Renewable energy is cheaper and healthier – so why isn’t it replacing fossil fuels faster?
In recent years, the global landscape of energy production has undergone a transformative shift, with renewable sources like solar and wind power emerging as not only environmentally friendly alternatives but also economically viable options compared to fossil fuels. A decade ago, building coal or natural gas power plants was the most cost-effective solution to meet rising electricity demands. However, as of 2024, renewable energy has become the dominant force in new electricity generation, accounting for over 90% of all added capacity worldwide. This remarkable transition is largely due to the decreasing costs associated with renewable technologies, which have matured and become cheaper than coal and natural gas. In fact, in 2024 alone, renewable energy sources saved the global economy an astounding $467 billion in avoided fuel costs. As a result, renewable energy now makes up 46% of the global installed electric power capacity, with a record 585 gigawatts added in just one year—three times the total capacity of Texas.
Beyond the financial advantages, the health benefits of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy are significant. The combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas contributes to air pollution, which is linked to approximately 5 million premature deaths each year. Pollutants released from fossil fuels can exacerbate respiratory illnesses and other health issues, with recent studies highlighting the dangers of natural gas in household appliances, equating its health risks to those of secondhand tobacco smoke. By electrifying buildings, vehicles, and appliances with renewable energy, we can significantly reduce harmful air pollutants and combat climate change more effectively. Despite these clear benefits, the transition to renewable energy faces considerable challenges, particularly in developing countries where rapid economic growth is driving an urgent need for energy. While renewable projects can offer lower lifetime costs, high upfront financing remains a barrier, as many developing nations still rely on fossil fuels due to established financial mechanisms that favor them.
To facilitate the global shift toward renewable energy, international cooperation is crucial. Governments and development banks must work together to lower financing costs for renewable projects in developing economies, ensuring that investors perceive them as safe bets. By stabilizing energy policies and providing financial guarantees, these institutions can help reduce interest rates and make renewable energy projects more accessible. The path ahead is complex but achievable; transitioning to renewable energy could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by half, significantly mitigating climate change’s impacts. However, this requires overcoming political inertia and fostering collaboration to ensure that developing nations can participate in the renewable energy revolution without locking in decades of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. As we move forward, the economic and health benefits of renewable energy must be at the forefront of our efforts to create a sustainable and equitable energy future.
A technician walks through a solar farm in Goma, Congo, in 2025.
AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa
You might not know it from the headlines, but there is some good news about the global fight against climate change.
A decade ago, the cheapest way to meet growing demand for electricity was to build more coal or natural gas power plants. Not anymore. Solar and wind power aren’t just better for the climate; they’re also
less expensive
today than fossil fuels at utility scale, and they’re less harmful to people’s health.
Yet renewable energy projects face headwinds, including in the world’s fast-growing developing countries. I
study energy and climate solutions
and their impact on society, and I see ways to overcome those challenges and expand renewable energy – but it will require international cooperation.
Falling clean energy prices
As their technologies have matured, solar power and wind power have become
cheaper than coal and natural gas
for utility-scale electricity generation in most areas, in large part because the fuel is free. The total global power generation from renewable sources
saved US$467 billion
in avoided fuel costs in 2024 alone.
As a result of falling prices,
over 90%
of all electricity-generating capacity added worldwide in 2024 came from clean energy sources, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency.
At the end of 2024, renewable energy accounted for
46% of global installed electric power capacity
, with a record 585 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity added that year —
about three times the total generating capacity in Texas
.
Health benefits of leaving fossil fuels
Beyond affordability,
replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy is healthier
.
Burning coal, oil and natural gas releases tiny particles into the air along with toxic gases; these pollutants can make people sick. A recent study found air pollution from fossil fuels causes an estimated
5 million deaths worldwide
a year, based on 2019 data.
For example, using natural gas to fuel stoves and other appliances
releases benzene
, a
known carcinogen
. The health risks of this exposure in some homes has been found to be
comparable to secondhand tobacco smoke
. Natural gas combustion has also been linked to childhood asthma, with an estimated
12.7% of U.S. childhood asthma cases
attributable to gas stoves, according to one study.
Fossil fuels are also the leading sources of climate-warming greenhouse gases. When
they’re burned
to generate electricity or run factories, vehicles and appliances, they release carbon dioxide and other gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat near the Earth’s surface. That accumulation has been
raising global temperatures and causing more
heat stress, respiratory illnesses and the spread of disease.
Electrifying buildings, cars and appliances, and powering them with renewable energy, reduces these air pollutants while slowing climate change.
So what’s the problem?
In spite of the demonstrated economic and health benefits of transitioning to renewable energy, regulatory inertia, political gridlock and a lack of investment are holding back renewable energy deployment in much of the world.
In the United States, for example, major energy projects take an average of 4.5 years to permit, and approval of new transmission lines
can take a decade or longer
. A large
majority of planned new power projects in the U.S. use solar power
, and these delays are slowing them down.
The
2024 Energy Permitting Reform Act
introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, to speed approvals failed to pass.
Manchin called it
“just another example of politics getting in the way of doing what’s best for the country.”
An even bigger challenge faces developing countries
whose economies are growing fast
.
These countries need to meet soaring energy demand. The International Energy Agency expects emerging economies to account for
85% of added electricity demand
from 2025 through 2027. Yet renewable energy development lags in most of them. The main reason is the high price of financing renewable energy construction.
Most of the cost of a renewable energy project is incurred up front in construction. Savings occur over its lifetime because it has no fuel costs. As a result, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for those projects varies depending on the cost of financing to build them. The chart shows what happens when borrowing costs are higher in developed countries. It illustrates the share of financing in each project’s levelized cost of energy in 2024 versus the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The yellow dots are solar projects; black and gray are offshore and onshore wind.
Adapted from IRENA, 2025
,
CC BY
In many developing countries, wind and solar projects
cost more to finance
than coal or gas. Fossil projects have a longer history, and financial and policy mechanisms have been developed over decades to lower lender risk for those projects. These include government payment guarantees, stable fuel contracts and long-term revenue deals that help guarantee the lender will be repaid.
Both lenders and governments have less experience with renewable energy projects. As a result, these projects often come with weaker government guarantees. This raises the risk to lenders, so they charge higher interest rates, making renewable projects more expensive upfront, even if the projects have
lower lifetime costs
.
To
lower borrowing costs
, governments and international development banks can take steps to make renewable projects a safer bet for investors. For example, they can keep energy policies stable and use public funds or insurance to cover part of the lenders’ investment risk.
China produces the vast majority of solar cells sold worldwide. The Chinese government has also built renewable energy projects in many Latin America countries and other developing regions.
AFP via Getty Images
When investors trust they’ll get paid,
interest rates drop dramatically
and renewable energy becomes the cheaper option.
Without international cooperation to lower finance costs, developing economies could miss out on the renewable-energy revolution and lock in decades of growing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, making climate change worse.
The path ahead
To avoid the worst
effects of climate change
, countries have agreed to
cut their greenhouse gas emissions
over the next few decades.
Achieving this goal won’t be easy, but it is significantly less difficult now that renewable energy is more affordable over the long run than fossil fuels.
Switching the world’s power supply to renewable energy and electrifying buildings and local transportation would cut about half of today’s greenhouse-gas emissions. The other half comes from sectors where it is harder to cut emissions — steel, cement and chemical production, aviation and shipping, and agriculture and land use. Solutions are being developed but
need time to mature
. Good governance, political support and accessible finance will be critical for these sectors as well.
The transition to renewable energy offers big
economic and health benefits
alongside lower climate risks — if countries can overcome political obstacles at home and cooperate to expand financing for developing economies.
Jay Gulledge is affiliated with PSE Healthy Energy
