A Global View of the Clean Energy Transition

By Jeff Jones

A recent New York Post editorial headline asserted that “New York needs to pull the plug on its suicidal green energy goals before the blackouts hit.” Taking off from a recent announcement from the Hochul Administration that the state will fall short of meeting its 70% by 2030 (70x30) carbon reduction goals, the Post echoed the doomsday scenario, calling for the state to reinvest in its fossil fuel infrastructure. 

Missing from the Post's perspective was any accounting for the billions of dollars in costs already attributed to the impacts of the changing climate. Missing, too, was any kind of reporting on the money government spends to subsidize the fossil fuel – and nuclear – industries. But this is all very familiar rhetoric. It is therefore refreshing to take a step back and look at the green energy transition from a more global perspective.  

In his new book. Climate Capitalism, Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age, Bloomberg News senior reporter Akshat Rathi opens with the encouraging statement that, “It’s now cheaper to save the world than destroy it.” New York may have stepped back from the cutting edge of energy transformation in the past year, but we are still solidly on track to a clean energy future. Perhaps the most significant risk we face now is not the power blackouts and economic disruption projected by the Post’s editorial writers but the missed opportunities for green jobs, sound investments, and a healthier environment that are the real future. 

The state’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), coupled with funding from the Biden Administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), has created a funding pathway forward for the state to achieve its clean energy goals. What the Post’s editors don’t understand is that their efforts to stop the transition have already failed. Last-ditch moves to save fossil fuels as an energy baseline will be costly for N.Y. ratepayers, taxpayers, workers, and investors - and will ultimately fail. 

Look at the global snapshot: In 2023, renewable additions to power systems were almost 50% higher than in 2022, with government policies supporting renewables' growth in more than 130 countries. This speed of development is predicted to increase in the next five years, mostly from new solar and wind, because their costs undercut those of fossil fuels. Much of this growth is driven by installations in China, and Rathi brings us up to date on developments there, in India, and advances driven by government policies, corporate leaders, and investment strategies in the U.S., Europe, and the Global South. In fact, new investment in renewable energy now globally exceed investment in fossil in fossil fuels. This is particularly important given that we have just experienced the hottest days ever recorded on the planet in the past 800,000 years. 

That’s why Climate Capitalism is an encouraging read. It takes us beyond the borders of New York, or even the U.S. to see the global picture. With chapters built around individuals who have played significant roles in addressing the climate crisis and with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change as its starting point, the book documents some of the most significant accomplishments of the author’s lifetime. And Rathi doesn’t suggest that unfettered capitalism as a system will solve the world’s energy problems. But he does say, with examples from around the globe, that forms of entrepreneurial and aggregated investments can move forward from the developing existential climate crisis. With examples from China, India, Europe, and the United States, chapters in the book look at both successes and failures that have led to profitable clean energy technologies.   

Climate Capitalism shows how the issues we face are both local, national and global. No one ever said this clean energy transition would be easy, or that it could be done on the cheap. But it holds out hope for a healthier, more affordable, and more resilient energy future. And makes the clear case the transition is irreversible.  

Climate Capitalism is currently available from Greystone Books.