Earth Day 2025, our power, our planet, let's unite around renewable energy!

Since 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated on 22nd April annually, promoting environmental protection and awareness. This global event engages over a billion people worldwide in advocating for the environment and tackling the issues it faces.

The context of this year's theme aligns with intensifying calls for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy anticipated to surpass coal as the largest source of global electricity generation in 2025. The report following the conclusion of COP28 in Dubai showed a shift towards renewable energy development and that global renewable energy capacity was expected to grow to 7,300 GW during the period 2023-2028 with solar PV and wind accounting for 95% of this expansion.

The renewable energy market is expanding rapidly, with solar photovoltaic leading this industry providing over 4 million jobs. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), for the first time in history, global energy investment in clean energy reached 2 trillion USD in contrast 1.16 billion USD spent investing in the fossil fuel industry. It is estimated that solar photovoltaic (PV) technology exceeded 500 billion USD in 2024.

So, can the world run on sunshine? The cost of solar electricity is set to decline by 60% by the year 2050 while solar energy’s role in global electricity generation is set to increase and surpass 50% by that same year. Research led by University of Exeter scientists, shows a rapid increase in productivity and technological advancement that positions solar to substantially displace coal, oil and gas, the non-renewable energy sources responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions accelerating climate change. Greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the planet to warm and consequences such as rising sea levels, more extreme weather events, and ecosystem disruption.

How much money can be saved globally by 2050 through phasing out fossil fuels and implementing renewable energy more widely? According to a recent study by the University of Oxford, the costs of renewables have been consistently declining. As we continue to transition to renewables, they will become cheaper at an even faster rate. Researchers modelled a scenario where the world used 55% more energy than it does today. In that scenario, a shift to renewable technologies saved around $12 trillion globally.