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.
