And yes in the 20th century the fossil economy has fueled crucial human development, no doubt. But let’s please not pretend that the biz folks profiting from fossil ownership have not weaponized it, or that *in a normal edu/media enviro* people blindly assume they do not come with bad externalities

Keeping these 2 sources of opposition independent from each other assumes that climate-forcing lobbies are genuinely only worried about how to get cleaner on their terms; but that’s only true of some ff-adjacent industries: as colleagues have shown, ff is treating climate as an existential battle.

much agreement with this 🧵 but pol science has clearly shown that ideologically opposition to clean energy is a direct function of political efforts in fossil fuels sectors and constituencies to generate such ideology. So no, fossil lobbying for their interests and culture wars are not separate.

Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 4w ago

While I agree with Bill that the fossil fuel lobby paid for a lot of climate denial in previous decades, I see ideological opposition to clean energy (and climate action) as a much bigger barrier to progress today than fossil lobbyists.

A continuity of conflict, 1776-2026 I wrote about how to approach a history that is complicated, inspiring, frustrating, uplifting, and horrifying – all at once, all the time. From the Declaration to Donald Trump. Some thoughts from my new piece (no paywall - please consider subscribing): 🧵

From the Declaration to Donald Trump

Wrestling with a history that is complicated, inspiring, frustrating, uplifting, and horrifying. A continuity of conflict, 1776-2026

steady.page

The UK doesn't yet have that much solar capacity, and neither does France; but even so, imagine the power grid last week if it *hadn't* had that big solar chunk (this is France last Tuesday, during a scorcher; at 2pm, load was 57GW and solar was 19.5GW).

It does feel insane that none of "the progressive case for aircon" mentions solar. If this heatwave had happened in 2010, the European grid would have buckled in the daytime! As it is, there were some issues in the evening when the sun went down. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Not just for rich people: the progressive case for air conditioning | Phineas Harper

Air conditioning can bring significant benefits but also real harms. The answer is for it to take its place alongside a comprehensive state plan for climate adaptation, says writer and curator Phineas...

theguardian.com

This might be one of the funniest chart about energy scenarios I’ve seen. You can hardly see “actual” for gas

Excellent analysis of what the drop in petrol demand means: “Europe reaches the breaking point first, for a reason that is almost tidy. Its refining system was built to export petrol, and the export markets are vanishing faster than its own demand” therewnewableguru.substack.com/p/the-great-...

The great oil inflection

Who pays when petrol stops paying the refinery’s rent

therewnewableguru.substack.com

🎉 Release 3.4 of our Python package pyam for scenario analysis & data visualisation New features: 1. Aggregate Kyoto-GHG using different GWP metrics 2. Improved support for datetime & categorical subannual timeseries data 3. Integration with latest version of ixmp4 database package #pyam_iamc 🔌💡

GitHub - IAMconsortium/pyam: Analysis & visualization of energy & climate scenarios

Analysis & visualization of energy & climate scenarios - IAMconsortium/pyam

github.com

Never pass up the chance to re up a delicious ternary diagram:

Chris Turner@theturner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here comes another illuminating report from @ember-energy.org, this one on "Electric Asia." That gap between "the electric fast track" and "the fossil detour" in the graph on the left is turning out to be a crucial choice between energy security and chaotic dependency

"Cleaner is cheaper" hasn't broken through in part because it wasn't true until 5-10 years ago. For decades before then, cleaner was more expensive. We even have words for it, like "green premium." Republicans (& some corporate Democrats) are using that misunderstanding to weaken or gut policy..

Have you ever heard the sentence "What about imported emissions"? Now it's possible to quickly check on Openclimatedata, for example for the UK: openclimatedata.net/countries/un... (Data from Global Carbon Budget, Consumption emissions updated from @glenpeters.bsky.social et al.)

Chart of the day. The energy transition is happening in real time! 😍

Here are the data plotted as shares, where you can see the change of direction in 2026. May saw BEVs making up 21% of all new passenger cars sold in Australia.

Happy #WorldBicycleDay to all who celebrate this simple solution to some of our most complex problems.

Happy to join the celebration! www.who.int/campaigns/wo...

World Bicycle Day

Since its establishment in 2018, World Bicycle Day has been marked annually on 3 June by advocates in many countries.

who.int

Economics - this discipline so many climate folks love to hate. James Rising and I have a chapter out today in the Handbook of Climate Economics summarizing and evaluating some of these "constructive critiques" www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...

Critical perspectives on climate change economics

Economists have been engaged with the climate change problem for 50 years. Economic thought, particularly the advantages of emissions pricing policies…

sciencedirect.com

Fully agree, but want to be really very specific here: Using RCP8.5 forcing and temperature still has value as a high emissions, high climate sensitivity climate outcomes & for impacts. Using the IAM output (energy, land use) from SSP5-8.5 however really should be discouraged as outdated.

Flavio Lehner@climateflavors.bsky.social · 3mo ago

If you're a reviewer or an editor for a scientific journal, I urge you to not hop on the "RCP8.5 is dead" train. There are now editors that reject RCP8.5 but are ok with 1pctCO2. 🤯 Both are what-if scenarios, useful to science. Don't let politics influence what we can research and publish! 1/3

👀👀👀 the UN general assembly has backed the ICJ climate opinion – despite opposition from the US & 7 others (Russia, Saudi, Iran, Belarus, Liberia, Yemen & Israel) Also a notable abstention from COP31 host Turkey

While chatting with some friends, it occurred to me that other people could benefit from a summary understanding of what's going on in the oil and gas markets. Here are some little pictures to give you the big picture. 🧵

New research 📣 An article in Progress in Energy, authored by CGS researchers, presents a four-dimensional framework to enhance energy scenario modeling for sub-Saharan Africa countries: doi.org/10.1088/2516...

Wrapped up my annual course "open-source energy systems modelling" at @tuwien.at this week, slides under CC-BY on Zenodo The course covers what I would like to have learned 15 years ago: best-practice in scientific software dev, energy-system modelling & scenario analysis... doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Born in fire, battered by the wreckage of colliding worlds, covered for eons in magma, wracked by volcanoes, frozen and thawed again and again, and after everything went just wrong and right enough, here it is: our home. The rarest gift in the known universe. Happy Earth Day.

Solar's 636 TWh rise was the largest structural single year increase of any electricity source ever. The only larger rise was coal's 2021 rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Solar had the biggest absolute increase of any source in each of the last four years.

NEW | Clean power met ALL the growth in global electricity demand in 2025 Solar generation alone met THREE QUARTERS of the demand rise and grew by 30%. Fossil generation stagnated (-0.2%). 🧵 A thread on changes in the global power system in 2025...

Ember@ember-energy.org · 4mo ago

NEW | Solar power surge in 2025 stalls rise in fossil electricity worldwide ⚡📈 Clean power growth outpaced global electricity demand last year – with solar alone supplying THREE-QUARTERS of the increase in demand ☀️ ember-energy.org/lat...

There's a global race to secure EV battery gigafactories & reduce reliance on China. But not all clean-tech projects are created equal. Some generate good jobs & domestic capacities, others produce ecological harm & low value-added enclaves. New paper & thread 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I'm not sure if this is controversial, but I declare electric vehicles as the most inevitable clean technology - more so even than techs with higher current adoption, such as wind or solar. As my mentor used to say: "it's all over but the shouting", though most people don't realize it.