February 9, 2026–Written by Paul Wiseman for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)–In the early 2020s, world governments were avidly committing to the energy transition, promising to reduce or eliminate internal combustion engines (ICE) by around 2035. This is key because ICE-powered transportation is seen as accounting for “more than 25% of worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel in internal combustion engine vehicles (Girod et al., 2013)” said a 2023 story in ScienceDirect.
But in the last 12 to 18 months, some nations, especially the U.S., have walked back on those promises. Rising costs and challenges with juggling the exploding power demands for generation and distribution between EVs and data centers have been a reality check.
