President Trump used his UN General Assembly address to criticize Europe’s energy transition—singling out Germany—while defending continued global use of oil, gas, and coal, and urging nations to prioritize “reliable” fossil fuels over what he cast as costly renewables.
He framed fossil fuels as essential to development and energy security, echoing past lines that nations should not “abandon” coal, oil, and gas, and arguing that wealthy countries pushing rapid phaseouts have themselves relied on hydrocarbons for 150 years. German officials have repeatedly pushed back on similar claims from Trump, noting that more than half of Germany’s power generation now comes from renewables and that the country is shutting down, not building, coal and nuclear plants with coal due off the grid by 2038 at the latest.
“All green is all bankrupt,” Trump said in the speech while implying that he wasn’t including nuclear energy in his definition of “green.” While nuclear energy is low-carbon, its environmental impact is unclear, although green energy advocates have included it in the green category for decades. For instance, in March 2021 the U.S. Department of Energy wrote a blog post on “3 reasons why nuclear is clean and sustainable.”
Germany focus
- Trump reprised arguments he has made before about Germany’s energy policy, using it as a cautionary tale while asserting that Europe’s rush to renewables raised costs and forced retreats, a characterization German officials dispute as inaccurate and outdated.
- Germany’s Foreign Office has countered such claims directly, emphasizing >50% renewables in the power mix and legally mandated coal phaseout timelines, underscoring a strategic pivot away from fossil fuels even amid energy shocks since 2022.
- Trump’s earlier critiques of Europe’s dependence on Russian energy and his administration’s actions against Nord Stream 2 contextualize his UN rhetoric, though German authorities stress their ongoing diversification and renewable buildout trajectory.
Fossil fuels message
- In the UN remarks, Trump underscored fossil fuels as indispensable for growth and grid stability, arguing against international pressure to phase them out and urging trade and policy measures that expand oil, gas, and coal output and infrastructure globally.
- This stance aligns with his administration’s 2025 posture: executive actions to boost coal mining and keep aging coal plants online; a White House “unleashing American energy” agenda; and a regulatory tilt favoring hydrocarbons and some nuclear over wind and solar.
- Industry supporters echo grid reliability concerns, while environmental groups argue the approach props up uncompetitive coal and risks higher consumer costs compared with scaling cheaper renewables and modernizing the grid.
Policy headwinds
- Fortune has documented how Trump’s early-term actions elevated fossil fuels: emergency authority to extend coal plant operations and a National Energy Dominance Council tasked with accelerating permitting and boosting oil, gas, and coal production.
- Fortune also tracked the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and related moves that cut or accelerate phaseouts of clean energy tax credits central to wind, solar, and EV deployment—changes critics warn could raise utility bills and slow the transition even as markets keep favoring low-cost renewables.
- Despite policy headwinds, a recent Fortune commentary highlighted that market forces and global finance continue steering capital toward renewables, with investors shifting away from fossil projects and expecting renewables to outcompete on cost, a countercurrent to the administration’s pro-fossil messaging at the UN.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
