A Collection of Good Climate News

We’re all used to encountering bad news about climate change across media, and indeed such news is increasingly common. As just one example, the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca this June experienced over 1,300 deaths related to extreme heat that broke the 50°C mark. Meanwhile, horrendous wildfires have been wreaking havoc across North America during summer 2024 – a pattern exhibited during several of the past recent summers.

However, as the world invests in climate change mitigation efforts, the news is not all doom and gloom. We’ve collected some examples of recent good climate news to bring some hope and positivity.

In this article, we cover:

• Growing adoption of heat pumps for efficient heating and cooling
• Growth in electric car sales
• Research into less carbon-intensive industrial production
• The growth of batteries that enable solar power at night
• Advanced economies are cutting emissions
• How green behavior is contagious

New Technology Is Generating Climate Good News

Much of the good climate news we report here is thanks to advances in technology that help reduce emissions. For one thing, green electricity generating technology like wind and solar is making strides. In 2023, global wind and solar additions were 540 gigawatts, up 75% from 2022 levels. 

However, below, we mention a lot of newer technologies that companies and consumers have adopted which are helping the climate change battle overall.  As recently as 2021, the International Energy Agency estimated that 50% of the emissions reductions needed to reach net zero emissions by 2050 would come from tech not yet commercially available. As of September 2023, they reduced that estimate to 35%. In other words, in just two years a lot of new technology has been introduced that can pave the road toward a net-zero emissions future. (Source: Economist, 14 October 2023)

Heat Pump Installations Are Growing

In our May article on ways to reduce your climate emissions this summer, we explored how heat pumps can cut emissions for heating and cooling.  Heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse, extracting heat from the air, even when it’s cold out, to heat your home or office.  They can also operate in reverse to provide efficient air conditioning.  They’re more efficient than other forms of building heating and cooling, run on electricity, and can be emissions-free if powered by green energy.

Heat pump sales in 14 European countries have been increasing for most of the last 10 years, from less than 1 million installations per year in 2013 to over 2.5 million per year in 2023.  A cumulative 20 million have been installed, although Europe wants to reach 60 million by 2030, which would require a major increase over the next 6 years. Meanwhile, U.S. heat pump sales outpaced gas furnaces sales for the second consecutive year in 2023. (Sources: The Economist, 6 July 2024; New York Times, 2 March 2024)

As we mentioned in our May blog post, the UK has also been incentivizing heat pump installation. A generous grant programme to replace fossil fuel boilers with heat pumps, called the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, has seen applications soar 75% year over year. We wonder if the new Labour government will do even more to encourage heat pump installations and facilitate more low-carbon home heating.

Electric Car Sales Are Growing

Car manufacturing creates emissions no matter the type of car. Nevertheless, the world fleet of cars must transform into a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) if we are ever to achieve net zero emissions.  After years and years of slow sales for EVs, their adoption is finally accelerating. Some 18% of all new cars sold globally in 2023 were electric (including hybrid vehicles), up from 14% in 2022, 5% in 2020 and only 2% as recently as 2018.  (Sources: International Energy Agency & Washington Post, 30 January 2024; Wall Street Journal, 1 March 2024)

Industrial Processes Are Changing

While we all tend to pay attention to climate-changing emissions from transport, electric plants, and even food, we can’t forget the role of industrial processes.  That’s because industry/manufacturing worldwide consumes a third of global energy. Generating heat accounts for three-quarters of that energy, and 90% of that heat is made from fossil fuels.  The heat is used for everything from dying fabric and extruding plastic to making glass and steel. Industry is a bigger source of emissions than power generation or transport. (Source: Economist, 15 February 2024)

To improve industrial efficiency, more industrial heat would have to come from electricity, which can be powered by carbon-free fuel sources. Industrial giants are experimenting with this:

• BASF, the world’s largest chemicals firm, is partnering with SABIC and Linde to develop an electric furnace to generate the intense heat needed for chemical manufacturing. 
• Rio Tinto and BHP, two huge mining companies, announced a joint plan in February to build Australia’s first electric smelter for iron ore. 
• Antora, a California startup, is developing ways to heat “bricks” using electricity up to 1,800°C.  The bricks can then be used to heat numerous high-temperature industrial processes.

(Source: Economist, 15 February 2024)

Batteries Are Enabling Solar Power for Evening Electric Demand

The installation of industrial-scale batteries is helping to address the problem of solar power being unable to be generated nocturnally. In many countries, demand for electricity peaks from 6pm to 10pm as people come home from work, cook, and run appliances. It would be great to have solar power during that time frame, but solar panel wattage typically falls off after 4pm and is absent by 8pm.  However, by charging up enormous utility-scale batteries during the day, solar can be used to address evening electricity demand.

A leading example of this solution is the U.S. state of California, which since 2020 has installed more large-scale batteries than anywhere but China. When operating at their best, the batteries have supplied more than one-fifth of California’s peak energy demand from 7pm to 10pm.  That’s the equivalent of 7 nuclear reactors running at full steam. Over the past 3 years, battery storage on the U.S. electric grid grew tenfold to 16,000 megawatts or roughly the output of 16 nuclear reactors. (Source: New York Times, 7 May 2024)

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) Emissions Are Dropping

For the first time, there has been a measurable dip in atmospheric hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), an extremely potent greenhouse gas. HCFCs were developed to replace chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the gases that caused the hole in the ozone layer decades ago. It was a tradeoff to fix the ozone layer at the expense of climate change.  However, a 1992 agreement led to the abandonment of HCFCs as well, which are now finally declining.    (Source: Washington Post, 11 June 2024)

Governments Are Adopting Carbon Pricing Schemes

A carbon pricing scheme is a kind of tax to discourage carbon-intense processes by charging money for emissions. By the beginning of 2023, a carbon pricing scheme covered 23% of global emissions, up from 5% in 2010. According to the IMF, 49 countries have carbon pricing schemes, and another 23 are considering them.  

On 1 October 2023, the EU launched its “carbon border adjustment mechanism” (CBAM). Starting in 2026, CBAM will levy a carbon price on all the bloc’s imports, equal to what the EU charges for emissions within its own territory. That should create a powerful incentive for exporting companies worldwide to reduce emissions. Initially, CBAM will cover the EU’s imports of aluminum, cement, electricity, fertilizer, hydrogen, iron, and steel. (Source: Economist, 7 October 2023)

Advanced Economies Are Reducing Emissions

The adoption of newer technology like heat pumps, electric vehicles, renewables, battery power and carbon pricing is helping to cut emissions across advanced economies. Climate change emissions in advanced economies fell 4.5% in 2023 to a 50-year low. Of course, this is just the beginning of significantly more progress that needs to be made in reducing emissions across the most advanced economies, while emerging economies must also begin to curtail emissions.  (Source: Wall Street Journal, 1 March 2024)

How You Can Contribute to the Good Climate News

Because humans are a social species who pay attention to what others are thinking and doing as models for their own behavior, individual climate actions can have a contagion effect.

Researchers in PNAS examined 430 separate studies to analyse what factors influenced individuals’ environmental behaviors. Social comparison had the most significant effect, beyond educational interventions, appeals to the public, and even financial incentives.  For instance, researchers found that getting a report from the electric company that your neighbors use less electricity nudges homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements.  

Meanwhile, in a 2021 paper published in Nature, researchers discovered that the most important factor determining whether someone installs solar panels on their roof is whether or not a neighbor has them.  A single visible solar rooftop project within a half-mile radius increases installations by nearly 50 percent, a second study found.  “Solar panels are contagious,” the authors concluded. (Source: Washington Post, 5 December 2023)

That finding was backed up by a study by Kenneth Gillingham, a professor of economics at Yale. He and his colleagues found that households are more likely to install solar panels if they can see their neighbors’ panels from the road. Gillingham’s team concluded: “Social norms and interactions affect people’s behavior, and alternative energy is no exception.”  (Source: Wall Street Journal, 29 November 2023)

Help Create More Good Climate News

Since green behavior is contagious, we encourage you to take steps to lead a greener lifestyle, since those steps can go on to influence many others. That way you can help to generate more good climate news in the future.  Consider some first steps:

• Read our tips to Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions This Summer.
• If you live in Oxfordshire, visit our Waste Innovation Station Headquarters (WISH) in Kidlington, where we offer exhibits and guidance on reducing your carbon footprint.
• Consider adopting a climatarian diet, since food production accounts for up to one-third of all climate change emissions.
• Make plans to attend one of our fabulous events for Sustainable Fashion Week in September 2024 and discover the ways we can reduce emissions through our practices around fashion and clothing!