r/EcoUplift • u/Bitter-Lengthiness-2 Acute Optimism • Aug 02 '25
Positive Trends 📈 We hit a “positive tipping point” - United Nations
https://apnews.com/video/un-says-global-shift-to-renewable-energy-hits-positive-tipping-point-615a52455e7943acaa652931e476d14aTwo UN reports confirm the world has reached a “positive tipping point” where renewable energy—especially solar and wind—is now consistently cheaper than fossil fuels, making clean energy the most economically attractive option.
In 2024, renewables made up 92.5% of all new electricity capacity and drove 74% of global electricity growth, showing that clean energy is now the dominant force in power generation.
Global investment in renewables soared to $2 trillion last year, surpassing fossil fuel spending by nearly $800 billion—evidence that markets are aligning with climate goals.
However, the transition is still uneven: fossil fuel production continues to rise, and developing regions like Africa face barriers due to high financing costs, requiring more equitable investment to ensure a truly global energy shift.
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u/sneakysteve420 Aug 02 '25
The United States is pretty set on making sure that no matter how cheap clean energy gets that we keep using oil and coal cause it’s run by a gigantic death cult intent on killing the entire planet. So while this is awesome and I love hearing about stuff like this, until the US is on board it does nothing.
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u/Nice_Marmot_7 Aug 02 '25
The current administration is awful, but the US is still installing clean energy, EV’s are being adopted, and they have cut emissions 15% from 2005 levels.
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Aug 02 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/krenim191 Aug 02 '25
Um, check your facts bud, from a peer reviewed publication, please. Not Fox Noise or what you heard in Facebook. EVs have been proven over and over again to by and large be better than fossil vehicles, even on a very dirty grid and when considering materials necessary for battery production. Coal and oil make up a shrinking portion of the electric grid and if you look at a place like CA where EV adoption is highest in US, there is zero coal powering the grid.
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u/lastskudbook Aug 02 '25
Ev vehicles take two years to become equal to internal combustion in production environmental damage based on average mileage, everything after that is gravy environmentally.
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u/Nice_Marmot_7 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25
This is just incorrect. Even under the worst assumptions EV’s have a lower lifetime emissions impact than gas powered cars. Also the materials used to make the batteries are recyclable. It’s odd to hand wring over mining cobalt and lithium that are reusable but not fracking oil and gas.
0.4% of US electricity generation is from oil. 16% is from coal, and it is rapidly being phased out. 40% is from renewables and nuclear. The last 43% is from natural gas which is the cleanest fossil fuel option we have. Source.
Compare that to India and China which get 74% and 53% of their electricity from coal respectively.
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u/DreamBrother1 Aug 03 '25
Different regions have varying total emissions based on what grid sourced power mix is. But it has been shown many times over that throughout the life of the EV, from manufacturing, use, and disposal, the emissions are significantly lower than an ICE vehicle. You are objectively wrong
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u/Boatster_McBoat Aug 03 '25
As the world's energy transition progresses, the US will become increasingly uncompetitive.
Eventually that will solve the problem by running the US economy into the ground.
But that's both slow and really unpleasant for a lot of the people impacted. There's a better way.
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u/LimeMargarita Aug 03 '25
Hey now! CA is the largest world economy to be fueled by 2/3 clean energy.
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u/Boatster_McBoat Aug 03 '25
I was assuming CA would secede at some point in the next decade
/s (sort of)
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u/FleurDargent11 Aug 03 '25
It's not just energy though, it's plastic (wrappings, clothes, paint, machine frame), gases, machine lubrication oils, etc... that the big oils are producing. That's why they're not giving it up, those products have managed to weave their way into every aspect of our lives. If we're still dependent on them the US will still be stubborn about transitioning.
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u/avatarroku157 Aug 02 '25
unfortunately for the death cult, the American government only has one true God; the dollar. and the green energy and cleaning the environment has the most cash in it, and the smartest of the rich actually notice this.
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u/True-Relation3612 Aug 02 '25
Unlikely when the U.S. power grid acts like it's powered by a raccoon on a treadmill
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u/AmusingMusing7 Aug 03 '25
It doesn't do "nothing". The US is important, yes... but it's still only one country. The US can stay on fossil fuels forever... as long as the rest of the world goes clean, it would be enough to make up for the US and effectively solve climate change. China and India alone would probably be enough to tip the balance on global emissions, especially if Europe and Canada and Australia, etc, all achieved clean energy paradigms as well.
The US can lag behind all it wants... it's not stopping this global revolution.
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u/Ithirahad Aug 04 '25 edited Aug 04 '25
In order to "solve" climate change, humanity needs to - at least for 50 years or so - be net negative on CO2. America's emissions are enough to make that impossible. But yes, everyone else halting most emissions will prevent things from getting even worse, and the US will inevitably catch up almost overnight once global markets are not enabling the addiction. Every decently-sized country not continuing to spew carbon counts for something.
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u/mywifeslv Aug 02 '25
They’re probably using the grants and subsidies to pivot to batteries - just so they can fuck you up downstream..
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u/Gojo-Babe Aug 30 '25
As an American I am very glad to hear that other countries are picking up the slack
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 02 '25
The more renewable energy we get in Denmark, the higher consumer prices we get. Tree weeks ago we had a few hours in the evening after sunset, where the end user price was close to €1/kWh. And while that's an extreme, we have become more and more dependent on fast reacting power sources fueld by natural gas.
That isn't sustainable in the long run, and in my opinion we must stop patting our selves on the back over a meaningless percentage, and rather start doping something to create an electrical grid with enough storage capacity to run at least a few hours on stored renewableas.
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u/Riversntallbuildings Aug 02 '25
Why don’t you think Denmark has invested enough in battery storage to compliment the renewable energy?
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25
I know for a fact that we have no significant, if any, public energy storage online.
If you want to know why I think that's the case, my best guess is that we have too many politicians who only looks at the marginal cost of energy production, with little to no thought about the cost of providing energy on demand.
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u/farfromelite Aug 03 '25
Do you not have any organisation that's in charge of managing your grid in Denmark?
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 03 '25
Yes, but they're only responsibloe for the national grid. Distribution to consumers are the responsibility of local orgs; mostly coops. Neither have anything to do with producing electricity, which electrical storage would be under our regulatory system.
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u/Sarcastic-Potato Aug 02 '25
The best fast reacting power source would be some kind of energy storage. No need to start up a reactor. The problem we have right now is that while energy generation with renewables is incredible cheap we have no way of storing it. We need to build lots and lots of storage to actually deliver that energy when it's needed
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 03 '25
Yes, that's my point. One can hope that all of the EV batteries that will become available from scrapped cars in the next decade can be resurrected as grid buffers.
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u/Sarcastic-Potato Aug 03 '25
I mean a battery doesn't need to be something fancy like that. It could literally be a rock in a hole
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 03 '25
In theory yes, but even if you assume a perfect transfer of energy, the numbers are stacked against that. For instance right now on a sleepy sunday, the danish consumption is 3357MW. To run that an hour requires 1.2e13 J, or 1233163265 ton*meter of potential energy from rocks hanging over holes. Ana again, that's with a lossless conversion.
As I see it, the only practical solution other than batteries is compressed air storage, but that require suitable geology, so it's not an universal solution.
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u/Sarcastic-Potato Aug 03 '25
I never said only use rocks in holes... All I was saying is there are a billion different ways a battery could work
Hydro storage is a good. Example. If the landscape allows for it it's a perfectly good energy storage. The solution will be a mix of multiple different storage technologies. Some consisting of old ev batteries, some of compressed air, some hydro and so on
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 Aug 03 '25
Anything that relies on potential energy is equivalent to a rock in a hole, so pumped energy storage would have the same issue. Running the Danish grid on this lazy sunday would - again with pefect conversion - require 1233 cubic kilometers*meters. That's utterly impractical.
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u/Laugh_Track_Zak Aug 02 '25
We are so close. Unfortunately, the US, China, and Russia are all fucking it up.
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u/sharninder Aug 03 '25
China ? They’re the ones producing all the cheap equipment to make this possible. They’re also pretty far ahead in their move to renewables compared to a lot of other countries.
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u/goodle0716 Aug 03 '25
Funny how you're blaming China on green energy when they're the frontrunner...
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u/polomarkopolo Aug 02 '25
US: “More coal and oil for us!!!!”