Essay by Eric Worrall
“… Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits, wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts …”
War-driven energy price spikes highlight value of renewables: UN climate chief
The disruption of global energy supplies is being felt worldwide, the UN’s top climate change official warned on Monday, as conflict in the Middle East drives oil and gas prices sharply higher – echoing the market turmoil triggered by the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at the 2026 Green Growth Summit in Brussels, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the volatility underscored the strategic value of renewable energy.
“Renewables turn the tables,” he said during a keynote address to the event, which brings together European climate and environment ministers alongside businesses, investors and other key stakeholders.
“Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits, wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts [and] renewable energy allows countries to insulate themselves from global turmoil and to side-step might-is-right politics.”
Indeed, renewable energy also delivers on people’s top priorities across the continent: security, well-paid jobs, better health and relief from rising living costs, he added.
…
Pointing out that in 2025, renewables overtook coal as the world’s top electricity source, and over $2 trillion was invested in clean energy – double that of fossil fuels – he said “the opportunities are immense.”
…“Europe can permanently seize the multi-trillion-euro goldmine of investment that’s just getting started by embracing green growth, drawing on your many strengths, [including] education, strong institutions, smart regulation, social justice and innovation and intellectual property, and by backing it up with plans and policies.”
Read more: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167135
…
Can anything better encapsulate how useless renewables are than these comments?
$2 trillion spent and it hasn’t even moved the needle of Europe’s dependence on oil imports.
If $2 trillion has no impact, what would another $4 trillion achieve? The answer should be obvious – absolutely nothing.
One day the world will run out of fossil fuel, in about 50 – 200 years from now, depending on who you ask. But we already know what the world will likely do next, if there has been no major breakthrough like nuclear fusion.
There is enough recoverable Thorium to power the planet with Thorium / U233 fission reactors for thousands of years. After that, solving the energy crisis is someone elses problem.
“Pointing out that in 2025, renewables overtook coal as the world’s top electricity source…” What? That’s a downright lie. The sad part is people will believe this.
I just asked ChatGPT.
Hmm. Google says that worldwide, wind is about 11% of electrical generation capacity not generation. Based on readily available data on actual wind turbine productivity, that would place wind at somewhere around 2-4% of generation, not 8%
Capacity means nothing useful except to toot your own horn.
Everyone has driven by windfarms that are not rotating. No roro, no gogo.
“Capacity means nothing useful except to toot your own horn.”
I think that was Denis’ point.
Ruh roh Shaggy!
There is a marketing reason why batteries are no longer defined in terms of A-hrs. W-hrs is a bigger, more impressive number.
Which would you want? A 1 A-hr battery with an under-load voltage of 32 Vdc or a 32 W-hr battery?
Using capacity rather than deliverable is the same marketing technique.
Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025
The “article” you linked is discussing Demand Growth fulfilled by wind and solar, not total electricity generation. All of the existing (99%?) electricity usage is still dominated by Coal/Nat Gas/Hydro.
The twisting, turning, dodging and slithering that goes into trying to present renewables’ actual usable output as acceptable ROI would make for an entertaining WWE WrestleMania circuit event.
From the link:
what happens to the grandiose claims about “renewables” contribution if you take hydro, geothermal, biomass and geothermal’s ~ 15% of total generation out of the “renewables” mix?
(ie. just count the venerated windmills and sun-seeker panels contribution to total electricity generated)
That “Strong rise in Solar” is only for Power produced when no-one needs it but accounts for ZERO generation when needed most…at evening peak demand.
The slim overtake of total renewables is seasonal and weather-dependent:
Wind fell 21 TWh (-8.5%) in the EU due to “unfavourable weather conditions, especially from January to April.”
Hydro fell 42 TWh (-2%).
Coal actually rose sharply in the US (+51 TWh, +17%).
The report itself notes that demand growth is expected to rebound in H2 2025, “likely driving higher coal generation”.
The report is completely silent on reliability and that’s the killer point
The entire 36-page report never once mentions:
It is pure generation volume (TWh over six months). That is not how reliability works in electricity systems.
Coal is dispatchable baseload/firm power, you turn it on when you need it, it runs at high capacity factors (typically 50-70% globally), and it provides voltage support, inertia, and black-start capability.
Wind is intermittent and non-dispatchable – output varies with weather, often zero during peak demand (calm nights, high-pressure systems). Its effective reliable contribution is a fraction of nameplate capacity. The PDF even proves this variability in real time (EU wind drop).
You cannot swap 1 TWh of coal for 1 TWh of wind on a reliable grid without massive overbuild, storage, or gas/coal backup. The report ignores this entirely because it only tracks energy accounting, not system adequacy or “when the wind blows.”
This is classic energy accounting sleight-of-hand: annual TWh totals do not equal reliable power delivery. Coal still dominates firm capacity needs worldwide.
Oh, only coal?
Smoke and mirrors. You provide figures for “renewables” (undefined) but no separate figures for wind and solar.
Ain’t averages great. With averages no one ever runs out of power.
EMBER. ’nuff said.
The “overtaking” was absolutely not accredited capacity. I would think that they’re either comparing investment or nameplate.
The UN had to work on that spin for a while….obviously the price spike shows the importance of oil….
Exactly! As well as natural gas, coal and uranium. Also include those who may benefit from abundant hydropower.
JP Morgan’s Annual Review of Electricity, ‘Electravision’ 2024, noted there were 62 countries world wide with renewable electricity shares of over 60% but they only accounted for 9% of electricity consumption. They were also heavily reliant on hydro power for electricity with wind and solar producing only 11% of their electricity.
Re ‘Electravision’ 2024: It’s an interesting report. Thank you for pointing it out as I normally use other sources.
UN: “War-driven energy price spikes highlight value of
renewablesdomestic energy production”There, fixed it.
Meanwhile in Jamaica:
The solar power farm (also referred to as a solar park or solar facility) damaged by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica is the **Eight Rivers Solar Park** (also called Paradise Park Solar Farm or similar in reports), located in Paradise, Westmoreland Parish. This is Jamaica’s largest solar project, with a capacity of 51.5 MWp (37 MW), owned by InterEnergy Group.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on October 28, 2025, as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), causing widespread destruction, including to this facility.
Reports from mid-November 2025 (e.g., Jamaica Observer on November 18, 2025) confirm **catastrophic damage** to the site, with panels and structures heavily impacted by the extreme winds. The owners announced they were moving forward with a **reconstruction plan** to rebuild it “in a stronger, safer, and more resilient way” and bring it back online. An earlier announcement around November 12, 2025, also detailed a comprehensive reconstruction effort to restore generation capacity.
As of the most recent available information (up to early 2026), there are no public reports confirming full restoration or the facility being back online. Broader recovery updates focus on grid restoration (e.g., Jamaica Public Service progress), increased rooftop solar adoption post-storm for resilience, and solar initiatives in other areas (like UNDP-supported solar-powered cold storage for fishers in early March 2026). Power grid recovery has advanced significantly, with many areas reconnected months after the storm, but specific status updates on this large-scale solar farm appear limited in public sources.
– Videos and drone tours from late 2025 show extensive damage (e.g., crumpled panels).
– No recent confirmations (e.g., in March 2026 sources) indicate it has been fully restored yet.
– Rebuilding was stated as “immediate” in late 2025 announcements, but given the scale of damage and Jamaica’s overall recovery timeline (full power restoration estimated up to six months in some areas), it may still be in progress.
Since the Caribbean gets slammed by hurricanes almost every year- sometimes many times- a solar farm is extraordinarily stupid. And for all the usual reasons too.
But man o man, think of the wind potential —
— if only there was some way to store it like we store water.
Sarcasm is understood, but now I wonder… could a special windmill turbine be designed to harvest hurricane energy? The machines are already silly expensive, how about custom seasonal attachements?
Hah! ‘Experts’ have gone one step further. They’ve studied using windmills to STOP hurricanes. I don’t trust their results, but they proved to me again: If there are eight billion humans – how many orginal thoughts can I have, really?
“Wind turbines, which can withstand speeds of up to 112 mph, dissipate the hurricane winds from the outside-in, according to Jacobson’s study. First, they slow down the outer rotation winds, which feeds back to decrease wave height.”
I seriously doubt any purported effect is even measurable.
In Google Earth, search for “Eight Rivers Solar Park, Jamaica. The image date claims November 5th of 2025. Assuming the protective backsheet is white, there doesn’t appear to be any clean-up of the blown around panels. A minority of black topsides (5% ?) also show. Perhaps there is a betting site for when, if ever, the situation changes and how.
So rooftop solar is one of their solutions? Solar panels on roofs serve to provide wind a better grip to latch on to so the roof is destroyed faster and at lower wind speed. Is there any end to the stupidity of these people?
The lack of info on the status of the damaged farm suggests it was destroyed nearly completely. Why else would anybody in the know not be talking.
Sensing a “Waiting for someone else to pay for it” situation.
“Jamaica is located approximately 600 miles south of Miami, Florida, making it one of the closest Caribbean islands to the US mainland.”
And the storm that damaged the “Subsidy Farm” in question often repeats on an annual basis. Hurricanes have a yearly season where they can happen again and again and again. Even the least powerful Cat 1 storm can weak havoc on any “Subsidy Farm” in it’s track.
““Europe can permanently seize the multi-trillion-euro goldmine of investment….”
So stupid. A real gold mine is new wealth. What he’s talking about is money out of everyone’s pocket.
For Marxists, someone else’s pocket is the target gold mine.
I think rent-seeking and exploitation are capitalist virtues
But Marxists, Socialists and Communists do it SOOOO MUCH BETTER!!!
Perhaps you can provide a single example of a company ‘earning’ a monopoly rent, i.e., ‘rent seeking’ absent benefitting from government’s use of coercion to constrain competition.
ROFL yeah cause you lefty loons run great countries like Cuba and Venezuela .. turns out so well for the population 🙂
What an absolute blistering idiot Simon Stiell revealed himself to be with his remarks. Good grief!
No doubt he’s very well paid for trying to make absolute drivel sound sensible.
This guy sounds delusional or is smoking something more than cigarettes.
If China can do it…
China’s Edge in an Oil Shock: Electric Cars and Renewables
What would be truly remarkable is if anyone sensible actually believed this tripe.
Ah, “sensible”… there’s the rub.
China’s edge in an oil shock is a nearly billion barrel strategic oil reserve.
China’s edge in an oil shock is 3,168 Coal Powered Electric Generators consuming 70% of the global coal supply while emitting 34% of the total global emissions AND being touted as a Climate Leader by the Media Moronic Yahoos of the world. (Yahoo…see Gulliver’s Travels)
That, too.
China’s Electric Vehicles are immolating at a rate of between 21,000 to upwards of nearly 42,000 fires a year. Many of those in parking garages and, in the case of E bikes, inside apartments while the people are asleep.
China is welcome to it … here in Australia like many countries there is an issue no-one wants to buy EV’s
https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/biggest-problem-facing-the-car-industry-brands-and-governments-are-ignoring-what-buyers
The only way the sales of EV are rising is by force of government rules and all countries are only achieving the minimum legislated level of EV sales.
“warn /wôrn/ verb
inform someone in advance of an impending or possible danger, problem, or other unpleasant situation.”
key qualifier:
“in advance”
The quote:
“The disruption of global energy supplies is being felt worldwide, the UN’s top climate change official warned on Monday,”
It’s not the UN official’s fault if the professional writer he spoke to does not know how words work. It would be nice if some editor said to that writer, “Hey, lets use definitions for words that the people we want to read the words will understand.”
Plus, substituting a word like ‘said’ or ‘cried’ for ‘warned’ would save ink in a printed headline.
Substituting ‘mumbled’ or ‘burped through a gas of bear breath’ would fill more space if they need to fill space around their ads.
Terrestrial Solar PV suffers a daily bottleneck called “night.”
POTUS Trump warned all nations gathered at the UN assembly that they were being scammed by the UN Climate Change™ scam.
US has gasoline going for $1/litre because Trump pushed USA toward oil independence in his first term and continues in his second.. Australia is nudging $3/litre and cannot farm or fish because the diesel has run out. Australia cannot even afford to run refineries.
The oil shortage is due to stupid nations following the UN globalist scam into total folly and loss of sovereignty.
And there I thought it was because a moron attacked Iran, failed and now is begging his former allies (and china!) for help. All after insulting and threatening them in the last few months.
Oh, and he really helped his master and commander, putin, with all of that.
Are you tired of winning yet?
Nope.
The oil shortage has always been part of the show(and one part of it is to show the world how great renewables are and to teach us the lesson in this regard- you will see this once we find out that promoters of renewables have massively invested in oil stocksshortage bets way BEFORE the war).
Just as with Russia this war has been planned looong time ago(at least since 1997s Brzezinkies Grand Chessboard, and even further back – Heartland Theory and set in stone in 2019 by RANDS strategical paper: Overextending Russia (with a war in Ukraine) including taking care of North Stream,
and Zelensky is quite successful in helping Russia going green while his attack success outside of oiltankers/ rafineries is quite miserable which is quite strange).
The Iran War was set in stone one day after 9/11 with the extremely Israel friendly ” 7 countries in 5 years” – plan as 4 star general Wesley Clark has revealed.
As such a plan is not made within 24 hours (and none of the countries were involved in 9/11 nor were any clues available 24 hours after the attack) the plan already existed way before 9/11.
ALL countries on that list suffered a massive transformation and Iran was the very last on the list – the last man standing.
And it absolutely did not matter which Party was in power, those countries were attacked.
Irans fate was set in stone in 2009 by the Brooking Institute “Which way to Persia. Americas Strategy for Iran. ”
And everything that was laid out happened in Iran.
Be it revolutionary protests,agreements (with the real aim to obtain the nuclear researchers identities and assassinate them by mossad) as result of Mafia- Style negotiations
” An offer Iran shouldn’t refuse” (Phase 1).
Then Phase 2 = Military Options
Airstrikes Invasion.
Why Trump, who actually resisted the massive Israeli pressure during his 1st term
did a 180 during his last campaign and turned into Bibi’ s Mini – Mi.
We can only speculate.
Reagans mental health went massively south after the assassination attempt – maybe the same happened to Trump,
and 80 year old could be easier pressured.
As it is unlikely that he got Epsteined in recent years: ( if you haven’t been Epsteined in your first 70 years = then he would have been blackmailed during his first term),
as result of his age, it is more likely that his sons fell for the trap)
and that he actually tweeted a Jeffrey Sachs Video where he is calling Satanyahoo a dark son of a bitch, it seems that something after that must have hit him so hard the he went full PNAC and Wolfowitz- Doctrin.
Did you study to be a Nazi, or does it just come naturally to you?
Writing your own history; a novel.
No, really, some ppl would call that a novel … as in a novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the Italian: novella for ‘new’, ‘news’, or ‘short story (of something new)’, itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning ‘new’.
Let me give you an industrial sized tube of KY Jelly to help you get your head out of your nether regions AND an industrial sized canister of Preparation H to hopefully shrink the sphincter orifice so your head can no longer fit there. Don’t worry, I have your best interests at heart.
Wind and solar don’t work, they can’t support a modern society, everybody knows that. Why do we still put up with liars who say the opposite?
More distortions and outright inaccuracies by the climate crisis crowd.
Nah it’s climate whiplash wots doing the spiking-
Warning over destructive weather trend taking over La Nina and costing Australians dearly
The dooming explains everything and it’s why you too shouldn’t fear the dooming but come to embrace and love the dooming. It’s not a new concept and we walk in the footsteps of giants-
Dr. Strangelove – Wikipedia
It’s more valuable to some than others.
story tip
Attorney sentenced to 11 years in prison for $1 billion solar Ponzi scheme – pv magazine USA
Where I live in Melbourne, Australia, it is 10 am. Temperature is 17 deg C or 63 deg F, it is cloudy with occasional drizzle, light variable wind average 10 km per hour. Summer is about to become Autumn in a fortnight.
For all of the billions of dollars Australia has spent to go “renewable”, wind and solar electricity is right now producing 3% of the NEM grid total. Brown coal is doing the heavy lift, as usual, 78%.
No matter how much people like wind and solar, they refuse to understand that days like this have always happened. Wind drought days will increase until July. There is no way known with available $$$ to produce, run and renew enough grid renewables to combat the wind drought.
There is no leg to stand on if they banish coal, oil and gas.
They have to realise that hope and wishes and beliefs do not generate electricity. Full Stop.
Geoff S
I have to laugh at the cherry-picking in this article. First he dishes out some nonsense about how if renewables had been adopted on a more widespread basis, they would have forestalled any energy shortages caused by the current Iran conflict. The reality is that they would have caused even greater shortfalls well in advance. Then we hear the suggestion that renewables are supplanting coal in providing electricity generation. Even if that were the case, why are fossil fuels still dominating energy provisions for transportation, agriculture, heating and industry? What the article really does is to present a series unrealistic wishes that the alarmists would like to see occur while sidestepping the real facts.
From the article: “might-is-right politics”
Well, in the case of the U.S. attacking the Mad Mullahs of Iran, it was a case of survival.
The Mad Mullahs let us know they were possibly weeks away from creating 11 nuclear weapons, and Trump decided that was too close for comfort, so he took action to prevent a nuclear weapons attack on the United States and its allies by religious fanatics.
I, personally, am glad the U.S. had the will and the means to fix this existential threat.
We were almost too late, and we are not out of the woods yet as we don’t know where the enriched uranium is located, and we don’t know if the Mad Mullahs have access to any centrifuges with which to turn this enriched uranium into weapons-grade, which would only take a few weeks if the Mad Mullahs have sufficient centrifuges.
Some people think the uranium was buried in the destruction in December 2025. Maybe, maybe not.
I imagine any Iranian leadership that comes to terms with Trump will be required to account for this uranium in one way or another, as part of a deal.
Religious fanatics should be prevented from leading Iran in the future. You can’t reason with religious fanatics.
Or Trans-Reality Alamists.
People forget that Iran committed an act of war in 1979 when they attacked the US Embassy and held 50 American citizens hostage for over 14 months.
People forget that Biden released $billions in frozen Iranian assets as part of his dealing with Iran.
People forget, appeasement does not work.
People need to understand that Iran has declared a world war with its attacks on non-US, non-Israeli commerce.
Politicians have brainwashed people. If WTGs and WVs were as good as stated, Exxon and BP would be world leaders in deploying them. If there is money to be made you would not need government investments. The capitalists would push the governments out of the way in the mad rush to invest with legitimate ROIs for their investments.
The stupid…it burns