LNG imports — meaning the same geopolitical disruptions that expose fossil fuel vulnerability are simultaneously making renewables the cheapest, fastest path forward globally.
