Climate Good News
Around the world people are taking the initiative to mitigate climate change.
Here are some good news briefs compiled by the Climate Issue group
of the LWV of Bellingham/Whatcom.
Wind and Solar Cheaper Than Coal
BloombergNEF (BNEF) estimates that electricity from new wind and solar projects are cheaper than new coal and gas plants “in almost every market globally.” BNEF estimates the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from onshore wind could decline to US $37 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2025, with offshore wind falling 9 per cent to US $79 MWh and fixed-axis solar by 2 per cent to US $35 MWh. The consultancy estimates that lower-than-anticipated electric car demand has resulted in a glut of batteries, driving the costs of battery storage down by one-third in 2024 to US $104 per MWh and could fall below US $100 per MWh this year. The consultancy forecasts that between 2025 and 2035, the cost of electricity from solar, onshore wind, and batteries from present could decline by 28.6 per cent, 24.3 per cent, and 43 per cent, respectively. (BloombergNEF)
Coalwire: “Consultancy tips new wind and solar cheaper than new coal.” 2/13/25, Issue 550, published by Global Energy Monitor:
https://globalenergymonitor.org/coalwire/coalwire-550-february-13-2025/
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Landmark Agreement in the UN to Protect Species and Habitat
Wealthy and developing countries hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, last year.
Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome. The Conference included the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16).
COP16 President Susana Muhamad of Colombia hailed the fact that countries worked together for a breakthrough, enabling progress “in this very fragmented and conflicted world.”
“This is something very beautiful because it’s around protecting life that we have come together, and there cannot be anything higher than that,” she added.
The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to halt the rampant destruction of nature this decade and protect the ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation, and economic prosperity.
Scientists have warned that action is urgent.
A million species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroys forests, depletes soils and spreads plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.
The agreement on November 1, 2024, is seen as crucial to giving impetus to the 2022 deal, which saw countries agree to protect 30 percent of the world’s land and seas.
Talks were also seen as a bellwether for international cooperation.
The meeting comes as countries face a range of challenges, from trade disputes and debt worries to the slashing of overseas aid — particularly by new U.S. President Donald Trump.
Washington, which has not signed up to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, sent no representatives to the meeting.
“Our efforts show that multilateralism can present hope at a time of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Goodgoodgood.com newsletter: February 28, Kelly Macnamara
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The Plan to Take Chemicals Out of Chemical Valley in Sarnia, Ontario
It’s been a pretty big year for Aamjiwnaang First Nation, an Anishinaabe community located next to an industrial area known as Canada’s Chemical Valley, in Sarnia, Ont.
For decades, the First Nation has fought for governments to take action against the cluster of petrochemical plants that surround it and release toxic chemicals like benzene, a known carcinogen, into the air. And for decades, that exposure has put people at a higher risk for cancer — corroborated by studies — and become emblematic of environmental racism that Canada has only recently begun to address.
The promising news? Aamjiwnaang and Canada will work together on a pilot project to address the contaminants in the air, water and soil.
Reporter Emma McIntosh was on the ground in Sarnia for the official announcement this week. Emma met Aamjiwnaang Chief Janelle Nahmabin last fall — at a press conference where Nahmabin outlined how the nation was taking a new path forward to tackle pollution — the two kept in touch. And when Nahmabin invited her and photographer Carlos Osorio to cover the news in Aamjiwnaang in February, the answer was an immediate yes.
“For so long, Aamjiwnaang has been portrayed as a victim.” And the community has been affected by pollution — but they also have agency, and as Chief Nahmabin put it, “Although we are strong, resilient, beautiful people who are rich in community and ambition, we still have been impacted for decades by systematic pollution and lack of environmental protection. Aamjiwnaang will be a pilot for how this rolls out across Canada, and we are ready.”
The agreement stems from a new federal law that takes aim at environmental racism. What happens here could have massive consequences for other Indigenous, Black and racialized communities that are disproportionately harmed by industrial pollution and contamination.
Narwahl: “The plan to take the chemicals out of Chemical Valley” by Karan Saxena, Feb. 14, 2025: https://thenarwhal.ca/newsletteramjiwnaang-chemical-valley/
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Ancient Cultures Adopt Modern Methods for a Better Life
Cody Two Bears says his mission has been to show Native Americans that solar energy, and, with it, energy independence, can transform their livelihoods for generations to come.
That belief arose from the protests he helped lead in 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline, in which thousands of members of tribal groups came together to publicly denounce the use of fossil fuels near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Even though this battle was lost in the end, it gave him the insight to what native people can do if they all share the same goal.
Now as CEO of Indigenous Energy, he is bringing that dream to fruition. Indigenous Energy is leading efforts to transform Native and rural communities deeply impacted by climate change. These communities face heightened risks, from extreme weather events to disruptions in traditional food and water sources. The compounding effects of climate change threaten not only environmental stability, but also cultural practices that have been passed down through generations.
Cody Two Bears says he wants to show Native Americans that solar energy, and, with it, energy independence, can transform their livelihoods for generations to come. He points to a few miles west of where the pipeline was eventually built next to a 300-kilowatt solar farm — the largest of its kind in North Dakota.
“[The Cannon Ball Community Solar Farm] makes a statement,” he says. “You can bring all these dirty fossil fuels right into my backyard … but I’m going to show you that we’re going to do this in a clean way and move forward.”
In 1944, the federal government flooded the lowlands along the Missouri River in part to produce hydroelectric power. The people who lived there for centuries were relocated to what Two Bears describes as “cookie cutter” homes built by the federal government, which have been situated atop the surrounding hillsides and exposed to North Dakota’s blistering wind.
While the summer heat makes these prefabricated tenements uncomfortable, Two Bears says they can be deadly in the winter. “People have died in our homes because of the utilities shutting off,” he says. It’s due to a fatal combination of abject poverty and some of the country’s highest electricity rates, which can be several times more expensive than the national average. The irony, according to Two Bears, is that his elders were supposed to receive free electrical power in exchange for leaving their more energy efficient properties. Instead, this broken promise became a driving force behind his efforts to bring energy independence to all native people.
All too often, he says, “those leading the charge of technological advancement neglect to consult with the people who have the owner manuals to a lot of these lands.”
Two Bears says it’s also why the Cannon Ball solar farm has succeeded despite being initially met with criticism by non-natives in North Dakota, who said the project wouldn’t turn a profit due to the state’s short winter days.
Since operations began in 2019, solar energy has saved Cannon Ball $30,000 a year by offsetting the utility costs of both the town’s youth activity center and its veterans’ memorial building. “Science and Technology is growing every single day,” Two Bears says, “but indigenous culture and knowledge has yet to be brought to the table.”
Earlier this year, Indigenous Energy was appointed to oversee a federal grant of more than $135 million dollars. It will fund solar energy initiatives in 14 tribes across North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, and Wyoming — areas that heavily rely on fossil fuels.
It’s a likely game-changer in the effort to bring affordable energy to tens of thousands of people’s homes, and, as Two Bears puts it, will literally save lives. As stewards of the earth, he says, “Energy independence maintains the indigenous people’s way of life while also having the potential to dramatically increase their standard of living.”
People Magazine: “Meet Sioux Tribe Solar Activist Cody Two Bears” by Susan Young: https://people.com/human-interest/meetsioux-tribe-solar-activist-codytwo-bears/
