A renewable path takes hold in Central Europe
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DUBROVNIK, Croatia (Callaway Climate Insights) — Flying down the Dalmatian coast toward Dubrovnik this week to watch my daughter run a race around Croatia’s ancient walled city, I was struck by the presence of a line of wind turbines along the length of one of the approaching islands.
Far from taking away from its beauty, the wind turbines added to the romance of what has become one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations. Indeed, Croatia has taken the lead in its Central European region in renewables, with wind power, hydro and rising solar adoption accounting for some 60% of its energy production last year.
Some of that is forced by the realities of the war in Ukraine, which has hit the availability and price of Russian oil in recent years. But the trend toward renewables and self-sufficiency is one we will soon see more of across Europe.
As it happens, a major new report this week from clean energy think tank Ember announced that renewables had eclipsed coal for the first time in 2025 in terms of global electricity generation.
The passing of coal has been a long time coming, and the trend looks set to continue to move strongly this year as fossil fuels suffer from the new war in Iran.
The current wars will end someday, but coal’s century-long grip on the world is finally over. And it looks great.
Don’t forget to contact me directly if you have suggestions or ideas at dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.
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Zeus: How Tim Cook’s climate lesson saved Apple investors
. . . . Tim Cook’s 15-year run at Apple can be regarded as one of the most successful corporate reigns in history. But it wasn’t all soaring shares and iPhones, writes David Callaway. Early on after he replaced the legendary Steve Jobs, Cook learned a valuable lesson about running a major manufacturer and fighting climate change — one that should benefit every CEO in these tumultuous climate times. How he handled it may have saved Apple’s extraordinary winning streak.
Thursday’s subscriber insights
Trump sets sights on World Bank’s climate agenda
. . . . President Donald Trump and his team have not been shy about pushing international institutions such as the United Nations and European Union around on their climate ambitions.
Using a variety of trade threats and other economic bullying, the White House has successfully twisted enough arms to get even the most lukewarm initiatives watered down farther, or abandoned over the past year.
Now it’s going after the World Bank in its own backyard of Washington D.C. Using last week’s spring bank meetings in the U.S. capital as an attack point, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House expects the World Bank to end its five-year-old Climate Change Action Plan when it expires in June.
The plan, which has been successful if somewhat controversial in how it is measured, calls for the World Bank to commit 45% of its annual budget to projects with climate benefits. The results have been a doubling of climate investments since 2021.
The worry is that the administration, which is the largest shareholder of the World Bank with the most voting power of any country, will push it to restart funding of gas and oil projects, which it suspended before it set up the climate plan years ago.
We won’t have to wait long to find out. But if it happens it will be another major source of climate fighting investment choked off in the name of the so-called energy security.
Editor’s picks: Earth’s energy imbalance; plus, record drought throughout the U.S.
Watch the video: Go behind the scenes with Inside Climate News Senior Editor Corey Mitchell and reporter Bob Berwyn as they discuss critical measures of the planet’s health. Berwyn, who covers climate science for Inside Climate News, explains the real-world impacts of the energy imbalance, as well as melting glaciers, sea level rise, and pollution from unregulated space activity; and the disconnect between scientific knowledge and political action today.
Record U.S. drought for this time of year
Food prices, wildfire season and water issues throughout the west are at risk due to record levels of drought in the contiguous U.S., according to recent weather data. Seth Borenstein reports for The Associated Press that more than 61% of the Lower 48 states is in moderate to exceptional drought — including 97% of the Southeast and two-thirds of the West — according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Those are the highest levels for this time of year since the drought monitor began in 2000. According to the report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s comprehensive Palmer Drought Severity Index not only hit its highest level for March since records started in 1895, but last month was the third-driest month recorded regardless of time of year. It trailed only the famed Dust Bowl months of July and August 1934.
Latest findings: New research, studies and projects
Threats to gray whales in San Francisco Bay Area
Eastern North Pacific gray whales can often be observed in and around the San Francisco Bay. The worrying question is why so many are dying there. Last year, a record number of 21 dead gray whales were found in the broader San Francisco Bay. The BBC reports that so far this year, seven have died due to a combination of dwindling prey availability, climate change and human causes. According to the report, this species of whales wasn’t known to usually stop in the bay prior to 2018. The whales’ migration route takes them down to Baja California and back up the Arctic. Josephine Slaathaug, a graduate student at Sonoma State University and the lead author of the study on gray whale mortality in the bay, told the BBC this species stop near San Francisco is “a new habitat that they’ve chosen to utilize.” She added there have been years of steep declines in their prey in the Arctic. Many of those that turned up in the bay are adult and juvenile males that are heading to the Arctic. Notably, the whales observed are skinnier than they normally would be at this time of year, Slaathaug and several other researchers told the BBC. The lack of food may be what’s driving the whales into the bay, researchers say, but starvation is only part of the problem. In recent years, nearly one-fifth of the gray whales that have swum into the San Francisco Bay have died there, usually after being struck by ships, according to Slaathaug’s study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science this week.
Words to live by . . . .
“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” — William Shakespeare.