United Nations Chief António Guterres Foresees Fossil Fuel Tipping Point – CleanTechnica

---

---

On July 22, 2025, António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, delivered an address entitled A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age, in which he said the shift to renewables has “passed the point of no return.” His remarks were based on the latest report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, that shows the cost of solar power — which a decade ago was far more expensive than fossil fuel resources — is now 41 percent cheaper than thermal generation that relies on coal, oil, or methane.

With COP 30 coming up this fall in Brazil, Gutteres urged the nations of the world to build on the success of renewables by creating ambitious new climate plans before the conference begins, saying the fossil fuel era is nearing its end. “The energy transition is unstoppable, but the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough. Just follow the money,” he said, noting that $2 trillion has flowed into clean energy last year — $800 billion more than fossil fuels and 70% more than a decade ago. “We are on the cusp of a new era. Fossil fuels are running out of road. The sun is rising on a clean energy age,” Guterres told the audience.

While the cost of solar has declined, the cost of offshore wind has fallen even more. The IRENA report says it is now 53% cheaper than fossil fuels, with more than 90% of new renewables worldwide beating the cheapest new fossil alternative. “This is not just a shift in power. It is a shift in possibility,” Guterres said. You can watch the entire presentation by Guterres in the YouTube video below.

Francesco La Camera, the director general of IRENA, was also in attendance at the UN on July 22. “The cost competitiveness of renewables is today’s reality. New renewable power out-competes fossil fuels on cost, offering a clear path to affordable, secure and sustainable energy,” he said. “Progress [on renewables] is not guaranteed. Rising geopolitical tensions, trade tariffs, and material supply constraints threaten to slow the momentum and drive up costs.”

Politics & Fossil Fuels

The Guardian, in covering the remarks by Guterres and La Camera, noted that the US has recently ripped up the incentives for clean energy put in place by the Biden administration, while China is still planning new coal-fired generating stations despite installing more renewables last year than the entire rest of the world and beginning construction of the largest hydro power installation in human history in Tibet. In March, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, celebrated the country’s billionth ton of coal production.

Guterres’ remarks this year were noticeably more optimistic that his statements in the past. In 2022, he warned the world would be “doomed” if climate talks failed. They did fail. In 2023 he said “the era of global boiling” had arrived; in 2024 he called fossil fuel companies “the godfathers of climate chaos.” This year, his remarks took a notably more upbeat tone by focusing on the economic benefits of a shift to clean energy.

Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, told The Guardian that investors and governments should pay attention to changes in the economics of energy. Any investment in new fossil fuels now is a fool’s gamble, he explained, while joining the race to renewables can only bring benefits. In addition to new job opportunities and cheaper energy at stable prices, the renewable energy revolution promises energy independence and equitable access to clean energy where it is most needed. “Developing regions like Africa have huge energy access needs, and even bigger renewable resources. What they need now is international finance to share in the renewables revolution,” he said.

Kaysie Brown, associate director at E3G, called for countries to bring forward strong national climate plans before the COP 30 climate summit in Brazil this November. “The world now has both the technical solutions and the economic imperative to accelerate the clean energy transition – a transition essential for global stability and shared prosperity,” she said. “But unlocking this opportunity demands bold leadership and deeper cooperation.”

Choosing Renewables

The US is thumping its chest about energy security, but Guterres said countries who face geopolitical threats and want lower cost electricity for their citizens must choose renewables. “The greatest threat to energy security today is fossil fuels. They leave economies and people at the mercy of price shocks, supply disruptions and geopolitical turmoil,” he said. “There are no price spikes for sunlight. No embargos on wind.”

Rising energy demand is being driven by the need for more cooling as temperatures rise around the world, sometimes to unbearable levels in many countries. Another factor is the soaring demand for power for data centers, made more critical by plans being drawn up for massive computing facilities to serve the demand for artificial intelligence.

Guterres called on big technology companies to commit to sourcing 100% of their electricity from low-carbon source by 2030. If even a proportion of this increase is devoted to fossil fuels, it will become impossible to limit the increase in global temperature  to 1.5º C as called for by the Paris Climate Accords of 2015, he said. And yet, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, boasted recently that his company is planning new data centers that will be almost as large as Manhattan. He neglected to mention whether those monstrosities would be powered by renewables, which suggests they won’t.

Elon Musk has told people in Memphis to go pound sand if they don’t like it that his new data center for Grok — modestly known as Colossus — is powered by portable methane generators which emit far higher levels of pollution than a conventional utility-scale methane fired generating station. Elon is all about sustainability, but if he won’t set the example for his tech bro friends, who will?

Two weeks ago, Pope Leo XIV celebrated a special mass to honor the work begun by his predecessor, Pope Francis, who issued an environmental encyclical called Praised Be (Laudato Si in Latin), in which Pope Francis lambasted wealthy countries and multinational corporations for the way they exploited the Earth and its people for profit.

And so, we have two prominent world leaders saying much the same thing, but is anybody listening? For readers who are practicing Catholics, have you heard any sermons lately based on the need to care for the planet and rid it of the scourge of fossil fuels? Other than press releases, do the words of António Guterres receive any mention in the press or on social media?

Gaming The System

We were always told that, in the capitalist model, the lowest price option always wins in the marketplace, but that does not account for the hundreds of billions the fossil fuel industry has spent to distort the capitalist model and turn it to their advantage. They have captured the entire US federal government along with dozens of state legislatures with the intention of short circuiting the very renewable energy revolution that Pope Leo and Guterres are calling for.

It is wonderful that the head of the United Nations is optimistic about renewables supplanting fossil fuels, but that should not mean renewable energy advocates can take their eyes off the ball and start high-fiving each other because the renewable energy revolution has been won. Only when the gang of thieves and crooks currently in power in the US are ousted will we be able to celebrate. The question is whether the Earth can wait long enough for that to happen.