International Society for Energy Transition Studies

The submission deadline for the ISETS-ESCAP Youth Voice Competition has been extended to the end of April. Please share this information with your network. Xunpeng (Roc) Shi Dilnaza Karmenova Shabbir Gheewala Tatiana Mitrova Dario Liguti Hongpeng Liu Radia Sedaoui UNECE Youth Group on Resilient Energy Systems UNECE Sustainable Energy United Nations ESCAP

🌍 Registration Opens March 1 | 3rd ISETS–ESCAP Global Youth Voice Competition on Energy Transition (2026) We are pleased to announce that registration for the 3rd ISETS–ESCAP Global Youth Voice Competition on Energy Transition will officially open on March 1, 2026. Jointly initiated by the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS) and United Nations ESCAP, and supported by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), this global initiative mobilises youth innovation to advance sustainable energy transition worldwide. The annual program includes two core components: 1️⃣ Global Youth Voice Competition – inviting original proposals on innovative ideas, research, technologies, products, and practical solutions for the energy transition. 2️⃣ Youth Dialogue – where winning teams engage in high-level international energy events and policy discussions. In 2025, the 2nd Competition attracted 400+ participants from 43 countries, with eight finalist teams advancing to the Global Finals and Youth Dialogue at ESCAP Headquarters in Bangkok. For more information, please visit www.isets.org or the official competition website: https://lnkd.in/gsPJG64j. For inquiries, please contact youthvoice_isets@163.com.

🌍 2025 Earth’s “Health Check”: 5 numbers every energy professional should know This week, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its State of the Global Climate 2025 report. Here are five key figures that matter for our work in energy transition. 1️⃣ 1.43°C Global mean temperature in 2025 was 1.43°C above pre-industrial levels. While slightly cooler than 2024, the past 11 years (2015–2025) are the 11 warmest on record. Implication: Warming is not a distant scenario—it’s already here. 2️⃣ 423.9 ppm Atmospheric CO₂ concentration reached 423.9 ppm in 2024, the highest in at least 2 million years. The annual increase was the largest since modern measurements began in 1957. Implication: Even if emissions stopped today, legacy CO₂ will shape climate for centuries. The window for meaningful action is narrowing. 3️⃣ 91% 91% of the excess energy trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the ocean. Ocean warming rates over the past two decades are more than double those of 1960–2005. Implication: The ocean is our planet’s primary heat buffer—but its capacity is not limitless. Ocean heat drives extreme weather and affects the stability of marine carbon sinks. 4️⃣ 4.75 mm/year Global mean sea level rose at an average of 4.75 mm/year from 2012 to 2025, compared to 2.65 mm/year from 1993 to 2011. Implication: Accelerating sea-level rise is not only a coastal risk—it is a growing variable in asset valuation, infrastructure planning, and adaptation finance. 5️⃣ -0.017 pH/decade Ocean surface pH declined at an average rate of -0.017 per decade over 1985–2025. Implication: Ocean acidification is the “hidden cost” of CO₂ emissions, with direct consequences for marine ecosystems, fisheries, and food security. 🌱 What these numbers mean for energy transition professionals Transition is not a choice—it is a necessity. The data on accelerating change is unambiguous. Solutions need credible defence. Misinformation targeting renewables is not accidental; it is often part of organised efforts to delay action. Information integrity matters. When false narratives spread faster than facts, scientists, engineers, and communicators must all play a role in rebuilding public trust. 🔗 Download: https://lnkd.in/eUvK-rmX 💬 What number strikes you most? Or have you seen the impacts of climate change turning from data into reality in your work? Share your thoughts below. #WMO #ClimateReport #EnergyTransition #ISETS #ClimateScience #NetZero #RenewableEnergy #OceanAcidification #SustainableDevelopment

The report is available at: https://lnkd.in/eUvK-rmX

Climate misinformation is no longer random noise. It is a coordinated barrier to climate action. A recent Australian Senate report shows how misleading narratives about climate change and renewable energy are amplified through opaque networks, emotional content, and platform algorithms that reward outrage over truth. The result is real: delayed clean energy projects, fractured communities, and declining public trust in science, institutions, and democratic debate. The report calls for stronger fact-checking, algorithm transparency, funding disclosure, support for local media, and better media literacy. If we want a faster and fairer energy transition, rebuilding trust must be part of the solution.

A sharp take on why oil prices aren’t coming down. The combination of ongoing conflict, lasting infrastructure damage, and the creeping institutionalisation of war premiums explains why this isn’t just another short‑lived spike. For import‑dependent economies, the vulnerability is now structural—and the case for accelerating electrification and domestic renewables has never been clearer.

Climate Energy Finance's new report: "International Solar PV & BESS Manufacturing Trends: Solar PV’s disruption is happening at a speed beyond imagination, turbocharged by BESS firming" Led by Harry Martin, CEF analyses the rapid acceleration in global solar deployments, with battery energy storage system (BESS) technology disruption massively compounding the solar distruption. 2024 saw global solar installs reach almost 600GW, totally reshaping global energy markets. CEF expects significant further growth, with installs expected to reach 1,000TWh annually as soon as 2030. https://lnkd.in/gT5rFAfU The #solar disruption is largely driven by the scale of China's strategic investment into solar PV technology, deployment, manufacturing & exports, resulting in significant ongoing cost deflation globally. BESS has more recently seen remarkable growth, fast to deploy, at a larger scale & longer duration. BESS Is unlocking more of solar PV’s value & utility. China is at the centre of these shifts & is the ‘gift horse’ in this transition, adding extraordinary new industrial value as it undertakes world-leading investment in solar, battery & electric vehicle supply chains, both within China and increasingly globally. 🇨🇳 ✅ David Fogarty explores China's 'going global' theme: https://lnkd.in/g4iNS9EM CEF expects solar cell efficiency gains to continue to feature over the coming decade as cell efficiencies expand from the current commercialised 25% levels towards 35% as and if long-term perovskite cell stability can be established & commercialised, potentially driving another step change in solar in the coming decade. Deflation defines the now unstoppable force of solar + BESS. Solar module prices have dropped 90% in the last decade, & are likely to halve again over the coming decade. Battery prices have dropped >80% in the last decade, making firmed #RenewableEnergy price competitive against new thermal energy capacities, and this competitive advantage will only continue to improve as solar and battery deflation expands the margin over inflationary fossil fuels, & as carbon pricing increasingly gets implemented (CEF's Matt Pollard is exploring the need for an Asian CBAM). Caroline Wang 王涵 explores the world leading deployments of solar and batteries. China is building at rapid speed massive clusters of large-scale solar, wind, hydro, coal & BESS hybrid projects dubbed “the Great Solar Wall”. China has also commissioned the world’s largest open sea floating solar PV plant, at 1GW, in Dongying, Shandong Province, with the Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group's 2GW Binzhou PV under development. Other nations are following, with India developing the 30GW Khavda Renewable Energy Park project in Gujarat. 🇮🇳 ✅ And Chile's 2GW solar + 11GWh BESS 🇨🇱 ✅ plus Saudi Arabia’s proposed 5GW solar & 19GWh BESS project is truly paradigm shifting. 🇸🇦 ✅ Smart Energy Council Renate Egan Climate Capital Forum APVI - Australian PV Institute https://lnkd.in/g9c_-Y2r

Europe’s Energy Transition Just Lost Its Illusions... 👉 My new piece in The National Interest: How the Iran War Is Changing Europe’s Energy Transition https://lnkd.in/eV9GKy33 The war in Iran is not just another energy shock. It is arriving at a moment when Europe is already under cumulative strain: a war on its eastern border, the lingering aftershocks of the 2022 energy crisis, industrial decline, political fragmentation, fiscal limits, and a widening debate over how much of its own security it must now provide. This is why the shock matters. It tests not only Europe’s energy system, but the broader strategic model on which Europe has relied for decades. For years, energy transition was framed mainly as a climate project. The old language of “transition” is no longer sufficient: Europe is not moving through a smooth linear shift from fossil fuels to clean energy. Today it is something else: a test of whether Europe can reduce emissions without replacing one dependency with another. To be clear: Europe cannot stop the transition: a continent that still imports 88% of its gas and 93% of its oil, would remain strategically exposed if it slowed down now. But it also cannot afford a naïve version of decarbonization that weakens industry, deepens external technology dependence, and mistakes speed for strength. Europe cannot go back to Russian gas. It cannot build long-term security on permanent dependence on American LNG. And it cannot decarbonize by outsourcing the next energy system entirely to Chinese clean-tech supply chains. The real divide is between a transition that strengthens Europe and a transition that leaves it greener, but weaker. What the Iran shock reveals is that Europe does not need the fastest green transition on paper. It needs the fastest move toward a more resilient, flexible, and protected energy system: – with a safer and more diversified hydrocarbon cushion during the transition; – with faster expansion of domestic low-carbon power; – with much more investment in grids, storage, flexibility, and efficiency; – and with a serious industrial strategy behind it. Green energy is central to this shift. But only if introduced intelligently - as part of a broader architecture of resilience, not as a new layer of strategic vulnerability. Structural takeaway: the goal is not the fastest green transition; the goal is the fastest SECURE transition. Ann Mettler Anne-Sophie Corbeau Kruthika A. Bala FEI

Economic rationality is a fundamental force in sustainable energy transition.

What does the Strait of Hormuz crisis mean for the global energy transition? A new ISETS Policy Brief argues that the crisis exposes a deeper structural vulnerability in the global energy system. Much of the fuel powering modern economies still travels through narrow maritime chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz. When tensions rise, energy markets react immediately — and the effects ripple far beyond oil prices. They spill over into industry, transport, and global trade For many Asian economies in particular, this reveals a strategic vulnerability: economic growth remains closely tied to imported fossil fuels moving through geopolitically sensitive routes. One implication is becoming increasingly clear. Energy security in the 21st century may depend less on guarding fuel routes — and more on reducing structural dependence on those fuels altogether. That means accelerating the shift towards energy systems built around: ⚡ Electrification 🔋 Battery storage ☀️ Renewable energy 🔗 Stronger grid interconnection In other words, the world may be gradually moving from petro-states to electro-states. https://lnkd.in/g7qRsR8U