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.
Electricity industry association Eurelectric has released figures showing that 50% of public electricity generation in the E.U. came from renewables for the first time in history earlier this year. The association said Europe was decarbonizing at an unprecedented pace, with just over 50% coming from renewable energy and nearly 75% coming from non-fossil-fuel sources, up from 68% last year.
The migration has enabled animals such as the white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelle and bohor reedbuck to survive seasonal changes for decades. The South Sudanese government’s partnership with the nonprofit African Parks aims to protect up to six million animals on the east bank of the White Nile, a tributary of the Nile.
Peru has granted formal conservation status to Lomas y Tillandsiales de Amara y Ullujaya, a unique fog oasis ecosystem on the arid Peruvian coastline. The state-owned land, which spans 15,936 acres in the Ica region of Southwest Peru and hosts hundreds of rare and threatened native species, will be protected for future research and exploration for at least three decades.
The Inuvialuit and the Canadian federal and Yukon governments have signed a new conservation agreement to ensure greater protection for more than 2 million acres of the Yukon’s northeast coast, 1.8% of Yukon’s landmass. The agreement provides protection and conservation of wildlife such as the Porcupine caribou herd, polar bears, and migratory birds. It will also help preserve and promote traditional use amongst Inuvialuit mostly living in Aklavik and Inuvik in the Northwest Territories who access the area.
The bill will also allow LGBTQ+ couples to adopt children together. Though it still must be formally approved by King Maha Vajiralongkorn to become law, he is expected to support its passing. Once passed, it will make Thailand the third country in Asia and the first in Southeastern Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment and three other government bodies have announced a campaign that aims to substantially clear the garbage in coastal areas by 2025, with ongoing, regular clean-ups established by 2027, Chinese news site Sixth Tone reported. It also calls for measures to be bolstered to prevent inland waste from reaching the sea.
In a sweeping change that could improve millions of Americans’ ability to own a home or buy a car, the Biden administration proposed a rule to ban medical debt from credit reports. The rule, announced by Vice President Kamala Harris and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra, comes as President Joe Biden beefs up his efforts to persuade Americans his administration is lowering costs, a chief concern for voters in the upcoming election.
The seven horses, four mares from Berlin and a stallion and two other mares from Prague, were flown to the central Asian country on a Czech air force transport plane. The wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the vast steppe grasslands of central Asia, where horses are believed to have been first domesticated about 5,500 years ago.
Bottom trawling, a practice criticized by NGOs for impacting ecosystems, involves dragging heavy nets over the seabed, damaging ecosystems, and releasing carbon into the oceans. Sweden is set to become the second EU country to ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas, going a step further than Greece’s April decision by banning it in all territorial waters.
The world’s largest solar farm, in the desert in northwestern Xinjiang, is now connected to China’s grid. The 3.5-gigawatt, 33,000-acre solar farm is outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
Assuming an EV consumes about 3,000 kWh per year, 6.09 billion kWh could power 2.03 million EVs annually.
