Renewables are being built faster than ever, which makes it tempting to assume they are pushing fossil fuels out.
The data tells a more complicated and important story: for most of the transition so far, clean energy has been added on top of fossil fuels, not substituted for them.
TL;DR
- Fossil fuels still accounted for 86 percent of global energy supply in 2025 and continued to expand in absolute terms.
- Rather than replacing fossil fuels, renewables have largely been adding to a total energy mix that keeps growing, a pattern the Energy Institute calls a time of energy addition.
- The turning point is now arriving in electricity specifically, where clean growth has begun to outpace demand.
The energy figures here come from the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy and Ember.
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Addition, not yet replacement
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | Measure (2025) | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | Fossil fuels' share of total energy | ~86% |
| 2 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | Renewables' share of total energy | ~6% |
| 3 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | Total global energy demand | record high, over 600 EJ |
| 4 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 06/08/2026 10:02 AM | Renewables as source of new supply growth | largest for first time outside recession |
Wind and solar grew about 16 percent, nearly nine times faster than overall demand, yet oil, gas, and coal consumption also increased, because total energy demand rose even faster.
That is the crux: when the whole pie keeps growing, a bigger clean slice does not automatically shrink the fossil slice.
Why electricity is the exception, and the turning point
The picture differs sharply between total energy and electricity.
In 2025, renewables became the largest source of new energy supply growth for the first time outside a recession, with solar accounting for 71 percent of the increase.
And in the power sector specifically, clean growth has started to displace fossil generation, which fell in China and India in 2025.
So the honest answer is: in electricity, replacement is beginning; across total energy, we are still in addition.
The UK and parts of Europe are furthest along, actually replacing fossil generation with wind and solar and cutting fossil imports.
EU wind and solar deployments since 2022 have avoided €72 billion in fossil fuel imports.
The US is more mixed: clean energy is growing, but so is demand from data centers and electrification, so fossil use has not consistently fallen.
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ELI5
Clean energy like solar and wind is growing very fast.
But the world keeps using more energy overall, so for now clean power is mostly being added on top of fossil fuels rather than replacing them.
That is starting to change for electricity, but not yet for all energy.
Sources
Energy Institute | Ember | Logistics Middle East
