Energy in Demand News, August 10-11, 2025

GHG emissions are “going through the roof” because of AI, according to an article on the New York Times website that explains how Big Tech’s net-zero goals are looking shaky. “Google’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 11 percent in 2024 from the year before. Amazon’s were up by 6 percent. Microsoft’s fell slightly but remained 10 percent higher than they were in 2021. Meta’s most recent figures have not yet been made public. . . . Still, Google, Meta and Microsoft continue to say they will hit net zero by 2030, and Amazon has said it will follow by 2040. Experts are increasingly skeptical.” We are talking big numbers in order to make progress: “Alphabet and Microsoft each said they’d invest $75 billion to $80 billion in capital expenditures this year, a figure that includes data center construction. More recently, Meta said its capital expenditures for 2025 were estimated to run between $66 billion and $72 billion.” Hopefully this actually materializes: “According to Google’s latest sustainability report, the company’s biggest emissions reductions over the next five years will come from efforts to buy renewable electricity for its data centers.” Let’s see if this still happens in the Trump era.

Beachcombers take note! The Guardian reports that Enzo Suma from Salento, Italy has created an online museum, Archeoplastica, that comprises more than 500 plastic relics washed ashore on beaches all over Italy. It all started when he spotted a washed-up bottle of Ambre Solaire sunscreen. “He was about to throw it away when he noticed something unusual: the price printed on the bottle was in lire, meaning it must have been produced before the euro replaced the lira in Italy. . . . In fact, after delving further, he was astonished to discover that the bottle dated back to the late 1960s.” That bottle inspired the museum. “One of the oldest finds – a 1958 bottle cap featuring the trademark Moplen that was found on a beach in Emilia-Romagna region, northern Italy – points to the beginning of the plastic-production era. Moplen was the commercial name for isotactic polypropylene, a plastic material developed by the company Montecatini.” His seven-year-old nephew recently found a 45 rpm vinyl record. After bending it back in shape, it was played on an old turntable and was revealed to be Jimmy Fontana’s Il Mondo, a song released in 1965. So, what have you found recently?

For a musical interlude this week, check out “The Climate Is a-Changin’“,  the Marsh Family adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “Times They Are a-Changin’“.

Reflecting its growing importance in the global energy transition, there are three posts this week on China. EiD would also encourage you to read the latest magazine from the EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform.

Don’t forget eceee’s Zero Carbon Industry event in Rome in February 2026. The deadline for submitting abstracts is September 15th.

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

• Country Living Magazine provides 3 European train routes set to transform travel in 2025.
• Check out the Good Night Train website for the unique way to travel through Europe while you sleep.
• World Walks provides us with walking holidays 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.

John Lubbock (1834-1913), an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath, gives us some summer inspiration: “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”

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

• Remembering why developing an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution is necessary
• Trump team pushes for ouster of top IEA official
• China has updated its green taxonomy as part of the country’s efforts to strengthen its net-zero transition ambitions
• America’s energy transition: leaving the clean energy playing field to China
• Recent survey in Canada shows how recent extreme weather is raising public concern about climate change
• Understanding China’s energy transition
• End-to-end attribution provides a vital scientific tool for making fossil fuel companies accountable, and could reshape climate litigation globally
• Canadian economist and conservative columnist played a critical role in the Trump administration’s push to eradicate US climate rules
• Trump’s EPA cancels $7 billion in funding for solar projects

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

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