Sinead Walsh

Good climate news this week 1 EU to stay the course on climate 2 Zero blackouts or cost increases due to 100% renewables powering California for parts of 98 days 3 Rwanda to stop registering internal combustion-engine bikes that account for 55% of the vehicles in the country 4 India’s forest and tree cover up to 25% of the country’s total geographical area 5 China approved a hydro power plat to power 300 million homes, a record 6 Denmark introducing new tax on CO2 emitted by enterprises already covered in the EU Emissions Trading System 7 Supreme Court of Canada to consider a youth-led challenge to Ontario's climate plan 8 All 411 buildings owned by the city of Chicago to run on 100% renewables from 1 Jan 2025 9 Global Environment Facility approves $700m in financing to support developing countries in enhancing chemicals and waste management and protecting biodiversity 10 Colorado in new rules to curb ‘super pollutant’ methane emissions from landfills

Good climate news this week 1 Japan targets 70% clean energy by 2040 2 China sets 200GW goal for 2025 wind and solar 3 US Supreme Court dismisses challenges to California ability to set strict vehicle emission rules 4 Production in China's solar industry up 20% from January to October 2024 5 Montana’s top court upholds children’s right to a clean environment 6 Only 5 proposals for coal plants remain across OECD’s 38 countries 7 US EPA approves California plan to ban sale of gas-only cars from 2035 8 Over 1.5m German homes have already installed solar on their balconies 9 UK hits 2 maximum wind generation records within a week in December 10 Permian methane emissions plunge 26% 11 Enormous ore carrier becomes largest vessel yet to harness wind power 12 Swiss watchdog posts climate risk rules for banks after pushback 13 UK watchdog rules Lloyds Bank published misleading claims about its efforts in the energy transition 14 US warns natural gas expansion would drive up domestic costs 15 Shell greenwashing of LNG ships outed

Good climate news this week 1 Global EV sales hit 3rd consecutive record high, up 32% year-on-year 2 International Court of Justice concludes historic 2-week hearings on what legal responsibilities States have to fight climate change; decision expected by September 3 China installed wind capacity passes 500GW, over 50% of the global total 4 UK publishes major action plan to decarbonise grid by 2030, targets 95% low-carbon electricity by 2030 5 China oil demand to peak in 2025, 5 years ahead of schedule 6 UK renewables to overtake fossil fuels this year 7 Australia’s biggest renewables tender picks 19 projects, will deliver 6.4GW 8 OPEC cuts its 2024 global oil 7 gas forecast for a 5th straight month and by largest amount this year 9 Chile approves climate plan to establish sustainable mining policy 10 UK outed as leading the world on cracking down on climate activism 11 Spain sees CATL and Stellantis invest $4.33b to build one of Europe’s largest EV battery factories 12 British Columbia gives go-ahead to $4.2b of wind farms, adding 8% more electricity capacity to the grid 13 US EPA grants $135m to California for electric school buses and trucks 14 Germany on course for 54% renewables in 2024 15 Canada in new target to cut emissions to 45-50% below 2005 levels by 2035, up from 40-45% by 2030 16 Zimbabwe in new $250m floating solar plant 17 China tightens rules to curb methane emissions from coal mines