Climate Good News
Around the world people are taking the initiative to mitigate climate change.
Here are some good news briefs compiled and summarized by Jayne Freudenberger, climate committee chair, League of Women Voters of Bellingham-Whatcom County.
Good News in Small Bites
The world now has 280 million electric bikes and mopeds, and they’re cutting far more oil demand than the 20 million or so electric cars. As Muhammad Azhar and Waqas Uzair describe, “They are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present, due to their staggering uptake in China and other nations where mopeds are a common form of transport.”
The reason for their rapid uptake in the poor world is pretty obvious. If you commute on an e-bike 20 km a day, five days a week, your charging cost would be about $20 — annually.
The World’s First Sun-Powered Ambulance
Energy generated from the sun is stored in a 50 kWh battery, allowing the ambulance to safely keep driving and deliver healthcare in remote areas — which often lack reliable infrastructure, electricity and fuel options — even when the sun has gone down. Unlike traditional ambulances that pick patients up and transport them to a hospital, Stella Juva (the world’s first solar-powered ambulance) brings healthcare directly to people in need.
When the ambulance reaches the healthcare facility, it extends two solar wings from the vehicle that generate enough energy to keep the clinic running. The extra energy ensures the facility can keep running to meet the needs of the patients it brings in.
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“Facts on the Ground: The Crucial Years” by Bill McKibbon, Sept. 7, 2026: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/facts-on-the-ground
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Have you ever thought that letter writing, phone calls or pleas to your elected officials were a waste of time — well maybe not. Maybe we should be more active in our approach to make politicians aware of how important we place climate change among the many challenges we face. See below.
Jayne Freudenberger
Politicians Vastly Overestimate Opposition to Climate Action
A new study of British MPs finds a persistent gap between what lawmakers believe the public thinks about climate policy and what polls actually show. The misperception may be holding climate legislation back.
Up to now, little evidence has been available to judge the perceptions of politicians, whom one might expect to be dialed in to the nuances of public opinion. In the new study, researchers surveyed 100 members of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, first asking about the politicians’ own support for four different climate policies: providing grants and loans to improve home energy efficiency; taxing consumer products according to their environmental impact; imposing a “frequent flyer tax” that increases the cost of air travel depending on how often people fly; and raising taxes on red meat and dairy products.
The politicians were asked to judge how they and their party as well as people of other parties would feel about enacting these policies. The answers were surprising. “MPs, who are personally less supportive, tend to underestimate public support more, while even highly supportive MPs still underestimate on average,” the researchers write after comparing the answers with recent public polling results on the same policies. They especially overestimated public opposition by three-fold for the energy efficiency subsidies and almost two-fold for the consumer product tax. “Misperceptions of others’ preferences at the elite level within Parliament are structured in a way that may actively discourage climate leadership by presenting public opinion on climate policy as both weaker and more polarized than it actually is,” the researchers write.
Granted, this was a British study, but could it be that their constituents really are aware of the deleterious effect of climate change and are willing to pay more to combat it? And, could it be the same is true “here over the pond.”
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Anthropocene Magazine, September 1, 2026, “Politicians Vastly Overestimate Opposition to Climate Action” by Sarah de Weert: Anthropocene Magazine: https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/09/politicians-vastly-overestimateopposition-to-climate-action/
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Very Good News for a Clean Energy Power Source
Fervo Energy, fresh off a highly successful IPO, just signed a landmark deal to provide Google with 400 MW of electricity from its under-construction 500 MW Cape Station site in Utah, which will be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal project when it comes fully online in 2028.
This is only the second enhanced geothermal plant in the U.S., but the potential for this clean energy is enormous. Many more startups, from Mazama to Quaise, are making plans to build several more enhanced geothermal facilities, ranging into the hundreds of megawatts!
A new 24/7 clean baseload power source is on its way and could meaningfully accelerate abundant clean electrification across America.
Enhanced geothermal is a rare clean power source that so far has consistent bipartisan support in America — in large part due to its “clean drilling” ability to employ many of the same workers, technologies, and equipment-supply companies as the oil and gas industry. Two bipartisan pro-geothermal bills actually passed the U.S. House of Representatives on June 2, 2026!
And the CLEAN Act, passed separately from the bigger package, would require the Department of the Interior to hold geothermal lease sales every year, again creating parity with oil and gas drilling.
The U.S. Senate is now considering these bills, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources just delivered a favorable report. There’s now a decent chance they could actually pass into law with overwhelming bipartisan support. The recent success of passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by a veto-proof majority and its becoming law without the president’s signature could be a key template here. This is a clear win-win and should be a top Senate priority! Tell your Senators to pass the Geothermal Energy Advancement and CLEAN Acts!
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Climate Action Now, “Reasons for Hope,” 9/8/2026: https://www.climateactionnow.com/articles/reasons-for-hope/
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Canada Invests in Solar and Wind — Only in the East
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a massive new suite of hydro and wind projects to be built in the ultra-remote Labrador region of Canada, describing the CAN $70 billion plans as the largest-ever single-area investment in clean energy in North America. By the mid- 2030s, it would add up to 2,500 MW of additional capacity to the existing Churchill Falls dam, build a new 2,700 MW (2.7 GW) Gull Island dam, and build 2,000 MW of new onshore wind in the general area, all sending clean electrons out via two new transmission lines.
That would add enough new non-fossil energy to power and heat every building in Canada’s three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, combined.
The plan includes local community benefits, with provisions including electricity bill rebates for all Newfoundland and Labrador households, plus an opportunity for the local Innu Nation to become part-owners of wind and transmission projects. Up to 720 MW could also be sold to United States’ grids via recently built power lines linking Quebec to New York and Massachusetts. Canada is going all-in on electrification!
Now, if they would just shut down the new pipeline projects which would double oil spills in the Salish Sea. – Jayne Freudenberger
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ESG Today: https://www.esgtoday.com/canada-backs-50-billionof-new-clean-energy-projects/
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