2024 was the hottest year on record

How do we limit global warming and produce enough clean energy? A lot of Big Tech thinks the answer is nuclear power.

1/10/25 11:21AM

First came the hottest July in history. Then the hottest summer. Now, 2024 has officially been named the hottest year on record, according to a collective release of data from scientists in multiple countries and from multiple organizations.

With global temperatures breaking through the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming under 1.5 C, the age-old debates about who should shoulder the burden of change required to limit future warming — the public or private sector, the developed or developing economies — will once again rage into 2025.

At the center of that debate this year, is likely to be nuclear energy.

Last year, nuclear enjoyed something of a renaissance. Due to its insatiable AI demands, Big Tech is hungry for more energy-guzzling data centers, forcing the tech titans to look for larger, more reliable options for energy like nuclear. In 2024, Amazon, Google, and Oracle all invested in major nuclear projects, ranging from the infamous Three Mile Island power plant to small modular reactors. Nuke stocks like Vistra Corp and Constellation Energy soared as a result, momentum that they have carried into 2025 already.

Separately, some businesses around the world have started to roll back on green efforts, including the withdrawal of megabanks like Bank of America and Morgan Stanley from climate coalitions last week.

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The UAE’s OPEC exit will hit the group in the barrels

After just shy of 60 years in OPEC, its membership even predating its status as a nation-state, the United Arab Emirates yesterday announced its shocking departure from the oil production group, effective May 1, as the knock-on effects of the Iran war continue to play out across the Middle East and the energy landscape.

For context, the UAE produces the third-highest amount of oil in the group, per April data and OPEC’s latest set of annual statistics.

According to the cartel’s 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin, the OPEC group was collectively exporting some 19 million barrels of crude oil a day last year, with the United Arab Emirates accounting for some 14% of that daily output.

UAExit means UAExit

The nation, whose energy minister told Reuters yesterday that the decision was taken “after a careful look at current and future policies related to level of production” and wasn’t made following discussions with any other country, made up a healthy share of the group’s total confirmed crude oil reserves, as well.

Of the 12 nations in the core group, which was founded by just five oil superpowers back in September 1960, only two (Iraq and Saudi Arabia) exported more barrels of crude oil daily, pumping out 3.36 million and 6.05 million barrels, respectively, each day to nations around the world.

For its part, the UAE said it will “continue its responsible role by gradually and thoughtfully increasing production, in line with demand and market conditions,” per the official state news agency. Clearly, the nation now wants a little more control of just how much oil it can pump around the world, with the UAE having to eat a large proportion of lost revenues due to its healthy abundance and OPEC restrictions.