In the long run,
the facts are on the side of the optimists.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., the arc of history bends toward progress. But progress doesn't just happen. People work hard to discover ways forward.
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The Trump administration is no fan of clean energy policies – calling climate change a hoax, rescinding emissions standards for cars and trucks, lowering restrictions on methane emissions, and a slew of other steps to unwind tax benefits and research funding for renewable power sources.
But renewable energy is dominating global energy growth anyway – and that may be less about politics than about economics. Renewables keep getting cheaper.
By the middle of last year, renewables – solar, wind, hydro, and others – overtook coal as a global energy producer for the first time since 1919 (a big year for hydropower dams). At a little over 33 percent of all electrical power generated, renewables became the world’s largest category of power.
New wind and solar power coming on line last year were enough to meet all the new energy demand in the world. Fossil fuels decreased slightly over the year. That has happened four other times in the past century, but always due to a severe economic slump. This one was due to replacement by renewable sources. Solar, the biggest category of renewables, has multiplied tenfold in the past decade.
Oil’s price spikes since the war in Iran began appear to be only adding momentum to the rise of clean and renewable energy sources.
Source: the energy think tank Ember