Essay by Eric Worrall
Bloomberg was until recently Net Zero’s chief champion. But now it was always obvious that Net Zero ambitions were not grounded in reality.
Net Zero Is Dead. Long Live Renewable Energy
February 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM GMT+10
By Javier BlasJavier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. He is coauthor of “The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources.”
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In diplomacy, words matter. When the world’s richest nations got together in 2022 for their biennial energy meeting, their communique mentioned “net zero” 13 times; in 2024, the references went up to 15. After last week’s gathering? Just one occurrence — and that was to underline the lack of universal support. The word-count collapse is illustrative of the direction of global energy policy: Net zero is, effectively, dead.
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Even at the peak of its popularity, net zero looked far-fetched. One had to believe, as a matter of faith, that consumption of oil, natural gas and coal would drop following stylized cliff-like curves. With current energy-related annual CO2 emissions running above 35,000 million metric tons, reducing them to something that would equal net zero was an impossible task. On current trends, emissions are likely to remain close to current levels for the next 25 years. Even if countries adopt most of the energy policies they’ve announced — a big if — they’ll remain above 25,000 million tons a year until the middle of the century.
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A few nations insisted on keeping the net-zero idea alive — notably the UK and Spain …
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But don’t mistake the death of net zero for the end of renewable energy. The latter is very much alive. For the foreseeable future, electricity will be the fastest growing form of energy — and renewables will cover a significant chunk of the increase. The world will remain addicted to fossil fuels, but more of its additional power needs will be covered by solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and other green sources.
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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-02-25/climate-change-net-zero-is-dead-long-live-renewable-energy
What a change a few years can make. Back in 2024, a Bloomberg columnist pronouncing the obituary of Net Zero would have been unthinkable.
So what happened to produce such a radical about face? One possibility, AI suddenly became really important in the investment landscape – and Bloomberg is a big player in the AI investment space.
And AI is incompatible with Net Zero.
Are solar panels and possibly even wind turbines here to stay? Absolutely. There are plenty of niche uses of solar energy where it makes sense, including in some cases powering remote sites, where the cost of importing energy exceeds the cost of a solar / battery system.
But until there is a major breakthrough, such as consumer acceptance of micro nuclear fission, or an energy breakthrough such as small portal nuclear fusion, or until we completely run out of recoverable fossil fuel, there will be no Net Zero.
AND..?
Rainbow-farting unicorn pic needs a wet teardrop below one eye to further convey the sentiment.
nice touch
Feel free to contribute 🙂
Here is one with a real rainbow.
I think the headline should read:
Even at peak INSANITY the idea of net zero was far fetched!
The next question is, how do we get compensation from those responsible for this fiasco?
Torches and pitchforks are the preferred method.
Talking of far fetched
Why has the world’s first hydrogen double-decker fleet failed?
…the zero emissions vehicles are now being ditched, along with the ambition that 700 jobs could be created.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnv6e5l588jo
Another multi-million pound fail.
From artcle:
“The multi-million pound project in Aberdeen – involving 25 buses – was meant to be the future of clean public transportation,”
“The council has been asked about the total cost of the project, which is understood to have run to tens of millions of pounds.”
(10 million)/(25) = 400,000 per bus.
How many riders could the council have just bought a cheap used car for? And spent less while benefitting its constituents more?
“With 55,731 matched cars under £5,000 available on Auto Trader, we have the largest range of value cars for sale across the UK.”
(10 million)/(5000) = 2000 would-be-bus-riders with junky new-to-them cars.
“Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.“
Alright then, we’re back to all of the above.
I wish someone would tell the state of Colorado that net-zero is dead. They haven’t got the memo yet.
The unicorn picture could have come from the governor’s office.
“For the foreseeable future, electricity will be the fastest growing form of energy — and renewables will cover a significant chunk of the increase.”
More so in areas with faith in the green energy cult.
RE will provide a “sizeable” but diminishing chuck of new energy relative to other sources. Wind is already down, solar is next.
Solar did not lose political support — it exhausted economic headroom.
China, California, and Germany all reached the same conclusion independently: beyond a certain penetration level, additional solar destroys value faster than it creates it. Legislation followed reality, not the other way around.
The 2026 peak is not the end of solar. It is the end of denial.
KEY DATES
California — Net Energy Metering 3.0 (Net Billing Tariff)
Effective April 15, 2023 (applies to new interconnection applications)
China — Market‑based pricing for new wind and solar (end of guaranteed pricing)
Effective June 1, 2025 [socialnews.xyz]
Germany — Solar Peak Act (Solarspitzengesetz)
Effective February 25, 2025 (applies to newly commissioned PV systems) [solarvision.org]
A lie can’t stand the test of time. There may be a place for wind and solar but all government support and mandates must end today. We have been hearing promising stories about fusion for nearly as long as we have heard promising stories about wind and solar. It is fine to continue to develop it but there is no time to wait for it. We know how to build fission plants, they are already approved and have proven themselves. Let’s get busy building them now. There is no time to waste.
The “Net Zero” EPA Endangerment Finding DID NOT apply to 96% of the 8 billion people on this planet
Shockingly, 80% of the 8 billion on this planet, or more than 6 billion, are living on less than $10/day.
· For the other 96% of those living in poverty on this planet, the worse form of air pollution is indoor air pollution, caused by poor people burning coal, wood, dung, candles, and paraffin in badly ventilated shacks, often without chimneys.
· Worldwide, more than 3 million people in poverty die prematurely each year from illnesses caused by indoor air pollution. These deaths are primarily linked to cooking with polluting fuels, resulting in respiratory infections, strokes, heart disease, and lung cancer.
Those so-called renewables like wind turbines and solar panels can ONLY generate electricity.
I have a Chinese friend who was born shortly after Mao’s great leap famine. She doesn’t talk much about her childhood and her parents worked their butts off to provide for their kids, but the poverty she describes is difficult for first world people to imagine.
The DEI’s list of 26 points of demonstrable health and environmental damage, in addition to what medical scientists and doctors have proven over the past two years:
The impact of salt on the PFAS blades of offshore wind turbines leads to permanent contamination of the food chain.
Vibrations cause damage to the environment and health. Incidentally, this also means that wind turbines are less effective than suggested. This is due to downtime (cracks in the columns caused by vibration, as well as other malfunctions and defects).
Wind turbine technology, including gearboxes, must be overhauled once or twice (or more) during the lifetime of a wind turbine, and regular maintenance must also be carried out, such as lubrication and oil changes, etc.
Corrosion protection leads to the absorption of heavy metals (zinc/lead/aluminum) into seawater and thus into the food chain for humans and animals.
Corrosion protection using electrical systems leads to the disappearance of ecosystems.
The erosion of paint by wind and sun leads to PFAS pollution and the absorption of PFAS into the food chain.
Wind turbine fires lead to the absorption of heavy metals, toxic substances, and PFAS pollution.
Noise pollution during the pile driving of foundations causes major disruption to nature.
Foundations are difficult to remove. This requires a lot of energy and results in high CO2 emissions. In addition, the production of concrete for foundations causes enormous CO2 emissions.
The maintenance process consumes a lot of energy and produces CO2 emissions.
Used and evaporated CFCs, used for cooling, are harmful to the environment and health.
The wind catch effect leads to changes in wind currents.
Wind farms cause changes in water currents.
The 12,000-volt high-voltage cables are plowed into the seabed, but this completely disrupts the natural movements and migrations of fish.
The mincer effect of a wind turbine is very significant. Fishermen catch many dead birds in their nets. (This phenomenon is also widespread on land).
The demolition of obsolete wind turbines is carried out using explosives, among other things. When the turbines are knocked down, a great deal of pollution, PFAS, oil, etc. is released into the environment during the fall.
Each wind turbine consists of at least 15% PFAS (blades, cables, cooling, heating, control electronics, etc.). This amounts to between 80,000 and 120,000 kg per wind turbine (at average height).
Noise pollution above and below water causes serious disruption to nature.
Permanent vibrations caused by the rotation of blades and wind load lead to serious disruption of nature.
(Much more) (micro) plastic(s) are found in the fish studied.
Fishermen report daily deaths and destruction on the seabed.
Now the world’s largest wind farm is being built off the coast of Zeeland, with all the consequences that entails, as I understand it, without carrying out the mandatory baseline measurement beforehand.
The intensification of existing shipping routes is leading to total chaos in the underwater world.
The magnetic fields near the buried high-voltage cables are so powerful that large and small fish can no longer navigate.
Shipping must also take changing magnetic fields into account (see navigation charts).
The impact on whales and dolphins is becoming increasingly clear.
The number of wind turbines in the North Sea is rapidly increasing to 24,000, which is an irresponsible gamble with the environment, health, and climate in light of the 26 points mentioned above and everything that doctors already know about the health risks posed by wind turbines.
Bloomberg should have realized that Net Zero was unattainable years ago when it saw that despite all the subsidies and private money poured into green initiatives and power generation, fossil fuels were still providing over 80% of the world’s primary energy Another indication that it should have abandoned the issue entirely was the fact that countries like Canada, among others, that supposedly wholeheartedly supported Net Zero weren’t and still aren’t hesitating to export emissions in the form of coal, oil and natural gas. Hypocrisy, anyone?
Hypocrisy ? – speak to the Australians.
Whilst running down their own coal fired power plants, supposedly because of net zero etc, they are also by far the world leaders in ‘Coal Mining for Export Projects’ responsible for 46 of 95 such projects currently underway in the world.
IEA ‘Coal 2024 Analysis and Forecast to 2027’ (Dec. 2024)
Thermal or metallurgical coal, or both?
Funny how people are addicted to affordable, reliable energy, and reject energy which is the opposite, but which claims to be “green” and is “saving the planet”.
Wonders will never cease.
Two retired process engineers have discovered that the facts, data and astute processing engineering logic conclude that human emissions are a minor cause of increasing atmospheric CO2. Even if net zero could be achieved tomorrow, the scientific numbers say atmospheric CO2 would only decrease by about 15%. Oceans are changing in an unknown way to cause most of the increasing atmospheric CO2. Humans must control the oceans to control atmospheric CO2. We know that this view is unbeilable but true. Send me your email to esebesta@comcast.net if you want the study paper that explains. This is a story tip.
PBS Terra program just appeared on Youtube. It is about Venus as the Final Tipping Point. It sez that when CO2 reaches a certain level it will stop the formation of the type of clouds that are over the ocean off the USA west coast…..resulting in temp rise. It is too soon to declare victory in the climate wars.
The dead horse beating continues…
Eric:
Nice post!
Bloomberg is the poster child of corporate hypocracy. While going all-in on the “climate crisis” to make millions it also dissected NetZero policies and projected the global costs by 2050 to be north of $200 trillion Yet, even that cost did not make them blink: they still promoted the fantasy that it was hard, but feasible – technically, economically and politically. They came to the same conclusion in 2024 & 2025. Crazy!
https://about.bnef.com/blog/the-7-trillion-a-year-needed-to-hit-net-zero-goal/
BTW: NetZero is NOT dead politically; it’s just in suspended animation, waiting to be revived once the true believing Democrats retake Congress in November 2026, ditch the Senate filibuster, and then wait to win the Presidency in 2028.
Getting rid of the Endangerment Finding and codifying some of Mr Trump’s Executive Orders into law MIGHT drive a wooden stake into NetZero’s heart, but I’m not convinced.
The climate crisis addicted NGOs and their associated fanatics [academics, MSM & politicians] have not changed their minds [facts be damned!]; they are just going to lay low and wait out the Trump admin. The November election will be crucial. Here’s betting that Michael Bloomberg spends $10s of millions in this election cycle – all on Democrats who are true climate crisis believers.
Within the scientific definition of a tipping point, which is the rapid transition from one stable state to another, removal of the cause of the transition does not cause the system to return to its original state.
Therefore whatever causes clouds to form or not form lies outside the definition of tipping point.
“electricity will be the fastest growing form of energy — and renewables will cover a significant chunk of the increase.”
Only if they can figure out how to keep the sun from setting.
I can imagine 8 billion people exhaling at WTGs to get them to turn, rotating 180 to inhale, rotating 180 again to exhale. 24/7/365. This could be those millions of well paying green jobs? 🙂