The U.S. stock market has pared back heavy losses it posted earlier in the week after U.S. President Donald Trump relented on his threat to slap European and NATO nations with tariffs for opposing his push to acquire Greenland. Trump also ruled out the use of military force to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory, but said the U.S. will still pursue ownership of the country.
In contrast, oil prices have reversed course, slipping nearly 2% after Trump softened threats against Greenland and Iran. While President Trump dominated headlines and discussions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos 2026 with his Greenland push and concerns over globalism, his controversial claims about renewable energy also drew attention. To wit, Trump claimed that the North Sea has 500 years of Oil & Gas reserves left, and dismissed Europe’s green energy policies as a “scam”. Trump also renewed his criticism of the UK government for restricting oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, as well as its decision to retain the energy profits levy (EPL).
“The United Kingdom produces just one-third of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999 – think of that, one-third – and they’re sitting on top of the North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world, but they don’t use it, and that’s one reason why their energy has reached catastrophically low levels, with equally high prices,” Trump said.
“There are windmills all over Europe. There are windmills all over the place, and they are losers. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing,” Trump said, also claiming that China manufactures windmills and sells them at huge profits but never installs them itself.
However, many of Trump’s claims are verifiably false. The North Sea is a mature oil and gas province, meaning much of the easily accessible oil and gas has already been produced, with over 90% of recoverable reserves extracted in the UK sector.
According to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the UK's energy regulator, the North Sea has ~2.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2024, suggesting only decades of supply, not hundreds of years as Trump claims.
Indeed, at current production rates, some analyses suggest the remaining reserves might last only about seven years, not centuries, highlighting the extreme overestimation in Trump's claim. The UK’s indigenous crude oil production in 2024 clocked in at ~320,000 barrels per day, enough for just 20% of the country’s consumption. To exacerbate matters, only 13% of that oil is refined in the country, a figure the ECIU has projected will fall to 1% by 2030 as North Sea production continues to decline.
“After more than fifty years, the UK has burned most of its gas and what’s left of the oil is increasingly difficult and expensive to extract,’’ Tessa Khan, executive director at environmental campaign group Uplift, said. “Regardless of any new drilling, the UK will be dependent on gas imports for nearly two-thirds of its gas in just five years time and almost 100 per cent by 2050.”
Trump’s claims about wind energy in Europe and China are also erroneous. An analysis by University College London has revealed that wind energy has lowered UK energy imports by 12% via interconnectors into the country and saved British consumers ~£104 billion ($140 billion) on their energy bills between 2010 and 2023. Wind energy is generally cheaper than most other power sources in Europe, particularly when compared to fossil fuel alternatives.
Despite recent inflationary pressures causing a temporary pause in cost reductions, onshore wind remains one of the most affordable sources of new electricity, frequently undercutting new coal and gas plants. The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for wind dropped dramatically by over 60% between 2010 and 2021. While costs plateaued or rose slightly around 2022–2023 due to supply chain issues and rising interest rates, they are expected to fall again as inflation eases and turbine prices recover. High gas prices, which exceeded €50/MWh in 2024, make renewable energy like wind a much cheaper alternative.
And finally, Trump’s claims about wind energy in China appear to be only partly true. According to a report by Ember, China spent $625 billion on clean energy investments in 2024, good for 31% of the global total, making it the biggest investor in renewable energy worldwide. Contrary to Trump’s claims, data indicates that China leads the world in wind power deployment, with installed capacity exceeding 600 GW by early 2026, and with the country accelerating deployment in recent years (around 100 GW in 2025 alone). China operates almost half of the world's offshore wind capacity, reaching 52 GW in 2025, more than the EU and UK combined.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
