Before science, there was only magic. For centuries in between, diverse religions and folklore provided answers to how the world worked and what the future might hold.
Nowadays, planetary and sustainability sciences provide professional and independent assessments on matters critical to humankind. And the truths they reveal make for uncomfortable reading.
Energy transition and climate agendas are stagnating, halting or even moving into reverse gear in many parts of the world. The COP climate negotiation process seems to have lost its lustre. In some regions and notable countries, there is growing resistance about energy transitions even as extreme weather events wreak havoc.
This is a time for active public engagement and involvement in energy, not apathy. Yet fatigue and apathy are widespread.
Top-down tech-centric roadmaps and supply-driven energy solutions are failing to translate into affordable, reliable and environmentally sustainable energy. Energy literacy is poor. The landscape appears competitive, crowded and confusing to many. Energy outlooks differ wildly.
Political leadership has too often, inadvertently or deliberately, been mischievous in conveying what it takes to deliver transformation. Not all energy and energy transition promises can be delivered with instant, easy and cheap green-only solutions.
And the recent extreme weather events—from monstrous wildfires in California to flooding in parts of Latin America and southern Europe—have shown that Mother Nature is shuffling a planetary deck of cards.
So what needs to change in 2025?
An uptick in articles from well-recognised experts provides big clues on what changes are needed.
Professor Vaclav Smil writes that looking at the full picture shows actual progress towards decarbonisation has been minimal at best—and at worst, yet to begin. Oxford Economist Sir Dieter Helm shows us how the way we evaluate energy-related emissions is deeply flawed and in need of overhaul.
Each of these perspectives, however uncomfortable they may make us, resonates with the sobering World Energy Council conclusion that what got us to here will not get us to where we need to go.
It is time to stop the muddle, mischief and misunderstandings.
Energy transitions are societally messy; let us stop pretending they are simple problems. Attempts to curtail supply, without transforming demand, have proven to be another recipe for disaster.
All signals point to an overshoot of 1.5C by 2050. Climate mitigation and adaptation must now proceed together, and significant new investments need to flow to where they will do the most good.
Despite accelerating the pace of electrification, not all energy needs and uses can or will be electrified by 2050. All levers—financial, technological and social—are needed, and their effective combination presents market design challenges and new choices in collaboration.
We have a lot to tackle. Yet in response, the world seems to veer between fervent activism and fatigued apathy. Progressing in energy is about taking hundreds of thousands of small steps. And our ultimate destination should not be shaped by potential short-term goals but instead the long-term future wellbeing of people and planet. Being a great leader involves actively listening and learning with ‘others’. World energy leadership requires developing new approaches to stretch and sustain energy collaborations across geographies, generations and genders, now and for decades to come.
China is set to host half of the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030. What can we learn from this? What can Europe learn from Latin America and vice -versa? How are the energy challenges facing Africa and Southeast Asia similar and different? Can the Middle East’s ambitions to connect ‘big energy’ and ‘big data’ and develop circular carbon economies secure more energy for new sustainable development pathways?
Harnessing our collective human intelligence and engaging in whole system actions around energy has never been more important. This is too significant to be delegated to AI. And implementing the results to generate meaningful, tangible progress requires people to understand they are the authors of the story of energy transitions, not merely its passive characters.
Society needs to better engage with energy. It is the drumbeat that civilisation marches along to. The future of civilisation depends on us changing our relationship with energy. The future of energy starts with all of us.
Dr Angela Wilkinson is the Secretary General and CEO of the World Energy Council.
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