U.S. to plant 1 billion trees as climate change kills forests
The Forest Service plans over the next couple years to scale up work from about 60,000 acres replanted last year to about 400,000 acres annually.
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.
Swiss scientists invent system that produces jet fuel from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight
The amount of CO2 emitted during kerosene combustion in a jet engine equals that consumed during its production in the solar plant.
Nuclear fusion recieves $2.8 billion in investments over last year, more than entire past decade
The solution produces clean energy by fusing together atomic nuclei. Unlike nuclear fission, there is also no risk of radioactive waste and reactor materials can be recycled within 100 to 300 years.
Australian Capitol Territory becomes first state in Australia to ban conventional cars
Australia’s Capital Territory is sending a clear signal to the rest of the country: the fossil-fuel car has an end date. The region surrounding Canberra wants at least 80% of new light vehicles sold there to be zero-emission by 2030, as a stepping stone to the full 2035 ban. Interest-free loans up to $15,000 and registration fee exemptions are already helping residents make the switch today. When a high-visibility jurisdiction at the heart of national politics demonstrates this transition is manageable, neighboring states face far less risk in following — and that ripple effect is exactly how national change begins.
35 faith institutions from seven countries announce multimillion-dollar fossil fuel divestment
The group, organized by the World Council of Churches, Operation Noah, Laudato Si’ Movement, Green Anglicans, and GreenFaith, has more than $1.2 billion in combined assets under management.
Switzerland builds the world’s largest water battery to store surplus renewable energy
Nant de Drance represents something genuinely exciting: proof that we can store renewable energy at a scale that changes how entire continents manage their grids. Tucked 2,000 feet inside the Swiss Alps, the plant holds 20 million kWh by moving water between two mountain reservoirs — absorbing surplus solar and wind, then releasing it as hydropower within minutes when demand spikes. It can supply roughly 900,000 homes and acts as a rapid-response buffer for Switzerland and neighboring European countries. Projects like this show that the hardest engineering problems in the clean energy transition are solvable.
U.K.’s opens its largest carbon capture project which will turn 40,000 tons of CO2 into baking soda
The $24 million investment has been completed by U.K.-based Tata Chemicals Europe, one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt and baking soda, and they expect it to lower their carbon emissions by more than 10%.
Brazil’s High Court first to declare Paris Agreement a human rights treaty
As a result of the ruling, if Brazil’s Congress passes a law that conflicts with the Paris Agreement, the Paris Agreement should take precedence.
World’s first commercial sand battery begins energy storage in Finland
Sand-based thermal energy storage is stepping out of the lab and into real communities, and the implications reach well beyond Finland. A steel tank packed with ordinary sand captures surplus wind and solar energy as heat, then pipes warmth through a district heating network serving homes and public buildings — at under €10 per kilowatt-hour, using no rare materials. With nearly half of Scandinavian homes already connected to district heating, this technology has a ready path to scale. For communities facing long, cold winters, affordable heat storage like this could become a quiet cornerstone of the clean energy transition.
E.U. to end undercounting of plug-in hybrid emissions
Currently, regulators assume PHEVs are driven far more in electric mode than is actually the case, leading to unrealistically low emissions ratings.