Yale Environment 360: Europe to Ramp Up Offshore Wind in Push for Energy Independence

Yale Environment 360: Europe to Ramp Up Offshore Wind in Push for Energy Independence.

A group of European leaders pledged Monday to build 100 gigawatts of offshore wind,enough to power more than 50 million homes. As Europe faces a hostile Russia and an increasingly bellicose U.S., experts see deepening risks in its reliance on imported fossil fuels.

“Historically, interferences by the U.S. government in gas markets to exert pressure on Europe were considered unthinkable,” said Raffaele Piria, of the Ecologic Institute, a think tank based in Berlin. “In the current geopolitical context, this assumption is questionable.”

Wind and solar overtook fossil fuels for EU power generation in 2025, for the first time

Ember Report: Wind and solar overtook fossil fuels for EU power generation in 2025, for the first time

We’re winning.

A study by the energy think tank Ember found that the EU’s electricity transition reached a new milestone in 2025 with wind and solar generating more power than fossil fuels for the first time. From the Guardian report:

Turbines spinning in the wind and photovoltaic panels lit up by the sun generated 30% of the EU’s electricity in 2025, according to an annual review. Power plants burning coal, oil and gas generated 29%.

EU solar generation reached a record 369 TWh in 2025, 20% higher than in 2025 and wind and solar generated more electricity than fossil fuels in 14 of the 27 EU countries.

The report, Ember’s 10th annual, is here.

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Today’s Pic du Jour, the site’s 18th (!) straight, was taken near Vienna-Schwechat Airport on 8 July 2018.

Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows

Guardian: Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows.

Guardian report on the Carbon Majors annual review of the CO2 emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuels.

Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed.

Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter. Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of “sabotaging climate action” and “being on the wrong side of history” but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the companies accountable.

State-owned fossil fuel producers made up 17 of the top 20 emitters in the Carbon Majors report, which the authors said underscored the political barriers to tackling global heating. All 17 are controlled by countries that opposed a proposed fossil fuel phaseout at the Cop30 UN climate summit in December, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and India. More than 80 other nations had backed the phaseout plan.

Saudi Aramco was responsible for 1.7bn tonnes of CO2, much of it from exported oil. If it were a country, Aramco would be the world’s fifth biggest carbon polluter, just behind Russia. ExxonMobil’s fossil fuel production led to 610m tonnes of CO2 – it would be the ninth biggest polluter, ahead of South Korea.

More.