U.N. adopts landmark resolution that aims to end plastic pollution
The measure calls for an international negotiating committee to set the terms of a treaty on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.
Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)
This archive spans the years 2017 through 2025, a period marked by rapid advances in clean energy, medicine, technology, and social equity. It collects documented breakthroughs, policy wins, and scientific achievements from the present era. If you want evidence that progress is real and ongoing, this is where to look.
Humpback whales no longer endangered, Australian officials say
Australia passed an anti-whaling policy in 1979, and the Guardian reports there are now as many as 40,000 individuals alive in the wild, after reaching a low of 1,500 decades ago.
Germany aims to get 100% of energy from renewable sources by 2035
Economy Minister Robert Habeck has described the accelerated capacity expansion for renewable energy as a key element in making the country less dependent on Russian fossil fuel supplies.
E.U. adopts new tolling rules in watershed moment for green trucking
By May 2023, haulers operating zero-emissions trucks — battery electric or hydrogen — must be given discounts of at least 50% on distance-based road tolls.
New method allows vaccines to be stored for months without refrigeration
The World Health Organization has estimated that more than 50 percent of vaccines go to waste every year, often due to the challenge in keeping vaccines at stable cold temperatures.
India’s National Medical Commission forbids conversion therapy throughout the country
Any doctor in India found engaged in LGBTQ conversion therapy is now liable to be prosecuted for professional misconduct.
Giant anteaters lead biodiversity resurgence in Argentina’s Iberá
In 2007, the first pair of giant anteaters was reintroduced Iberá reserve, a region from which it had gone extinct decades earlier. Today, more than 200 anteaters live free in the reserve.
The second-largest U.S. electric company by market value plans to exit all coal by 2035
Duke Energy will shut down all 11 of its remaining coal-fired power plants by 2035, spanning the Carolinas, Indiana, and Florida. The second-largest U.S. electric utility also plans to more than double its solar and wind capacity to 24,000 megawatts by 2030, backed by a $130 billion clean energy investment over the next decade. Duke serves roughly 8 million customers across six states, so its choices ripple outward into grid infrastructure, household bills, and the air people breathe near aging plants. When a utility this large commits to exiting coal entirely, it signals that clean energy economics have tipped — and offers a template other slow-moving utilities around the world may soon follow.
Wales offers £1,600 a month to care leavers in basic income pilot
Every 18-year-old leaving care will be offered £1,600 a month for two years.
Officials said it was the highest amount offered on a basic income scheme anywhere in the world.
U.S. Federal Reserve approves rules banning its officials from trading stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies
The rules “aim to support public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the Committee’s work by guarding against even the appearance of any conflict of interest,” according to the Fed.