Essay by Eric Worrall
“Even after 3 or 5 years more innovation?”
“It’s against physics”.
Anti-renewable blasphemy in the Davos World Economic Forum, the citadel of globalism. The moment when someone tells the emperor he has no clothes.
The video is well worth watching, once they get over their momentary shock the quiet part is being spoken aloud, all the panelists nodded and agreed.
Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, also trashed renewables in Davos 2024 (first published JoNova);
The words are out now, and cannot be unspoken. For the last decade I’ve spent writing for WUWT myself and I think many of us have viewed BlackRock as an adversary, and big tech as hypocrites, all cynical exploiters promoting renewables and backing green politicians at the expense of ordinary people. But the money train has left the renewable station. Banks and big tech follow the money, and with subsidies and political goodwill for renewables on the wane, renewables are increasingly uninvestable.
Now that Fortune 500 CEOs like Vimal Kapur “I’m an engineer by trade” are speaking out, now big bankers like Larry Fink are happy to throw renewables under a bus, now that President Trump is trashing renewables and cancelling climate treaties, it might seem the battle is won.
Not everyone is onboard with the end of renewables. Some big European organisations are heavily invested in renewables, and stand to loose big time if the renewable subsidy hose dries up.
Top business leaders issue an expletive-laced message on the green backlash
PUBLISHED THU, JAN 22 20262:29 AM ESTUPDATED THU, JAN 22 20268:05 AM EST
Sam Meredith@IN/SAMUELMEREDITH@SMEREDITH19
KEY POINTS
- Top business leaders at the World Economic Forum delivered an expletive-laden message on the green backlash.
- It comes amid deep concern that businesses are increasingly shying away from climate action.
- “Now, the United States … have gone hard [for] fossil fuels and kind of made anyone going for renewables feel like they’re woke, they’re not looking after shareholders. Honestly, I’m here to tell all of Davos, that is not correct,” Andrew Forrest, founder of mining giant Fortescue, told CNBC.
Top business leaders this week delivered an expletive-laden plea in defense of climate action, describing the backlash to Europe’s green transition as an “aberration.”
In an interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Allianz CEO Oliver Bäte said he disagreed with the suggestion that it may just be a matter of time before net zero is dismissed in Europe, saying short-term thinking on this issue is “bulls—.”
Asked about political leaders backtracking on their much-vaunted European Green New Deal and Norway’s oil fund reportedly defending a push from companies to water down their climate goals, Bäte said anyone who has children “will have to worry” about the planet’s future.
“It’s an aberration that short-term people are saying that,” Bäte told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday. “I think it’s about doing it intelligently. And by the way, the role model here is China, they are going to be the leader both in terms of renewable and cost of energy.”
…
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/22/davos-wef-green-energy-climate-change-trump.html
There is one important big player, mentioned in the article above, which wants to see the Western world remain committed to self destructive renewables.
‘Subservient to China’: Net zero warning at Davos as Trump slams the policy, Chinese vice-premier defends renewables
America’s shock verdict at Davos has put Australia’s energy future in doubt. And China is at the centre of it all.
Harrison Christian
January 23, 2026 – 9:20AMGlobalisation wasn’t the only policy to cop extraordinary criticism at Davos — another was net zero.
…
Donald Trump went even further than Lutnick in his remarks to the forum on Wednesday local time.
…
“One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing.
“China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any windfarms in China. China’s very smart — they make them, they sell them for a fortune, they sell them to the stupid people that buy them.”
In the end, it was Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng who advocated strongly for renewables at the forum.
“China has put in place the world’s largest renewable energy system and the most complete new-energy industrial chain,” he said in his address.
“We invite enterprises from all over the world to embrace the opportunities from the green and low-carbon transition, and work closely with China in such areas as green infrastructure, green energy, green minerals and green finance, and jointly create a green and prosperous future.”
China makes the vast majority of renewable technology. It also installs more renewable energy capacity than the rest of the world combined, though it remains by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
…
Read more: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/subservient-to-china-net-zero-warning-at-davos-as-trump-slams-the-policy-chinese-vicepremier-defends-renewables/news-story/715a15a2cde6f35f65b4c2f234d7d11a
China, which uses vast and growing amounts of coal to manufacture renewables while maintaining a sham of going green, stands to lose 10s, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars if the world cancels Net Zero. They are using every influence lever they can pull to try to ensure global Net Zero remains on track.
China doesn’t seem to care if Net Zero wrecks the global economy, so long as China ends up on top. Perhaps they hope a broken world would be easy pickings for China’s greedy elites.
With President Trump strides the world stage, trampling green sacred cows, and some CEOs championing energy sanity, it is easy to think the battle is over. But China is patient, their culture champions the long game. China are doing everything in their power to replace the USA as the global superpower. The measure of their vast influence is the number of Western politicians and leading business figures who still champion green energy and the Chinese way, both within and outside the United States.
If President Trump’s successor is not equal to the challenge of continuing the Trump energy abundance agenda, and companies like BlackRock start manoeuvring for trillions of dollars of re-instated green subsidies, 2029 will feel like 2021 all over again.
This is a “they are eating the dogs” level lie. Reality just doesn’t matter in trumpland.
You seem smart. How can you believe China is going green, when they are still expanding coal capacity? At what point will the penny drop that China is fooling you with a Potemkin village style green sham, while their industrial economy breaks new coal consumption records every other year?
How much did their electricity production from coal grew last year? How much of their overall demand growth was covered by renewables?
They can expand their capacity all they want when their capacity factor goes down.
Let’s wait and see how it looks next year.
China’s coal electricity production went up last year of record (2024, Coal fired supply increase 6.1% on year, to cover hydropower shortage). Since renewable generation has increased every year for at least the past decade, you would think even with the hydro down, coal usage would have been stable. Fwiw, demand growth in 2024 was approx.6.5%. Fwiw^2, nuclear had a growth rate of about 7% that same year in China. All the extra added nameplate wind/solar capacity appears to have done….
Last year was 2025
Clearly stated, “last year of record”. But comprehension was never your strong point, was it?
CREA/GEM ‘China Coal Power’ August 2025
“Coal remains deeply embedded in the power system with little public discussion of its phase down or eventual exit.”
“Coal power continues to expand in absolute capacity terms and remains structurally protected. Current institutions continue to lock in coal’s position”
“Coal construction and commissioned projects remain high with no clear signs of slowing. 21GW commissioned in the first half of 2025, the highest first half total since 2016. Full year additions expected to exceed 80GW. Construction starts and restarts reached 46GW, equal to the entire coal capacity of S Korea”
“Renewables equal 60% of installed capacity compared to 34% for coal but there is a widening disconnect between capacity growth and actual power production”
“Faced with constraints in grid flexibility and market mechanisms Local Authorities have largely defaulted to coal power as the fastest and most controllable way to secure dispatchable capacity”
“Only 1GW retired in the first half of 2025……Current efforts are focused on life extensions and retrofitting. Coal exits are politically marginal and institutionally unsupported.
BEIJING – China’s coal output rose to a record in 2025, statistics bureau data showed on Monday, as lower domestic prices prompted buyers to cut imports and rebuild stockpiles with cheaper local supply, although the rise was limited by regulator efforts to curb production growth.
Production in 2025 reached 4.83-billion metric tons, up 1.2% from 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
More ample domestic supply – a reversal from the coal and power shortages China experienced a few years ago – also encouraged power plants to source better quality coal, said Peng Chengyao, head of APAC power and renewables research at S&P Global Energy.
In H1 2025, 21 gigawatts (GW) of coal power were commissioned, the highest amount in the first half of the year since 2016, with projections for the full year exceeding 80 GW. This increase in commissions follows on the tail of the 2022-2023 coal power permitting surge that saw two new coal projects permitted per week, on average, totalling more than 100 GW of coal power approved per year.
This trend will likely continue into 2026 and 2027
I asked about the power generated from coal (Twh), not their domestic production or their added capacity…
And you were answered, lie spewing moron.
Why are you asking? Just provide the details and make your point.
“How much did their electricity production from coal grew last year? How much of their overall demand growth was covered by renewables?”
NB : I am translating “Renewables” to equal “Wind + Solar (only)” here.
I had no idea how China’s electricity generation was split for calender year 2025 when first reading your post … but being a curious fellow with (way) too much spare time on my hands I went looking for some actual data on the Wibbly Wobbly Web …
I eventually ended up at the following site, which has monthly “data” up to November 2025 :
https://lowcarbonpower.org/region/People's_Republic_of_China/sources
Extracting the 21 lines starting with “CN,”People’s Republic of China”,…” — plus the header line with the date information — from their (just over 3 MB) CSV file allowed me to generate a “quick and dirty” spreadsheet plot, which is attached to the end of this post.
.
Notes
– It looks like “Coal” generation levelled off on a “12-month rolling sum” basis during 2025, it neither increased nor decreased.
– How much the “Coal” and “Renewable” (nominal / nameplate / baseplate) capacity numbers changed during 2025 is a completely separate issue.
– “Renewables” — AKA “Wind + Solar” — has indeed steadily increasing both in absolute and percentage terms since (at least) 2019, but it is nowhere near overtaking “Coal”, let alone (completely) replacing it in China’s electricity mix.
– Just because “demand growth” may have been “covered by renewables” in 2025 doesn’t mean all of the CO2 emissions from “Coal” electricity generation are going to drop to “Net Zero” anytime soon (“carbon neutrality before 2060“, according to China’s latest NDC).
If wind and solar are so cheap, why would China build new coal plants?
Because wind and solar can’t build themselves? 😎
you have obviously never been in China.
I have been to every large city there.
In winter it can be anything from -15 in Bejing to -30 in the north. It was snowing in Afshan when we were there, and Harbin was just a HUGE SMOG of burning coal.
Coal is used for heating and electricity generation in China and with the EVs and heat-pumps+no wind or solar (cos of the smog and windless nightsm etc) they just need more and more electricity from all forms of reliable fossil fuels.
And of course the Chinese Communist Party is above bribing parts of The Green Blob to
favor Chinese interests.
And if you believe that, I have a surefire investment in voodoo acupuncture for you.
China energy.. Wind and solar are basically a very small afterthought..
You haven’t spent much time in China, have you?
Drown it in soy sauce, and everything tastes the same.
Just like snake tastes like chicken, crocodile tastes like chicken, lizards taste like chicken, etc etc.
And now the chicken doesn’t taste like chicken. 😉
I was in China a decade, or so, ago, visiting auto plants. At one, we were given lunch in the same cafeteria as the workers. The only item on the menu was some kind of stew. It had a meat of some sort it. It tasted like nothing I had ever eaten before, and certainly not like chicken. I quietly covered my plate with a napkin and ate nothing there at all. I never found out what it was and didn’t ask. I thought it likely was dog.
It takes about 3 weeks to get used to Soylent Green.
It may well have been cat.
It could have been cats or bats (from Wuhan).
Actually none of those taste like chicken, and yes, I do know.
The Chinese term for dog meat translates to “sweet meat.”
I was talking about that:
Trump repeats baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets
Those re not baseless claims, it was happening and still is, also eating cats and wild geese caught in parks and on ponds/creeks. But hey! Just lie some more, liar, its all you got.
All of this has been debunked. Your lies endanger people that are a hard working part of their communities. Hope you are proud of yourself.
Haitians are fine people- like everyone else- all most of us want is that if they come to America, it’s done legally.
Actually, no. The Haitians Biden Admin fast tracked into America are the ones who f*cked up what government Haiti had and stole every penny the Clinton Foundation didn’t steal. Same with Somalians Biden and Obama Admins prioritized into America. Democrat Party stands with their fellow America hating criminals worldwide.
I am, because you keep proving yourself to nothing more than a liar. Good job, buddy.
The thoroughly discredited MyUsernameReloaded and all of his baseless claims, all offered without evidence, have been authoritatively debunked throughout media and academia, so much so that no person with a degree from an accredited institution accepts any of his lies.
PS Just thought I’d “argue” on his level.
-MSK
Yes, you are a massive liar. We already know that.
They are eating dogs – in China and Haiti.
Your holy cows are someone elses food.
That’s something you western white fagots can’t even imagine let alone fathom.
Kim Iverson ( Vietnamese origin) had some funny jokes about Vietnamese people eating dogs in the USA.
The fact that you are such a corrupt hypocrite does not change reality.
It is an exaggeration. Trump’s public speech usually loose and hyperbolic. Most people understand that.
When will you learn?
Very nice Eric. It is a lie that CO2 can cause catastrophic runaway global warming. It is a lie that we must stop using fossil fuels. It is a lie that wind and solar can replace fossil fuels. People give China far too much credit, the only reason they are behaving the way they are is because they are considered a developing country rather than a developed country. They have nothing to lose by net zero and everything to gain. Every nation needs to adopt policies that are best for them without demanding welfare from the developed countries. It is that simple.
The renewable backlash will only gain steam going forward. Now that it’s OK to question CC people will start listening to its’ facts and follies. The media will have no choice but to get on board with the ‘new’ narrative or risk losing their already dwindling audience.
Ho hum another day another Great Leap Forward with triple somersault and full pike-
Shared solar: Labor’s “free power” plan to have daily cap to stop abuse by EV and home battery owners
Minister Bowen was naturally uber excited to ejaculate the wonder of free power from the sun whereas the pesky trogs hanging it all together were busy reminding him to do no macro harm as usual with gushing ministerial pronouncements. Particularly as middleclassville had concentrated all the subsidised Teslas solar panels and the latest in massive home batteries in their leafy burbs leaving a paucity of same in struggletown and the mortgagee nappy valleys.
That’s hilarious 🙂
Male privilege- The rational capability to suffer life’s universal vicissitudes without blaming other various genders and sundry identifiers.
Male privilege = build 99% of everything you can see in a picture of any town.
Pay for it with way higher job related injury and mortality rates,
while all the lazy unproductive people with liberal arts spit at you from their moral high ground and
while the Ladies get the well paid administrative jobs.
I still have to see my 1st female roofer,street or bridge constructer
or at least a vintage photo of a female building a skyscraper.
Solar panels on home rooftops is said to cost 3-4x more than having panels in a grid scale solar farm
But in order to get grid scale solar 24/7 you need 3x more panels than equivalent base load fossil fuel
(i) supply when sun is shining
(ii) supply the batteries needed for the supply when its dark
(iii) supply the system when its low sun or cloudy
(iv) cost of the battery storage
Theres goes the cheap energy when this the infrastructure required .
Its much worse when the power needed isnt a sunny part of the country.
Solar is like fast food- its only cheap when you need while out and about, not when its for 3 meals a day
So, what you are saying is solar is a failure. Should have just opened with that.
But he provided the analysis – full marks. Vastly better than the oh so sensitive arm waving.
“Top business leaders issue an expletive-laced message”
Practical interpretation: technical team could not provide slides with good numbers.
Yes. It’s just like you can’t make a cake with dog turds. It’s cooking. It’s fine to leave them “in the mix” though. You will hardly even notice them after a while.
If President Trump’s successor is
not equal to the challenge of continuing the Trump energy abundance agenda, and companies like BlackRock start manoeuvring for trillions of dollars of re-instated green subsidiesa Democrat, 2029 will feel like 2021 all over again.Will at least the autopen be solar powered to make some sort of difference? sarc
I loved it when Trump told the Stupid People at Davos that only Stupid People buy windmills!
All the Stupid People who buy windmills were sitting in the audience.
I love his blunt language. It’s long over due. The ultimate reality check.
😎
He learned a lot about politics his first term but he’s still NOT a politician.
That’s a good thing!
“… and yet I haven’t been able to find any windfarms in China.”
Well?
Did find a collapsing bridge, and a bunch of collapsing buildings.
They make buildings with “tofu dregs”.
And a collapsing dam?
Well, at this point it is just sorta mobile-ish.
But you can find solar “farms” that cover entire mountain sides- up and over the top- for which I see no environmentalists complaining about loss of habitat, loss of biodiversity, loss of “green space”, loss of soil protection, etc.
But it’s all for “The Cause” so it’s OK.
Mr Kapur? You are SOOOO canceled. Now more invitations to hobnob with the glitterati. And I hope you don’t have teenage daughters, they are going to be SOOOO cross with you for embarrassing them by actually telling the truth. 😉
When the CEO said “I’m an engineer” it was clear that he knew it was worth mentioning. That’s why he said it.
He knew that technical knowledge distinguished himself from (most) business leaders attending from Europe.
Our business leaders rise through finance, law or (worst of all) sales.
They just don’t understand the physical limitations that their industries are constrained by.
It’s one of the reasons why Europe’s economy has fallen behind the USA and Asia since China joined the WTO.
The lure of AI is like a vaccine to stop all the crazy aspects of Climate Change. It may not eliminate the disease entirely but it has the potential to render it harmless……