Solar overtakes coal in the EU

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♻️ This week’s sustainability news

Solar power overtakes coal in the EU

What’s happening: Last year, solar power produced more electricity than coal in EU countries for the first time. This is an important step in the growth of renewable energy. In 2024, solar energy made up 11% of the EU's electricity, while coal fell to less than 10%. According to the annual European Electricity Review from Ember, an energy research group, the EU's power sector is quickly moving towards clean energy, showing significant changes over the past five years.

Why it’s happening: Last year, the EU added 66 gigawatts (GW) of solar power, which is like adding over 450,000 solar panels every day. This led to a 22% increase in solar energy compared to 2023. Solar power is growing in all EU countries, and more than half of them now use very little or no coal power. In 2024, 16 EU countries got more than 10% of their electricity from solar, which is three more countries than the previous year. The top three countries for solar energy were Hungary (25%), Greece (22%), and Spain (21%). In some countries like the Netherlands and Hungary, solar power met over 80% of the country's electricity needs during peak times on more than 70 days in 2024.

Why it’s important: Coal is becoming less important in the EU, dropping from the second to the sixth largest power source over the last ten years. Gas power has also decreased for the fifth year in a row. Wind energy now produces more electricity than gas, with wind at 17% and gas at 16% for the second year in a row. Fossil fuels now provide only 29% of the EU's electricity in 2024, down from 39% before the introduction of the Green Deal in 2019, which helped speed up the change to cleaner energy. At the same time, solar power has grown markedly, and hydropower has recovered, increasing the share of renewable energy to almost half (47%) of the EU's electricity last year, up from 34% in 2019. Since 2019, the EU has added new wind and solar power. Without these, it would have needed to import 92 billion more cubic meters of gas and 55 million more tonnes of coal, which would have cost €59 billion, according to analysts.

📖 Read the full report: European Electricity Review 2025

Trump’s attack on climate action continues

What’s happening: The new head of the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Sean Duffy, has ordered the department to get rid of almost all programs related to climate change, racial equity, gender identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and environmental justice that were started during President Biden's time in office. This includes one memo issued on Wednesday by Duffy calling for the elimination of “all orders, directives, rules, regulations, notices, guidance documents, funding agreements, programs and policy statements” that relate “in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice or the Justice 40 initiative”. The department staff have 10 days to make a list of these programs and send it to the department's legal office, which will then take steps to cancel them.

Why it’s happening: The administration of President Donald Trump is working quickly to reverse government actions related to climate change, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and environmental justice. Just one day after becoming transportation secretary, Duffy signed the so-called ‘Woke Rescission‘ memos to cancel these initiatives. He also issued a memo to change or remove fuel economy standards on the same day. In a news release, Duffy claimed that these changes would bring back "commonsense governance and merit-based policies" at the DOT.

Why it’s important: An anonymous DOT employee told Inside Climate News that the new guidelines are confusing, badly written, and hard to follow. They overlook other department rules and use unclear terms like "Green New Deal" and "EV mandate". Climate change is already making transportation systems more expensive, and this is expected to get much worse in the future. Extreme temperature changes cause roads to crack more, lead to more flooding in areas like the New York City subway, and increase the cost of maintaining bridges. If the DOT's programs for dealing with these issues are canceled, it would mean less preparation for these problems.

📖 Read the full article: “Breathtakingly ignorant and dangerous”: Trump’s DOT orders sweeping purge of climate, gender, race, environmental justice initiatives

😇 People doing great things

Electrifying African countries with solar power

Charity SolarAid empowering people in Zambia and Malawi: Since 2014, Africa's solar power has grown from 1.67 gigawatts to 13.48 gigawatts in 2023, which can power 100 million lightbulbs. Africa has 60% of the world's best solar resources, and solar energy is the cheapest in many areas there. However, as solar equipment gets older, it starts to break down. A 2023 report by SolarAid says that out of 375 million solar kits sold worldwide since the early 2000s, over 250 million are now broken. In sub-Saharan Africa, 75% of solar products, or 110 million lights, no longer work. Experts say the solar industry hasn't done enough to fix and reuse old solar devices, even though the global solar market is growing fast at over 20% each year. SolarAid is not just highlighting the problem; it's also working to solve it. The nonprofit believes that over 90 percent of broken solar-powered devices in sub-Saharan Africa can be fixed. They have been training people in Zambia and Malawi, including Father Ngwira, to find and fix problems with these devices. In his early years with SolarAid, Father Ngwira brought solar lights to remote communities in Zambia, selling over a thousand as a ‘solar entrepreneur’. Last year, he advanced his solar work by training for three days to become a ‘repair agent’, which allows him to do basic repairs like changing batteries. In September, he completed two repairs after telling people at church about his skills in fixing solar items. One was a solar panel with wiring problems, and the other was a solar flashlight with a broken switch. The flashlight repair only cost 20 Zambian Kwacha ($0.75), which is very affordable in one of the world's poorest countries. In Zambia, there are now 10 agents like Father Ngwira, working with a team of seven repair technicians who handle more complicated repairs. In the 2023-24 financial year, SolarAid's teams in Zambia and Malawi fixed 2,422 solar products.

⭐️ Weekly inspiration

Bloomberg steps in to cover UN climate funding

Comes after Trump ends US climate funding: Bloomberg Philanthropies and other US climate supporters will make sure the US fulfils its international climate commitments, including paying what the US owes each year to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

US governors vow to continue climate action without Trump

Comes after Trump withdraws the US from the Paris Agreement: The US Climate Alliance published an open letter to the UN stating their intent to continue their work; the group is a bipartisan coalition of US governors maintaining the country's international climate obligations and was set up after Trump’s first withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

Norway on track to zero new petrol and diesel vehicle sales

88.9% of new cars sold in 2024 were fully electric: According to registration data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), this result places oil-selling Norway on track to its goal of selling only electric vehicles (EVs) by 2025, which comes as a result of high taxes for fossil fuel vehicles while exempting EVs from import and value-added taxes.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to create the Earth’s largest protected tropical forest reserve

New laws passed by the DRC parliament: A large area the size of France (540,000 km²) will be protected, including 108,000 km² of primary forest, which is about the size of Iceland, with efforts involving working with local communities to combine conservation and restoration with eco-friendly economic growth.

Helping oil and gas workers move to clean energy careers

90% have skills relevant to the clean energy transition: The UK and Scottish governments have introduced a 'skills passport' to help oil and gas workers move into clean energy jobs, with the digital tool helping workers find paths to jobs in offshore wind, such as construction, maintenance, and operation roles.

Veganism is making a comeback in Japan

Due to historic Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, meat-eating was originally banned between 675 and 1872: Japan's market for plant-based foods has now grown three times bigger from 2015 to 2020, and it is expected to grow twice as big by 2030, according to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

Extinct butterfly species reemerges in England

Over 350 now exist and the number is growing: The rare chequered skipper butterfly disappeared in 1976 due to changes in how forests were managed, so scientists started efforts to bring it back in 2018 and the program has now been deemed a success after 128 butterflies brought in from Belgium were released into two forests.

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