Positive climate stories in October
It might be the month for frights and fear, but October has also delivered its fair share of good news when it comes to climate. Here’s our regular round-up of the month’s most positive stories…
1. One in five cars sold is electric
In 2020, one in 25 cars sold was electric. Fast forward just three years and this number has risen to one in five, according to a new report from The International Energy Agency (IEA) this month. That’s an impressive leap by anyone’s standards.
The report bought some welcome relief from climate doomism, stating that the world is on an "unstoppable" shift towards renewable energy.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said:
"The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and it's unstoppable. It's not a question of 'if', it's just a matter of 'how soon' - and the sooner the better for all of us.”
According to the energy watchdog, renewables will provide half of the world's electricity by 2030, and it predicts that new emissions of greenhouse gases globally will peak by 2025. But all this good news comes with a warning: we need to speed up the phase-down from fossil fuels and investment in fossil fuels needs to be cut in half.
One in five cars now sold is electric according to the International Energy Agency
2. Estonian energy firm told to halt shale oil plant construction
We are big believers in using the power of law to tackle climate inequalities, and this month saw a brilliant example of this in action.
Young activists from the Estonian branch of Fridays for Future brought a case to Estonia’s supreme court against state energy company Enefit. As a result, the court ordered that construction on a shale oil facility must be halted because of the damage it will do to the environment.
The court found that Enefit’s impact on Puhatu, a nature reserve on one of Estonia’s biggest wetlands, had not been properly accounted for.
Kertu Birgit Anton, an activist with the Estonian branch of Fridays for Future, told The Guardian:
“It’s remarkable that the first climate court case in Estonia – and in the Baltics – ended in a win. Every ton of greenhouse gases that we keep out of the atmosphere is a victory for the wellbeing of society and nature.”
3. Sleeper expansion opens up European train travel
We do our best to avoid travelling by plane at Opportunity Green, but it isn’t always an easy (or cost effective) thing to do. And, while we advocate train over plane wherever possible, we fully recognise that the rail network needs to make some major improvements before more businesses get on board with this concept.
So we’re always pleased to hear about new train services being introduced, especially when they help to open up European train travel. Following the successful launch of the Brussels – Amsterdam – Berlin night train in May 2023, the good news announcement this month is that the European Sleeper will extend this route to Dresden and Prague from March 2024.
The knock-on effect of this extension is vast: the train will then connect four European capitals and Paris and London are also well connected with a single transfer in Brussels. And, as it travels through Saxon Switzerland and the Elbe Valley, the train stops in Germany and the Czech Republic.
4. Poland ousts its ‘anti-climate’ party
It’s not often that election results can be hailed as a win for both democracy and climate action – but that’s exactly what happened in Poland this month.
Euronews reports on Poland’s historic election results
Huge efforts from NGOs and climate activists mobilised record numbers of women and young people to turn up and vote. The result was that Poland’s opposition parties gained a majority over the right-wing Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, or PiS) and the opposition will now form a government by the end of December.
This puts an end to years of frozen climate policies and hails a new era for Poland. The opposition has already promised to accelerate the rollout of renewables and says it will take an ambitious stance on EU climate policies. One of the biggest hopes is that the new government will take on the huge task of addressing the country’s reliance on coal, often referred to as “Polish black gold”.
5. Celebration of inspiring black women-identifying climate activists
October is Black History Month and this year’s theme is ‘celebrating our sisters’, so our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Committee thought this was a great opportunity to shine a brighter light on the brilliant achievements of black women-identifying climate activists.
We felt that, even though Black women are central to the climate movement, much of the attention on climate activism has wrongly focused on white middle class advocacy.
Many of the women we highlight are young activists currently making their mark on the climate movement, like the founder of I Lead Climate, Adenike Titilope Oladosu and co-founder of Fridays for Future Uganda, Hilda Flavia Nakabuye. But we also featured those who have left a long-standing legacy, like Hazel M Johnson, often referred to as the ‘mother of the environmental justice movement’.
To see the full list of inspiring activists and read more about their work, read our blog on celebrating Black History Month.
6. OG turns two!
October is an especially positive month for our team as it’s our birthday on October 18th! This year was our second birthday, marking two years of using legal, economic and policy knowledge to tackle climate change.
Our CEO Aoife O’Leary says:
“While two years might not seem like much, it is a real milestone for us. It really feels like Opportunity Green has made its mark and is an established “thing”. With about £1.75m in turnover this financial year and 14 staff by the end of 2023, OG has smashed through the strategy I set out to achieve in five years in just two. But beyond the numbers, we’ve achieved so much more.”
Read Aoife’s blog 5 reasons why I’m so proud of 2 years of Opportunity Green here.
And we celebrated in style at a birthday party with our team and our friends and colleagues in the wider OG network. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great night!
