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In December 2025, a widespread polar vortex disruption swept across the eastern half of the United States, triggering one of the snowiest starts to the Northern Hemisphere winter in nearly twenty years.
An unusually early breakdown of the polar vortex drove persistent cold air deep into the Midwest and East Coast, pushing snowfall well above historical norms across 18 states and Washington, D.C. Several states, including Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, recorded their heaviest early-season snowfall since at least 2008, while large portions of the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and Mid-Atlantic ranked among their top three snowiest starts over the same period. Across a broad corridor stretching from Iowa to the Mid-Atlantic coast, accumulated snowfall reached two to five times typical seasonal levels.
These events stood in clear contrast to the global warming narrative that has dominated public discourse in recent years. According to ZeroHedge’s Tyler Durden, claims of an “imminent planetary inferno” have been used to justify higher taxes and bans on petrol-powered cars and gas stoves, adding that prominent climate advocates have spread what he described as “misinformation and disinformation” about a near-term climate catastrophe.
(Also read: Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: The Cost of Misguided Climate Activism)
Europe’s Winter Priorities: Public Health Over Climate Ideology
Following the extreme cold and heavy snow in the U.S., Europe’s winter of 2025 delivered its own stark reminder of the need for reliable energy from conventional sources.”
Europe has long presented itself as a global model for the green transition, promoting wind, solar, and net-zero ambitions as the path forward. Yet the first real chill of winter 2025 exposed the limits of a system heavily reliant on weather-dependent energy.
In late November, as temperatures dropped and heating demand surged, wind generation fell by 20% during a period engineers call the Dunkelflaute – the dark doldrums. Grid operators scrambled to fill the shortfall, turning to natural gas, which ramped up by more than 40%. Batteries remained far too limited to respond.
The spike in demand was stark. In the Netherlands, heating-degree days climbed 35% above the five-year average, while European gas consumption surged 45% from November 14 to 21. The volume of gas used in just one day – 0.6 billion cubic meters – carries the energy equivalent of 220 nuclear power plants, roughly five times the total nuclear capacity of France.
The episode illustrates a hard reality: even as Europe pursues ambitious renewable targets, fossil fuels remain essential to meet immediate energy needs. Without gas infrastructure, keeping millions of homes warm during extreme cold would be impossible, and no current or planned battery system could replace that capacity.
Global Retreat from Climate Ambition
Such events helped trigger a perception shift that has seeped into politics and media discourse. Public focus in the US has increasingly shifted away from framing climate change as an immediate crisis toward prioritizing economic affordability, energy costs, and day-to-day expenditures.
For instance, US Democratic leaders have been increasingly sidelining climate change as a headline issue, opting instead to emphasize affordability, lower energy costs, and near-term economic relief. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign centered on rising grocery prices and housing costs, with climate policy largely absent from his public messaging.
“This global shift is not all down to the election of President Trump,” wrote Copenhagen Consensus President Bjorn Lomborg. “The media itself has less to say: According to a Washington Post analysis, 2025 saw the fewest media mentions of climate change since it started keeping track in March 2022.”
At the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made no mention of the climate transition, a marked contrast to previous years when it featured prominently in her remarks.
A similar recalibration is underway in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who once urged “a global net zero commitment” to confront climate change, has since acknowledged that the international framework for collective action has been “diminished,” while pivoting domestically toward a strategy focused on making Canada an energy leader.
In Australia, major political parties have stepped back from net-zero targets amid rising cost pressures. The National Party led the shift, citing energy affordability and economic growth, with the Liberal Party following by prioritizing reliable supply and flexible, technology-led emissions reductions over binding deadlines.
Lomborg added that the retreat from climate alarmism allows for more grounded policy, arguing that claims of worsening harm from extreme weather are often overstated. He noted that deaths from climate-related disasters have fallen by more than 97% over the past century, dropping from nearly half a million annually in the 1920s to fewer than ten thousand in recent years, even as the global population has quadrupled.
“This progress results from better warnings, stronger infrastructure, improved disaster response, and overall societal wealth that enables such protections,” he asserted. “Adaptation through innovation has proved far more effective than fear-driven restrictions.”
(Also read: NGCP Plans New Transmission Loop to Improve Power Reliability in Northern Samar)
Prioritizing Development Over Costly Climate Mandates
Former climate advocates are also changing their tune. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has increasingly emphasized development over rigid emissions targets, arguing that the most urgent global challenges remain rooted in basic human needs. While acknowledging climate risks, Gates said that “the biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been,” pointing to health, education, and rising living standards as priorities that should not be eclipsed by costly climate mandates.
Gates similarly highlighted that the deadliest effects of severe flooding often come from the aftermath rather than the water itself. Collapsed sanitation systems can spread cholera, rotavirus, and other diarrheal diseases, which disproportionately affect children. “While we need to limit the number of extremely hot and cold days, we also need to make sure that fewer people live in poverty and poor health so that extreme weather isn’t such a threat to them,” he wrote.
He added that targeted investment in affordable, zero-carbon technologies can reduce emissions quickly while supporting poorer nations. He explained that global carbon forecasts have fallen from 50 billion tons annually a decade ago to 30 billion today, with further declines expected. Emphasizing practical solutions, he said climate action should focus on measures that maximize human welfare. “Development doesn’t depend on helping people adapt to a warmer climate; development is adaptation,” Gates stressed.
Meanwhile, Lomborg pointed to the gap between climate ambitions and reality, highlighting that pledges to channel massive funds to green projects in poorer countries have fallen short. Wealthy nations repeatedly failed to meet the $100‑billion-per-year climate finance target and often redirected existing development aid that could have addressed urgent needs like poverty and disease.
The Philippine Context: Energy Realities and Renewables Realignment
Shifting the lens to the Philippines, the climate conversation there reflects similar tensions between climate ambition and practical energy needs.
Recently, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) warned against overreliance on solar and other variable renewables, noting that without careful management, they can destabilize the grid and threaten electricity reliability. The caution followed a brief cloud cover over the San Marcelino solar plant in Zambales, which triggered a sudden voltage fluctuation. While the NGCP quickly prevented a blackout, the incident underscored the challenges of integrating more solar and wind power into the country’s energy system.
The incident recalls a major blackout in Spain and Portugal last April, when much of the Iberian Peninsula lost power for 10 hours to over a day. A malfunction at a large solar farm in southwestern Spain triggered severe voltage fluctuations, forcing nearby solar plants to disconnect and cutting off much of the backup supply from France. With roughly 60% of the region’s electricity from solar, the outage highlighted how dependent grids can become vulnerable when renewable output suddenly fails.
As for the net-zero policy, the Philippines has yet to adopt a formal national commitment. While climate advocates argued that a clear declaration could help coordinate climate action and attract international financing, the Department of Energy (DOE) said that the country sets its own targets. “We have a national target in a sense… We do not need to commit to any other country,” explained DOE Secretary Sharon S. Garin. “We decide ourselves what our targets are.”
The Philippines’ share of global carbon emissions is only about 0.5%, and overreliance on intermittent renewables could raise electricity costs and slow economic growth. While coal remains a key part of the energy mix, the DOE noted that the country’s overall emissions and power generation are modest compared with larger emitters like China and Indonesia.
“Therefore, the Philippines cannot be reasonably compared to these larger economies, which have different energy strategies and infrastructures adapted to their specific demographic and economic conditions,” stated the agency.
Meanwhile, Manila Times columnist Ben Kritz contrasts “subsistence emissions” with “luxury emissions” to stress the gap between developing and wealthy nations. While Filipinos are still striving for basic electricity access, richer countries focus on curbing emissions from high-carbon activities like air travel and data centers. On a fair scale, the Philippines still faces a carbon deficit relative to its development needs.
“Energy is the linchpin of development here, as it is in most places, thus in order to make the biggest dent in poverty reduction and overall economic standards, the Philippines must focus on building its energy security — that daunting balance of accessibility, reliability, affordability and sustainability,” he wrote.
Vijay Jayaraj, Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, pointed out that Europe still relies on fossil fuels for about 70% of its energy, despite heavy investment in solar and wind. While electricity growth is often highlighted, most energy use in transport, heating, and industry remains fossil-fuel dependent, making renewable gains a misleading picture.
Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of daily life, especially in advanced societies, which cannot run on the wishful thinking of wind and sun worshipers,” he wrote. “The stability of European society today rests on the shoulders of American drillers of gas wells.”
In short, global events in 2025 highlighted a clear reality: reliable energy from fossil fuels remains essential for modern life. While net-zero and renewable goals can guide long-term strategy, immediate energy security, affordability, and development cannot be sacrificed for idealized climate narratives.
Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-02-05/global-retreat-climate-alarmism
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-02/nationals-formally-abandon-net-zero-by-2050/105962162
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-13/liberals-ditch-net-zero-commitment/106003712
https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/three-tough-truths-about-climate
https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/01/11/opinion/columns/re-targets-overshoot-capabilities/2256524
https://www.philstar.com/business/2024/09/23/2387184/philippines-lacks-net-zero-commitments