From a 'historic' climate case to subscription solar: Positive environmental stories from 2024
Eco-anxiety, climate doom, environmental existential dread - as green journalists, we see these terms used a lot - and often feel them ourselves.
While there's a lot to be worried about when it comes to the climate and nature crises, we must not lose hope - because hopelessness breeds apathy.
The media has an important role to play in combatting climate doom. It's our job to be truthful and accurate in our reporting, not trying to downplay or greenwash the situation. But it's also our job to show that there is hope.
In 2023, as part of our ongoing effort to tackle eco-anxiety (both that of our readers and our own), we kept track of all the positive environmental news throughout the year. We racked up over 200 stories of eco-innovation, green breakthroughs and climate wins - more than double the number in 2022 and a sure sign of momentum.
In 2024, we're confident the good news will keep on coming, as renewable power soars, vulnerable ecosystems gain rights, and climate protocols start to pay dividends.
This article will be regularly updated with the latest good news. It may be something small and local, something silly that made us smile, or something enormous and potentially worldchanging.
If you come across a great, positive story that we haven't covered here - please reach out to us on Instagram or X to share your ideas.
Positive environmental stories from April 2024 New US limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water expected to save thousands of lives
The USA has placed the first ever federal limits on toxic 'forever chemicals' in drinking water.
The rule, finalised by the Biden administration on Wednesday 10 April, requires utilities to reduce the chemicals to the lowest level they can be reliably measured.
Officials say this will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.
‘Historic’ European Court of Human Rights ruling backs Swiss women in climate change case
In a landmark decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has today ruled that government inaction on climate change violates fundamental human rights.
The right to respect for one’s private and family life is the main legal basis through which the court has previous ruled on environmental cases, but this decision is “historic” regarding the climate crisis, observers say.
The case was brought by an association of older Swiss women concerned about the impact of global warming on their health. They claimed that the Swiss government is not taking enough action.
How does subscription solar work? This Spanish company instals panels with no upfront investment
Born in New York and raised in Amsterdam, 29-year-old Wouter Draijer is CEO and co-founder of SolarMente - a company aiming to change the way people consume and distribute energy in Spain.
Its subscription service allows homeowners and businesses to install solar panels with no upfront cost - a model that has attracted investment from Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and US technology startup accelerator Y Combinator.
Cycling Declaration hailed as ‘historic’ moment for Europe
Cycling is “one of the most sustainable, healthy and efficient” ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, EU governments have agreed. They have committed to build more cycle lanes and secure parking places, improve safety for riders, and promote schemes to encourage a switch from four wheels to two.
Deutsche Bahn has stopped using domestic flights to send letters due to climate change
Domestic flights will no longer be used to transport letters by Germany’s national postal carrier.
The move from Deutsche Post reflects the declining significance of letter mail and allows it to improve its climate footprint.
Positive environmental stories from March 2024 ‘I want to tackle it in a big way’: Meet the Nigerian women spearheading solar projects
More children die from air pollution - mainly inside the home - in Nigeria than in any other African country. 32-year-old green energy entrepreneur Yetunde Fadeyi made it her life’s calling to end the energy poverty causing such deaths.
After a childhood in Lagos plagued by intermittent electricity, a degree in chemistry and training in solar panel installation, Fadeyi started Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability (REES). The non-profit is dedicated to climate advocacy and providing clean energy to poor communities in rural Nigeria.
Meet the companies creating a ‘city of the future’ inside Berlin’s Tegel Airport
With companies starting to realise that climate change isn’t going away, more are working together to bring green solutions to the table
One such solution comes from Heat Storage Berlin, a German company that’s on a mission to store surplus renewable energy as heat. “This allows us to supply entire industries such as breweries or the paper industry with steam, using sustainable energies,” founder and CEO Ulrich Prochaska tells Euronews Green.
‘A minimally intrusive solution for urban cooling’: This paint could make cities feel 1.5C cooler
Cool paint coatings could help cities feel up to 1.5C cooler, a new study has found.
Using paint to counter the ‘urban heat island’ effect is nothing new, but this real-world experiment showed just how impactful it can be.
Building new wind and solar projects is getting harder but this German village could have the answer
Sprakebuell is something of a model village for the energy transition - with an above-average number of electric cars, a community wind farm and renewable heat from biogas.
Small as it is, the German town offers lessons that could resonate globally.
Coffee grounds might be the answer to agricultural contamination
An estimated six million tonnes of used coffee grounds are created annually. Most go to landfill, generating methane and CO2, or are incinerated for energy.
But a new study in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology suggests that used coffee could hold the key to a pressing environmental problem: agricultural contamination.
Over half of European voters think climate action is a priority, exclusive Euronews poll reveals
More than half of European voters believe the fight against climate change is a priority, according to an exclusive EuronewsIpsos poll.
In the first pan-European survey of its kind ahead of the European elections in June, 25,916 people across 18 countries were interviewed about a range of issues. These countries together represent 96 per cent of the EU population.
Manchester City is planning to install almost 11,000 solar panels on the roof of its training ground
Manchester City is planning a solar project that it believes would make it one of the largest producers of renewable energy in world football.
The Premier League Champions are seeking planning permission from Manchester City Council to install 10,887 solar panels on their training facility and the Joie Stadium.
Danish company building massive solar farm in Arizona desert
Deep in the Arizona desert, a Danish company is building a massive solar farm that includes batteries that charge when the sun is shining and supply energy back to the electric grid when it's not.
“Solar farms only produce when the sun shines, and the turbines only produce when the wind blows,” said Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper. “For us to maximise the availability of the green power, 24-7, we have to store some of it too.”
Governments agree packaging waste law despite international trade concerns
Belgium, current holder of the rotating EU Council presidency, has forged agreement between governments over new rules to tackle the growing problem of discarded packaging materials, overcoming the European Commission's concerns over trade diplomacy.
National diplomats have endorsed a new European law on packaging waste, including provisions that would hold overseas producers to EU environmental standards on plastic recycling at the risk of losing market access.
Germany's emissions fell by record 10.1% in 2023
Germany's greenhouse gas emissions dropped by one-tenth last year, thanks to its investment in renewables and high energy prices which may have driven down demand.
Europe's biggest economy is trying to cut its emissions by 65 per cent, compared with 1990, by 2030. These latest stats put it on track to reach a cut of almost 64 per cent by that date.
From four walls to four wheels: How we live sustainably, from electricity use to food waste
After buying a second hand van last summer, we spent five months converting it into a cottage on wheels.
Doing van life sustainably started with our build, where we repurposed materials, opted for hemp insulation, and used reclaimed wood for interiors. Choosing solar power over gas, we designed the van for winters in southern Europe and summers in the north to minimise our environmental impact.
Some people are surprised to hear that our carbon footprint is now about a third lower than before.
Governments' climate policies tackling deforestation and nature double in 12 months, study finds
Nature-based policies from governments around the world have doubled over the last 12 months, a new study has found.
The report looked at 300 different policies around the world and found that around half of global emissions reductions by 2035 are likely to come from those aimed at ending deforestation, reducing food waste, restoring ecosystems, lowering agricultural emissions and rolling out nature-based climate solutions.
Staff at wildlife centre dress up as a mother fox to save abandoned cub
Employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia are doing their best to act like mother foxes as they feed and care for an orphaned kit that found her way into their care.
In a bid to make this as natural as possible, they had to get a little bit creative.
Executive director Melissa Stanley took the unorthodox step of donning a hyper realistic fox mask while feeding the tiny kit from a syringe.
‘A beautiful idea’: This French town is making its cemetery a source of solar energy
A French town is installing a canopy of solar panels over its cemetery that will distribute energy to local residents.
In the town of around 4,000 people, some 420 residents have officially registered their interest in joining the project. For an entry fee of just €5, they will eventually
have a share in the energy it produces.
MEPs back law aimed at restoring European soil to health
The European Parliament’s environment committee has backed a proposal for mandatory monitoring and remedial measures with a view to restoring an estimated two-thirds of soils that are in poor health, jeopardising biodiversity and future food production.
Polluting private jets could face a 400% fuel tax increase under new Biden proposal
US President Joe Biden is proposing a huge increase in fuel taxes for private jets. It is being pitched as a fairness issue compared with airline passengers, who pay special taxes on every ticket.
Raising fuel taxes for private jets could not only improve fairness in air travel, it could also discourage use of the polluting transport.
Can you fit a heat pump in an apartment? New York is testing new windowmounted tech for renters
For 27 years, the heat in Regina Fred's Queens apartment building came from a noisy steam radiator that she couldn't control.
Sometimes it didn't come on at all, leaving her shivering. Sometimes, the radiators ran so hot that residents had to keep their windows open in the middle of winter for relief.
That all changed a few months ago when she got a windowmounted heat pump as part of a pilot project by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) aimed at cutting energy costs and lowering emissions.
French bill proposes crackdown on throwaway culture of ultra fast fashion
Fast fashion adverts could soon be banned in France under a new proposal to crack down on the polluting industry.
The bill, tabled by MP AnneCécile Violland, also seeks to im
worst climate consequences unlike the poorer south, Robinson said.
Now a top official in the group The Elders, which is retired leaders, she used herself as an example of how oblivious to the problem the Global North could be.
In seven years as president of Ireland, she said she never mentioned climate change. As the UN human rights chief she knew climate change was an important issue, but it was one that another agency was handling and not a rights issue.
It was only when Robinson started working for a non-profit she started to help in Africa that she realised that climate change was a rights issue, she said.
“The shocks weren’t nearly as bad in the richer parts of the world. That was the thing that really struck me,” when she worked in Africa. “I mean, women were saying to me, ‘Is God punishing us?’”
Brazilian Indigenous environmental activist Txai Surui said it's about time: “Our reality is so far from here, from the global north. People listen about the Amazon. Listen about the Indigenous peoples, but they don’t really know what’s going on in your land. They don’t really know what means when we say that we are fighting with our lives, with our bodies.”
We know that this is a human right, because we are feeling it in our skin. We are feeling it in our body. Txai Surui Brazilian Indigenous environmental activist
“We know that this is a human right, because we are feeling it in our skin. We are feeling it in our body,” Surui said during a break at the Skoll World Forum. And it's frustrating, she said, when people don't notice it even though Surui and others are screaming for people to notice.
“When you people close your eyes to our reality, they condemn us and condemn yourselves,” because of the importance of solving climate change, Surui said. And Indigenous people feel it hardest around the world, she added.
Robinson also highlighted a basic injustice in climate change: “It affects much earlier, much more severely, the poorest countries, poorest communities, small island states, Indigenous peoples. Within that, there’s a huge gender injustice because of the different social roles of women at different access to power, lack of access to power.”
“Inequality is sapping the system,” Robinson said. “It’s eroding a sense of being humans together on this planet when you have this incredible wealth and power that goes with us - and so many people, feeling left out and and divided.”
But Robinson has hope because Brazil will host international economic and climate negotiations over the next two years.
“I have a lot of faith in Brazil in addressing this, I think there is a real intent to address, inequality as well as sustainability and, you know, move forward,” Robinson said, mentioning the possibility of a global wealth tax.
'We do need a fairer system'
She also said world governments and banks “are spending $1.8 trillion (€1.7 trillion) a year on what is harming us, mainly fossil fuel subsidising.”
Many young climate activists criticise the entire capitalistic system for warming's harms, Robinson sympathises with them, pointing to social democracies in Ireland and Nordic nations as a better path.
“I think we do need a fairer system,” Robinson said. “What we have is a kind of rampant form of capitalism, which has been very extractive for a very long time, which has created these gaps of wealth, within countries and between countries. All of that is, you know, contrary to social stability.”
Add to that what Robinson called a form of “racist Christian nationalism” in the United States and parts of the Europe that hurts weaker people and nations. She said it's fine to be proud of your country, but not to belittle, hurt or be scared of others.
When times get tough and your back is against the wall, Robinson said that's when it is time to embrace hope and "work with what you’ve got and you try to make the difference.”