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President Donald Trump is known for exaggerated, bombastic public comments and frequent outright falsehoods. But his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly during Climate Week were next-level troubling, given that the science around rapidly changing global weather and environmental conditions has never been more certain or unsettling. His views on solar farms and wind power are well known. But, curiously, a man who often praises his own intellectual powers seems oblivious to how reliant the U.S. is on renewables: they’re the country’s fastest-growing source of new power and will supply 26% of all electricity this year, second only to natural gas, according to the latest federal estimates.
“We’re getting rid of the falsely named renewables. By the way, they’re a joke. They don’t work. They’re too expensive; they’re not strong enough to fire up the plants that you need to make your country great,” Trump said. “The wind doesn’t blow. Those big windmills are so pathetic and so bad, so expensive to operate, and they have to be rebuilt all of the time and they start to rust and rot.”
His administration is doing all it can to slow the clean power transition. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who previously ran a natural gas fracking business, said on September 24 that the Energy Department was eliminating $13 billion for “wasteful” renewable power projects set aside by the Biden administration that hadn’t been distributed, ensuring fewer new projects will be completed, including many in Red states that Trump carried in the 2024 election.
The president also told world leaders he doesn’t believe in climate science. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,” he claimed. “They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
He seems unaware that warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels that he promotes–with each year being hotter than the one that preceded it–and rapid increase in acidification of the world’s oceans threaten to change life for humans in bad ways.
“We’re very close to a total collapse of coral reef systems in tropical regions on planet Earth – livelihoods for over 200 million people,” Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Forbes Sustainability Leaders List honoree, said at the Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit last week. Rapid ocean warming also increases the likelihood that Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, currents that move heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic region, helping regulate the global climate, will collapse, he said.
“That would lead to accelerated warming on planet Earth,” Rockström said. “It would abruptly change living conditions in the Northern Hemisphere. A global catastrophe.”
Trump’s climate denialism is now U.S. policy, but it’s wildly at odds with how a majority of nations, including China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea–as well as many U.S. states, including California, New York and Illinois–view the matter. Scientists can’t say precisely when the worst impacts of climate change will hit, but rising temperatures and worsening ocean health are facts.
If Trump was seeking support from the world leaders who heard his remarks, he didn’t get it. It was, as environmental writer Bill McKibben summed it up, “the stupidest speech in UN history.”
The Big Read
Jacqueline Novogratz And Acumen Raise $250 Million For Off-Grid Solar In Africa
The average American household uses 11,000 kilowatt-hours of power each year. And yet around the world half a billion people still live without electricity. The deprivation is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where, according to the World Bank, only 16% of people in Malawi, 22% in Burkina Faso and 36% in Sierra Leone can turn the lights on.
Two years ago Jacqueline Novogratz and her venture capital firm Acumen set out to change that, launching the Hardest-to-Reach Initiative — a plan to electrify 70 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly via off-grid solar power.
Acumen announced last week that it raised nearly $250 million for this effort from a varied consortium of international investors. Backers include Green Climate Fund, IFC, Shinhan Bank, Nordic Development Fund and Soros Economic Development Fund.
“To catalyze new markets that don’t exist, like in Malawi, where no investors are going in — this requires philanthropically backed capital,” said Novogratz, 64, who has directed Acumen in deploying some $340 million over 24 years.
Indeed, this is risky stuff. Acumen’s recent investments have included $2 million for Malawi startup Yellow, which sells solar-powered lights; $1.25 million for Zambian home-solar provider RDG Collective; and $1 million in Sharia-compliant solar-system funding for KIMS Microfinance in Somalia, where only half the population has electricity.
Read more here
Hot Topic
Baoshen Zhong / LONGi Green Technology
Baoshen Zhong, LONGi Green Energy Technology chairman and Forbes Sustainability Leaders List honoree, on U.S. policies and solar power’s global gains
China dominates in global solar power products. Will that grow as Trump administration policies are expected to slow the deployment of large-scale solar projects in the U.S.?
Recent policy adjustments in the U.S. may lead to some near-term fluctuations, but we remain confident in the importance of the U.S. as a key market of LONGi’s global strategy. These policy changes in the U.S. market do not alter the positive long-term fundamentals of the global photovoltaic industry. We understand the intention of U.S. policymakers to develop the domestic solar PV industry, and we are ready to contribute to the success of our U.S. partners.
How is LONGi navigating the challenge of U.S. tariffs? Are there opportunities for you to expand production within the U.S.?
In the current international environment, LONGi is cautious about overseas investment and factory construction. We’ll also evaluate various cooperation possibilities to ensure that overall decision-making aligns with the company’s long-term strategy and sustainable development goals. We will explore opportunities to support our U.S. partners while being fully compliant with U.S. laws and regulations.
Given the pace of technology improvements and cost reductions, can solar + storage, in addition to wind and other forms of renewable energy, ultimately replace fossil fuels as the world’s dominant global energy source?
Over the past decade, technological innovation and iteration in the photovoltaic industry have driven cost reductions of over 90%, enabling it to transition from subsidy-dependence to market-driven growth. It has now become a key solution to the energy trilemma—balancing energy security, accessibility and environmental sustainability. Meanwhile, declining costs of electrochemical energy storage have allowed PV-plus-storage systems to form a sustainable green energy solution. This combination will advance at an increasingly rapid pace and contribute significantly to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals.
The combination of photovoltaic and energy storage has already demonstrated economic viability in many regions and scenarios worldwide. It has become particularly competitive in areas with abundant solar resources, significant electricity price differentials, and strong policy support, and is gradually expanding into broader markets. Driven by technological cost reductions and market-oriented mechanisms, it is steadily moving toward comprehensive grid parity.
From LONGi’s perspective, we’re strategically advancing green hydrogen to complement our solar solutions—establishing a “green electricity + green hydrogen” development model. At the same time, we’re actively exploring integrated photovoltaic and energy storage solutions to ensure a consistent and stable supply of green electricity.
Do you anticipate big changes in the types of materials used in future PV panels? If so, what could be the most meaningful advances, in terms of cost and power generation capacity?
From the perspective of industry development trends, photovoltaic panel materials are poised to undergo a dual transformation—upgrades in silicon-based technology and breakthroughs in new materials—which will profoundly reshape the cost structure and power generation capacity of the PV industry.
In September 2023, LONGi committed to the Back-Contact (BC) PV technology, establishing it as the core direction for future products. Through sustained R&D investment and industrialization efforts, the company has achieved a mass production module efficiency of 24.8%, or 5-7% higher power output than the mainstream TopCon products.
In April 2025, LONGi independently developed a two-terminal crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell that has achieved a conversion efficiency of 34.85%, certified by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), once again breaking the world record for crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell efficiency.
Green hydrogen is promising but hasn’t yet scaled up significantly. What’s your expectation for how and when that can happen? When will that become a major business for LONGi?
The large-scale application of green hydrogen requires coordinated efforts across policy, technology and the market. From an industry trend perspective, with the gradual decline of LOCH (levelized cost of hydrogen) to reach parity with grey hydrogen plus the cost of CO2, green hydrogen is expected to achieve scaled development around 2030 and gradually penetrate high-consumption industries such as metallurgy, chemicals, and sustainable fuels.
Since its establishment in 2021, LONGi Hydrogen has consistently adhered to the “green electricity + green hydrogen” development strategy and has rapidly achieved phased results: supporting the full operation of China’s first 10,000-ton-level green hydrogen demonstration project; launching the ALK Hi1 series, which reduces power consumption to 4.0 kWh/Nm³; and introducing the G-series products that increase single-stack capacity to 3,000 Nm³/h, making it the world’s largest commercially operational single alkaline electrolyzer. With a production capacity of 2.5 GW to meet the industry’s growing demand, LONGi Hydrogen has achieved breakthroughs in nine countries and regions worldwide, delivering 400+ MW of projects. Over the past four years, the company has achieved outstanding results in technology, products, and projects, positioning itself at the forefront of the industry. We have established global partnerships with Linde Engineering, Andritz, HydrogenPro, etc. to serve customers in regional markets.
Looking ahead 10 or 20 years, what do you see as the best-case scenario for growth in the global clean energy market? Can the world wean itself off fossil fuels by 2045?
Over the next 10 to 20 years, the global clean energy market will exhibit a synergistic growth pattern characterized by “photovoltaics and wind as the foundation, green hydrogen as the breakthrough, and energy storage.” In the PV sector, high-efficiency technologies such as back-contact (BC) and perovskite tandem cells. In green hydrogen, with improvements in electrolyzer efficiency and declining renewable electricity prices, the cost of green hydrogen is projected to reach parity with gray hydrogen by 2035. Heavy industries such as metallurgy and chemicals will establish integrated “renewables-hydrogen-storage” demonstration bases, with green hydrogen accounting for over 20% of industrial feedstocks. In the energy storage sector, long-duration storage technologies and smart microgrids will address the challenges of renewable energy integration. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, energy storage technologies will help increase the share of renewables in the global energy mix to over 80% by 2050.
Regarding whether fossil fuel dependence can be phased out by 2045: The power sector could largely achieve substitution, but industry and transportation will still require transition solutions. Within the power system, solar plus energy storage could meet over 70% of electricity demand, and sectors such as steel and aviation will rely on green hydrogen and other green molecules.
What Else We’re Reading
NAACP opposes massive Alabama data center, citing climate crisis (Inside Climate News)
Tesla urges Trump administration to keep vehicle emissions rules, climate “endangerment” finding (Reuters)
America’s lower appetite for electric vehicles hurts European automakers (E&E News)
Who bears the burden of climate inaction? (Brookings Institution)
China’s Xi, in a veiled swipe at Trump, announces climate plan, calls the transition to low-carbon energy ‘the trend of our time’ (Wall Street Journal)
Countries across Asia are battling against Super Typhoon Ragasa, from the Philippines to Taiwan (Reuters)