There’s been no shortage of bad climate news this year: unprecedented global heat has fueled deadly extreme weather events, scientists have issued dire warnings that next year could be even worse, and the world’s carbon pollution has continued to rise.
However, despite this pessimism, there were signs of progress. Renewable energy records were broken, the world celebrated one of its biggest environmental achievements, and countries took a cautious but historic step towards a fossil fuel-free future.
Here are five reasons to be hopeful.
Increase in renewable energy
As the need to rapidly transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels becomes increasingly urgent, some clean energy bright spots have emerged around the world.
On Halloween, Portugal began a record-breaking winning streak. For more than six days between October 31 and November 6, the country of more than 10 million people relied exclusively on renewable energy sources, setting an exciting example for the rest of the world.
According to the International Energy Agency, 2023 will be the year that will see the largest increase in renewable energy capacity ever.
China, the world’s largest climate polluter lightning advances The country is preparing to break its wind and solar energy target five years early. A report published in June found that China’s solar energy capacity now exceeds that of the rest of the world’s nations combined, an increase described as “jaw-dropping” by the report’s author, Global Energy Monitor.
However, it cannot be ignored that China Increased coal production Turning to fossil fuels this year as devastating heatwaves increase energy demand for air conditioning and cooling, and persistent drought in the south of the country affects hydropower supplies that depend on sufficient rainfall.
In November, when China and the United States announced they would restart cooperation on climate change, promising a major increase in renewable energy, especially to replace fossil fuels, hopes were raised that the country’s coal production would peak and fall soon.
A climate agreement targeting fossil fuels
After more than two weeks of fraught negotiations, the COP28 climate summit in Dubai concluded in December with nearly 200 countries making an unprecedented commitment to move away from fossil fuels.
While the agreement stopped short of demanding that the world phase out coal, oil and gas, which more than 100 countries support, it did call on countries to “contribute” to a “move away from fossil fuels in their energy systems.” This meant that all fossil fuels, the main drivers of the climate crisis, were targeted for the first time in a COP agreement.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who chaired the negotiations, described the agreement as “historic” and added that it represented “a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies”.
How effective this agreement will ultimately be will depend on what countries do next to implement it. Many experts have warned of loopholes that could leave the door open to continued expansion of fossil fuels.
But reaching an agreement on fossil fuels was widely welcomed and seen as a breakthrough.
“We got people to do things they’ve never done before,” US climate envoy John Kerry told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour after the summit, calling it a “historic achievement.”
Deforestation is decreasing rapidly in Brazil
After years of increasing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, good progress has been made this year in reducing deforestation.
The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and its protection is vital to preventing climate change. It acts as a carbon sink, absorbing planet-warming pollution from the atmosphere. When forests or trees are destroyed, they emit greenhouse gases. Deforestation and land degradation are responsible for at least a tenth of the world’s carbon pollution.
Deforestation in Brazil fell by 22.3% in the 12 months to July, according to national government data, as President Luiz Ignácio Lula da Silva began to make progress on his promise to curb rampant deforestation that occurred under his predecessor Jair. Bolsonaro.
Marcio Astrini, president of the advocacy group Climate Observatory, called it an “impressive result” that “seals Brazil’s return to the climate agenda.”
Still, Brazil’s deforestation rate remains nearly double its all-time low in 2012. Approximately 9,000 square kilometers of rainforest were destroyed during this period. There is a long way to go to fulfill Lula’s promise to achieve zero deforestation by 2030.
The ozone layer is healing
In January, a UN-backed panel of experts announced that the world’s ozone layer is on track to fully recover within decades, as ozone-depleting chemicals are phased out worldwide.
The ozone layer protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays, but since the 1980s scientists have warned that there could be a hole in this shield due to ozone-damaging substances including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are commonly used in refrigerators, aerosols and solvents.
International cooperation helped prevent damage. An agreement known as the Montreal Protocol, which came into force in 1989, began phasing out CFCs. The subsequent recovery of the ozone layer was hailed as one of the world’s greatest environmental achievements.
If global policies continue, the ozone layer is expected to reach 1980 levels in much of the world by 2040, the assessment said. In polar regions, recovery time is longer: 2045 in the Arctic and 2066 in Antarctica.
But a study published in November cast some doubt on that progress. paperThe research, published by Nature Communications, found that a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica “not only remained large in area, but also grew deeper throughout much of the Antarctic spring.” But some scientists were skeptical of the study’s findings, saying it was based on too short a period of time to draw conclusions about the long-term health of the layer.
Increase in electric vehicle sales
Electric vehicles have soared in popularity this year, with sales in America reaching an all-time high. People in China and Europe are also buying electric vehicles in large numbers.
Electric vehicles, which are better for the planet than gas- and diesel-powered cars when powered by renewable energy sources, are key to decarbonising road transport, which is responsible for around a sixth of the planet-warming pollution globally, according to the International Energy Research Organisation. Energy Agency.
Americans bought 1 million all-electric vehicles in 2023, an annual record, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Electric vehicles accounted for approximately 8% of all new vehicle sales in the US in the first half of 2023, according to the report. In China, electric vehicles accounted for 19% of all vehicle sales, while worldwide they accounted for 15% of new passenger vehicle sales.
EV sales in Europe increased by 47% in the first nine months of 2023, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA). But car dealers have warned that sales are falling as consumers expect cheaper models in two to three years.
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