Ten years ago this month, the Paris Climate Accords were signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France. A decade later, the climate treaty has taken a backseat to rising electricity demand and net-zero skepticism.
The 2015 Paris Accords require all 193 signatories to agree to prevent a 1.5°C increase in global temperatures and support a transition to 100% renewables by 2050. As of September 2025, only 36 of 193 nations said they were on track to meet this goal.
At the most recent COP30 summit held in Belem, Brazil, oil and gas phaseouts were deprioritized. The climate conference suffered many public relations blunders—from a toilet paper shortage to inadequate housing options—due to its remote location.
In September, the New York Times declared the world, not just the United States, is souring on the Paris Climate Accords and its goals. The publication admitted there’s an “undeniable withdrawal” from climate politics. Here in the U.S., climate policies have invited an affordability crisis.
The cost of fulfilling the Paris Accords isn’t cheap. Bloomberg estimates a global transition to 100% renewables comes with a $215 trillion price tag. As I noted in a 2022 Independent Women Unicorn Fact Check on net zero:
Further analysis found that from 2023 to 2040, net-zero policies would result in an average annual income loss for a family of four of $5,100 and a total income loss for the same family of more than $87,000 over the 18-year time horizon. Electricity costs are expected to increase by 23% per year, and net-zero policies could add up to $2 per gallon on gas.
The perceived emissions benefits of decarbonization are equally exaggerated, with one estimate from the American Enterprise Institute finding that net-zero by 2050 would only reduce global temperatures by a mere 0.104°C.
Ahead of COP30, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told his fellow climate activists to ditch climate doomerism and embrace human prosperity. He wrote in his GatesNotes blog, “Although climate change will have serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries—it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further.”
It’s not just Bill Gates. Blue states, like New York State, are quietly rolling back net-zero directives and embracing natural gas to keep the lights on. Compared to red states, electricity rates are higher in California, Hawaii, the Midwest, and the Northeast.
Here at Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation, we know that energy abundance is the best alternative to unworkable and expensive net-zero climate policies.