Rewilding successes were celebrated, nations slashed fossil fuel funding, and fracking was sent packing in the UK, plus more good news
This week’s good news roundup
A striking underwater shot of an Atlantic sturgeon swimming free from its cage in Sweden has won an award celebrating rewilding successes in Europe.
The juvenile fish was reintroduced to the Göta River as part of a nature recovery project that Positive News reported on last year. Atlantic sturgeon is a keystone species that was declared functionally extinct in Europe, but is making a comeback with the help of conservationists.
Spanish photographer Jon Juárez was behind the shot which won this year’s Rewilding Europe Award, organised by the German Society for Nature Photography. Runner-up was Romania’s Zoltán Gergely Nagy, who captured a stunning aerial image of a nature reserve on the edge of Bucharest (main picture) that was previously an abandoned construction site.
“These images show us what’s possible when we take action to restore nature and then let nature take the lead in managing itself,” said Laurien Holtjer of Rewilding Europe, the nonprofit that sponsored the award. “They are a testament to the resilience of our wild spaces and a call to action for a wilder, healthier future.”
Image: Jon Juarez/Rewilding Europe
As the world marks a decade since the Paris agreement, fresh analysis suggests that the climate pact has dramatically slowed the growth in global emissions.
In the decade prior to the Paris agreement, emissions rose by around 1.7% per year, research by Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) shows. However, since the accord was signed, they’ve grown by just 0.32% annually – five times slower.
“While the global economy has grown, annual carbon emissions growth has slowed dramatically,” said the ECIU’s John Lang. “While we still need to go further and faster to get on track to limit heating, it is clear multi-lateral action on climate has helped to slam the brakes on global emissions growth since the Paris agreement was signed.”
The report comes amid cautious optimism that 2025 could be the first year that global emissions start falling, with experts reckoning China – the world’s biggest polluter – to have passed peak emissions.
However, there’s still a long way to go, with most nations off-track when it comes to meeting their obligations under the Paris agreement.
Image: Pixabay
The amount of public money flowing to international fossil fuel projects fell by 78% last year in countries that have signed up to the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP), new research shows.
Launched at Cop26 in 2021, the CETP has 40 signatories – 35 countries and five public finance institutions – which committed to shifting public finance from fossil fuels to renewables.
According to a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), significant progress has been made, with a 78% fall in the amount of public money flowing to fossil fuels in 2024, compared to 2019-2021 levels.
““The CETP has set a new global norm, with billions in international public finance permanently shifting away from fossil fuels,” said Adam McGibbon of the NGO Oil Change International, which contributed to the report. “The more the CETP succeeds, the more isolated the remaining countries outside of it appear. It’s time for the remaining laggards to get on board.”
While CETP has driven a massive reduction in fossil fuel financing, progress on clean energy finance is far slower, said the IISD. It also warned of backsliding by countries, especially in the wake of the US pulling out of the CETP in February.
Image: Jakub Zerdzicki
Air pollution in London fell to within the legal limit for the first time in 2024, new government data suggests.
That London breached limits on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution for so long has been an ongoing controversy. However, finally meeting its legal obligations on NO2 levels is nonetheless remarkable: as recently as 2019, experts said that it would take 193 years to hit the target without further interventions.
Interventions were forthcoming, not least the expansion of the city’s ultra-low emissions zone, which charges drivers of older, more polluting cars to enter the city.
“London’s compliance with the UK’s annual mean nitrogen dioxide limit value in 2024 marks a truly remarkable turnaround for the city’s air quality,” said Prof Frank Kelly of Imperial College London. “Just five years ago, research we undertook estimated it could take nearly two centuries to reach this milestone without decisive action.”
“London’s success demonstrates the power of bold, evidence-based interventions to deliver cleaner air.”
Image: Alev Takil
The UK government has banned fracking, a controversial method of extracting gas from shale rock underground.
A moratorium on the practice was introduced in the UK in 2019, amid widespread public anger and earthquakes near fracking sites.
Fracking remains deeply unpopular, with research suggesting that twice as many Britons oppose it as support it. Outlawing it, then, represents an easy win for the Labour government, and helps it draw a line between it and the Reform party, which wants to revive fracking.
“The government’s decision to ban fracking is a win for people over polluters,” said Jon Noronha-Gant, a senior investigator for the charity Global Witness. “Fracking is a dirty fossil fuel drilling method that exposes people to earthquakes, water pollution and more planet-wrecking emissions. Any party would be senseless to back fracking.”
Image: Darren Richardson
The Amazon’s trees are getting fatter from increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, suggesting that they are more resilient to climate change than previously thought.
That’s according to a new study by an international team of forest scientists. They found that the average size of tree trunks in the Amazon has increased over recent decades amid rising emissions.
“Despite concerns that climate change may negatively impact trees in the Amazon and undermine the carbon sink effect, the effect of CO2 in stimulating growth is still there,” said joint lead author Dr Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, from the University of Cambridge, England. “This shows the remarkable resilience of these forests, at least for now.”
The authors said that their research underscores the importance of protecting tropical forests. “We can’t simply plant new trees and expect them to confer anything like the kinds of carbon or biodiversity benefits that the old, natural forest is providing,” cautioned Dr Rebecca Banbury Morgan from the University of Bristol, England.
Image: Azzedine Rouichi
A pioneering Māori scholar believed to be the first indigenous woman to study at the University of Oxford, England, has been awarded a posthumous degree certificate almost a century after she died.
Mākereti Papakura (pictured) passed away in 1930, just weeks before she was due to present her thesis. With the agreement of her family, the university published her work in a book titled The Old-Time Māori. It became the first ethnographic study published by a Māori author, offering a unique insight into Indigenous culture.
Now the university has awarded Papakura a posthumous degree, which was presented to more than 100 of her descendants in Oxford on Sunday.
“Mākereti Papakura has been a legend in our family for over a hundred years,” said June Northcroft Grant. “Our family have been quietly and patiently telling her story over many decades. We … are humbled by the recognition and conferment of this great honour from Oxford University.”
Image: State Library of New South Wales
An image of a frigatebird silhouetted against a total solar eclipse has taken the grand prize in the world’s largest bird photography competition.
The shot was taken in Mexico by Canadian Liron Gertsman, who said that it took her over a year of planning “to capture my dream of a bird in front of the total solar eclipse”.
“This photograph is a striking reminder of what human creativity can achieve,” said Will Nicholls, director of the Bird Photographer of the Year award. “In a world increasingly filled with AI imagery, it’s refreshing to celebrate a picture that is both awe-inspiring and rooted in the natural world.”
This year’s iteration of the award raised £5,000 for the charity Birds on the Brink.
Image: Liron Gertsman/Bird Photographer of the Year
A new book exploring our relationship with smartphones has weighed in with some practical advice for “swiping less and living more”.
Smartphone Nation by “digital nutritionist” Kaitlyn Regehr is not some finger-wagging tome that takes a swipe at the technology we have come to rely on.
Rather, it acknowledges the benefits of our digital devices, while empowering us to create digital boundaries.
Positive News profiled Regehr this week. Read the full story here.
Image: Sam Bush
Main image: Zoltán Gergely Nagy/Rewilding Europe
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