Israel’s Climate Conference is taking place this week in the shadow of profound pessimism amongst environmentalists around the world. For much of the past 50 years, American leadership pushed the international sustainability revolution forward. Sadly, recently Republican circles in the United States have been openly celebrating the possibility that the Supreme Court may uphold the cancellation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific and legal determination that greenhouse-gas emissions endanger public health, thereby obligating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate them.

After almost two decades of living with policies that steadily pushed expectations for reduced carbon emissions, many climate-denying Republicans are hopeful. They believe that once the federal regulatory framework requiring improved climate performance is weakened, fossil fuels will make a triumphant return and the “green coercion” and the renewable electricity fostered by Democratic administrations can finally be quashed.

But they are mistaken. Even if the US federal government succeeds in dismantling climate regulation, it has already missed the tipping point. The energy revolution is no longer driven by ideology, government mandates, or court rulings. It is driven by economics, technology, and a global market that has already locked in its trajectory.

The transition to clean energy and a low-carbon economy is already happening, even if the current U.S. administration is trying to drag us back to the pollution patterns of the 20th century.

The data speak for themselves. In 2024, when Joe Biden was still president, the United States installed about 50 gigawatts of solar energy, a historic local record. According to figures published this week, renewable-energy installations in 2025 in America are expected to surpass even that record. Renewables’ share of U.S. electricity generation is already approaching 25 percent, and it has long since surpassed coal.

At the same time, battery-storage prices globally fell by about 90% between 2010 and 2023. The implication is simple: clean electricity can now be supplied around the clock — and at a lower cost than polluting power. In states like California, residential solar systems are no longer sold without storage for purely economic reasons.

The same clear trend is visible in American transportation. In 2024, approximately 1.23 million electric vehicles were sold in the United States. Industry forecasts point to about 2.25 million sales in 2025, nearly a doubling within a single year. Again, this is not ideology. It is economics.

What about trends in Israel? We too are progressing, though far too slowly. In 2024, electric vehicles accounted for roughly a quarter of all new car sales. In 2025, there was a slight decline, but the direction is clear: more and more Israelis understand that buying an electric vehicle simply makes economic sense, primarily for financial reasons, rather than environmental ones.

With only about 15.7% of Israel’s electricity generated from renewable sources, we remain far behind. Yet the direction is unmistakable and consistent: each year, the renewable share rises and projections from the Ministry of Energy suggest that by 2030, Israel may well meet its 30% renewable electricity commitment.

There is one country truly benefiting from America’s retreat from climate leadership: China. As the United States hesitates, Beijing is racing ahead. Chinese renewables (excluding nuclear) presently constitute around 30% of total electricity generation. In the world’s largest automobile market, 54 % of cars sold were electric or plug-in hybrid. But it is just getting started: Global installed electricity capacity stands at roughly 10 terawatts; China alone now has the production capacity to add about 1 million terawatts of solar power in a single year.

Today, solar photovoltaic electricity systems are about 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil-fuel alternatives. Only a country or company acting against all economic logic would choose to build new electricity generation from a nonrenewable source.

Moreover, within a few years China can be expected to dominate markets for clean steel, clean cement, sustainable aviation fuel, and a wide range of new climate technologies. One need not be a professor of economics to understand that it will not be long before China controls major shares of these emerging industries. To satisfy an anti-science political base and fossil-fuel donors, American leadership is forfeiting a vast global market and jeopardizing America’s economic future.

Indeed, at this week’s Israeli Climate Conference, the keynote speaker comes from China, not from the United States. He describes China’s run towards carbon neutrality as a marathon. If we fail to act, major cities like New York, Shanghai and Tel Aviv will face acute problems from rising tides.

And here lies the message for Israel. Several Ministers in the government appear to believe that it is wise to emulate American climate denial and score political points by calling for withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. They are not merely on the wrong side of environmental history, they are pushing Israel to the margins of the emerging global economy.

Of course, this is a path of egregious moral failure, one that ignores our duty to leave our grandchildren a planet with reasonable climate stability. But it is also a profound economic miscalculation.

There is another way – one that leads to a healthier future for Israel and the planet. Sooner or later, it will prevail.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)