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.

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England to require solar panels on all new homes by 2027

By / / Good News For Humankind

Solar panel mandate on new homes in England marks a significant shift in how the country approaches energy and housing. Starting in 2027, housebuilders will be legally required to install rooftop solar on virtually all new construction, with homeowners expected to save more than £1,000 annually on energy bills. The policy supports the U.K.’s goal of decarbonizing its electricity grid by 2030 and signals the government’s commitment to staying the course on net zero despite growing political debate. Across 1.5 million planned new homes, the cumulative impact on household finances and grid demand could be substantial.

Residential apartment buildings in Helsinki for an article about Finland Housing First

Finland cut homelessness by 75% — and the rest of the world is watching

By / / Good News For Humankind

Finland Housing First policy stands as one of the most remarkable social policy achievements of the modern era, reducing the country’s homeless population by roughly 75% since 2008. Rather than requiring sobriety or employment before offering shelter, Finland gives people housing unconditionally, letting support services follow once residents have a stable foundation. The results are concrete: long-term homelessness fell 68% between 2008 and 2022, and housing a formerly homeless person saves Finnish society approximately 15,000 euros annually in emergency costs. The program proves chronic homelessness is solvable, not inevitable, though recent government cuts offer a sobering reminder that even exceptional systems depend on sustained political will.

Solar panels and wind turbines generating power on open land for an article about U.S. clean electricity

Fossil fuels fall below half of U.S. electricity for the first time on record

By / / Good News For Humankind

U.S. clean electricity reached a historic milestone in April 2025, when fossil fuels dropped below 50% of American electricity generation for the first time since the coal-powered grid emerged in the 1800s. According to energy research firm Ember, coal, oil, and natural gas fell to roughly 47% of total generation, with wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear powering the rest. This shift was driven by a 90% drop in wind and solar costs since 2010, triggering sustained investment now visible in real grid output. The milestone matters because it breaks the long-held assumption that fossil fuels are the inevitable backbone of modern electricity.

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Colombia creates landmark territory to protect uncontacted Indigenous groups

By / / Good News For Humankind

Colombia’s new Yuri-Passé territory protects more than one million hectares of southern Amazon rainforest — the country’s first area created specifically to shield an uncontacted Indigenous group from outside interference. Neighboring Indigenous communities, who had quietly known about the Yuri-Passé for generations, spent over a decade gathering evidence and building trust with the government to make this happen. What’s remarkable is that they led the entire process: shaping the framework, presenting the case, and bringing the state along with them. The protected zone also overlaps with Río Puré National Park, safeguarding habitat for giant anteaters, giant armadillos, and hundreds of other species. With more than 100 isolated Indigenous groups still living across the Amazon, this Indigenous-led approach offers a hopeful template for protecting both peoples and forests worldwide.

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France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes

By / / Good News For Humankind

A fusion reactor in southern France has kept a hydrogen plasma stable for 1,337 seconds — more than 22 minutes — beating the previous record by roughly 25%. The WEST Tokamak pulled this off using just 2 megawatts of heating power, and crucially, without damaging the reactor’s interior, which is the part that has tripped up so many earlier attempts. The data feeds directly into ITER, the much larger international fusion project being built nearby. Net energy gain — the real threshold for practical fusion — still hasn’t been reliably crossed, and this milestone doesn’t change that. But each stable second brings the dream of clean, limitless energy closer to something the world can actually build.

Someone holding a phone opening the TikTok app, for article on Brazil smartphone ban in schools

Brazil bans smartphones in schools to aim for better learning

By / / Good News For Humankind

Brazil’s nationwide school smartphone ban is already showing results, and Stanford-led research offers an early look at why. In surveys of more than 3,000 students, teachers, and administrators across all 26 states, 83% of students said they’re paying more attention in class since the law took effect. Younger kids are adapting fastest — 88% of elementary students reported sharper focus, compared with 70% of high schoolers. Researchers also found that the schools seeing the biggest shifts gave students a dedicated spot to stash their phones, suggesting physical separation matters more than rules on paper. As dozens of countries weigh similar policies, Brazil’s real-time experiment is becoming a rare evidence base for what actually works.

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U.S. approves “milestone” Parkinson’s treatment for 2025 release

By / / Good News For Humankind

Onapgo, a new wearable approved by the FDA, will give Americans with Parkinson’s a continuous, non-surgical way to manage their symptoms when it launches in late 2025. The small device delivers a steady infusion of apomorphine under the skin, bypassing the digestive system entirely — a real advantage for a disease that often slows digestion and makes pills unpredictable. In trials, patients cut their daily “off” episodes — those rough stretches when medication wears off and tremors return — by nearly two and a half hours on average. The therapy has quietly helped European patients for about three decades, and its U.S. arrival opens a gentler path for the roughly one million Americans living with Parkinson’s, part of a growing global push toward more humane, individualized care.

A doctor reviewing a prescription pad in a clinical setting for an article about non-opioid pain drug approval

FDA approves first non-opioid pain drug in more than 20 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

The FDA’s approval of Journavx (suzetrigine), a first-in-class non-opioid pain drug, marks the most significant shift in acute pain treatment in over two decades. Developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the drug blocks a specific sodium channel in the peripheral nervous system, stopping pain signals before they reach the brain without engaging the opioid pathways linked to addiction and overdose. Two rigorous clinical trials confirmed its effectiveness for moderate to severe acute pain. With more than 500,000 opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. since 1999, this approval offers patients and doctors a genuinely new choice — one that treats real pain without the shadow of dependence.

New Zealand's Taranaki Mounga, for article on Taranaki Mounga legal personhood

New Zealand mountain granted same legal rights as a person

By / / Good News For Humankind

Legal personhood for Taranaki Mounga passed New Zealand’s parliament unanimously, making the symmetrical volcanic peak only the third natural feature in the country to hold the rights and protections of a legal person. The mountain will now be known solely by its Māori name, retiring the colonial label given by European settlers, and its interests will be represented jointly by iwi and crown appointees. Hundreds of Taranaki Māori filled Wellington’s public gallery for the final reading and broke into song when the vote passed. As rights-of-nature frameworks spread from Ecuador to Uganda, Taranaki’s recognition as an ancestor — not just a landmark — offers a powerful model for how legal systems can honor Indigenous relationships with the living world.

School of fish, for article on Marshall Islands marine sanctuary

Marshall Islands protects ‘pristine’ Pacific corals with first marine sanctuary

By / / Good News For Humankind

The Marshall Islands just established its first federal marine protected area, shielding 48,000 square kilometers of ocean around the remote Bikar and Bokak atolls. A five-year National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition found these waters hold the highest reef fish biomass anywhere in the Pacific, along with corals showing rare resilience to warming seas. The new sanctuary formalizes generations of stewardship by the Utrik community, whose traditional knowledge anchors the country’s Reimaanlok conservation framework — a Marshallese word meaning “look toward the future.” For a low-lying nation whose survival depends on a healthy ocean, this is both a homegrown victory and a meaningful step toward the global goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.