Global renewable energy deployment helped avoid nearly half a trillion dollars in fossil-fuel costs in 2025, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said, citing new data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Speaking at the Build Clean Now Industry Acceleration Summit in New York, Stiell said renewable capacity additions reached a record 693GW last year, while clean energy attracted more than $2 trillion in investment.
IRENA’s latest data estimates that renewables avoided about $480 billion in fossil-fuel costs in 2025.
Stiell said the progress demonstrated the economic benefi ts of the clean-energy transition but warned that implementation must accelerate.
He called for stronger international cooperation, greater access to climate fi nance and faster deployment of clean technologies ahead of COP31 in Trkiye.
He also urged the technology industry to address the growing energy and environmental costs of artifi cial intelligence.
AI companies, he said, should improve energy effi ciency, disclose energy and water use, set credible climate targets and power data centers with renewable energy