Generation Investment Management, the sustainable investment manager, today published its ninth Sustainability Trends Report, which annually seeks to answer the question of where the world stands in the transition to a low-emissions economy. This year’s assessment analyses the question: Can ambitious global climate action survive the decision by the current United States government to walk away? The report also reveals the current status of and shifts needed in sustainability across the global economy – spanning the sectors and activities of Power; Transportation; Buildings & Industry; People, Land & Food; and Financing the Transition.
Al Gore, Chairman of Generation Investment Management, said: “The current US position on the future of the sustainable economy is not only wrong, it is irresponsible. It is nothing short of a tragedy that one of the world’s most dynamic economies will be retreating as the low-emissions technologies of the future are implemented and commercialised everywhere else.”
“In the face of such recklessness, the rest of the world must not cower, but stick together and show fortitude against the bullying and threats of the fossil fuel industry and its political allies. It is imperative that investors, business leaders and government officials harness their power to embrace the opportunity created by the sustainable solutions at our fingertips and get the climate crisis under control.”
A CRITICAL JUNCTURE IN GLOBAL CLIMATE AMBITION
In January 2025 President Trump signed an executive order repealing or sharply limiting climate investments that had been adopted under his predecessor. He filed formal notice to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a decision that will take formal effect in January 2026. He has even moved to revoke the federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases at all, a move that – if allowed by courts to take hold – would likely hobble climate action by future US presidents.
The US government’s abandonment of climate action could not come at a worse time for the rest of the world. Countries are in the middle of a cycle in which they are supposed to be announcing ambitious new plans for emissions cuts by 2035. Those plans were nominally due in February 2025 but only a handful were filed by then, as other countries waited to see what the world’s largest historical emitter would do. Even now relatively few plans have been filed, and they reveal a distinct lack of ambition in setting new emissions targets.
The 30th meeting of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, better known as the Conference of the Parties or COP30, will occur this November 2025 in Belém, the large Brazilian city that serves as a gateway to the Amazon River system. This meeting is a critical moment. The decision of the US to walk away from climate action could backfire, prompting other countries to see that it is in their interest to stick together against US bullying and threats. The best possible outcome would be an ambitious series of national pledges to continue cutting emissions and accelerating the transitions to lower emissions and restored nature.
THE ENERGY TRANSITION COMES WITH A ‘MADE IN CHINA’ STAMP
The bulk of future emissions are projected to come from developing countries, including China. In effect, this means that action – or inaction – by the US is no longer conclusive in determining the planet’s long-term fate. Despite its historical responsibility, alongside other industrialised nations, for the emissions that are endangering the planet, the US no longer holds the keys for accelerating the transition to a more sustainable way of life.
For the foreseeable future, the energy transition comes with a ‘Made in China’ stamp. The dramatic embrace of solar power, wind power, electric cars and other advanced technologies in China demonstrates that the country is already accepting this position. The possibility of a fully green China – an ‘electrostate’ – is by no means imminent, but it looks more achievable than only a few years ago. Manufacturing and deployment in China has played such a central role in driving down the costs of these technologies that sales of Chinese-made energy technologies are accelerating all over the world. We see this in Pakistan, for example, where a mad rush is under way to install Chinese-made solar panels as a strategy to cope with an unreliable power grid, while sales of Chinese-made electric cars are soaring in countries as diverse as Brazil and Indonesia.
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