Sustainable Switch: Your Climate News Wrapped

This year has also been characterized by a number of extreme weather occurrences. It started off with wildfires in the city of Los Angeles. It will come to an end with floods in Morocco and Bolivia. In between, there have been occurrences such as hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, earthquakes, and wildfires.

It would be impossible, and indeed unnecessary, to quantify the human cost of these events. Suffice it to say that the loss, pain, and strength of those affected are measured in no way quantitively. This conclusion will instead highlight those themes that ran throughout coverage of the climate throughout the year.

Again and again, the following five themes emerged as the most prominent ones: increased warming, blocked climate legislation, water scarcity, AI, and critical minerals. All of these themes are interrelated. The growing importance of AI, to mention an example, triggers demands for electricity and water and raw materials. Most of it is still fueled by fossil fuels. It is an self-reinforcing cycle.

Enough preamble, though. Below, a quick summary of what made this year what it was, is, and will probably continue to be. Once you’re finished, you can go ahead and log off, and I’ll see you on January 6, 2026. Happy New Year, Switchies!

On track for levels of extreme warming of 2.3°C to 2.5
The year began with scientists confirming that 2024 was the first complete year that global temperatures had been above 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Shortly after, the United Nations Environment Programme declared that achieving the goal of 1.5°C, which is the target of the Paris Agreement, was no longer possible.

Instead, the world faces the risk of “often catastrophic” warming of as much as 2.3-2.5°C. This warming trend is already making extreme weather events worse, and the link between warmer sea levels and the deadly floods in Asia last month has brought this to the attention of researchers.

Unsustainable Switch: From Climate to Fossils
Although it has been several decades of climate negotiations, the global carbon emissions in the past 30 years from the initial UN climate summit remain up by about a third. Burning fossil fuels continues to rise, and hence the net-zero targets continue to be farfetched.

The most significant turnarounds this year were observed in the US, which withdrew from the Paris Agreement, with President Donald Trump issuing a nationwide energy emergency to promote more drilling, while the Europeans dialed back a slew of green regulations, including relaxing rules on corporate sustainability reports, scrapping its ban on gas-powered vehicles by 2035 due to auto industry pressure, to name a few.

However, oil, gas, and coal will continue to set the pace in terms of the global energy landscape, especially due to increasing electricity consumption outpacing RE generation capacity in the years beyond 2050. One key catalyst for increasing electricity consumption is Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence: Thirsty and Power-Hung
Electricity demand is expected to grow strongly, with industry and buildings together responsible for a 20–40% increase by 2050. Data centers, particularly in North America, also contribute strongly because the use of AI and cloud computing is increasing quickly. The International Energy Agency forecasts that the demand for data center electricity will double by the year 2030.

Energy use is just one challenge. Water demand is also extreme. Cooling solutions that rely on water are becoming common in data centers. Water cooling is much more efficient than air cooling. This leads to water shortages in regions where data centers are set up.

Water watch: A rising political hotspot
Water scarcity became even more politically charged this year. The European Union has called for water conservation steps and enhanced spending on water infrastructure as well as restoration projects.

Elsewhere, rivalries escalated between India and Pakistan regarding the Indus River, with India starting to think about increased abstraction that would jeopardize farms downstream in Pakistan. In the UK, the escalating debt trouble of Thames Water made the company emblematic of the problems with the privatized water industry in Britain, as sewage continued to pollute rivers and waterways.

Strategic materials and the Democratic Republic of Congo
As the demand escalated in electric cars, smartphones, and AI infrastructure, countries in the Global North began making urgent efforts to ensure access to critical minerals. The Democratic Republic of Congo lies at the forefront of this scramble because of its abundant reserves of cobalt, lithium, and copper. In Rubaya, which accounts for 15% of the world’s coltan production, Reuters correspondents noted that locals were mining by hand for a few dollars per day. Although the major players in mining seem to be companies in China, there has also been interest in the minerals by the Trump administration, which has linked mining with its efforts to promote peace in the region. Taken together, these tales paint a clear picture: progress remains uneven, forces are ratcheting up, and the decisions made today will determine the climate and the economy for decades to come.