I want to focus this blog piece on only good news and ways to take climate action now. After the first month of 2025, your head is probably spinning like mine has been. We had more than enough bad news, from California wildfires and plane crashes to the chaos of a new Trump administration in the U.S.
Only Good News
Reuters brought us this good news: Michael Bloomberg steps in to help fund UN climate body after Trump withdrawal . “Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropy arm said on Thursday it will provide funding to help cover the U.S. contribution to the U.N. climate body’s budget, filling a gap left by President Donald Trump….Bloomberg is a media billionaire who also serves as a U.N. special envoy on climate change.”
Nature offers a greenhouse gas solution: Seaweed farms dish up climate benefits. The first estimate of its type shows that cultivated seaweed beds can accumulate as much carbon as some natural ecosystems.
The Guardian tells us that an old, climate friendly technology is having a resurgence, in How climate-friendly waterwheels are coming around again. “Waterwheels have been around for thousands of years. Formerly used to drive mechanical processes such as milling or hammering, they were a crucial component in the industrial revolution. Today, waterwheels connected to generators can produce zero-carbon electricity as they spin.” The report goes on to cite examples of these machines, updated with today’s technology, are showing up in places as far-flung as a village in Kashmir in India, to London’s River Wandle, Nepal, southern Germany, and Northern Ireland. From Michael Erhart, a researcher at the Technical University of Munich: “Erhart’s instructions for building the waterwheel are freely available online. The cost of assembling one could come to as little as $1,000 (£819), he estimated.”
The New York Times in its Climate Fix newsletter reports this good news: “Global investment in low-carbon technology hit a record $2.1 trillion last year, per a new report from BloombergNEF, a research firm. That’s an 11 percent increase over last year. China dominated spending, investing $828 billion in overall, up 23 percent over 2023. Electrified transport, including electric vehicles, was the biggest investment category with $757 billion spent last year, followed by renewable energy at $728 billion.
The Associated Press lets us know that China is beating its own climate goals, in China built out record amount of wind and solar power in 2024. “The nation put up 357 gigawatts of solar and wind, a 45% and 18% increase, respectively, over what was operating at the end of 2023, according to China’s National Energy Administration. That’s akin to building 357 full-size nuclear plants in one year. The installations meant China surpassed a goal, six years early, of having 1,200 gigawatts from renewables by 2030, a benchmark Chinese President Xi Jinping set five years ago.”
Anthropocene’s recent newsletter included this hopeful bit: “The arc of the energy universe is long, but it tends towards low-carbon. Take a look at this chart of global oil demand in the International Energy Authority’s comprehensive forecast from late last year. Higher EV sales bend the curve down but even the most pessimistic scenarios show that a clean energy transition is already slowly underway—particularly in Europe and North America. Citi analysts told Fortune that US policies will fail to hold back progress in transitioning away from high-carbon energy sources. ‘Clean energy is cheaper, more widely available, and more efficient,’ they said. ‘For advocates of clean energy transition, the power of economics will prevail.’”
And we have this encouraging item from Inside Clean Energy’s recent newsletter: “Floating Solar Power Has Huge Potential: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found that federally owned or managed reservoirs have enough room to accommodate enough solar panels to power about 100 million homes each year. Even developing a small share of this potential could make a big difference for the U.S. electricity supply, as Akielly Hu reports for Canary Media.”
Take Climate Action!
President Trump has tapped Russell Vought, a chief architect of Project 2025, to be in charge of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If confirmed, he’ll double down on his plans to dismantle key agencies and roll back our progress on climate action.
Support and/or join one or more of the many climate action organizations that work toward an end to fossil fuel domination. You can find their advocacy action items on their websites. Here’s a list to get you started.
| Opportunities! The California-China Climate Institute is currently accepting applications for its Fall 2025 Visiting Scholar Application Cycle. The Berkeley Law Visiting Scholar Program is a 6 month or 1-year limited term appointment, aimed at supporting mid-career professionals in applied climate policy, independent research and exchanges. It aims to facilitate research and policy engagement on various themes related to international climate policy and subnational climate leadership. Learn more and apply here. And, for the Summer of 2025, the California-China Climate Institute is accepting proposals for small travel and independent field research grants from University of California at Berkeley students (undergraduate or graduate) for thesis, pre-dissertation, or dissertation projects relating to China and/or U.S. (national and subnational) climate, environmental, and energy policy. Learn more about the program and submit your application here. |
Take a Break from the Chaos and Crises
Whether your anxieties are sparked by climate change and weather disasters, or reckless political movements and their relentless chaos, take a break and listen to this helpful podcast: When It’s All Too Much on Hidden Brain. Namaste.
