This archive collects stories from Good News for Humankind involving nations — countries and their governments — as key actors in progress. Across 1,807 articles, you’ll find reporting on policy wins, international cooperation, and measurable improvements in health, climate, rights, and more.
In the declaration, the five countries commit to step up ambition by 2020, enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the Sustainable Development Goals, and intensify their cooperation.
The measure protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation’s most stringent protection. It permanently withdraws more than 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks.
According to U.S. NASA, there are now more than 2 million sq miles of extra leaf area per year, compared with the early 2000s — a 5% increase. The greening effect stems mainly from ambitious tree-planting and intensive farming in China and India.
Total installed wind capacity in North, Central, and South America increased to 135 gigawatts (GW) in 2018 with the addition of 11.9 GW of new wind capacity, an increase of 12% on 2017.
“2018 will go down as the year that fossil fuels began an inexorable decline in Australia’s electricity supply.”
A final report of the U.K.’s carbon emissions from 1990-2017 has found that CO2 levels have fallen again.
The first vehicle in the 1-year pilot is already running parcels around in Fresno, California, with 3 of the remaining vehicles planned for deployment in Fresno and the 3 remaining vehicles being deployed in Stockton later this year.
Germany, one of the world’s biggest consumers of coal, will shut down all 84 of its coal-fired power plants over the next 19 years to meet its international commitments in the fight against climate change, a government commission said.
The renewable energy sector in Britain saw levels of generation increase by 12.7 TWh (15%) in 2018, subsequently impacting levels of conventional power generation fell by 7% from 140.3 TWh in 2017.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration also believes that around 13.7 GW of coal was retired in 2018, the second-highest amount of coal capacity retired in a year.
