Energy in Demand News, January 26, 2025

Apart from watching what is going on in Washington DC , our attention has understandably focused again this week on the devastation in the Los Angeles area from the continuing wildfires. The total area affected was recently estimated at more than 16,000 hectares and it is going to take years and a lot of money to fully recover. But it’s not just in California. Shockingly, in Brazil in 2024, the Guardian reported that 30.86 million hectares of wilderness burned in 2024. This is an area larger than Italy – yes, Italy. In one of the posts in EiD this week, Luisa Neubauer, one of Germany’s leading climate activists, says the rise in extreme weather is not generating political support for climate action and notes that far-right influencers and conspiracy theorists have used the wildfires in California to actually attack efforts to stop the planet from heating. Are our leaders really that convinced by this misinformation? At the same time leaders in countries such as the United Kingdom say they must put much more emphasis on growth than on working towards net zero emissions. Are they talking to the insurance industry (see EiD post this week)?

Well, this is a week that President Trump has halted more than $300 billion in US green infrastructure funding. And the Financial Times reports (behind a paywall) that European asset managers are following their US counterparts in “pulling back” on publicly visible climate action. Where will needed leadership come from?

Congratulations to the American billionaire, Michael Bloomberg.  He has announced that his philanthropy and other climate funders will step in to cover US financial obligations to UNFCCC, the United Nations climate body after President Donald Trump ordered a halt to contributions, according to Climate Home News. It does not solve the problem of not having America at the table, but it certainly sends an important signal that there are Americans who care.

In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here is some useful ideas to help you along:

• Country Living Magazine provides 3 European train routes set to transform travel in 2025.
• Much Better Adventures provides us with 10 of the best winter walks in Europe.
• For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine in Europe and Australia, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
• Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 Best Cycling Holidays in Europe 2025.
• Travelling in 2025? Here’s how to become a ‘regenerative’ tourist.

A Turkish proverb should make us all sit up and reflect: “The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them.”

EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:

• “While Donald Trump is singing from the Republican Party songbook when it comes to climate change, the music was written long before he came along”
• AI presents opportunities and challenges in the energy landscape
• Blog by Jane Marsh – Equitable access to solar energy: community solar programs
• The new play Kyoto now in London, dramatising the intense negotiation of the world’s first climate change treaty, celebrates the potent power of consensus that we have lost today
• New survey finds many businesses aren’t keeping on top of AI energy needs
• The rise in extreme weather is not generating political support for climate action
• A third of the Arctic’s tundra, forests and wetlands have become a source of carbon emissions
• Worries that change in fact checking on social media could open the floodgates to more climate misinformation
• Climate crisis is making it harder for insurance companies to operate, with many pausing or withdrawing policies

Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.

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