Curated by Peter Schulte · Published 2026-07-06 · Last updated 2026-07-06
The world is decarbonizing faster than most forecasts predicted.
Renewables hit 49% of global power capacity in 2025, clean energy outgenerated coal globally for the first time, and EV sales surpassed 20 million units in a single year. China’s CO₂ emissions fell for the first time in its modern industrial history. Australia crossed 50% renewable electricity. Uruguay runs its grid at 97–99% clean power.
These aren’t isolated wins — they represent a structural shift in energy economics. As of 2025, 91% of new renewable projects are cheaper than any new fossil fuel alternative, meaning the market itself is now the primary driver.
From fusion plasma records to 170 million acres of new Chinese forest, from Ethiopia’s combustion-vehicle ban to Bolivia’s Indigenous-led Amazon protection, the breadth of climate progress in this period is without precedent.
Key takeaways
- Renewables hit 49% of global power capacity in 2025 — and clean energy outgenerated coal worldwide for the first time in history.
- Global EV sales topped 20 million units in 2025, a 27% year-over-year jump, now driven by consumer economics rather than government mandates.
- 91% of new renewable energy projects in 2024 were cheaper than any new fossil fuel alternative, making cost — not policy — the main accelerant.
- China’s CO₂ emissions fell for the first time ever in its modern industrial history, while the country planted 170 million+ acres of new forest since 1990.
- From fusion endurance records to world-scale battery storage, the technology pipeline for deep decarbonization has never looked stronger.
Recovery at a glance
| Subject | Recovery | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Global renewables capacity | 49% of all power capacity worldwide — first time ever | Global |
| Global EV sales | 20 million units sold in 2025, up 27% year-on-year | Global |
| Renewable energy cost | 91% of new projects cheaper than any new fossil fuel | Global (IRENA) |
| China solar | First country to install 1 terawatt of solar power | China |
| China CO₂ emissions | First-ever fall in modern industrial history | China |
| Uruguay electricity | 97–99% renewable grid, sustained for years | Uruguay |
| Australia electricity | 50%+ from solar and wind — first time ever | Australia |
| China fusion plasma (EAST) | 1,066 seconds (17+ min) — world record confinement | China |
| France fusion reactor (WEST) | 1,337 seconds (22+ min) plasma stability record | France |
| Amazon deforestation (Brazil) | Nearly 50% drop in a single year | Brazil |
| China reforestation | 170 million+ acres of new forest since 1990 | China |
| India solar additions | 24.5 GW added in 2024 — more than double prior year | India |
| Solar installation record | 597 GW installed globally in a single year (2024) | Global |
| Bolivia Amazon protection | 2.4 million+ acres under Indigenous-led stewardship | Bolivia |
| Guatemala Maya Forest | Oil extraction shut down; 2.1 million-hectare reserve rewilded | Guatemala |
| Ireland | Last coal plant closed — fully coal-free nation | Ireland |
On this page
- Why this matters
- What’s driving the comeback
- Renewable energy milestones: the grid transformation in numbers
- National clean energy breakthroughs: countries crossing historic thresholds
- Electric vehicles and clean transport: a market tipping point
- Energy storage, fusion, and the technology frontier
- Major clean energy projects and landmark policy
- Forests, land, and ecosystem restoration
- More wildlife comebacks
- The outlook
- Frequently asked questions
Why this matters
The story of climate progress in the mid-2020s is not one of incremental improvement — it is a structural break from historical trends.
For the first time, clean energy outgenerated coal globally over a sustained period, renewables represent nearly half of all installed power capacity worldwide, and China — the world’s largest emitter — recorded its first-ever decline in CO₂ emissions. These are threshold crossings, not trajectory nudges.
What makes the moment distinctive is that economics has taken over from policy as the primary driver. When 91% of new renewable projects undercut any new fossil fuel on cost, and consumers in price-sensitive markets are choosing EVs without subsidies, the transition has its own momentum. The question is no longer whether it happens, but how fast.
By the numbers
- 597 GW of solar installed globally in a single year (2024) — the largest annual addition of any electricity source in history
- Global EV sales hit 20 million units in 2025, a 27% year-over-year increase
- China planted 170 million+ acres of new forest since 1990 — an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined
- Amazon deforestation in Brazil fell nearly 50% in a single year, from 10,278 to 5,153 square kilometers
- Australia’s rooftop solar surge: roughly 9,500 panels installed every single day in 2017, a pace that has only accelerated
- Wind and solar crossed 10% of world electricity in 2021 — a milestone that took two decades; renewables hit 49% of capacity just four years later
- Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces in the U.S. for two consecutive years, with more than 4 million units sold in 2023 alone
What’s driving the comeback
The recoveries documented here share a consistent anatomy: policy creates the initial conditions, technology drives costs down, and markets then scale the solution beyond what policy alone could achieve.
Protected-area enforcement and land-use law underpin the ecological wins. Brazil’s Amazon reforestation surge followed a revitalized enforcement agency. Guatemala’s Maya Forest rewilding became possible only after the government permanently closed oil concessions inside the reserve. Bolivia’s 2.4-million-acre protection was Indigenous-led — a model increasingly recognized as among the most durable.
On the energy side, the pattern is learning curves compounding. Solar costs fell so far that Portugal’s floating solar auction produced a negative price — bidders paid the grid for the right to generate. China’s terawatt-scale solar buildout, India’s record 24.5 GW single-year addition, and South Australia’s week-long 100% renewable run all reflect the same dynamic: once unit costs cross a threshold, deployment accelerates nonlinearly.
Transportation follows a parallel track. Ethiopia banned combustion vehicles against a backdrop of a nearly 100% renewable grid — making the policy coherent rather than symbolic. Malaysia’s 1,100-bus electric transit commitment and India’s Telangana ordering 915 electric buses show that the EV transition is no longer confined to wealthy markets.
Renewable energy milestones: the grid transformation in numbers
The single most important structural shift in climate progress is happening on the electricity grid, where renewables have moved from marginal to dominant in less than a decade. The stories in this section document threshold crossings — moments when clean energy crossed 50%, hit record installation figures, or became cheaper than fossil fuels — that together constitute a irreversible market transformation. What unites them is not just ambition but achieved, measured outcomes, confirmed by independent agencies.
Renewables overtake coal as the world’s top electricity source
For the first time in recorded history, clean energy generated more electricity globally than coal over a full half-year period. Solar drove 83% of new electricity demand growth and now produces 58% of it, according to energy think tank Ember. The milestone marks a genuine turning point in the century-long dominance of fossil fuels on the global grid.
Renewables hit 49% of global power capacity — a first
Global installed renewable power surpassed 5,100 gigawatts in 2025, representing 49% of all capacity worldwide for the first time in history. The International Renewable Energy Agency reported a single-year addition of 692 gigawatts, the largest ever recorded. The world is now within striking distance of renewables becoming the majority of all installed power.
91% of new renewable projects beat fossil fuels on cost
According to a July 2025 IRENA report, 91% of new renewable power projects built in 2024 were cheaper than any new fossil fuel alternative. Onshore wind now delivers electricity at the lowest cost of any generation source. This cost dominance means the energy transition is increasingly self-funding, no longer dependent on subsidy regimes to compete.
World installs record 597 GW of solar in a single year
Solar power shattered records in 2024 with 597 gigawatts of new capacity installed globally — a 33% increase over 2023 and the largest annual addition of any electricity source in history. This marks the first time solar has claimed that record. Confirmed by SolarPower Europe, the figure reflects deployment now running far ahead of earlier projections.
Wind and solar cross 10% of world electricity for the first time
Wind and solar together generated 10.3% of the world’s electricity in 2021, crossing double digits for the first time in history. Fifty countries were already pulling more than 10% of their power from these two sources. The milestone established a baseline from which the subsequent surge to near-majority capacity would build.
Global wind capacity jumps 19% in a single year
Wind power added 60.4 gigawatts of new capacity in 2019, a 19% jump over the prior year. Offshore wind made up a tenth of all new installations for the first time, marking its transition from niche to mainstream. The record year set the stage for the accelerating buildout that followed through the 2020s.
Global clean energy investment hits record $755 billion in 2021
Clean energy investment reached a record $755 billion globally in 2021, climbing 27% in a single year. What distinguished the moment was breadth: automakers retooled factories for EVs, private capital moved into battery storage, and governments tied recovery spending to clean energy. The figure signaled that capital markets had begun pricing in the transition.
National clean energy breakthroughs: countries crossing historic thresholds
Across six continents, individual countries are hitting milestones that would have been dismissed as unrealistic a decade ago — fully coal-free grids, majority-renewable electricity systems, and the world’s first combustion-vehicle bans. These national stories matter because they function as proof-of-concept at scale, demonstrating that energy transitions are operationally achievable across radically different geographies, income levels, and grid architectures. The diversity of the countries involved — Uruguay, Ethiopia, Ireland, Australia, India — is itself the point.
Australia crosses 50% renewable electricity for the first time
Solar and wind together supplied more than 50% of Australia’s electricity in 2024, the first time the country has hit that mark. A decade ago, coal dominated at roughly 75% of the grid while renewables barely reached double digits. The speed of the reversal is among the fastest of any major economy.
Uruguay sustains a 97–99% renewable grid
Uruguay now powers 97–99% of its electricity grid from renewable sources, one of the highest shares on Earth, sustained reliably for years. The transformation was driven not by climate idealism but by a practical decision to escape costly fossil fuel imports, with the turning point arriving in 2008 after an oil price spike. The result is among the cleanest and most stable grids in the world.
Uruguay’s 15-year renewable revolution, from oil dependence to 90%+ clean
Starting nearly entirely dependent on imported oil, Uruguay pulled off a transformation to 90–98% renewable electricity in roughly 15 years. The pivot began in 2008 when government policy bet on wind and solar as an energy security strategy. Uruguay now serves as a global reference case for rapid, reliable grid decarbonization.
China becomes the first country to install 1 terawatt of solar
China reached one terawatt of installed photovoltaic capacity in 2025, the first nation in history to hit that mark, arriving ahead of schedule. The achievement is equivalent to 1.6 million utility-scale solar arrays running simultaneously. China’s solar capacity now represents the single largest deployment of any energy technology by any country.
Ireland closes its last coal-fired power plant
Ireland’s Moneypoint power station shut down permanently in 2025 after nearly six decades of operation, making Ireland one of Europe’s first fully coal-free nations. The closure eliminated the single largest source of carbon emissions in the country’s electricity sector. The milestone was reached ahead of many European peers despite Ireland’s historically high fossil fuel dependence.
Ethiopia becomes the first country to ban combustion-powered vehicles
Ethiopia announced a full ban on the import of gasoline and diesel cars in late January 2025, the first such policy anywhere in the world. The ban rests on a coherent foundation: virtually every kilowatt powering an Ethiopian EV comes from renewable sources, mostly hydropower. The policy links transport and grid decarbonization in a single move.
California runs two-thirds of its giant economy on clean energy
California reached 67% clean and renewable electricity in 2023, making it the largest economy on Earth to hit that mark. The shift was driven by decades of binding renewable energy policy combined with sustained private investment. California’s scale — the world’s fifth-largest economy — gives the milestone particular weight as a proof point.
India’s coal share drops below 50% of power capacity for first time since 1960s
Coal fell below half of India’s total electricity capacity for the first time since the 1960s, a quiet but historic line crossed by the world’s most populous country. Renewables made up nearly three-quarters of new capacity India added in the first quarter of 2024. The shift represents a structural change in the energy trajectory of a country whose choices are globally decisive.
India adds a record 24.5 GW of solar in a single year
India installed 24.5 gigawatts of new solar capacity in 2024, more than double the year before and a new national record. A significant portion came from rooftops: 700,000 households installed panels in just 10 months, aided by a new government subsidy program. The pace of deployment puts India on track to meet and potentially exceed its renewable energy targets.
South Australia runs on 100% renewables for a full week
Renewable energy powered all of South Australia for seven consecutive days at the end of December 2023, the longest 100% clean run the state has ever recorded. Wind turbines provided the majority of generation while rooftop solar contributed nearly a third. The achievement demonstrated that a modern grid can operate reliably on wind and solar alone, without backup fossil fuel generation, for sustained periods.
Australia solar output edges past coal for the first time
For a few minutes on a sunny August Sunday, solar panels across Australia generated 9,427 megawatts — edging past coal for the first time since the national electricity market began two decades earlier. South Australia’s rooftop solar density was central to the achievement. The moment, though brief, was a symbolic threshold that has since become routine.
The EU surpasses 50% renewable power share for the first time
In the first half of 2024, clean sources generated exactly half of the EU’s public electricity — the first time the bloc had crossed that line. Adding nuclear, three-quarters of Europe’s electricity came from low-carbon sources. The milestone reflected coordinated policy across 27 member states and a decade of accelerating investment in wind and solar.
U.K. solar hits record 15 GW as gas falls to a historic low
Britain’s electricity grid hit 98.8% zero-carbon power for a half-hour stretch on April 22, 2025, with gas squeezed to just 1.2% of the mix. A day later, solar set a new peak at 15.4 gigawatts. The figures mark a dramatic transformation in a grid that was still majority fossil fuel less than a decade earlier.
Wind and solar power more than a third of Brazil’s electricity
Wind and solar supplied 34% of Brazil’s electricity in August 2025, up from 24% for all of 2024. The achievement came under real stress: hydropower dropped to a four-year low due to drought, yet Brazil avoided blackouts by leaning on its fast-growing wind and solar fleet. The result demonstrated renewable resilience under adverse conditions.
Benin commits to solar as its primary electricity source by 2030
Benin has formally committed to making solar photovoltaics its primary electricity source by 2030, a significant pivot for a country that long depended heavily on power imports from neighbors. The policy addresses both energy insecurity and unreliable household supply. It represents the expansion of the clean energy transition into West Africa’s smaller economies.
China’s CO₂ emissions fall for the first time in modern industrial history
China’s carbon dioxide emissions declined for the first time in its modern industrial history in the first half of 2025, driven by a clean energy buildout outpacing even rising electricity demand. CO₂ dropped 1% year-on-year, extending a decline that began in late 2024. For the world’s largest emitter, the inflection point carries outsized global significance.
Electric vehicles and clean transport: a market tipping point
The electrification of transport has moved from policy aspiration to market reality with striking speed. Global EV sales hit 20 million units in 2025 — driven, for the first time, by consumer economics rather than government incentives — while heat pumps outsold gas furnaces in the U.S. for two consecutive years. The stories here document not just sales figures but the industrial transformation underneath them: factory conversions, public transit procurements, and the infrastructure investments locking in the shift across income levels and geographies.
One in four new cars sold in China is now fully electric
China’s EV market crossed a remarkable threshold in 2023, with 25% of new cars sold being fully battery-electric and plug-in vehicles of all types capturing 37% of the market. Just three years earlier, plug-ins held only 6.3% of sales. The speed of market share capture is without precedent in automotive history.
EVs on track for one-sixth of global market in 2023
Electric vehicles were projected to hit 14 million global sales in 2023, up from 10 million the year before, prompting analysts to revise forecasts upward. The International Energy Agency projected EVs would make up 35% of new car sales worldwide by 2030. The revision cycle itself — forecasts consistently undershooting reality — became a defining feature of EV market analysis.
Heat pumps outsell gas furnaces in the U.S. for the second year running
Heat pump sales surpassed gas furnace shipments in the United States for two consecutive years, with more than 4 million units sold in 2023 alone. Federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act were a key driver. The back-to-back years suggest a structural rather than cyclical shift in how Americans heat their homes.
GM makes its largest-ever investment — $7 billion on EV manufacturing
General Motors committed $7 billion to EV manufacturing capacity, the largest single investment in the company’s 116-year history, centered in Michigan. The plan upgrades an assembly plant near Detroit to build electric Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups while adding a new battery facility. The scale of the commitment signaled that the U.S. auto industry’s transition had become irreversible.
Malaysia to deploy 1,100 electric buses by 2030
Malaysia committed to deploying more than 1,100 electric buses nationwide by 2030 under its National Energy Transition Roadmap. The initiative targets significant reductions in urban air pollution and transport emissions across a rapidly growing economy. It reflects the broadening of clean transit investment into Southeast Asia.
Telangana orders 915 electric buses in a major Indian clean transit push
India’s Telangana state ordered 915 zero-emission buses in one of the country’s largest single clean transit procurements. The vehicles will serve routes across Hyderabad and other urban centers, cutting air pollution for millions of residents. The purchase is part of a broader national push to electrify public transit at scale.
Energy storage, fusion, and the technology frontier
Decarbonizing electricity generation is necessary but not sufficient — the deeper challenge is making clean energy available on demand, around the clock, in any weather. The stories in this section document the technology frontier: fusion reactors sustaining plasma for record durations, grid-scale batteries storing energy for days rather than hours, and novel solar storage concepts holding energy for up to 18 years. Progress here is moving from laboratory record to commercial deployment, and the pace is accelerating.
China sustains fusion plasma for a world-record 17 minutes
China’s EAST tokamak held superheated plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds — more than 17 minutes — the longest confinement time ever recorded at that temperature. The record more than doubled the same machine’s 2023 mark of 403 seconds. Each successive record advances the engineering case that sustained fusion reactions are achievable.
China’s fusion endurance record: over 1,000 seconds confirmed
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak in Hefei held plasma stable for 1,066 seconds, over double its own 2023 record of 403 seconds. The result was a concrete engineering milestone, not just a physics record, demonstrating that plasma confinement systems can operate at these durations without failure. The same machine’s trajectory — 403 seconds to 1,066 in two years — suggests rapid progress.
France’s fusion reactor holds plasma for a record 22 minutes
France’s WEST Tokamak sustained a hydrogen plasma for 1,337 seconds — more than 22 minutes — beating the previous world record by roughly 25%. The reactor accomplished this using just 2 megawatts of heating power, and crucially, without damaging internal components. The result sets a new benchmark for fusion reactor endurance under real operational conditions.
JET fusion reactor doubles its own heat record
Scientists at the JET facility in Oxfordshire sustained a fusion reaction for five seconds, releasing 59 megajoules of heat — more than double what the same machine produced in 1997. Inside the reactor, plasma reached 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the sun’s core. The milestone was described as a huge step in the decades-long quest for commercial fusion energy.
Switzerland builds the world’s most powerful redox flow battery
A 27-meter-deep redox flow battery rising in northern Switzerland will become the world’s most powerful storage system, capable of running 210,000 homes for a full day once online in 2029. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, it stores energy in two liquid electrolytes, offering longer duration and longer operational life. The project demonstrates that grid-scale long-duration storage is moving from concept to construction.
World’s biggest liquid air battery begins construction near Manchester
The world’s largest liquid air battery began rising on a former industrial site near Manchester, with enough storage to power 200,000 homes for five hours. Developed by Highview Power, the facility compresses surplus renewable electricity into liquid air and releases it on demand. The project advances a storage technology that does not depend on critical minerals.
World’s biggest geothermal power purchase agreement signed in Utah
A Utah geothermal project secured what developers call the world’s largest geothermal power purchase agreement — a 15-year deal delivering 320 megawatts of always-on clean electricity to Southern California Edison, enough for roughly 350,000 homes. Fervo Energy’s project demonstrates that enhanced geothermal technology can be commercially deployed at utility scale. Always-on geothermal addresses the intermittency challenge that solar and wind face.
Portugal’s floating solar auction achieves a negative price — a world first
A winning bidder in Portugal’s floating solar auction agreed to pay the grid 4.13 euros per megawatt-hour for the right to generate clean electricity — a negative price that has no precedent in energy markets. EDP Renováveis achieved this by bundling 70 megawatts of floating panels with other assets. The result illustrates how far solar economics have traveled in a decade.
Swedish researchers store solar energy for up to 18 years
Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University built a molecule that absorbs sunlight, holds it as a liquid, and releases it as electricity only when triggered by a catalyst. To demonstrate the technology, they charged the liquid with Swedish sun and shipped it to Shanghai, where it released heat on demand. The concept could eventually decouple solar generation entirely from time of day or season.
World’s largest green hydrogen hub breaks ground in Texas
Green Hydrogen International broke ground on Hydrogen City in South Texas, designed to produce more than 2.5 billion kilograms of clean hydrogen per year at full build-out. The facility uses underground salt caverns for storage, enabling large-scale seasonal buffering of clean fuel. The project is positioned as a proving ground for green hydrogen at commercial scale.
Abu Dhabi to build the world’s largest 24-hour solar project
Abu Dhabi’s new solar plant will deliver up to 1 gigawatt of steady baseload power around the clock, backed by a 19-gigawatt-hour battery system that stores daytime generation for overnight use. No solar facility has operated at this scale on a 24-hour basis before. The project reframes solar as a baseload resource rather than an intermittent one.
Helsinki installs the world’s largest air-to-water heat pump
Helsinki’s new heat pump can warm 30,000 homes on renewable electricity alone, operating reliably even at -4°F. Built for Finnish utility Helen Oy, it is the largest air-to-water heat pump in the world and uses carbon dioxide as its refrigerant. The installation demonstrates that district heating in cold climates can be fully decarbonized with existing technology.
GE produces the first fully recyclable wind turbine blade
A French-led consortium built a 62-meter fully recyclable wind turbine blade prototype in Ponferrada, Spain, using a thermoplastic resin called Elium that can be chemically broken down and reused at end of life. The innovation addresses one of wind power’s persistent sustainability blind spots: blade waste that previously ended up in landfill. Moving from concept to operational prototype marks a critical step toward a closed-loop wind industry.
Major clean energy projects and landmark policy
Alongside the market-driven transition, a layer of deliberate, large-scale investment and binding policy is locking in decarbonization trajectories that markets alone would not guarantee. The stories here — from the world’s largest renewable energy park under construction in India to Canada’s binding methane regulations and the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality commitment — document the institutional architecture being built to sustain the energy transition across political cycles. Policy and project scale matter because they set the floor below which the transition cannot easily retreat.
World’s largest clean energy park rises in India’s Gujarat desert
The Khavda Renewable Energy Park in Gujarat is under construction across more than 200 square miles — roughly five times the footprint of Paris — in a salt desert in western India. Once complete, it is expected to power 16 million homes. The project would be the single largest renewable energy facility ever built.
China activates world’s largest offshore floating solar installation
A fleet of 2,934 steel-truss platforms eight kilometers off China’s Shandong coast now generates enough electricity to power roughly 2.6 million urban residents. Activated in November 2024, the Dongying farm is the first offshore floating solar installation to reach gigawatt scale. The project demonstrates that solar deployment can extend from rooftops and deserts to open ocean.
China pledges to double its clean energy capacity to 3,600 GW by 2035
China’s new UN climate pledge targets 3,600 gigawatts of wind and solar by 2035 — more than the entire electricity-generating capacity of the United States today, and roughly double what China has already built. The commitment is embedded in China’s formal national climate plan. If met, it would represent the largest single-country decarbonization effort in history.
South Korea plans the world’s largest offshore wind farm at $43 billion
South Korea committed $43 billion to build what would be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, sited in the shallow waters of the country’s Southwest Sea. The plan is notable not just for its scale but for how it was structured, with substantial involvement from local communities and fishing industries. The investment signals Asia’s emergence as a major offshore wind market.
Canada finalizes binding rules to cut oil and gas methane 75% by 2035
Canada finalized regulations setting a binding target to reduce oil and gas sector methane emissions 75% below 2012 levels by 2035 — among the strictest such rules in the world. The regulations require operators to detect and repair leaks and phase out routine venting and flaring. Methane’s high short-term warming potency makes the rules’ near-term climate impact significant.
Hawaii becomes the first U.S. state to charge visitors a climate resilience fee
Hawaii’s Governor signed Senate Bill 1396 in May 2025, making Hawaii the first U.S. state to require visitors to pay a dedicated fee funding environmental protection. The roughly $5-per-trip levy is directed toward climate resilience and conservation programs. The policy creates a direct funding link between tourism pressure and ecosystem restoration.
U.S. solar nearly triples in a single year
The United States added roughly 14.6 gigawatts of new solar capacity in 2016, nearly tripling the year before and outpacing every other energy source including natural gas. Behind the numbers stood more than 260,000 solar workers — a workforce that had doubled in two years. The surge established solar as a mainstream energy source rather than a specialty technology.
EU commits to becoming the first major economy to reach climate neutrality by 2050
The European Union unveiled a strategy to achieve full climate neutrality by 2050, the first commitment of its kind from a major economy. The plan relies on scaling solar and wind to 80% of electricity while deploying existing clean technologies across buildings, transport, and industry. The commitment established a political benchmark that other major economies subsequently adopted or competed with.
Duke Energy commits to exiting all coal by 2035
Duke Energy, the second-largest U.S. electric utility by market value, announced it will shut down all 11 remaining coal-fired power plants by 2035 across the Carolinas, Indiana, and Florida. The company also plans to more than double its solar and wind capacity to 24,000 megawatts by 2030, backed by a $130 billion capital plan. The announcement signaled that coal’s exit from the U.S. grid was a matter of timing, not uncertainty.
Australian households install a record 3.5 million solar panels in a year
Australian homeowners, schools, and small businesses installed roughly 9,500 panels every single day in 2017, adding 1,057 megawatts of rooftop solar in a single year — enough to rival a medium-sized coal plant. The grassroots pace of adoption drove Australia’s solar penetration to among the highest per-capita rates in the world. The consumer-led surge preceded and enabled the grid-level milestones that followed.
Forests, land, and ecosystem restoration
Alongside the energy transition, a parallel movement is recarbonizing landscapes at a scale that began to show up in national emissions data. China’s 170-million-acre reforestation program, Brazil’s halved deforestation rate, Ethiopia’s single-day 700-million-tree planting record, and Indigenous-led protections in Bolivia and Guatemala collectively represent a restoration effort with no historical precedent. What makes these stories strategically significant is that they operate on the same carbon budget as the energy transition — and many of them are accelerating simultaneously.
China plants 170 million acres of new forest since 1990
China has added more than 170 million acres of new tree cover since 1990 — an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined — through programs like Grain for Green, which paid farmers to reforest degraded agricultural land. Forest cover has risen from under 10% in 1949 to nearly a quarter of the country’s land today. The program represents the largest state-led reforestation effort in history.
China completes its 1,800-mile Great Green Wall
China’s Great Green Wall — a roughly 1,800-mile mosaic of planted trees, grasses, and shrubs across arid northern China — has helped drive forest cover from under 10% in 1949 to nearly 25% of national land area. Individual families like that of 78-year-old farmer Wang Tianchang spent four decades planting in dunes near Hongshui village. The project demonstrates that large-scale landscape restoration is achievable through sustained, community-based effort.
Amazon deforestation in Brazil falls nearly 50% in a single year
Satellite data confirmed that Amazon deforestation in Brazil dropped from 10,278 square kilometers in 2022 to 5,153 in 2023 — a nearly 50% reduction in a single year. Environment Minister Marina Silva credited the turnaround to a revitalized enforcement agency, Ibama, whose inspectors had been systematically restored after a period of underfunding. The speed of the reversal demonstrated that deforestation trends can be broken quickly with political will and institutional capacity.
Ethiopia plants 700 million trees in a single day
On July 31, 2025, millions of Ethiopian citizens planted 700 million seedlings in a single day as part of the country’s Green Legacy Initiative, a sweeping national reforestation campaign. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed joined schoolchildren and civil servants across the country. The event set a new benchmark for the scale at which community-mobilized tree planting can operate.
Bolivia protects 2.4 million acres of Amazon under Indigenous stewardship
More than 2.4 million acres of Bolivian Amazonian lowland forest — an area larger than Connecticut — were placed under formal Indigenous-led stewardship in a landmark conservation agreement. The territory shelters critical habitat for jaguars, giant river otters, and other threatened species. Indigenous-led tenure is increasingly recognized as among the most effective long-term conservation models.
Guatemala shuts down oil extraction in the Maya Forest to begin rewilding
Guatemala’s government shut down oil extraction inside the Maya Biosphere Reserve and began ecological restoration of the affected land. The reserve spans 2.1 million hectares at the heart of the Selva Maya, the second-largest continuous tropical forest in the Americas after the Amazon. Closing the oil fields removes a direct driver of habitat degradation inside a formally protected area.
Guatemala permanently closes its largest oil field inside protected rainforest
Guatemala permanently closed the Xan oil field rather than renew its operating concession; the facility had once produced nearly 90% of Guatemala’s oil while operating inside a protected national park. The closure removes an active extraction operation from one of the region’s most biodiverse landscapes. Combined with the broader Maya Forest rewilding initiative, it marks a decisive shift in Guatemala’s approach to protected-area governance.
More climate progress stories
China’s CO2 emissions fall as clean energy outpaces fossil fuels for the first time
The outlook
The trajectory is positive and, in several sectors, self-reinforcing. Solar and wind are now the cheapest form of new electricity generation across 91% of projects globally. EVs are approaching or crossing cost parity in major markets. Fusion energy, while still pre-commercial, has broken endurance records in both China and France within months of each other — proof that the science is advancing on a meaningful timeline.
The caveats are real. Emissions are still rising in absolute terms in many economies, and the pace of transition must accelerate further to meet mid-century targets. Technology breakthroughs like grid-scale liquid-air batteries, 18-year solar storage molecules, and redox flow batteries are still scaling from demonstration to deployment.
What these stories collectively prove is that the ceiling on ambition has risen. Countries, companies, and communities that would have been considered outliers a decade ago — Uruguay at 97% renewable, South Australia running a week at 100% clean, Ethiopia banning combustion vehicles — are now reference cases others cite as templates. The next decade will be determined by whether those templates spread fast enough.
Frequently asked questions
Is climate progress actually happening, or is it just hype?
The evidence for real, measurable progress is substantial. Renewables hit 49% of global power capacity in 2025. Clean energy outgenerated coal worldwide for the first time. Global EV sales topped 20 million units. China’s CO₂ emissions fell for the first time in its modern industrial history. These are independently verified, threshold-level changes — not projections.
What country has made the most climate progress?
Several countries stand out for different reasons. China installed the world’s first terawatt of solar, planted 170 million acres of forest, and recorded its first-ever CO₂ decline. Uruguay runs a 97–99% renewable grid. Ethiopia banned combustion vehicle imports backed by a nearly 100% renewable electricity system. Ireland closed its last coal plant. Each represents a different model of rapid decarbonization.
How did Finland address energy and climate challenges?
Finland features in climate progress through Helsinki’s installation of the world’s largest air-to-water heat pump, capable of warming 30,000 homes on renewable electricity alone even at -4°F. Built for utility Helen Oy, it demonstrates that district heating in cold climates can be fully decarbonized using existing technology.
What is driving the fall in renewable energy costs?
According to a 2025 IRENA report, 91% of new renewable projects built in 2024 were cheaper than any new fossil fuel alternative. The cost collapse is driven by manufacturing scale, learning curves in solar panel and wind turbine production, and increasingly competitive financing. Portugal’s floating solar auction — where a bidder paid the grid for the right to generate — illustrates how far the economics have moved.
How close is nuclear fusion to becoming a real energy source?
Fusion made concrete engineering progress in 2024–2025. China’s EAST tokamak held plasma for 1,066 seconds — over 17 minutes — more than doubling its own 2023 record. France’s WEST Tokamak followed with a 1,337-second record (22+ minutes). The JET facility in the U.K. earlier doubled its own heat output record. These are endurance and engineering milestones, not yet commercial viability, but the trajectory has accelerated visibly.
What are the biggest remaining obstacles to climate progress?
The stories here document remarkable wins, but caveats are real. Global emissions remain positive in absolute terms across most economies, and the pace of transition needs to accelerate to meet mid-century targets. Key technologies — long-duration storage, green hydrogen at scale, and fusion — are still transitioning from demonstration to commercial deployment. Political continuity and capital mobilization in lower-income countries remain central challenges.
About this article
🤖 This article is AI-generated, based on a framework created by Peter Schulte.
🌍 It aims to be inspirational but clear-eyed, accurate, and evidence-based, and grounded in care for the Earth, peace and belonging for all, and human evolution.
💬 Leave your notes and suggestions in the comments below — I will do my best to review and implement where appropriate.
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