US falling behind on wind power, think tank warns

The USA is falling behind the European Union within the rollout of wind energy and dangers being overtaken by China, a assume tank mentioned Thursday, days after Trump introduced a crackdown on new wind initiatives.

Shortly after his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump signed an government order pausing the event of recent wind energy initiatives, following up on a marketing campaign promise to now not fund the sector.

“The United States is diverging from global trends on wind power,” mentioned Dave Jones, a director at local weather assume tank Ember.

“Major economies are embracing wind as a source of cheap, clean electricity. The United States risks being left behind in the clean industrial revolution,” he added.

About 10 p.c of america’ electrical energy got here from wind energy in 2023, or simply above the world common of seven.8 p.c.

Trump has favored oil and gasoline over wind energy.

Trump additionally declared Monday a nationwide vitality emergency to considerably develop oil and gas drilling in United States after pledging in his inauguration speech that we are going to “Drill, baby, drill!”.

China is at present proper behind america, with 9 p.c of its energy coming from wind farms in 2023.

However Beijing is dashing up the constructing of wind generators, organising China “to overtake the Unites States in the coming years” in accordance with Ember.

Each nations are nonetheless significantly behind the European union, the place wind power accounted for 17 p.c of the vitality produced in 2024, in accordance with a report launched by Ember on Thursday.

© 2025 AFP