https://climatechangedispatch.com/europes-green-energy-transition-is-a-delusion-global-data-shows/
by Samuel Furfari
An Energy Institute report reveals a Europe clinging to the pretense of leading an “energy transition” as the continent declines under the weight of climate policies whose quixotically utopian objectives are negated elsewhere by fossil fuel-supported economic growth. [some emphasis, links added]
Data from the 75th edition of the annual “Statistical Review of World Energy” will surprise only those ignoring the facts: The world continues to depend massively on fossil fuels.
Solar and wind technologies, while expanding, still lag ever-rising energy demand, which last year reached a record 600 exajoules. (That’s 600 quintillion joules, where a joule is equal to the work necessary to create one watt of power for one second.)
Of total primary energy consumption, 86% came from fossil fuels – oil at 33.5%; coal at 27.6%; and natural gas at 25.1%. Solar and wind accounted for just 3%, which the European Commission heavily promoted over much-demonized hydrocarbons.
From 2015-2025, the first decade of the Paris Agreement on climate change, global energy consumption rose more than 14%, with sharply contrasting dynamics. European Union use declined by 1% annually, while consumption in the Asia-Pacific region grew by 2.6%.
Europe’s decreasing energy use is no triumph of ecological heroics but rather the outcome of the EU Green Deal’s assault on competitiveness, and its predictable deindustrialization and economic decline.
For example, in 2025, growth in the gross domestic product of some European countries was close to zero, while the U.S. was 2% under the hydrocarbon-friendly Trump administration. Some coal-burning Asians experienced multiples of that.
Noting this EU tragedy, the European Central Bank’s 2024 report on competitiveness blamed not climate policies directly but instead high energy prices the policies had wrought – a sleight of hand accommodating EU politics.
