Nations

This archive collects milestones and progress stories involving nations — countries and their governments — acting to improve lives, protect rights, or address shared challenges. From policy breakthroughs to international cooperation, these stories show what countries are doing right.

Green plant sprout in cracked soil, for article on Great Green Wall

China completes historic 1,800-mile “Great Green Wall”

By / / Good News For Humankind

China’s Great Green Wall has helped lift forest cover from under 10% in 1949 to nearly a quarter of the country’s land today, across roughly 1,800 miles of arid north. In dunes near Hongshui village, 78-year-old farmer Wang Tianchang and his family have spent four decades planting sweetvetch shrubs in tidy squares — a technique locals call “holding down the sand” — alongside pines and blue spruces that now shield their fields. Tens of thousands of volunteers join each planting season, and species choices have grown sharper after decades of trial and error. The honest picture includes monoculture missteps and stubborn sandstorms, but Africa’s own Great Green Wall is drawing explicit inspiration — proof that patient, place-based restoration can ripple far beyond where the first seedlings go in.

Colombia flag, for article on child marriage ban

Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign

By / / Good News For Humankind

Colombia just banned marriage for anyone under 18, ending a 137-year-old loophole that had let minors wed with a parent’s signature. The new law — carried by the slogan “They are Girls, Not Wives” — passed after a 17-year campaign and eight earlier defeats, led by congresswoman Jennifer Pedraza and a coalition of advocates who refused to give up. UNICEF estimates roughly one in four Colombian women alive today were married before 18, so the stakes here are enormous. The law also requires education and prevention programs, recognizing that real change takes more than a ban. Colombia’s win adds momentum to a regional shift toward protecting girls’ futures everywhere.

Teepees under the northern lights, for article on Indigenous-led conservation

Indigenous governments in the Canada’s Northwest Territories sign $375M deal to protect their land

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indigenous-led conservation took a major leap in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where 22 Indigenous governments signed a $375 million agreement to steward their ancestral lands over the next decade. It’s one of the largest Indigenous-led conservation efforts anywhere in the world, and crucially, the nations themselves decide how the money is used — whether for land guardians, new protected areas, climate research, or language and culture programs rooted in the land. “We’re protecting the spirit of the land,” said Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, describing the land itself as a living organ in need of care. As global conservation increasingly recognizes that Indigenous-managed territories safeguard extraordinary biodiversity, this agreement offers a powerful model for what real partnership can look like.

A doctor is about to vaccinate a child, for article on malaria vaccine rollout

Sudan launches first malaria vaccine in landmark child health initiative

By / / Good News For Humankind

Sudan’s malaria vaccine rollout is reaching more than 148,000 children under 12 months in its opening phase, making it the first country in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region to launch the shot nationally. That’s remarkable on its own, but consider the backdrop: hospitals shuttered, health workers unpaid for months, and a war reshaping daily life. Even so, the Federal Ministry of Health worked with UNICEF, WHO, and Gavi to train staff, build cold chain capacity, and reach two states, with expansion to 129 localities planned by 2026. It’s a quiet reminder that even in the hardest places, public health progress can still find a way through.

Brazil renews plan to restore 30 million acres of degraded land

By / / Good News For Humankind

Brazil’s new restoration plan sets out to revive 12 million hectares of degraded land — about half the size of the United Kingdom — by 2030. Launched at the COP16 biodiversity summit, Planaveg 2.0 leans on a hopeful reality: 5.6 million hectares in the Amazon are already regrowing on their own, simply because clearing has stopped. The rest will take real work, including planting and stronger compliance from private landowners, who hold roughly three-quarters of the targeted land. In a country home to up to 18% of the world’s known species, even partial success would ripple far beyond its borders — a reminder that protecting biodiversity globally runs straight through the forests and farms of Brazil.

Australian money, for article on student debt relief

Australia to slash $10 billion off student debt amid cost of living pressures

By / / Good News For Humankind

Australia just wiped roughly A$16 billion in student debt off the books, cutting loan balances by 20% for three million graduates in a single stroke. A typical borrower carrying the average A$27,600 loan will see A$5,520 vanish automatically, with no paperwork required. The law also lifts the income threshold for repayments to A$67,000, giving lower-paid workers in fields like early childhood education and the arts real breathing room. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made it the first bill of his new term, a clear nod to younger voters who showed up in record numbers. As similar income-based loan systems strain graduates in the UK and New Zealand, Australia’s move offers a glimpse of what’s possible when a generation’s frustration finally finds the ballot box.

Coal pollution, for article on Germany coal use

German coal use plunges nearly 40% in 2024

By / / Good News For Humankind

Germany’s coal cleanup took a striking leap forward: hard coal use in power plants dropped 39 percent in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the same stretch in 2023, avoiding roughly 20 million tonnes of CO2. The shift is being driven by a surge in renewables, which now supply more than half of Germany’s electricity, alongside cleaner imports from European neighbors. Lignite, the dirtier sibling, fell 14.5 percent over the same months. Analysts now expect Germany’s coal exit to arrive well before its 2038 legal deadline. When the continent’s largest economy can pull this off, it reshapes what’s possible for every country still wrestling with how to leave coal behind.

Professional workers clean and inspect solar panels on a floating buoy. Power plant with water, for article on China solar power

China adds unprecedented 160 GW of solar power in first 3 quarters of 2024

By / / Good News For Humankind

China’s solar boom hit a staggering new milestone: 160 gigawatts of new capacity added in just the first nine months of 2024, roughly equal to Germany’s entire electricity system built in under a year. That pushed cumulative solar capacity past 770 GW, a 48% jump from the year before, with rooftops and desert mega-farms growing side by side. Driving it all is a remarkable cost story: solar panel prices have fallen more than 90% over the past 15 years, making sunlight the cheapest new electricity humans have ever generated. Because China makes most of the world’s panels, every gigawatt it installs ripples outward, putting affordable clean power within reach of countries that have long been priced out.

Island off the shore of the Azores, for article on pre-Portuguese Azores settlement, for article on Azores marine protected area

The Azores creates largest marine protected area network in the North Atlantic

By / / Good News For Humankind

Marine protected area status now covers 287,000 square kilometers around Portugal’s Azores islands, creating the largest such network in Europe. Half of that expanse bans fishing and other harmful activities outright, giving deep-sea corals, whales, manta rays, and sharks real room to thrive. Scientists mapped the zones using underwater cameras and deep-sea surveys, working alongside local fishers and officials so the boundaries reflect both ecological richness and community life. The Azores sits at a crossroads of Atlantic currents, with hydrothermal vents and seamounts that support some of the region’s most diverse marine communities. With less than 3 percent of the global ocean currently fully protected, this decision offers the worldwide 30×30 movement something it badly needs — a credible, science-led example others can follow.