The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate

What It Covers

Ezra Klein and climate author Bill McKibben examine the simultaneous acceleration of both renewable energy deployment and climate damage. In 2025, solar alone met 75% of global electricity growth, renewables surpassed coal for the first time, and fossil fuel generation fell in China and India — yet warming, extreme weather, and U.S. political obstruction intensify simultaneously.

Key Questions Answered

• •Clean Energy Cost Crossover: Solar and wind crossed a decisive threshold earlier this decade, becoming cheaper than burning fossil fuels. The energy think tank Ember found that in 2025, all new global electricity demand was met by renewables, with solar alone accounting for 75% of that growth. Renewables now exceed coal in global power generation for the first time in history.
• •Australia's Free Electricity Model: Australia now generates surplus solar and wind power mid-day, prompting utilities to offer free electricity between noon and 3pm. Residents respond by scheduling appliances, charging EVs, and purchasing home storage batteries — now cheap enough for widespread adoption. California mirrors this, running on 60% less natural gas than three years ago, with battery storage equivalent to 12 nuclear plants added.
• •Bureaucracy Blocks U.S. Solar Adoption: Americans pay 3–5 times more than Europeans or Australians for home solar installation — not because panels cost more, but because 15,000 U.S. jurisdictions each maintain separate zoning codes and inspection requirements. The National Renewable Energy Lab's SolarAPP+ instant permitting tool, now being adopted across multiple states, can eliminate this bottleneck and replicate Europe's faster deployment model.
• •Balcony Solar Legalization: Plug-in solar panels, zip-tied to apartment balcony railings and plugged directly into wall outlets without an electrician, have been adopted by 5 million Europeans and can supply roughly 20% of an apartment's electricity. This was illegal across most U.S. states until 2025. McKibben's Third Act organization secured legalization in 10 states within 14 weeks, opening a new market for renters.
• •AMOC Collapse Risk: Scientists now estimate a 50% probability that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — a system of ocean currents 100 times the flow of the Amazon River — could begin large-scale collapse within decades, not the next century as previously believed. Freshwater from melting Greenland ice disrupts the salinity-driven density differences that power this system, which regulates heat distribution across the entire planet.
• •Agrivoltaics as Land Strategy: Replacing the 30 million acres of U.S. corn currently used for ethanol with solar panels would generate close to 100% of current U.S. energy needs, compared to ethanol's 3%. Dual-use agrivoltaic installations — solar panels interplanted with wildflowers — show 10 times more native pollinators than prior farmland, increasing fruit set on surrounding farms while eliminating nitrogen and phosphorus agricultural runoff.