A new Nature Reviews Clean Technology article by Professor Diana Ürge-Vorsatz (Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University in Vienna; Vice Chair of the IPCC) delivered a timely warning for climate and energy policymakers.
Today’s record clean-energy expansion is largely being absorbed by rapidly growing energy demand rather than displacing fossil fuels.
Drawing on the latest global electricity data, Ürge-Vorsatz and co-author Felix Creutzig show that since the Paris Agreement, wind and solar generation have quadrupled, adding approximately 3,550 TWh of clean electricity. Yet over the same period, power-sector CO₂ emissions rose by 1.8 gigatonnes, because electricity demand expanded even faster — by around 6,930 TWh.
The article identifies new demand drivers that are reshaping energy systems and climate trajectories, including data centres and artificial intelligence, whose electricity use is projected to more than double by 2030.
As Ürge-Vorsatz put it this week on RTL Klub’s Morning programme:
“AI requires enormous amounts of energy, and this is deeply worrying. Over the past few decades, we have been moving in a very positive direction — especially in Europe. The remarkable development since the turn of the millennium was achieved while total electricity consumption across Europe was continuously declining. AI is now reversing this trend. Creating just a one-minute online video — and trying three times — can require as much energy as driving 100 kilometres by car.”
Crucially, the Nature article highlights Europe as a counterexample showing that demand moderation is possible. Since 2008, EU electricity demand has fallen by around 10% while GDP grew by roughly 24%, enabling renewables to structurally displace fossil fuels and cut power-sector emissions by approximately 600 million tonnes.
The authors argue that without stronger demand-side policies, projected electricity demand growth to 2030 is likely to consume nearly all new renewable generation — slowing or stalling progress toward climate stabilization. Demand-side action, they stress, is not a lifestyle choice but a core pillar of effective decarbonization alongside clean-energy supply.
Why this matters now: As governments scale renewables, electrify economies, and invest heavily in AI-driven infrastructure, this analysis challenges the prevailing supply-only narrative of the energy transition — and reframes energy demand as a central climate and policy issue.
About the author:
Diana Ürge-Vorsatz is Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University and a long-standing Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is internationally recognized for her work on energy demand, buildings, and climate mitigation.
The article, “Energy demand and decarbonization in 2025 and beyond,” will be published on 20 January 2026 in Nature Reviews Clean Technology and is under strict embargo until that date.
I would be happy to arrange an interview with Professor Ürge-Vorsatz or provide advance access to the paper under embargo.
