Fossil fuel power fell in 2025. Conservative outlets didn't cover it.
Ember's 2025 Global Electricity Review found that clean energy met all net new electricity demand last year, pushing fossil-fuel generation into absolute decline for the first time on record. Renewables overtook coal to become the world's largest electricity source. Two outlets covered it, both left-leaning. The story that fossil fuels peaked in the power sector got no oxygen on the right.
Clean electricity meets all new global energy demand, curbing fossil fuels, says Ember
2 sources · hover a dot to see coverage
What happened
Energy think tank Ember released its 2025 Global Electricity Review in April 2026, finding that renewable energy met all net growth in global electricity demand last year, leaving fossil-fuel power generation with nowhere to grow. For the first time on record, clean energy pushed fossil-fuel electricity output into reverse. Renewables overtook coal to become the single largest source of electricity globally. Ember described 2025 as the beginning of the end for coal and gas power, while noting the world is still warming rapidly. Two outlets covered the report. That is the wire version. Both outlets that have it sit left of center, and no right-leaning outlet in this set ran the story.
Left-leaning outlets ran the finding but stopped short of interrogating it
Carbon Brief led with the structural claim: renewables overtook coal as the world's largest electricity source, framing the shift as historic. Al Jazeera ran Ember's language almost verbatim, including the think tank's own caveat that the world is still warming rapidly. Neither outlet pressed on what 'fossil-fuel power into reverse' means at the margin versus total installed capacity, or how much of the renewable growth was concentrated in China. The reporting is accurate. It is also thin. Two outlets, one report, no independent data check.
What one side told you that the other didn't
Right-leaning outlets that cover energy policy ran nothing.
A finding that fossil-fuel electricity generation peaked globally in 2025 is a significant data point for any outlet that covers energy costs, grid reliability, or climate policy. Conservative outlets that have spent years arguing renewables cannot displace fossil fuels did not engage with the report, either to challenge its methodology or to cover its findings. The absence is total. Readers who get their energy news from right-leaning sources did not see this data.
Two outlets, one source. No independent verification ran anywhere.
Both pieces rest entirely on Ember's own report. Ember is a credible think tank, but its findings on a milestone this significant would ordinarily draw responses from the IEA, from industry groups, or from academic energy economists. Neither Al Jazeera nor Carbon Brief quoted a single outside voice. The result is a coverage event that looks like a press release relay. The milestone may be real. The reporting doesn't yet prove it.
What to watch
Ember's report will likely reach the IEA's monthly electricity data update, due in May 2026. If the IEA's independent figures confirm the fossil-fuel decline, right-leaning outlets will face a harder editorial choice about whether to ignore or contest the finding. Watch whether any conservative energy outlet engages with IEA confirmation before the end of May.
This kind of gap — where one side reports a fact and the other doesn’t mention it — shows up in about 40% of major stories.