The Iran war is driving clean energy development. It’s not enough to help the planet, yet

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on Associated Press or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Thirty-three governments have adopted policies to shift from fossil fuels to electricity or improve efficiency in response to the Middle East conflict, according to the IEA as of 9 September
• Yet global greenhouse gas emissions rose 0.2% in the first half of 2026 against the same period last year, per Climate TRACE, and global wind and solar investment fell after several years of growth

🔭 The context: The investment decline was driven mostly by China
• In the US, Europe and India, solar investment grew and wind held stable or grew, says Rhodium's Hannah Pitt
• Measures range from EV incentives and heat pumps to retrofits, with the Netherlands, Spain and the UK pursuing all of them
• India and Indonesia are shifting to electric cooking; Laos suspended petrol and diesel car imports through 2026

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: The energy shock highlights how greater reliance on clean energy can reduce exposure to fossil-fuel supply disruptions and imports
• However, lower fuel taxes can weaken incentives to shift from road transport to cleaner alternatives

⏭️ What's next: Stanford's Rob Jackson says sustained action over years to decades is required to affect the climate
• Brookings' Samantha Gross argues the war reframes the transition as energy security rather than only climate policy, widening its political appeal — and questions whether the conflict has served fossil fuel interests at all.

💬 One quote: "Governments are currently doing a dance between acknowledging the importance of clean power while continuing to support fossil fuel expansion. We are seeing an old and a new world interact in contradiction with each other" — Pauline Heinrichs, war studies lecturer, King's College London

📈 One stat: $330 billion in excess fossil fuel import costs, against $36 billion saved by countries that had invested in clean energy

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