Published

12 months ago

February 4, 2025

Alice Rush

Vaishali Nigam Sinha is co-founder and chairperson for sustainability at ReNew, a leading Indian provider of decarbonisation solutions.

India has emerged as a renewable energy superpower in the Global South in recent years, with record auctioning of nearly 70 gigawatts taking place in the last financial year. This rapid expansion is set to continue, with new capacity additions expected to double by 2026, surpassing the pace of many major economies.

The recently announced Union Budget from the Indian government further accelerates the country’s energy transition, with strong support for clean tech manufacturing. It sets a target of 10,000 fellowships, including research positions in India, to lead in sustainable energy.

Additionally, the focus on women’s empowerment – whether through expanded credit schemes for women entrepreneurs or enhanced participation in economic activities – demonstrates a commitment to inclusive growth.

Ambitious renewable energy targets demand a skilled workforce, but there remains work to do, with only 10% of our youth currently receiving formal or informal training for emerging green jobs, meaning we are facing a significant “green skills gap”. If left unattended, this gap threatens to impede progress toward climate goals. By improving women’s representation in India’s green workforce, we can bridge this gap, whilst ensuring the energy transition is just and inclusive.

Women behind in clean energy roles

Demand for green jobs is soaring globally, particularly in sectors such as renewable energy, waste management, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. The International Renewable Energy Agency predicts that the global renewable energy sector will require a workforce of 38 million by 2030, more than triple the 12 million employed in 2020.

In India, the renewables sector currently employs 1.02 million people, with the potential to add 3.4 million new jobs by 2030 – but the current skills deficit could hinder India’s ability to meet its climate and clean energy commitments.

Weak gender focus at COP29 risks leaving women behind in greener future

While challenging, this context presents a huge opportunity to redress gender disparity in India’s workforce. Looking specifically at the renewable energy sector, women make up an average of 32% of the global workforce, but the proportion is significantly lower in India, at 11%. This gap is even starker when we examine women involved in roles such as operations and commissioning: women make up only around 1% of the workforce in operations and maintenance, and less than 3% in construction and commissioning.

The existing gender gap is reflective of broader structural inequalities that have historically limited women’s participation in the energy and technology industries. If these trends persist, India’s energy transition risks excluding a substantial portion of its population from its burgeoning green sector.

Ensuring a just transition

Women’s inclusion in the green economy is essential for creating a just and sustainable transition. Diverse workforces are proven to foster innovation and drive better business outcomes. Women’s participation in the energy transition can bring new perspectives and solutions to the complex challenges of climate change.

At ReNew, we are focusing on building a clean energy system that benefits all. Through our work, we are ensuring access to affordable clean energy in remote areas while reducing carbon emissions and promoting the socio-economic empowerment of women and children.

ReNew’s Project Surya, developed in collaboration with UNEP and SEWA, is training up to 1,000 women working in rural salt-pan marshes to be solar pump technicians, demonstrating the potential to lift women out of poor working conditions and low pay, and into a modern, geographically representative clean energy workforce. By empowering women and rural communities with the skills and opportunities to participate in the green economy, India can ensure that its energy transition benefits everyone.

Expanding women’s participation in green jobs also helps address broader gender inequality in India. While fast-growing, only around 33% of women are engaged in the workforce as of 2023. By creating targeted programmes that promote women’s inclusion in green industries, India can both close the employment gender gap and unlock an economic potential of $770 billion by 2025.

Indian start-ups mine e-waste for battery minerals but growing industry has a dark side

Government strategies

Government policies play a critical role in bridging the green skills gap. Over the years, the Indian government has focused various programmes on social opportunities around the transition, prioritising green jobs and skills, enhancing working conditions, and supporting impacted communities.

Through the Green Skill Development Program, the government has committed to training 7 million youth in the environment, forestry, and climate change sectors and the Skill Council for Green Jobs alone has trained over 100,000 workers as of FY22 for the clean energy workforce.

The government has also focused on deploying gender-specific strategies for improving women’s representation in the sector through initiatives such as the Women’s Empowerment Scheme and the Decentralised Renewable Energy Policy.

Plant engineers at ReNew’s solar manufacturing plant in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India (Photo: ReNew)

Incentives for business

Businesses and policymakers can support the green transition in India by prioritizing and upskilling the female population. Measures could include providing incentives for businesses that invest in new or adapted green skills training programmes, with a focus on gender inclusion. Starting at the root will ensure meaningful progress is made.

We will be passing the torch to future generations to continue progressing the green transition, and fostering a future green workforce will be key. ReNew’s Lighting Lives initiative powers schools with limited access to electricity, enabling more effective learning, and ensures environmental studies are included in curriculums. By empowering younger generations with the skills needed, we can help to ensure a demographically inclusive future workforce.

India’s green skills gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity. By addressing this gap through targeted education, training and initiatives, India can ensure that it meets its climate goals and builds a robust green economy. However, this transition must be inclusive -particularly for women, who are at present under-represented in the energy sector. By implementing policies and frameworks that focus on inclusion and participation, India can create a just and equitable energy transition that benefits all.

The post India can plug its green skills gap by elevating women in the workforce appeared first on Climate Home News.

India can plug its green skills gap by elevating women in the workforce

Climate Change

Analysis: EVs just outsold petrol cars in EU for first time ever

Published

9 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Alice Rush

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) overtook petrol cars in the EU for the first time in December 2025, according to new figures released by industry group the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).

The figures show that registrations of battery EVs – sometimes referred to as BEVs, or “pure EVs” – reached 217,898, up 51% year-on-year from December 2024, as shown in the chart below.

Meanwhile, sales of petrol cars in the bloc fell 19% year-on-year, from 267,834 in December 2024 to 216,492 in December 2025.

Chart showing that EV sales just overtook petrol cars in EU for the first time — Monthly passenger EV and petrol car registrations in the EU from January to December 2025. Source: ACEA.

Overall in 2025, EVs reached 17.4% of the market share in the bloc, up from 13.6% the previous year.

(EVs run purely from a battery that is charged from an external source, plug-in hybrids have both a battery that can be charged and an internal combustion engine, whilst regular hybrids cannot be plugged in, they have a smaller battery that is charged from the engine or braking.)

According to ACEA, 1,880,370 new battery-electric cars were registered last year, with the four biggest markets – Germany (+43.2%), the Netherlands (+18.1%), Belgium (+12.6%), and France (+12.5%) – accounting for 62% of registrations.

In a release setting out the figures, ACEA described this as “still a level that leaves room for growth to stay on track with the transition”.

Meanwhile, registrations of petrol cars fell by 18.7% across 2025, with all major markets seeing a decrease.

France accounted for the steepest decline in petrol registrations at 32% year-on-year, followed by Germany (-21.6%), Italy (-18.2%), and Spain (-16%).

Overall, 2,880,298 new petrol cars were registered in 2025, a drop in market share from 33.3% in December 2024 to 26.6%.

Hybrid vehicles, which are entirely fuelled by petrol or diesel, remain the largest segment of the EU car market, with sales jumping 5.8% from 307,001 in December 2024 to 324,799 a year later, as shown in the chart below.

However, cars that can run on electricity – battery EVs and plug-in hybrids – are growing even faster, with sales up 51% and 36.7% in December 2025, respectively.

Chart showing that hybrids are the most common new cars in the EU but EVs are catching up — EU car registrations by type, December 2024 and December 2025. Source: ACEA.

The registration figures follow the EU’s automotive package, released in December to “support the automotive sector’s efforts in the transition to clean mobility”.

It includes a proposed shift from banning the sale of new combustion-engine cars from 2035 to reducing their tailpipe emissions.

Under the proposals, the EU will target a 90% cut in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from 2021 levels by 2035, rather than all vehicle sales having to be zero-emissions.

If approved, the package would require that the remaining 10% of emissions be compensated through the use of low-carbon steel made in the EU or from e-fuels and biofuels.

This would allow for plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), “range extenders”, hybrids and pure internal combustion engine vehicles to “still play a role beyond 2035”.

There has been repeated pushback from the automotive sector in Europe against the introduction of “clean car rules”, which has led to targets being shifted more than once.

For example, the head of Stellantis, one of the largest car manufacturers in Europe, recently claimed that there was no “natural” demand for EVs.

Automakers have argued that EU targets for cleaner cars should be eased in the face of competition from Chinese producers and US tariffs.

ACEA figures show Volkswagen continued to claim the largest market share in the EU, accounting for 26.7% of new registrations in December, up from 25.6% a year earlier.

It was followed by Stellantis, Renault, Hyundai, Toyota and BMW.

EV giant Tesla saw its market share drop from 3.5% in December 2024 to 2.2% in December 2025. Over the course of 2025, the brand saw its market share in the EU fall 37.9% from 2024, following controversy around its owner, Elon Musk.

Meanwhile, Chinese EV brand BYD tripled its market share from 0.7% in December 2024 to 1.9% in December 2025.

The post Analysis: EVs just outsold petrol cars in EU for first time ever appeared first on Carbon Brief.

Analysis: EVs just outsold petrol cars in EU for first time ever

Climate Change

For proof of the energy transition’s resilience, look at what it’s up against

Published

2 days ago

January 26, 2026

Alice Rush

Al-Karim Govindji is the global head of public affairs for energy systems at DNV, an independent assurance and risk management provider, operating in more than 100 countries.

Optimism that this year may be less eventful than those that have preceded it have already been dealt a big blow – and we’re just weeks into 2026. Events in Venezuela, protests in Iran and a potential diplomatic crisis over Greenland all spell a continuation of the unpredictability that has now become the norm.

As is so often the case, it is impossible to separate energy and the industry that provides it from the geopolitical incidents shaping the future. Increasingly we hear the phrase ‘the past is a foreign country’, but for those working in oil and gas, offshore wind, and everything in between, this sentiment rings truer every day. More than 10 years on from the signing of the Paris Agreement, the sector and the world around it is unrecognisable.

The decade has, to date, been defined by a gritty reality – geopolitical friction, trade barriers and shifting domestic priorities – and amidst policy reversals in major economies, it is tempting to conclude that the transition is stalling.

Truth, however, is so often found in the numbers – and DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook 2025 should act as a tonic for those feeling downhearted about the state of play.

While the transition is becoming more fragmented and slower than required, it is being propelled by a new, powerful logic found at the intersection between national energy security and unbeatable renewable economics.

A diverging global trajectory

The transition is no longer a single, uniform movement; rather, we are seeing a widening “execution gap” between mature technologies and those still finding their feet. Driven by China’s massive industrial scaling, solar PV, onshore wind and battery storage have reached a price point where they are virtually unstoppable.

These variable renewables are projected to account for 32% of global power by 2030, surging to over half of the world’s electricity by 2040. This shift signals the end of coal and gas dominance, with the fossil fuel share of the power sector expected to collapse from 59% today to just 4% by 2060.

Jan 21, 2026

News

Climate at Davos: Clean tech powers on despite policy wobbles

Al Gore says climate policy may be suffering “a recession” in many countries – but the energy transition continues apace, driven by falling costs for renewables and batteries

Read more
Jan 20, 2026

Politics

Climate at Davos: Energy security in the geopolitical driving seat

While climate change is a lower priority for leaders at this year’s World Economic Forum, control of energy supplies and minerals is a hot topic

Read more

Conversely, technologies that require heavy subsidies or consistent long-term policy, the likes of hydrogen derivatives (ammonia and methanol), floating wind and carbon capture, are struggling to gain traction.

Our forecast for hydrogen’s share in the 2050 energy mix has been downgraded from 4.8% to 3.5% over the last three years, as large-scale commercialisation for these “hard-to-abate” solutions is pushed back into the 2040s.

Regional friction and the security paradigm

Policy volatility remains a significant risk to transition timelines across the globe, most notably in North America. Recently we have seen the US pivot its policy to favour fossil fuel promotion, something that is only likely to increase under the current administration.

Invariably this creates measurable drag, with our research suggesting the region will emit 500-1,000 Mt more CO₂ annually through 2050 than previously projected.

China, conversely, continues to shatter energy transition records, installing over half of the world’s solar and 60% of its wind capacity.

In Europe and Asia, energy policy is increasingly viewed through the lens of sovereignty; renewables are no longer just ‘green’, they are ‘domestic’, ‘indigenous’, ‘homegrown’. They offer a way to reduce reliance on volatile international fuel markets and protect industrial competitiveness.

Grids and the AI variable

As we move toward a future where electricity’s share of energy demand doubles to 43% by 2060, we are hitting a physical wall, namely the power grid.

In Europe, this ‘gridlock’ is already a much-discussed issue and without faster infrastructure expansion, wind and solar deployment will be constrained by 8% and 16% respectively by 2035.

Comment: To break its coal habit, China should look to California’s progress on batteries

This pressure is compounded by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI will represent only 3% of global electricity use by 2040, its concentration in North American data centres means it will consume a staggering 12% of the region’s power demand.

This localized hunger for power threatens to slow the retirement of fossil fuel plants as utilities struggle to meet surging base-load requirements.

The offshore resurgence

Despite recent headlines regarding supply chain inflation and project cancellations, the long-term outlook for offshore energy remains robust.

We anticipate a strong resurgence post-2030 as costs stabilise and supply chains mature, positioning offshore wind as a central pillar of energy-secure systems.

Governments defend clean energy transition as US snubs renewables agency

A new trend is also emerging in behind-the-meter offshore power, where hybrid floating platforms that combine wind and solar will power subsea operations and maritime hubs, effectively bypassing grid bottlenecks while decarbonising oil and gas infrastructure.

2.2C – a reality check

Global CO₂ emissions are finally expected to have peaked in 2025, but the descent will be gradual.

On our current path, the 1.5C carbon budget will be exhausted by 2029, leading the world toward 2.2C of warming by the end of the century.

Still, the transition is not failing – but it is changing shape, moving away from a policy-led “green dream” toward a market-led “industrial reality”.

For the ocean and energy sectors, the strategy for the next decade is clear. Scale the technologies that are winning today, aggressively unblock the infrastructure bottlenecks of tomorrow, and plan for a future that will, once again, look wholly different.

The post For proof of the energy transition’s resilience, look at what it’s up against appeared first on Climate Home News.

For proof of the energy transition’s resilience, look at what it’s up against

Climate Change

Post-COP 30 Modeling Shows World Is Far Off Track for Climate Goals

Published

4 days ago

January 24, 2026

Alice Rush

A new MIT Global Change Outlook finds current climate policies and economic indicators put the world on track for dangerous warming.

By Ryan Krugman

After yet another international climate summit ended last fall without binding commitments to phase out fossil fuels, a leading global climate model is offering a stark forecast for the decades ahead.