By Vijay Jayaraj
The curtain is falling on the world’s most expensive soap opera. For decades, a cast of unelected bureaucrats and subsidized academics fought to keep the production alive, but the audience has finally walked out. The climate-crisis clown show is over.
In early January, President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and severed ties with over 60 associated U.N. organizations. By ending support for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the self-anointed arbiter of planetary truth – the U.S. stopped bankrolling the institutions that have long conspired to dismantle the economic sovereignty of nations.
Mainstream commentators are scrambling to frame this as a retreat into isolationism. But this represents a rational, economic calculation rooted in evidence rather than the hysteria of doomsday cults. What deserves attention, however, is that Trump is merely doing openly what Asia’s energy superpowers have been doing quietly for years.
Beijing long ago stopped pretending to care about the sensibilities of European climate activists. The Chinese Communist Party understands that power – both electrical and geopolitical – comes from hydrocarbons. China is outpacing the rest of the world in building coal-fired power plants at an unprecedented pace.
China is also securing energy lifelines beyond its borders. China National Chemical Engineering signed construction contracts worth $20 billion for the Ogidigbon Gas Revolution Industrial Park in Nigeria. Beijing-based Sinopec committed $3.7 billion to construct an oil refinery in Sri Lanka. Chinese financial institutions have lent $52 billion to Africa’s energy sector, with about half going to fossil fuel projects since the early 2000s.
China’s construction of the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port and Special Economic Zone in Myanmar serves as another telling indicator. Valued at approximately $7.3 billion for the port itself and $1.3 billion for an adjacent economic zone, this project will be a strategic bypass around the congested Malacca Strait – a chokepoint through which over 70% of China’s oil and gas trade passes.
The signal is unmistakable: China is not preparing for a post-hydrocarbon world. It is ensuring reliable, diversified supply chains for energy resources, especially oil and natural gas.
India, too, has quietly ended its flirtation with Western green agendas. Indian consumption of petrochemicals is set to grow by 6-7% annually. To meet this demand, India is aggressively expanding oil and gas exploration and refining capacity. In November alone, Indian processing of crude oil grew to 22.3 million metric tons, a 2.3% increase from the previous year.
Late last year, the Indian government auctioned blocks of coal with combined geological reserves of over 3 billion metric tons. India’s planning documents ignore natural gas as a “bridge fuel” and identify coal as the nation’s mainstay fuel.
Worldwide, there are 460 coal plants under construction. Another 500 have been permitted or are about to be, with an additional 260 new plants expected to be announced. The vast majority of all this activity is in China and India.
These nations are not “transitioning” from coal; they are cementing its dominance. Even Indonesia, which was once the poster child for the West’s “Just Energy Transition Partnerships,” has faced reality as it canceled the early retirement of the massive Cirebon coal-fired plant.
Trump’s withdrawal from the U.N.’s climate tyranny and the parallel actions of Asian energy giants are a recalibration of global priorities. Nations are reasserting the right to pursue policies rooted in their own economic interests rather than follow “international” edicts of a favored few. Governments and businesses are investing billions in extracting and transporting hydrocarbons. Ports, pipelines and refineries designed to function for decades are being built.
The Trump administration has simply ended American participation in a system that was already irrelevant to the actual decisions being made by the world’s major energy consumers.
In part, the narrative of an “energy transition” survived by being presented as inevitable. That sham has been exposed. A transition likely will occur someday, but only when new technologies prove to be affordable and reliable.
In the meantime, expect more exits, more quiet defiance, more recalibration. Climate rhetoric will continue to diminish as investments in hydrocarbons accelerate.
Originally published in Townhall on January 25, 2026.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India. He served as a research associate with the Changing Oceans Research Unit at University of British Columbia, Canada.
Reading this makes one very apprehensive as to our future in the UK with Milliband and his friends setting us on the road to ruin.
No industry, no money and in hock to China.
Stuck in our 15 minute neighbourhoods with electricity only if the wind is blowing.
But you can feel good with all the virtue for having done all that. /s
Elections have consequences. Think and vote wisely next time!
Unfortunately Conservatives were the ones who brought in NetZero and built thousands of windmills. Labour under mad-Ed are just continuing the debacle. UK truly needs Reform like never before Rhe uniparty is dead.
15 minute city is quite a nice term for a gulag.
I’d love it so much more to own nothing when the time has come.
That’s a good summary of conditions on the ground, as in grounded on reality.
I see that the total website hits have gone over the 600 million mark. Congratulations and thank you for all the hard work that goes into making such an informative and thought provoking website. The comments certainly add to the discussion and we are lucky to have so many people with practical engineering and other experience giving their inputs.
The headlne is flawed. Trump is withdrawing from the climate narrative, not from the ‘collapsing’ climate narrative.
Double negative. Sloppy.
Even though not stated, the implication is clear: The climate narrative was already collapsing. However, Trump has certainly greatly enhanced said collapse.
A ‘narrative’ by definition cannot collapse, only its effectiveness.
Not a double negative. Neither withdrawing nor collapsing are “negatives”, not in the sense you are trying to use them.
I apologize. I should’ve known that using the word ‘trump’ would trigger the usual suspects, no matter what the context.
The headline makes no logical sense even though i knew what was meant.
It would seem the headline served its purpose well.
You knew what was meant.
You were inspired to post.
The curtain is falling on the world’s most expensive soap opera. – In the United States.
Meanwhile…
Energy industry ‘faces collapse over Miliband’s delusional net zero plan’
Government on collision course with GMB union over job insecurity and excessive taxation
Britain’s energy industry faces collapse thanks to Labour’s “chaotic and needless” rundown of the oil and gas sector, one of its biggest union backers has warned…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/26/energy-industry-faces-collapse-over-miliband-net-zero/
We’re still all in.
Why oh why do none of these people writing in The Telegraph etc. just say that CO2 is not dangerous and all this money for ruinables is just wasted? There have been umpteen papers published over the last several years which seem to me to prove this.
This is political.
Ed Miliband is killing Aberdeen
https://spectator.com/article/ed-miliband-is-killing-aberdeen/
Will Rogers – it is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled
“Worldwide, there are 460 coal plants under construction.”
Net Zero…laughable!
RCP8.5
That’s a lot of hopium. China may be building more coal power. But has a lower and lower capacity factor.
You need to move beyond the Denial stage of grief at the death of Climatism and the Climate Industrial Complex. Support groups are available.
Your problem is that you view everything through the lens of climate change – while in reality it’s about independence, security and economics.
A China-Europe energy alliance could deliver a new world order
The lens of climate change? An excellent example of newspeak.
Very progressive.
Your problem is that you’ve been brainwashed by the Climate Industrial Complex spin. Retardables and the Climate narrative are inextricably linked.
Stop using FF every day, you flaming hypocrite, find a sense of justice.
Note he is using a computer to post.
And your computers are powered by renewables.
BS
Tell me what are the objects around you made of, how were they made, how did they get to you?
I’ll give you a clue, everything you use on a day to day basis relies on oil.
No, they work 100% of the time, as required..
So they are NOT powered by renewables.
“And your computers are powered by renewables.”
False.
My computer is not powered by “renewables.” If it were, I would not be able to get online or post or read or play online computer games.
Your computer was manufactured using oil and other hydrocarbons.
The electricity powering the internet is dominated by steam turbine generators powered by carbon-based fuels.
Another complete fantasy.. and of course, your link doesn’t work.
CREA/Global Energy Monitor ‘China Coal Power (Aug 2025)
“Coal remains deeply embedded in the power system with little public discussion of its phase down or eventual exit”
“New coal power capacity additions are on track to reach decade highs”
“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″
“new coal power additions are on track to reach decade highs”
“Coal power continues to expand in absolute capacity terms and remains structurally protected”
“New project approvals remain high….new and revised proposals for first half totalled 75GW, the highest in 10 years”
And this is what they say about unreliables
“Renewables equal 60% of installed capacity BUT THERE IS A WIDENING DISCONNECT BETWEEN CAPACITY GROWTH AND ACTUAL POWER GENERATION”
What a ridiculous and very ignorant comment.
Coal can and often does supply for long periods of time at 90%+ capacity, when required.
Wind and solar can never be guaranteed to supply as required.
“China is outpacing the rest of the world in building coal-fired power plants at an unprecedented pace.”
I cringe every time someone says, “But look at all the solar capacity China is installing! They are great climate leaders investing in the transition!” No. Any solar panels China is installing are *window dressing* for the West to ogle. They know that coal power is the foundation for their future, and they are quite willing to spend on shiny objects to impress the audience. Maybe even save a little fuel. For now. Wait 20 years.
Thank you for listening.
China is building more coal plants but might burn less coal
Yeah progress! We can finally leave the “renewables have an eroi < 1” behind us. 😛
3 years will be enough to prove you wrong
In your version of reality, you can overcome an EROI of less than one, by building more?
What, in your version of reality, has an eroi of less than one, that we are building?
Wind and solar for a start.
Sure. Just believe.
You are the one with the fantasies !
Might!
LMAO
I suspect it is might burn less coal per power plant.
” Any solar panels China is installing are *window dressing* for the West to ogle.”
Also, because using a lot of solar in China helps build up that industry so their panels can be dirt cheap- resulting in flooding naive nations, helping to destroy their economies. Rather brilliant if you think about it.
I’m so looking forward to all the mental hoops this site will jump through to block out reality in the next few years.
Mate, reality had left your building quite a while ago.
About the time that the ClimateGate emails surfaced I’m thinking.
Keep participating, some us feel the same about you.
Reality?? Al Gore had to turn off the air conditioning in his Washington DC conference room some 30 +years ago to give the illusion of Catastrophic Global Warming way back then. True reality is that CAGW is still but an illusion of the unenlightened. You need to turn up your thermostat and enjoy your fossil fuels now, and in the future. Be thankful that agriculture is thriving with the blessings of higher CO2.
Let’s just concentrate on 2026 for starters. You give us your predictions for what will cause the mental hoop jumps in 2026, and in a year’s time we’ll check how well you did.
I asked here at the start of the year for a WUWT prediction for 2026…still none. Why should I bother? Reality will show it anyways.
Reality is that China and India are rapidly building more COAL-fired electricity..
That is not going to change any time in the future, and will be there for 50+ years, LONG after the wind turbines and solar panels have decayed into environment polluting waste.
“Why should I bother?”
Methinks he doth protest too much.
So which is it? 3 years? A few years?
Meanwhile South Africa is gradually getting its act together and exports of coal have jumped significantly
South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Exports Up 11%
It really is fascinating how the science ignorant keep trying to convince themselves that if only they believe hard enough, wind and solar will magically start working.
There you go again, projecting.
Yet he refuses to predict.
+6-7% are interesting annual growth-rates because
— they are similar to historical peak industrialization rates*; and
— they imply that projections (IEA et al.) are drastic under-estimations.
To see this, consider that +6.4 (apr) over a quarter-century (2026-2050 A.D.) implies a quintupling (5X) of industrial output (rate).
More realistically, (logistic curve), a quintupling (centered on 2051 A.D) requires a half-century (ending ~ 2076 A.D.), with the APR starting from ~ +5.3%, continuously reducing to ~ +3.2% at mid-century, and reaching 5X- ‘maturity’ (~ +1.3%) at the endpoint.
[Quintupling (five-fold) puts India on par with fully industrialized nations.]
*Meiji Restoration (Japan, 1868-1912) “estimates for industrialization periods reaching +6.3%”
Furthermore:
Total of ~ 1200 new (additional) coal-fired power plants. “Taking ~ 1.0 GW(e) as the average power output (per plant), and assuming the power plant operates at a net efficiency of 42% and uses coal with a typical heating value of 24 MJ/kg, approximately 2.88 gigatons of coal per annum are required to supply 1200 gigawatts of power continuously.”
Look at graphs showing the breakdown of how much energy here in the US, as well as everywhere else in the world, comes from traditional sources vs. “renewables”. Renewable energy alone only accounts for around 10-14% of the total, and a lot of that is still “carbon” intense, like wood. The purely “carbon-free” sources, which nothing actually is, like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro, is far below 10% of the total in the US and most of Earth. Unfortunately, here in my home state, even though we’re sitting on trillions of cubic feet of natgas, our leftist politicians are hell-bent on chasing the same energy transition folly that has lead to soaring prices and grid instability elsewhere.
https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-top-energy-production-sources-in-the-us/
By energy, you actually mean electricity. Wind and solar make up only 2.8% of world energy demand.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/bp-energy-review-2024/
Jonesnm, your link actually talks about total energy use. However, it includes biomass as renewable energy. In Britain, biomass usually refers to Drax power station burning American forests and I refuse to call that renewable energy.
Sure it is. It only takes 20 years to regrow the trees and renew the supply.
China might be able to slow down on their power plant building.
I heard this morning that China’s reproduction rate has fallen drastically and China’s population may go from the current 1.4 billion people down to 450 million in decades to come.
China is also having some serious domestic politics problems at the present time.
“China is also …”
Perhaps the understatement of the decade. I would not limit it to politics, unless the term is used in a very broad sense. The current “purge” of military officers is just a tip of the issues.
Example: “A clampdown has been enforced to curb a social media trend in China – where thousands of students rent bikes late at night to buy soup dumplings.” Ask, why is the CCP worried about this?
In these troubled times it is always encouraging when good news is being presented.
The ongoing push back against the globalists ambition to control world affairs through the UN and its associated unelected agencies is gaining traction.
Only the EU is refusing to recognise the direction of political travel but even there they are having to confront reality and physics.
How dare they, as the now cast aside doom monger once said.
Again, yes, I voted for THIS.
Of course Trump did the right thing by leaving these worthless international organizations. Think about it Trump is not an expert, professional, scientist or academic. He is a business man, some might argue he is expert or professional at that but many would disagree. The point is that this mess will not be solved by experts, professionals, scientists or academics rather it will end when people finally get tired of being screwed over by experts, professionals, scientists and academics. I forgot to add politicians to the gang.
Vijay Jayaraj can always be depended upon to lay out the hard facts about energy preferences and supplies. He’s particularly effective in providing the details of energy generation and consumption in the expanding economies of East Asia so that the assertions of climate propagandists so abundant among the media, bureaucrats, politicians and academics can quickly be refuted. So anyone who tries to tell us that there’s a major energy transition away from fossil fuels needs only to examine the above figures to be set straight.
CLIMATE SCIENCE –
FALLING APART AS WE WATCH!
The Verdict: Climate Science isn’t falling apart because the climate isn’t changing; it’s falling apart because the simplistic CO2 model cannot survive the complexity of a multi-planetary, non-linear, and chaotic Earth system. The “scramble” is the final stage of a failed paradigm trying to justify its existence to a public that is currently freezing in the dark.
Google Gemini Tells All
https://gemini.google.com/share/0468c328750a
The problem is still getting those whose paychecks depend on mythology to accept and admit they were wrong.