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Pro-Climate Developments in 2024: Why There's Still Hope for Sustainable Future

India's progress in solar power generation, UK's complete phase out of coal and efforts aimed at protecting nature and wildlife around the world are among the wins this year

Pro-Climate Developments in 2024: Why There's Still Hope for Sustainable Future
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The year 2024 was marked by a series of alarming climate change related events around the world but it also had some positive developments.

India made significant progress in adding solar energy capacity this year. India installed 16.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity between January and September, a 167 per cent year-on-year increase compared to 6.2 GW of solar capacity in the same period in 2023, according to a Mercom India report.

The country also made remarkable progress in the exports of photovoltaic (PV) module exports, becoming a net exporter from a net importer. India's PV module exports increased 23 times between financial years 2022 and 2024. In FY24, domestic manufacturers in the country exported PV modules worth around $2 billion.

The rapid expansion of solar auctions and support programmes for rooftop solar installations make India the fastest growing renewable energy market among large economies through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) report.

The same report suggested that the world is on track to add 5,500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, increasing global renewable energy capacity by 2.7 times compared to 2022 levels. IEA projected China to account for almost 60 per cent of world’s renewable energy capacity between now and 2030.

Other countries are also taking significant steps to decarbonise their industries with the UK closing down its last coal-based power plant.

UK Closes its Last Coal Power Plant

The United Kingdom shuttered its last coal-based power plant, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant in Nottinghamshire on September 30, 2024. The power station has been operating since 1967, according to BBC.

The power plant site will reportedly undergo two-year decommissioning and demolition process. Although it is unclear as to how the site will be used, one proposal is to turn it into a battery storage site, as per reports.

Earlier, this was done at Ferrybridge C power plant in West Yorkshire. After the demolition, the site was turned into a battery storage site which has a storage capacity of 150 megawatt (MW).

The country which was home to the world's first coal power plant, has become the first country to phase out coal-based power generation completely.

The UK largely began phasing out coal following the disastrous Great Smog of London of 1952 which killed thousands of people. The consequences of the disaster led to the enactment of environmental legislation such as the 1956 Clean Air Act. Since then, the country has been implementing strict measures like carbon taxes and stringent green regulations on coal plants to quicken the process of phasing out coal. In 2015, the government announced to end all coal-fired power generation by 2025.

Apart from the drive to shift to renewable energy, efforts are underway in some countries to protect nature and wildlife with major breakthroughs in New Zealand where mountains and oceans are given the status of legal persons, the US where indigenous groups have saved salmons, and Kazakhstan where species of Saiga Antelope is protected from getting endangered.

Mountains, Oceans Given "Legal Person" Status

This year, mountains and oceans were given the right to become legal persons. In New Zealand, the mountain peaks of Egmont National Park were recognised as ancestral mountains and jointly became a legal person, known as Te Kāhui Tupua.

In Brazil, a part of the ocean was given legal personhood status, with the coastal city of Linhares recognising it as a living being, granting it the right to existence, regeneration and restoration.

A new treaty formed by Pacific Indigenous leaders from the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Aotearoa in New Zealand and Tonga officially recognised whales and dolphins as legal persons.

Ecuador led the revolution by issuing a landmark ruling in 2021 which stated that mining in Los Cedros Protected Forest violated the rights of nature. The country had issued another ruling stating that pollution had violated the rights of the Machángara River that runs through its capital, Quito.

These rulings actually helped in protecting nature and wildlife, according to a report by the More Than Human Life Project and the Earth Rights Research & Action Program at New York University School of Law.

Ocean Protection by Azores

The Azores, an autonomous Portuguese archipelago, has announced a new marine protected area (MPA). When established, it will be the largest MPA network in the North Atlantic Ocean. Spread across 287,000 square kilometers, it covers 30 per cent of the ocean surrounding the archipelago. Half of the protected area will be "fully protected", with no fishing or other natural resource extraction allowed. The other half will be "highly protected".

The Azores sea contains nine hydrothermal vents, 28 species of marine mammals and 560 species of fish, six species of sea turtles among many others. 

Only 2.8 per cent of the oceans in the world are effectively protected and only 8.3 per cent are conserved, according to a report by Bloomberg Philanthropies Ocean Initiative.

Amazon Deforestation Fell to a Nine-Year Low

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil came down to a nine-year low in 2024, according to the Brazil’s national space research institute. It fell by 30 per cent in the 12 months till July with roughly 6,288 square kilometers being destroyed. This was the lowest annual loss since 2015.

Two years ago, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to end deforestation by 2030.

Saving Wildlife from Extinction

In October, salmon returned to the Oregon’s Klamath River basin in California. This followed decades-long efforts by the Native American Yurok Tribe to replenish animals in the tribal territories.

In August 2024, four dams were removed further downstream in the California stretch of the river. It was the biggest dam removal project undertaken in the US.

The numbers of salmon had decreased due to poor river health, caused by the dams blocking the natural water flow.

The tribe has also been running a release project to reintroduce California condors, a vulture-like bird, which is sacred to the tribe, since 2008. Recently, the tribe released two more of the birds, bringing the total of California condors in the Yurok territory to 18.

The entire wild condor population had been placed into a captive breeding initiative, the California Condor Recovery Program, to save it from extinction. 

Saiga Antelope Saved from Extinction

The critically endangered species of Saiga Antelope in the Golden Steppe grassland have been saved from extinction. The efforts of Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, which worked in Kazakhstan with local partners and other international organisations, have resulted in moving the species from "critically endangered" to "near threatened" status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.

As of June 2024, the total number of Saigas in the country is 2,833,600 increasing from just 20,000 in 2003, according to the initiative.

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