Lucky Seven Climate-Positive Stories! Seven views of Tech, Nation, Spend, Paradise, EU, Red-White-Blue and Renewable Heaven!

Here’s seven interesting stories from the last week or so that really caught my eye.

It is mid week and to stave off those mid-week blues here’s a hit of climate hopium (and real news!) with some positive moves in the battle to stop climate chaos:

• One - Tech! A new world record has been set for photovoltaic (PV) tech; a team from Oxford PV are using a new approach to the technology to get a conversion efficiency of 25%! Most commercial panels are around 17% to 20% and researchers think they can now get this up much higher! (Source)

  

(Image - Perovskite from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, USA. Source)

• Two - Nation! Big shout-out to Greece who broke it’s own record to net 57% of its energy via renewables. Well done to the cradle of democracy and now a hot-bed of renewables! (Source)

• Three - Spend! Global spending on the green energy transition is climbing and climbing! In 2023 it approached £1.8T (T as in Trillion!) which only 2 decades about would barely register on a graph. (Source)

• Four - Paradise! Another place getting a shout out, this time in the Pacific is Hawaii - and deservedly so as it, “This state is quickly becoming America's clean energy paradise. Here's how it's happening.”

• Five - EU! The EU’s CO2 emissions were at it’s lowest level in 60 years. Yes six-zero! And 2023 was 8% down on 2022. All the while still maintaining economic growth. (Source)

• Six - Red-White-Blue! Not to be out done by the EU, the US of A is getting in on the act; From Heatmap.news, “America’s carbon emissions fell for the first time since the pandemic - America’s greenhouse gas pollution from energy and industrial activities fell by 1.9% in 2023 compared to the year before…” (Source)

• Seven - Renewable Heaven! Again from Heatmap.news, “The International Energy Agency (IEA) is feeling optimistic about the green energy transition … the agency says the world added 50% more renewable capacity last year than in 2022. This kind of momentum could get us close to the COP28 goal of tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030.” (Source)

When I started this project, I thought I’d have to look hard to positive news, as finding the negative stuff is so very easy. But I’ve been really surprised how much good news there is. This good news is not happening by accident however, it is built from the masses of great work done by people who care, scientists, engineers and people putting climate first. 

Let us continue to turn hope into action!