The Cipher team reflects on the last four years — and looks ahead

An illustration that has six black and white portraits of six people. Background behind those portraits is a deep blue.
Illustration by Nadya Nickels, Cipher's hugely talented illustrator, who always makes our articles look great! From L to R, top row: Anca Gurzu, Amena H. Saiyid, Jillian Mock; bottom row: Cat Clifford, Margaret Pressler, Bill Spindle.

For the last nearly four years, Cipher News has covered the global energy transition with an eye on the possible and a clear-eyed perspective.

A lot has happened in the energy and climate space in that time. Russia invaded Ukraine, scrambling global energy markets already in disarray coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The United States passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the country’s most ambitious climate law to date, kicking off a clean energy boom. Now, President Donald Trump is working to reverse much of that momentum. All the while, global efforts to address climate change have stagnated, even as negotiators eked out some wins.

Cipher has been there every step of the way, writing about the trends and developments that matter most in the fight to tackle climate change.

Our coverage has spanned the globe — including stories from Brussels, Spain, Romania, China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Chile, Barbados and more.

We’ve also kept a close eye on developments here in the United States — tracking clean energy investments, following new industries, like clean hydrogen and carbon capture, as well as reporting on older industries seeking a new future, like nuclear power.

As Cipher prepares to publish its final articles, the energy transition story is far from over. New pressing issues — the rollback of parts of the IRA, Europe’s latest steps to wean itself off Russian gas, China’s renewable energy ascendence — will be unfolding for years to come.

Below, Cipher’s editorial team reflects on the past four years and looks out to what might come next for clean energy. Our founding editor, Amy Harder, will share her thoughts in a standalone column published on July 16.

The reflections below are shared in the order that each person joined the Cipher team.

Anca Gurzu

I joined Cipher in February 2022, just a few days before Russia invaded Ukraine. Energy security skyrocketed to the top of the European Union’s agenda out of fear that Russia, at the time the bloc’s largest natural gas supplier, could turn off the tap. Europe was in panic mode.

My first story for Cipher had the headline “EU’s pipeline politics shows urgency of green energy transition.” Fast forward to today and that piece couldn’t be more spot on (I say with modesty). Since then, the EU has been moving to cut its dependency on Russian fossil fuels — a journey filled with political obstacles but also successes.

The bloc accelerated its rollout of renewable technologies, like wind, solar and heat pumps. The EU’s dependency on Russian gas went from 45% in 2022 down to 19% in 2024 — a huge decrease. Today, the EU is discussing legislation to cut that number to zero.

It hasn’t been easy. Over the last year, the main theme of my reporting has been Europe’s industrial decline, fueled by high energy prices (Russian gas was cheaper than alternatives) and supply chain problems. Competitiveness became the main concern (and still is today) as climate action started slowing down. The EU’s political balance shifted more to the right, reflecting some of the electorate’s skepticism of the energy transition.

One takeaway for me from the last three and a half years of reporting is that the public’s support for clean energy is crucial. The lack of a strong social narrative to help people buy into the need for a speedy energy transition risks hampering our ability to act swiftly to keep the planet from heating up further. That’s a lesson for both Europe and the United States.

I’m grateful I got to tell stories of people on the ground experiencing this transition in ways that challenge their identities and sense of belonging.

I believe there’s no turning back from the energy transition. It’s bumpy, it’s messy, it’s slower than we wanted, but it’s on.

Jillian Mock

In August 2022, the United States Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the country’s most ambitious climate law to date. I started onboarding for my role at Cipher later that month.

The law and its implications quickly became a major focus of our coverage. The first Cipher newsletter I helped build featured an article by Anca about how the passage of the IRA in the United States was helping fuel a global clean energy race.

It was a hopeful moment; the energy transition felt inevitable and was gaining momentum. Here was this ambitious new law as proof.

Over the last three years, Cipher mentioned the IRA countless times in our coverage. I would wager most of our stories from the last few years mentioned the law.

Amid all that optimism, Cipher still looked at clean energy with a critical eye — we were asking how the energy transition could become a reality, which meant focusing on the solutions but not shying away from the challenges.

Now, key provisions in the IRA have been repealed or revised. And Cipher will publish its final missives on Wednesday.

There have been more twists and turns in this energy transition road than I expected three years ago. The view in front of us does not seem quite as sunny as it did before. But Cipher’s astute perspective has helped me see the bigger picture. The energy transition has never been simple and straightforward, even when it seemed that way.

We already know there is a major new curve in the road ahead. I’m both nervous and intrigued to see what’s around the bend.

Amena H. Saiyid

Administrations come and go, but the job of a journalist covering federal policy is never done.

When you compare where the United States is now to where the country stood five years ago, we have come a long way on climate action and clean energy.

While the IRA has largely unraveled, there is still so much for a reporter like me to cover. Litigation will challenge efforts to roll back clean energy progress. The composition of Congress will change.

And keep in mind that the United States is part of a global society, where the actions of other countries and regions will affect businesses at home. The European Union’s upcoming border carbon tax on goods like steel and aluminum and related end products could inspire some climate action in the U.S., for example.

Plus, the sudden demand for power by artificial intelligence applications is going to drive investments in all electricity sources and give clean energy resources like nuclear power and geothermal a fighting chance.

What concerns me is whether these sources will be able to meet those needs in a timely fashion. That’s a fascinating story that needs to be told.

I am a glass half full kind of person and try to find the best in the worst of situations.

In my role at Cipher, I visited Colorado to see iron being made without coal, traveled to California to learn about hydrogen-making machines called electrolyzers and drove to North Carolina to learn about prospects for domestic lithium mining.

Although the Trump administration has hampered wind and solar development, I believe American manufacturers and developers like those I met will find a way to navigate the tariffs and penalties thrown their way. When and how they do is another tale to tell.

Bill Spindle

In the past few years, the real underlying drivers of an energy transition have been revealed: economics and security.

The collective desire to avoid rapid climate change has factored in only on the margins, even as awareness of the threat has grown.  The focus on economics and security is good news for an energy transition, since newer and cleaner forms of energy — particularly for making electricity — are on balance less expensive and more secure. Over time, globally, they are winning out, particularly in the fast-developing countries of Asia.

The problem, from a climate perspective, is that time is of the essence.

Overall, clean energy sources have yet to grow fast enough to push out greenhouse gas-producing sources, especially given how fast energy use is rising globally. There are early signs this may happen soon, though, a big one being what’s happening in China: it is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter but has simultaneously become its most prolific adopter of clean energy and the technologies that produce and use it.

Cat Clifford

I came to the climate beat through my role as an entrepreneurship reporter. As climate and cleantech startups proliferated and gained momentum during the Biden administration, I intentionally narrowed my reporting to focus exclusively on those efforts and their proposed solutions.

Talking to scientists about how they discover new processes that don’t generate greenhouse gas emissions is wildly inspiring and fundamentally optimistic. I love following new battery technologies, various approaches to commercialize fusion, ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, processes to cleanly produce steel and cement, engineered microbes that can make products like palm oil — and the list goes on.

What I have since learned is how much those scientific solutions depend on the political machinations in Washington, D.C. to be deployed at scale.

It takes time and financial support for a new technology to go from the lab to a point where it can be manufactured and distributed at the same cost of a conventional, greenhouse gas-emitting option. Oftentimes, that support comes from the federal government and has to be authorized by congressional lawmakers, each of whom has their own perspectives and agendas.

The story of scientific development is optimistic; it’s hopeful. But with partisan politics in the mix, the pace of progress can be absolutely disheartening.

Margaret Pressler

When I was about 10 years old (a long time ago!), I vividly remember being in the car with my mother, sitting behind a dump truck at a red light. When the light changed and the truck lurched forward, it shot a massive plume of black smoke and soot far into the air. I was instantly struck by anguish so intense I almost cried — and never forgot it.

At the time, there was a common narrative that holes in the ozone layer, caused by pollution, would eventually cook the planet. That smoke was stark evidence, to me, of the Earth’s impending demise.

Though I never lost that sense of dismay, it had more recently tilted toward anger, on behalf of my three children, at the willful inaction of our political and corporate leaders.

But when I had the opportunity to join Cipher a little over a year ago, my perspective changed. Cipher’s mission was infused with hope, highlighting the entrepreneurs, organizations, companies and communities trying amazing things to fix this climate mess we created — and, in fact, having some real success.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned as I’ve helped Cipher cover these growing efforts, it’s that they need more support, whether political, cultural or financial, to really turn the tide for all of us. On behalf of the kids we all once were, and all the kids yet to be, I hope we can give it to them, in whatever way we can.