Energy in Demand News, October 26-27, 2025

The EU’s national leaders spent their summit venting frustration about the bloc’s green transition — and ultimately agreed on language that demands no specific changes to climate legislation. Politico wrote that leaders ultimately refrained from bulldozing the EU’s climate targets, agreeing to a vaguely worded commitment to a green transition, though without committing to a 2040 goal that proposes cutting emissions by 90 percent compared to 1990 levels. In the words of one diplomat: “Classic balance, everyone equally unhappy.”  Ministers are set to reconvene to cast a vote on the 2040 goal on Nov. 4, described by one diplomat as “groundhog day.”economy and will imperil its energy security.

The Financial Times reported this week that the US and Qatar issued energy and trade threats to the EU over climate rules. Washington and Doha said the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive poses an “existential threat” to the growth, competitiveness economy and will imperil its energy security.” The letter from the US and Qatari energy ministers “suggested that the EU rules could also damage the recent trade deal struck in July between the bloc and President Donald Trump, which committed EU states to buying $750bn of US energy by the end of 2028… The intervention by the US and Qatar marks a significant potential break between two of the world’s major fossil fuel producers and consumers in the EU, which has tried to accelerate a transition to cleaner energy.” We, no doubt, have not heard the end of this.

We are well aware of how energy consuming data centres are. This week a Financial Times newsletter said the situation is getting dire in Texas. There isn’t enough electricity to go around in the country’s biggest oilfield, the Permian Basin, with data centres threatening to suck up every last electron. It’s a mounting problem bedevilling oil and gas products. Energy companies are increasingly using electricity instead of diesel and gas to operate compressors, pumps and other equipment to slash emissions to meet climate goals. But that move has a downside: there’s not enough power to go around, particularly as oil production has soared over the past decade. “The power crunch is so big and the wait times to connect so long in the Permian — a traditionally underserved area because of its distance from the state’s large population centres — that some of the region’s biggest oil and gas companies have to meet their own electricity demands. . . . Electrification, population growth, and demand from crypto and AI-fuelled data centres are expected to raise power demand in the Permian Basin to 26GW, a 224 per cent increase, by 2030.” The newsletter makes no mention of the expanded use of renewables to meet the electricity demand.

The IEA has published six recommendations for Ukraine to improve its energy security as Russia bombs its electric grid. Do you agree?

BBC Sport reports that the upcoming World Cup for football (soccer) sends a ‘dangerous message’ on climate. Next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be the first to be held across an entire continent, feature 48 teams and have 104 matches – 40 more than before. In their original bid for the 2026 World Cup, the three prospective host nations hoped the event would “establish new standards for environmental sustainability” and deliver “measurable environmental benefits”. Recent research from the Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) calculated the expanded tournament will generate more than 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, making it the most “climate damaging” edition in the tournament’s history. FIFA declined to answer detailed questions about its sustainability strategy and contingency plans, external in the event extreme weather forces a change to the schedule. So, are you going?

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. Note, however, EiD post on latest cancellation.
• 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.
• Concerning tourism and ocean sustainability here are: Forty facts and statistics about marine travel impact.

Gore Vidal (1925-2012), an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit, gives quite a vision of society: “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.”  And he hasn’t even seen what is going on today.

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

• “Strategic industrial electrification – twin-tracked with ambitious energy efficiency – offers the single most powerful lever for Europe to cut costs, cut emissions, and compete on the world stage”
• Paris court convicts TotalEnergies of greenwashing
• EIB Investment Survey 2025 – European Union overview
• The pace of destruction from massive wildfires is accelerating and rising average temperatures are contributing to the gargantuan price tags of these blazes
• Blog by Jane Marsh – How AI-enabled circuit boards are revolutionizing renewable energy systems in Europe
• Clean energy jobs boom to bring thousands of new jobs in UK
• The climate crisis demands common sense, not ideology
• Energy efficiency at a crossroads: pathways to doubling progress by 2030
• Reimagining architecture: where sustainability meets smart technology
• COP30 is not just another climate conference, it is a chance to reaffirm commitment to multilateral climate action despite significant headwinds

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

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