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 farm, for article on U.S. electric grid investment

U.S. announces ‘largest ever’ investment in its electric grid to advance climate goals

By / / Good News For Humankind

A $3.46 billion federal investment is rewiring America’s electric grid, spreading across 58 projects in 44 states to make power more reliable and ready for clean energy. The projects are designed to bring more than 35 gigawatts of new renewable energy online — roughly half the country’s utility-scale solar capacity as of 2022. They’ll also fund 400 microgrids, giving hospitals, neighborhoods, and rural communities a way to keep the lights on when storms take down the main grid. Each project had to direct benefits toward communities historically hit hardest by outages and pollution. For a clean energy future to actually reach everyone, the wires connecting it all matter just as much as the panels and turbines — and this is what modernizing with equity in mind looks like.

A fossil fuel-free ammonia plant at the Kenya Nut Company, for article on green ammonia fertilizer

The Kenya Nut Company to become world’s first farm to produce fossil-free fertilizer on site

By / / Good News For Humankind

Green ammonia is about to be made on a working farm for the first time anywhere, at a macadamia operation outside Nairobi producing one ton per day. The plant runs on solar power, splitting water for hydrogen and pulling nitrogen from the air — skipping the natural gas that fertilizer production has depended on for over a century. That matters because the average bag of fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa travels 10,000 kilometers to reach a farm, leaving growers exposed to every global price shock. Built by U.S. startup Talus Renewables, the system is small enough for a single farm and designed for places where supply chains are long and fragile. If it works, it offers a glimpse of food systems that are both cleaner and more self-reliant.

Charging an EV, for article on Australia EV market share

EVs exceed 10% of monthly auto sales in Australia for first time ever

By / / Good News For Humankind

Australia’s EV market hit a milestone in September 2023, with plug-in vehicles making up 10.6% of new car sales — the first time the country has crossed double digits in a single month. That meant nearly 10,000 plug-in cars found new homes, led by the Tesla Model Y, which outsold every passenger car except two utes. The shift reflects more than new models on lots: salary sacrifice schemes, Chinese automakers expanding their reach, and access programs for public sector workers are bringing EVs to buyers who once found them out of reach. With transport responsible for nearly a fifth of Australia’s emissions, this kind of broad-based momentum is exactly what the climate transition looks like when it finally clicks into gear.