As Iran War Drives Clean Energy,
It’s Not Enough To Help The Planet, Yet
Jennifer McDermott / The Associated Press

https://www.sej.org/headlines/iran-war-drives-clean-energy-it-s-not-enough-help-planet-yet

(September 17, 2026) — Countries are embracing clean power and taking steps to use less energy because of the war against Iran, but it is not yet enough to help address climate change.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war in February, some backers of renewables opined it could drive a green transition as oil and gas prices spiked. So far, more than 30 governments have enacted policies to move away from fossil fuels or improve energy efficiency. Yet at the same time, global emissions of greenhouse gases increased slightly and investments in clean energy fell compared to the same period last year.

The Associated Press talked to a dozen experts who said that while the Iran war appears to be helping the adoption of clean energy, the world is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. They said it will take more time for new policies to show results.

“Governments are currently doing a dance between acknowledging the importance of clean power while continuing to support fossil fuel expansion,” war studies lecturer Pauline Heinrichs at King’s College London wrote in an email. “We are seeing an old and a new world interact in contradiction with each other.”

Judge Rules Trump’s EPA Illegally Terminated
$7 Billion Solar Program For Poor

Jennifer McDermott / The Associated Press

(September 18, 2026) — The Trump administration illegally terminated a $7 billion Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible to more than 900,000 lower-income Americans, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the Solar for All funds in August 2025 after President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law passed in Congress a month earlier, with Administrator Lee Zeldin calling the Biden-era grant program a “boondoggle.”

District Judge Mary McElroy wrote in the ruling that Congress clearly intended the EPA to continue administering the Solar for All grants that were already obligated. The EPA acted contrary to this intent and without any other statutory authority when it terminated the program, McElroy wrote. She vacated the termination. ”