Renewable energy is surging past fossil fuels
While the City of Ashland continues to make slow but steady progress toward its 2050 climate goals, 2025 has been marked by major federal policy changes that scale back climate and environmental protections.
Yet quietly in the background, positive transformation continues: climate pollution is plateauing globally, and clean energy adoption is soaring beyond expectations.
Researchers have consistently found that hope doesn’t just stave off anxiety and despair — it propels meaningful action against climate pollution. Examples of this research appear in the journals Current Opinion in Psychology, Nature, and Bristol University Press.
So, to close out 2025, here are four reasons for optimism:
1. For the first time in U.S. history, clean energy beat out fossil fuels.
In March, 51% of American electricity came from solar, wind, hydropower, and other renewable forms of energy, while 49% of electricity came from gas, coal and other fossil fuels that drive extreme weather. It was a first for the nation. In comparison, just 5 years ago, 60% of our electricity came from fossil fuels.
2. Solar is gaining ground globally.
In June, solar power generated the largest share of Europe’s electricity, coming in at 22%. It was closely followed by nuclear (21.6%), wind (15.8%), and hydropower (14.1%). (Source: The European Union) Meanwhile, China added 198 Gigawatts of solar power in the first half of the year alone — enough to power the entire country of Indonesia.
3. EV Sales are soaring.
Globally, electric vehicle sales are up 27% compared to 2024, according to an August report produced by the energy and technology think tank Rho Motion. Most of that growth came from China and Europe, with a small increase in North America.
4. Clean power makes up the vast majority of new energy projects.
A 2025 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency found that in 2024, 92.5% of new energy projects globally came from renewable sources, such as solar and wind. Renewables also expanded at a record pace — 15.1%. To reach the COP28 pledge to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, we simply need to keep increasing capacity by about 16.6% each year.
As writer and historian Rebecca Solnit has so eloquently expressed:
“Hope is not about what we expect. It’s an embrace of the essential unknowability of the world. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.”
She adds: “It’s important to emphasize that hope is only a beginning; it’s not a substitute for action, only a basis for it.”
At the Ashland Climate Collaborative, it is our belief that the combination of hope and action will propel us into a beautiful future.
Are you taking action in Ashland? Please let us know what you are doing by visiting Let’s Take Action Together. And thank you, for your hope and action.