Europe, with its industrialized economy and large national budgets, is well positioned to make upfront large investments in clean power plants. While Europe’s electricity demand has been relatively stable, clean electricity is needed to replace retiring dirty electricity plants and underpin a range of other green climate solutions. One obstacle to building clean power plants is related to meeting upfront costs, which require relatively large initial investment. This can be overcome with government investment, subsidies or mandates, or with innovative financing. The other obstacle is the fact that some clean plants – solar and wind – are intermittent and so they cannot directly replace fossil plants 24/7. This can be solved by a combination of energy storage and other flexible tech, geographic diversity in wind solar generation, and help from clean ‘baseload’ plants that can supply more consistent (but often more expensive) energy, for example, hydro, geothermal, and nuclear. If European countries built large amounts of clean power quickly, it would also reduce the cost of energy and improve scalability, which will help the rest of the world move faster as well.

Discard 1 card from your hand, then add 1 Clean Energy token to your player board for each Grid tag in this card's stack.

• Renewable Energy (The European Environmental Agency)

• Which EU countries use the most renewable energy? (Euronews)

• Support clean energy initiatives in your community, for example those that install solar panels or support community energy projects.

• Ask your political representatives to invest in and streamline the buildout of clean energy generators and crucially, the infrastructure to support them, including batteries and other flexible tech.

• Support, join, or donate to an organization that works to improve access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. Sustainable Energy for All, for example, aims to ensure everybody has access to such energy by 2030.