The Clean Energy Trajectory
Clean sources met all of the growth in world electricity demand in 2025 and solar modules are 95% cheaper than in 2010, yet nearly two billion people still use under a megawatt-hour a year. Against a stalled transition, a 1.5 °C pathway avoids 106 billion person-years of hazardous heat, about 54 million deaths from fossil-fuel air pollution, nearly all energy poverty and $18 trillion of fuel imports by 2050. The binding constraints are finance, grids and institutions, not technology.