1. The rapid renewables boom

Rapidly declining production costs for solar panels and wind turbines – costs have dropped 90 per cent in the past 10 years for solar for example – mean that renewable energy is often now the cheapest form available in many parts of the world. Bear in mind that two-thirds of all new power in 2016 was renewable, and growth has been exponential, much quicker than most people anticipated.

2. Plugging away: electric cars

Electric cars are now being made for the mass market. Concern over air pollution in urban areas is helping fuel a surging market for battery-powered cars, and China is out in front. The country shifts as many electric cars each month as the US and Europe combined. Almost all the major carmakers have now committed to make electric vehicles too, or end production of purely fossil-fuelled cars.

3. The colossal fossil demise

Experts have been stunned by how quickly coal has fallen out of favour. They now think production peaked in 2013. Also in 2013, the International Energy Agency predicted that coal-burning would be up 40 per cent by 2040. But now it expects a rise of just 1 per cent. Analysts are now eyeing another tipping point: when renewables cost less to build than it costs to run existing coal plants.

4. More in store: batteries

Prices for lithium-ion batteries have dropped by 75 per cent in six years and the International Renewable Energy Agency predicts further falls. Batteries, by storing energy when the sun isn’t shining or the wind blowing, will help renewable energy reach its full potential. For storage over the longer term – weeks and months – long-distance electricity interconnectors are being built.

5. Potent progress: energy efficiency

Though it’s tricky to motivate the masses to improve energy efficiency, progress is being made. Data shows that efficiency in homes, transport and industry in the EU, for example, has improved by around a fifth since 2000. Boosting standards around the efficiency of appliances is significant: a UN Environment Programme report shows it makes one of the biggest impacts of any single action.

Illustration: Rita Peres Pereira

Read more: ‘Can we save the planet? We must be relentlessly optimistic’

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The post Could we beat global warming? 5 megatrends to look out for appeared first on Positive News.

We know that so far…

and…

However…

and…

Read our article on how divestment is helping refuel progress here.

Main image: ‘UNSW students call on their university to divest from fossil fuels’ Kate Ausburn
Graphics: Studio Blackburn

The post Who’s stepping away from fossil fuels? Divestment in numbers appeared first on Positive News.

The global fossil fuel divestment campaign – a bid to urge institutions to move their money out of oil, coal and gas companies – has gained momentum.

In October 2014, when we first reported on the movement, a handful of universities had transferred their assets and Oxford had become the first UK city to divest. There has since been a wave of divestment commitments from major European cities including Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Stockholm and Oslo.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has promised to “take all possible steps” to divest the city’s £4.8bn pension fund after his predecessor Boris Johnson refused to do so. The mayor of Amsterdam has also urged the Dutch national pension fund to halt investments in coal, oil and gas.

According to environmental campaign organisation 350.org, faith groups are responsible for a quarter of divestments to date. June saw the world’s first mayor joint Catholic divestment, when four Catholic organisations in Australia announced they were breaking ties with fossil fuel companies. Those at 350.org estimate the current global value of divestments made by all institutions, ranging from governmental organisations and NGOs to schools, to be around $3.4tn (£2.56tn).

But it is about more than the financial impact on companies, says Melanie Mattauch of 350.org Europe: “Divestment aims to bankrupt the fossil fuel companies morally, thereby weakening their political influence and creating the space for meaningful action on climate change.”

Following public pressure, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sold off its entire $186m (£140m) stake in BP, after having previously dumped its near $825m (£620m) interest in ExxonMobil in early 2015. The foundation has shrunk its total holdings in fossil fuel companies by 85 per cent since 2014.

Not with my money: divestment in history

Recent history holds examples of a handful of successful divestment campaigns, including those targeting violence in Darfur and tobacco advertising. But the largest so far focused on South African apartheid. Divestment from all over the world, including 90 cities and 150 universities and colleges in the US, heavily dented the multinationals that did business in the troubled country. This, in turn, helped weaken the apartheid government.

Main image: Saskia Uppenkamp

The post Refuelling progress: divestment in fossil fuels gathers pace appeared first on Positive News.

Plans to allow oil and gas drilling along the US Atlantic coast have been abandoned in a policy reversal hailed as a major victory for the environment.

Community opposition, competing military operations, market concern and president Obama’s desire to leave a positive legacy were all influencers for the March decision. Environmentalists welcomed the change in policy, which relates to the next round of offshore energy leases running from 2017 to 2022. Jacqueline Savitz, US vice president for international ocean conservation group Oceana, said: “President Obama has taken a giant step for our oceans, for coastal economies and for mitigating climate change. This is a courageous decision that begins the shift to a new energy paradigm, where clean energy replaces fossil fuels.”

This is a courageous decision that begins the shift to a new energy paradigm, where clean energy replaces fossil fuels

The reversal follows president Obama’s decision in November to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Nebraska that had become a symbol of the fight against climate change. Just a month later, nearly 200 countries agreed a deal at the Paris climate change summit, aiming to limit the rise in global temperature to “well below” 2C. While the deal marked a significant step forward for international negotiations, only elements of it are legally binding, and some scientists warn it needs to be strengthened. In March, the International Energy Agency published preliminary data giving further grounds for optimism; it showed that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions stayed flat in 2015 as the global economy grew by more than three per cent, the second year in a row of such ‘decoupling’.

Rodrigo Estrada of Greenpeace USA cautioned that, despite the breaking of the link between growth and CO2, damaging emissions from US oil and gas drilling had been rising. But he called the Atlantic drilling ban “a victory for coastal communities and our climate” and said it was an example of how grassroots campaigners can influence policy.

In January 2015, the US government had proposed to auction offshore oil and gas drilling rights covering up to 104 million acres of Atlantic waters running from Virginia to Georgia. It has left open the possibility of drilling at three locations in the Alaskan Arctic and in the Gulf of Mexico. Campaigners continue to press for a total Arctic ban.

Photo: Gentoo penguins at Stromness Harbour (South Georgia) in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace

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