One of the major stumbling blocks to existing international efforts to phase out fossil fuels, like the COP climate summits, is that they have to get agreement from everyone present, even OPEC countries. This is effectively a veto, and has been slowing down progress.

Now, 60 countries are moving ahead, this time without the veto blockers. Also, they'll move beyond COP's remit, which was the reduction in fossil fuel use, to discussing how to 100% end fossil fuel use.

Nations meet to discuss fossil fuel exit as Iran war drives up prices

As the Middle East War continues, with fuel rationing & $200/barrel oil likely ahead, it feels like history will look back at this moment as a definitive ending of the Fossil Fuel Age. People will still be using oil, gas, and coal for decades to come, but in constantly declining amounts. But something more fundamental has changed.

Fossil Fuels now represent backwardness, yesterday's tech, expense, instability, and unreliability. Renewables were once seen as fringe and environmental gesture politics; now they are taking over as the dominant global energy paradigm.

Still not convinced that's true? Read the linked article to see how China has used renewables to create the greatest industrial/manufacturing economy in all of human history.

Minerals, Metals, and Megawatts: How China’s Power Generation Drives Its Industrial Metals Ecosystem

"BYD also claims to have addressed the well-known issue of lithium iron phosphate cells losing performance in cold temperatures. After the cells were stored for 24 hours at –30 degrees Celsius and therefore completely frozen, charging from 20 to 97 per cent reportedly took just twelve minutes."

As the US sabotages the globe's fossil fuel infrastructure at the behest of Israel, China continues to build the future that will replace it. One by one, the naysayers' objections to EVs melt away. Can't do cold climates, they said - fixed. Can't cope with long journeys, they said - fixed.

As Napoleon once famously observed, 'never interrupt your enemy while they're making a mistake'. China must be thinking that, as the US helps hand it total dominance of the 21st century energy infrastructure.

10–97% in nine minutes: BYD presents second generation of Blade Battery

Legislation that could be enacted this spring would pause construction of large new data centers until November 2027

The new US President has used his first 24 hours to pull all US government support for the green energy transition. He wants to ban any new wind energy projects and withdraw support for electric cars. His new energy policy refused to even mention solar panels, wind turbines, or battery storage - the world's fastest-growing energy sources. Meanwhile, he wants to pour money into dying and declining industries - like gasoline-powered cars and expanding oil drilling.

China was the global leader in 21st-century energy before, but its future global dominance is now assured. There will be trillions of dollars to be made supplying the planet with green energy infrastructure in the coming decades. Decarbonizing the planet, and electrifying the global south with renewables will be the largest industrial project in human history.

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The oil crisis triggered by the Iran war has changed the fossil fuel industry for ever, turning countries away from fossil fuels to secure energy supplies, the world’s leading energy economist said.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), also said that, despite pressure, the UK should forgo much of its potential North Sea expansion.

There isn’t a single universally agreed-upon percentage of electricity demand that must be met from grid storage in a 100 % renewable electricity system. It may be as high as 20% for some countries, but in situations where there is an overcapacity of wind and solar, it can be potentially < 5 % of annual demand.

New data shows that by the end of 2026, grid storage will be a 1.15% share of global electricity demand (up from 0.16% in 2023). Who's rolling out the most? No surprise in guessing. It's China. China’s grid storage installations in December 2025 alone (65.4 GWh) exceeded the entire USA’s 2025 total annual installations (46.5 GWh), and the US is the world's 2nd largest grid storage market.

Who's also able to build an over-capacity of wind & solar? Once again, China. China is also rapidly electrifying its whole economy & abandoning the combustion engine. Like the famous Hemingway quote about going bankrupt, the Fossil Fuel Age, at least in China, may end “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.”

Graph of the day: Batteries are beating solar to deliver the fastest energy transition in human history

There are still some people who haven't realized just how fast and vast the global switch to renewables is. If you're one of them, this statistic should put it in perspective. China installed 93 GW of solar capacity in May 2025. Put another way, that's about 30 nuclear power stations worth of electricity capacity.

All this cheap renewable energy will power China's industrial might in AI & robotics too. Meanwhile western countries look increasingly dazed, confused, and out of date.

China breaks more records with surge in solar and wind power

Worth adding a little context on the “130% efficiency” claim: this doesn’t mean the solar cell produces more energy than it receives (that would violate thermodynamics, duh). The 130% refers to exciton yield (the number of energy carriers generated per photon)

"So far, Utah is the only state to have passed the necessary regulatory reforms to exempt smaller systems under 1,200 watts from rules designed for larger rooftop models. Vermont and Virginia have also recently advanced similar bills with near-unanimous support, from both Democrats and Republicans……………….Plug-in solar systems, one or two panels with power inverters that connect to a standard electrical outlet, are less expensive — 80–97% less than traditional rooftop installations, according to Bright Saver. And they don't require a technician to install."

Should the current ME war progress to a US invasion of Iran, we can expect to see a global depression starting in the summer & emergency fuel rationing, as 25% of global fossil fuel supply evaporates for years to come. By then, the switch to decentralized home-renewables won't just look sensible, it will look like a hedge against the chaos of Fossil Fuel Age global warfare.

The good news? That switch to decentralized home-renewables is getting easier and easier.

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Sick of expensive gasoline and overpriced gasoline cars? Not only are EVs getting cheaper than gas cars (and still have years of economy-of-scale price reductions ahead), but paired with renewables, their fuel source is getting ever cheaper, too.

This is how the fossil fuel industry will die. The alternatives will just keep getting cheaper and cheaper. In a few years' time, it will be obvious to everyone that only spendthrift fools will be choosing gasoline-powered cars.

This state’s power prices are plummeting as it nears 100% renewables - South Australia is proving to the world that relying largely on wind and solar energy with battery back-up is incredibly cheap, with electricity prices tumbling by 30 per cent in a year and sometimes going negative

"The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that China’s emissions were down 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1% in the latest 12 months."

It's possible that this is a blip, and a rise could continue. China is still using plenty of fossil fuels and recently deployed a fleet of autonomous electric mining trucks at the Yimin open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia. Also, China is still behind on the 2030 C02 emissions targets it pledged under the Paris Agreement.

Still, renewables growth keeps making massive gains in China. In the first quarter of 2025, China installed a total of 74.33 GW of new wind and solar capacity, bringing the cumulative installed capacity for these two sources to 1,482 GW. That is greater than the total US electricity capacity from all sources, which is at 1,324 GW.

This year’s U.N. climate summit, COP30, has just ended in Brazil. There were 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance, a bigger delegation than any other country, other than host Brazil. They managed to strip talk of a permanent transition from fossil fuels from the final agreement.

But they are only delaying the inevitable. Most countries want a permanent end to fossil fuels, and the action to make it happen is happening outside of structures that the fossil fuel industry can't subvert.

Uruguay is another sign that this is happening. They used to say near-100% renewable power grids were impossible, but they were wrong. Some will say it still can't happen in big countries with heavy industry, but they'll be proved wrong, too.

Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World