Green Energy - is it a scam?

Sienna Woods

Scientific Research on Climate Change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.” according to Donald Trump, at the United Nations 2025.

Should we believe Donald Trump’s message? Do you agree that years of scientific research into clean energy is a “scam”?

The Earth’s climate is a complex system to model, due to the chaotic nature of the atmosphere, but the long-term climate trends can be predictable. As a result, some people may be inclined to believe that no matter how much we research about climate change, we can’t predict anything due to the nature of our climate. Yet, if it wasn’t for scientific research about climate change, we wouldn’t have had the foundations to develop renewable energy technologies.

Since July 2024, over £50 billion has been invested into clean energy industries in the UK by firms, which reflects the number of them that are confident in renewable energy technology, as they believe that they will see returns on their investments in the future. A UN report highlighted that for the first time ever in 2024, global clean energy investments surpassed £1.52 trillion. The high levels of investment show that there is great confidence in developing green technology, which demonstrates that it is not a “scam”.

In 2024, according to the IRENA, solar photovoltaics were around 41% cheaper than the lowest cost fossil fuel alternatives, whilst wind power was 53% cheaper. It was also found that 91% of new renewable power projects commissioned, were more cost effective than the newest fossil-fuel alternatives.

The installed capacity (including solar PV, concentrated solar and onshore and offshore wind) shows that between 2015 and 2025 our success in developing renewable energy capacity has been much greater than the development of fossil fuels. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for renewables, has seen a very sharp decline which brings hope to the future of renewable energy, as we can continue to increase the capacity whilst reducing costs.

Electricity is a form of energy, and we get the supply of it from a range of sources which make up the UK energy mix. For many years, fossil fuels - such as coal, oil and gas - dominated the UK energy mix as they are reliable sources of energy due to their large availability. Currently, around 87% of UK homes use gas for heating and hot water, which reflects the high demand for reliable electricity sources. However, for the first time ever in part of 2020, renewable energy sources overtook fossil fuels in the UK energy mix, and 2024 was the first full year where renewable energy sources surpassed fossil fuels. This is representative of the progress in the development of renewable energy technologies and how the UK government is on track to meeting their target of greenhouse gas emissions being net zero by 2050.

The Carbon Net Zero Target is deemed to be essential in stabilising the climate to reduce global warming according to the government. Fossil fuels are a worldwide problem as during combustion carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and this increase of CO2 results in the earth retaining more heat, which in turn causes world temperatures to rise – this is evident over the past hundreds of years. The Carbon Net Zero Target will help prevent the economy, human lives, rare species and the natural world, being impacted negatively from the effects of climate change. The Paris Agreement is aiming to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, as any higher will have devastating impacts on the world which can already be observed from the alarmingly high number of storms, heat waves and rising sea levels. To achieve this target, carbon emissions need to be balanced, and renewable energy appears to be the key, as fossil fuels account for nearly 90% of carbon emissions.

“Clean energy is smart economics – and the world is following the money.” - United Nations Secretary-General - Antonio Guterres.

The scope for renewable energy technology globally is massive, particularly in the less developed countries as they can ‘leapfrog’ the old technology such as coal and gas-powered power stations, to develop plentiful, cheap electricity from renewables such as solar and wind. This cheaper, green technology reflects how it is not a scam but rather, it will promote economic growth and wealth in developing countries such as in the tropical and sub-tropical areas.

Furthermore, contrary to the popular beliefs that many share with Donald Trump, for example that renewable energy is ‘costing jobs’ and ‘harming the economy’, it has been found that green technology can do the opposite. The E2 (Clean Jobs America, 2025) has found that clean energy jobs grew by 2.8 percent in 2024 and since 2020, the sector has generated 520,000 new jobs in America. Currently, there are more American citizens employed in the clean energy sector than the fossil fuel sector by a ratio of more than three to one. It has been shown that in the clean energy sector, there has been a 250 percent faster growth rate than the rest of the US, which demonstrates how the clean energy sector is not only providing jobs but encouraging economic growth.

Donald Trump has scrapped £14.22 bn worth of clean energy projects this year, which is particularly worrying during the current AI boom, where it is increasingly important that we can continue to generate more energy that can meet the demands of the power-hungry data centres. Renewable energy is ‘smart’ economics when trying to achieve this as it is cheap and fast to deploy. (Martha Muir, 2025)

Many oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the Gulf States, caused the COP 30 climate goals - such as moving away from fossil-fuels (a key objective) - to be ‘watered down’. They continue to lobby powerfully that climate change is in fact a ‘scam’, but it is seen by many that they are simply serving their own self-interests and exploiting the use of their own fossil fuels reserves for their own financial benefit. This has resulted in fossil fuels now not being mentioned in the COP 30 plans which is concerning as this may result in the climate change conferences being of less importance in the future.

Finally, as of 2025, 195 countries are part of the Paris Agreement which helps to combat climate change. The US is no longer a part of this agreement as they withdrew under Donald Trump’s presidency. Since so many countries have faith in the scientific research behind climate change and are motivated to combat it, then why has the world’s second biggest greenhouse gas emitter (the US) decided to leave the agreement? Will choosing to ignore climate change have irreversible consequences on the world? It is now up to you to decide whether green energy is a scam or the future of power systems.