‘Clean energy is the surest path’: Europe should be leading the energy transition, says UN executive

“If humanity doesn't cut the fossil fuel pollution baking our planet, this summer's brutal heat, fires and droughts will seem mild compared to the permanent climate nightmare that will follow,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary. “Europe’s summer has been hot as hell. This is the price of global fossil fuel addiction hitting home,” warns Simon Stiell, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary. Speaking to the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety in Brussels, Stiell appealed to lawmakers to “double down” on “Europe’s longstanding climate leadership” and speed up the transition to clean energy. “It’s entirely in Europe’s interests to stand firm behind climate action – and to boost it: to build resilience to climate impacts – protecting global supply chains, on which all economies depend. And to slash global emissions.” Climate action is Europe’s cheapest insurance policy Europe’s summer of extreme heat was the hottest on record for the UK and Italy, with more countries likely to announce the same. Stiell listed just some of the costs: “We’ve seen mass evacuations. Power stations closed. And trade routes choked. Crops lost. Yields down. And food prices up – and set to rise further.” There were also tens of thousands of excess deaths across Europe, with 14,000 in Germany and 5,232 in Spain, its highest figure since 2015. “Disasters are pushing up insurance premiums. Leaving some entirely uninsurable,” said Stiell. The cost of insuring a home in an area hit by extreme weather or climate-related disasters has been going up for years, with some insurers refusing to cover homes in areas hit by the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles. A 2024 report by Insure Our Future found that climate change was behind more than a third of all weather-related insurance losses in the previous 20 years. But it is not private insurers that absorb climate damage – it is the public budgets, which EU politicians are responsible for, that take the hit. A study earlier this year found that between 1980 and 2021, extreme weather and climate events caused economic losses of over €560 billion in the EU’s 27 member states, of which only 25–33 per cent was insured. The Vienna University study was commissioned by MEP Lena Schilling (Greens/Austria). “Investing just 1–2 per cent of global economic output can avert losses of 11–27 per cent of GDP, with every dollar spent delivering savings of five to 14 dollars,” says the study’s author Professor Sigrid Stagl. She explicitly describes climate action as “life insurance for the planet”, a systemic risk-management strategy in which the costs of mitigation and adaptation are small relative to the scale of potential losses. Climate action boosts – or stalls – economies No doubt aware of the importance of economic growth to the lawmakers he was speaking to, Stiell laid out the costs of extreme heat: “One study calculates this summer’s extremes will cost Europe €180 billion – in lost labour productivity, and disruption to food, energy and transport. That’s equivalent to carving a full percentage point from European GDP – the same amount the EU economy is forecast to grow.” Stiell linked climate action with the economic markers politicians are often judged on when elections loom: “To be soft on climate action is to be soft on inflation and the cost of living, soft on sovereignty and security, and soft on economic growth and jobs.” “Climate cuts across the core concerns of voters, whatever their politics: family health, community safety and economic stability. Affordable food and available water. Jobs, business costs, and household bills.” So what is Stiell suggesting EU policymakers should do? To achieve affordability, economic stability, energy security, and policy-making autonomy, Stiell asserts: “Clean energy is the surest path to deliver, cheaply and safely.“ While China leads the way on energy generated from clean sources, Stiell asserted that EU countries are doing well. “Thanks to growing investment, renewables now provide around half of Europe’s power. In the first six months of this Middle East conflict, solar alone saved Europe more than €30 billion in avoided gas imports.” Stiell drove home the many economic opportunities in clean energy, saying Europe is already leading the way on clean tech. What does the UN want Europe to focus on at COP31? Stiell used his speech to emphasise the importance of “throw[ing] itself behind helping COP31 in Türkiye deliver further progress.” This year’s UN-led climate talks – COP31 – will be held in Antalya from 9 to 20 November 2026. The talks bring together governments and industry from all over the world, making them the catalyst for climate-related policy – the Paris Agreement was born at COP21 in 2015. Based around days of negotiation to reach the final deal, lawmakers’ commitment to attend and push for strong climate action during COPs is vital. Stiell explained how each set of recent talks has built on the last: “No single COP can solve the climate crisis overnight, but each moves global efforts forward – building on the last, and looking to the next: From a global agreement in Dubai to transition away from all fossil fuels. To a new climate finance goal in Baku. And steps forward on a just transition in Belem, which ushered in the era of implementation.” Stiell asked politicians to arrive at the talks prepared with what they want the final deal to include, and prepared to make compromises. One of the COP Presidency’s priorities is for 35 per cent of final global energy demand to be met by electricity by 2035. Stiell emphasised the EU’s strength here: “Around one in four new cars sold in Europe is now electric. And battery deployment is accelerating.” He also pointed to methane, food waste and security, and making cities more resilient to climate extremes as “areas where the impact and urgency are greatest”.