The technology barrier has been crossed. The challenges are system integration, finance, and politics. These are the key findings from the 2026 report published by the Energy Transition Monitor, a global coalition of leaders from across the energy landscape. Their stated aim is to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century, in line with the Paris climate objective of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and ideally to 1.5°C.

Accompanied by a clear visual summary, the overview of the just-published report opens with a description of the paradox at the heart of the transition: clean energy is scaling faster than anyone predicted. In 2025, renewables supplied 99% of global electricity growth, and solar, batteries and electric vehicles continue to beat every forecast. Yet global emissions appear to be plateauing. Record investment and deployment are not yet translating into the emissions cuts the world needs.

The report describes a two-speed transition. Around 60% of global emissions could be cut through clean electrification at little or no extra cost — mainly in power and road transport, where electrification is already accelerating. Grid capacity is a major bottleneck to this acceleration with around 375 GW of renewables and 455 GW of battery storage stuck in European connection and permitting queues, roughly 2,300 GW await grid connection in the United States, and nearly 10% of China’s wind and solar outputs curtailed due to grid constraints in the first half of 2026. Supporting low-cost renewables through long-term contracts can also accelerate electrification.

The remaining 40%, from aviation, shipping, industrial heat, and agriculture, requires solutions that carry a green premium or remain at early stages of commercial scale.

Four key actions remain largely unaddressed: coal phase-out, methane emissions reductions, forest protection, and the scale-up of carbon removals. Of roughly 1,000 clean industrial projects announced globally, fewer than 20% have reached a final investment decision. Carbon pricing is strengthening, making clean projects more financially viable, but firm offtake commitments are still a major gap.

ETC Co-Chair, Adair Turner said: “Clean energy is now outpacing fossil growth, but deployment speed alone won’t cut emissions. Without removing grid bottlenecks, securing buyer commitments for clean industrial products, and achieving cost breakthroughs in shipping and aviation, emissions will continue to plateau and not fall.”

In a region-by-region analysis of the global energy transition picture, the report writers note that while federal action in the United States stops the transition accelerating, it does not halt progress entirely. Although 21 GW of clean energy has been cancelled since January 2025 and fossil capacity additions surged 71% in 2025-2026, renewable growth slowed by only 2%. Meanwhile, EU and UK have made the fastest progress of the major economies regarding emissions reduction, though momentum has recently slowed. Around 375 GW of renewables and 455 GW of battery storage are stuck in permitting and grid-connection queues.

In Asia, excluding China and India, and Australia, renewables contributed 62% of new power capacity in 2024, but progress across the region is uneven. India has the world’s cheapest renewables but installs 9 times slower than China, and while the country demonstrates the fastest rate of electricity demand growth for a major economy at 6.4% a year, new clean capacity is being absorbed by rising demand rather than displacing coal. China itself is building clean electrification faster than anywhere on earth, supplies 83% of the world’s renewable-energy equipment and 45% of clean industrial plant equipment, and installs more than half the world’s wind and solar.