Renewables accounted for 90% of Europe’s new power last year
In 2016, 21.1 GW of the 24.5 GW of new energy sources added to Europe’s electrical grids were from renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass.
Climate crisis
The climate crisis demands action — and action is happening. This archive tracks real progress: policy wins, clean-energy milestones, community resilience, and scientific advances that show meaningful change is possible. Stories here come from every corner of the world.
Solar now provides twice as many jobs as the coal industry
As solar power keeps getting cheaperand more and more of it is built as a resultthe industry is also an increasingly important source of new jobs, adding workers at a rate nearly 17 times faster than the overall economy.
India’s capital Delhi just banned all disposable plastics
“The National Capital Territory of Delhi shall take appropriate steps against storage, sale, and use of such plastic material at the above-mentioned places and it shall stand prohibited with effect from January 1, 2017,”
U.S. solar power installations nearly triple in a single year
Solar power in the United States crossed a threshold in 2016, when the country added roughly 14.6 gigawatts of new capacity — nearly tripling the year before and outpacing every other energy source, including natural gas. Behind the numbers stood more than 260,000 solar workers, quietly proving that a cleaner grid was arriving faster than forecasters had dared to predict.
Fossil fuel divestment funds double to $5 trillion in one year
Fossil fuel divestment crossed a remarkable threshold in late 2016, when committed funds reached $5.2 trillion — double the total from just 14 months earlier. What began with student activists pressing universities had pulled in pension managers, insurance giants, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. It was the moment climate pressure started speaking fluently in the language of balance sheets.
Florida votes overwhelmingly to remove property tax on solar equipment
Florida solar got a boost on Election Day 2016, when roughly 73% of voters approved Amendment 4, exempting home solar equipment from property tax assessments. The measure drew a rare bipartisan coalition and passed alongside the defeat of a utility-backed counter-measure. In the years that followed, Florida climbed from near the bottom of U.S. solar rankings toward the top.
France becomes first country to ban plastic plates and cutlery
France’s plastic ban, passed in September 2016, made it the first country to outlaw single-use plastic plates, cups, and cutlery nationwide. The law gave producers until 2020 to switch to compostable, biosourced materials. Three years later, the EU followed with its own sweeping directive — a quiet French precedent becoming a continental norm.
Dubai breaks ground on the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant
Concentrated solar power is getting its biggest test yet in Dubai, where an 800-megawatt facility is rising inside the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Using mirrors and molten salt, it can keep generating electricity after sunset — a quiet but remarkable pivot for a city built on oil wealth.
Poland’s glow-in-the-dark bicycle path runs entirely on solar power
A glow-in-the-dark bicycle path opened in the rural Polish town of Lidzbark Warminski, emitting deep blue light for up to 10 hours a night without touching the electrical grid. Luminophore particles embedded in the 328-foot surface soak up sunlight by day and release it after dark. A small, quiet experiment in making rural roads safer — and unexpectedly beautiful.
Oak Ridge scientists accidentally crack CO2 to ethanol conversion
CO2-to-ethanol conversion arrived by accident in 2016, when researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee applied voltage to a copper-and-carbon nano-spike catalyst and watched ethanol emerge as the dominant product. About 63% of the output was ethanol — unusually clean for a single-step reaction. A quiet reminder that science often stumbles into its better answers.