India’s extreme poverty down by 12% in last decade, according to World Bank
The global bank’s policy research team said the poverty headcount in the country has dropped from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019 with rural areas showing better results.
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.
Sweden becomes world’s first country to include emissions used to produce imported goals in its climate targets
Greta Thunberg has long argued that rich countries need to take responsibility for and reduce emissions from imported goods.
Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions fall 5.1% in 2020/21 to record low
In April 2021, Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest carbon emitter raised its climate goal, pledging to trim emissions by 46 percent from 2013 levels by 2030 instead of its previous target of 26 percent.
Gabon announces immediate end to the logging of the Massaha ancestral forest
This is a precedent-setting case in the country’s management of forests, representing the first time an area will be declared protected at the request of the resident community.
Scotland’s forests are the largest they have been for 900 years
Scotland’s reforestation story just keeps growing: tree cover has tripled over the past century, climbing from under 6 percent of the country’s land to roughly 18 percent today. That’s close to forest levels not seen since medieval times. Behind the numbers are decades of work by government agencies, private landowners, and rewilding groups like Trees for Life, who’ve been steadily replacing fast-growing conifer plantations with native species like Scots pine, birch, and oak. Public enthusiasm is striking too — around 80 percent of Scots backed Highland reforestation in a 2021 survey. Scotland’s recovery is a hopeful reminder that landscapes stripped bare over centuries can begin healing within a single lifetime, when communities decide they want them back.
Portugal’s floating solar energy auction sets world record negative price
Portugal’s floating solar auction just made history with a negative price: one winning bidder agreed to pay the grid 4.13 euros per megawatt hour for the right to generate clean electricity over 15 years. EDP Renováveis pulled this off by bundling 70 megawatts of floating panels on Western Europe’s largest artificial lake with wind power and battery storage, letting the profitable pieces carry the solar contract. The environment ministry estimates the auction will deliver 114 million euros in savings for Portuguese electricity consumers. It’s a striking signal of how far renewable economics have come — and a glimpse of what’s possible when countries get creative about stitching clean energy technologies together.
Norway’s walrus population bounces back thanks to hunting bans
By the 1950s, only a small population of Svalbard’s walruses remained. In 2006, researchers were thrilled to count 2,629 walruses, and the latest count in 2018 recorded 5,503.
Zimbabwe decriminalizes the transmission of HIV
The decision aims to strengthen the country’s HIV response by reducing the stigma and discrimination that often prevents people from receiving prevention, care, and treatment services.
Panama legally recognizes rights of nature
The new law could have major implications for Panama’s land and energy development policies, which are now required to respect and protect the natural world’s new rights.
World’s first CO2 emissions tariff to be introduced in the E.U. by 2026
The EU wants to introduce CO2 emissions costs on imports of steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminum and electricity, from 2026.