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The world · a living book

Energy & Climate

The energy transition by the numbers — what’s scaling, what’s stalling, and the trade-offs.

1 chapterupdated July 2026sources linked in every chapter

The story so far

The energy transition in 2026 is a story of speed and paradox. Solar and battery installs are hitting records and clean energy now draws roughly double the investment of fossil fuels, yet global CO2 emissions still set a new high. Nuclear is stable with a wave of construction concentrated in China, fossil demand is plateauing, and a new force — electricity-hungry AI data centers — is straining grids.

This book tracks the transition by the numbers, without cheerleading for any single answer.

Chapter 1 · July 2026

The transition paradox: record renewables meet record emissions

Renewables at record scale

The world added a record ~605 GW of solar in 2025, and renewables now make up close to half of global power capacity, with solar and wind driving nearly all new additions.

pv magazine / IEA
Battery storage installs jumped about 40% year-on-year, helping renewables cover most of the growth in electricity demand.
IRENA

Nuclear and fossil fuels

Nuclear capacity held near 420 GW with dozens of reactors under construction, over half in China, and small modular reactors edging toward commercialization.

IEA
Coal demand plateaued and gas growth slowed, while EVs reached about a quarter of new car sales.
IEA

The AI data-center wildcard

Data-center electricity demand is growing far faster than overall demand, with AI-specific load rising sharply and accounting for a large share of US electricity growth — straining grids and equipment supply chains.

IEA

The paradox

Despite all this, fossil CO2 emissions hit a record in 2025, even as their growth rate slowed — clean energy is bending the curve, but absolute emissions are still rising, and the remaining budget for 1.5°C is nearly spent.

Global Carbon Project

The open questions

Can nuclear scale enough to matter for net-zero, or will renewables carry it?

Nuclear caseSteady, 24/7 low-carbon output makes nuclear strategically essential for grid reliability as variable renewables scale — but capacity must roughly triple by 2050. IEA
Renewables-first caseRenewables are adding capacity an order of magnitude faster and cheaper, and with storage and grid upgrades can lead without proportional nuclear growth. IRENA

A living book: chapters are dated and grow as the story develops. Nothing is deleted — the record just gets longer.