Good and bad news for our planet
Wind and solar are gaining momentum just as government commitments to slow climate change fall by the wayside.
Looking back at 2025, there was both good and bad news about how we are caring for the world that our Lord has entrusted to us.
First, the good news: this past year, for the first time, power generated by solar and wind exceeded coal-generated power. Energy from environmentally friendly sources is now the cheapest way to generate electricity. This, combined with improvements in electricity storage, has changed the economics of energy use. The electricity-generating capacity of additional solar panels added each day – one gigawatt – would have taken a year to add in 2004.
Surprisingly, the leader in alternative energy is China, which now supplies over 70 percent of the world’s solar cells, wind turbines and lithium batteries. China has also developed cheaper electric cars that have become popular in much of the world, where they are not hit with hefty tariffs. This is all happening at a time when, unfortunately, the American administration is focusing its efforts on fossil fuel production.
While there are questions about how China has achieved its dominance in renewable energy technologies, and at what cost, we in the West have a similar checkered history of implementing major new technologies. Too often, the very rich, both now and in the past, have benefited the most from government support and subsidies at the expense of the weak.
While the growth of renewable energy is good news for the environment, there were also clear environmental failures this past year.
Plastic and Paris
The chances of a new treaty to address plastic pollution suffered a significant setback when talks fell apart in August amid distrust and acrimony. Then the chair of the UN committee on plastics resigned, making further talks difficult. Given that microplastics have been found in animal and human bodies and that plastic production is only increasing, this should concern us all. Recycling is difficult because of the wide variety of plastic types. At this point, it is not clear how this treaty process will be put back on a road to success.
At the same time COP30, while making some limited progress, failed to generate any new initiatives to slow carbon dioxide and methane emissions. The 2015 Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is on life support. In 2024, the average temperature was 1.29 degrees Celsius above the twentieth-century average, and 2025 looks no better. It also appears Canada may be cutting back on its environmental initiatives under our new Liberal government.
In God’s world, it is not clear how these good and bad realities will play out but as Christians, we know that the battle against brokenness, pain, evil and environmental damage was won over two thousand years ago in the life and death of our Lord Jesus. Christ asked us to take up our cross and follow him, implying that we should work for peace and environmental flourishing despite the cost. This involves individual actions, but we also need to support groups and agencies that are pushing for a healthier environment against the powers of this age.
