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Episode 91: Good News


In this episode we celebrate some of the good news the CCR team have found for you. Lily Russian, Karina Taylee, Horace Mo, and Peterson Toscano will each share with you good news stories about what is happening in the climate change sphere. You will also hear good news about what you can expect from our show in 2024. Did someone say True Crime Climate mini series??

Lily is a junior at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, studying Political Science and Environmental Science. Karina is from Miami, Florida, and started volunteering for CCL in 2021 before becoming an intern this fall. She has just finished her graduate studies. And Horace, a recent graduate from the University of Michigan, has returned to his home in Chongqing, China.

From Coal Power to Green Energy

Coal mines are bad for the environment. At least that is what we have always heard. Well, Lily tells us about a revolutionary project in Gateshead, England, which shows the remarkable potential of using abandoned mines to reduce carbon emissions. Lily says, “The ground-breaking project uses the warm water from the tunnels to heat hundreds of homes and businesses in the former coalfield community.” 

In this episode, you will learn more about this first-of-its-kind initiative that demonstrates the potential of harnessing the Earth’s natural heat stored in flooded mines to create clean, renewable energy. If you want to dig deeper, check out this article

High Seas High Hopes: Treaty Aims to Protect Two-Thirds of Our Unprotected Ocean

If you’re passionate about protecting our oceans, Karina has some good news for you! Deep beneath the waves, a silent struggle unfolds. The high seas, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans, remain unprotected, vulnerable to human activity. 

A beacon of hope shines in the form of the High Seas Treaty, currently navigating its way through international ratification. This historic agreement aims to establish marine protected areas, safeguarding vast regions from damaging activities like oil drilling.

“These regions will be kind of like gigantic National Parks, but in the ocean.” – Karina Taylee

If you want to learn more about the High Seas Treaty, listen to the episode and read this article.  

“Ocean Breakthroughs” Initiative: World Leaders Unite for the Oceans

Imagine 400 global leaders and changemakers – conservation experts, business representatives, local communities, and indigenous groups – uniting to address the critical issue of ocean health. 

Horace tells us about The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Leaders Forum, a platform for innovative solutions and collaborative action. The IUCN facilitated the launch of “Ocean Breakthroughs,” a global initiative aiming to revitalize five key marine sectors: conservation, renewable energy, shipping, food production, and coastal tourism. This ambitious plan seeks to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 35% by 2050, demonstrating a profound commitment to ocean sustainability and climate action.

If you have a Good News Story you want to share, email us: radio @ citizensclimatelobby.org

Take a meaningful next step

Each month we will suggest meaningful, achievable, and measurable next steps for you to consider. We recognize that action is an antidote to despair. If you are struggling with what you can do, consider one of the following next steps. 

1. Podcast Engagement

  • To celebrate 91 consecutive months of podcasting, share our show on your social media and with your friends. If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, we would LOVE a review.

2. Carbon Fee and Dividend Movement (For College Students)

  • Explore the Carbon Fee and Dividend movement, which advocates for effective climate policies. They creatively engage college students, faculty, and staff in their campaigns. This movement also facilitates direct connections with lawmakers
  • Utilize the hashtag #carbonfeeanddividend on social media.
  • Learn more at CFDmovement.com and follow them on Instagram @carbonfeeanddividend.

3. Citizens’ Climate Lobby National Youth Action Team (For Middle and High School Students)

4. Additional Climate Action Resource (For anyone at any time)

  • For those seeking more ways to take action, explore the action page at CCLusa.org/action.

Listen Now!

Listener Survey

We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill in this short survey. Your feedback will help us as we make new decisions about the content, guests, and style of the show. You can fill it out anonymously and answer whichever questions you like. 

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Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group, on X (FKA Twitter) @CitizensCRadio, Instagram @CitizensClimateRadio, LinkedIn, or TikTok @ClimateChangePodcast. You can reach us by email: radio @ citizensclimateradio.org. Call our listener voicemail line: (619) 512-9646. +1 if calling from outside the USA.

Read the Transcript
Episode 91 Climate Change Good News

Peterson Toscano: Welcome to Citizens’ Climate Radio–Your Climate Change Podcast. (music) In this show we highlight people’s stories, we celebrate your successes, and together we share strategies for talking about climate change. I am your host, Peterson Toscano. Welcome to episode 91 of Citizens’ Climate Radio

A project of Citizens’ Climate Education.

This episode is airing on Friday December 22, 2023

Today’s show is filled with Good News. As a climate advocate, I need to hear good news stories. To find these stories, I have to look beyond traditional news sources. Yes, we must hear about the dangerous impacts of climate change. Journalists also need to bear witness to the failures of governments when they do act on climate change. And in the midst of all that, climate advocates like you and me also need to hear about successes and breakthroughs. 

This episode we celebrate some of the good news that my team and I have found for. Lily Russian, Karina Taylee, Horace Mo, and I will each share with you good news stories about what is happening in the climate change sphere. I will also share with you some good news about what you can expect from our show in 2024. We have special projects coming your way.  

We begin with a Good News story from Lily Russian. Lily served as a CCR Team Member intern this semester.

Lily Russian: 

What can  we do with the world’s abandoned coal mines? A town in the UK might just have the answer. In Gateshead England, an old coal mine has been providing green energy for the last six months. The ground-breaking project uses the warm water from  the tunnels to heat hundreds of homes and businesses in the former coalfield community. The project is the UK’s first large-scale mine water heating network. It shows the potential of using abandoned mines to reduce carbon emissions. 

After decades of neglect, Britain’s abandoned coal mines gradually flooded. Warmed by the earth, this water could become a key part of our renewable energy future. Geologists estimate that Britain’s mine shafts contain over 2 billion cubic meters of warm water. I mean that is a lot of water. This makes them one of the largest untapped sources of clean energy in the country. 

In the United States alone, there are almost 50,000 abandoned coal mines. This innovative project in the UK demonstrates the remarkable potential our world has to transform these relics of the past into valuable assets for a green future.

But how does it work?  Water in mines gets hotter the deeper it goes. At depths of 1 kilometer, water can reach up to 40 degrees celsius, that’s 104 degrees fahrenheit! The steaming hot water is harnessed through drilling boreholes, which are similar to wells, to bring it to the surface. The water is then pumped up from the mine and passed through heat pumps, which raise its temperature even higher. The hot water is then piped to buildings, where it is used to heat them. Once the water has cooled down, it is pumped back into the mine system to be heated up again.

I love what  John McElroy has to say about this solution. He is a cabinet member for the environment and transport at Gateshead Council. He says: “What we have in Gateshead is a legacy from the days of the coal mines, which was dirty energy, “now we are leading the way in generating clean, green energy from those mines.”

To learn more about this project, visit gateshead dot gov dot uk. I put a link in the show notes for you over at cclusa.org/radio. 

If you have a good news story you want to share, contact us. The email address is radio @ citizensclimatelobby.org

Peterson: Thank you Lily! Although Lily Russian’s internship is officially over, you will hear her voice a lot in 2024. Later in the show I will tell you about the special limited series Lily, Horace, and I have been creating for you. 

Speaking of Horace, he has put together a  good news story for you. 

Horace: Hi there!, this is Horace, here with the Good News on climate change! Are you concerned about the impact of global warming on marine ecosystems? Do you worry about how ocean biomes are affected by climate change?” If you are, I am on the same side with you. But, folks, don’t panic yet! I have an uplifting message about protecting the world’s oceans for you today. 

I want you to first imagine a gathering of 400 world leaders and changemakers. I mean wouldn’t be great if they came together to do something about the oceans. These leaders and changemakers include but are not limited to conservation experts, business representatives, local communities ,and indigenous people’s groups. 

The good news is such a meeting just happened! On October 11, 2023, the IUCN Leaders Forum hosted a two-day conference for a diverse group of leaders and changemakers in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the future of global oceans. 

So, what is the IUCN Leaders Forum? Well, IUCN is short for The International Union for Conservation of Nature. The IUCN Leaders Forum thus brings global leaders together to discuss innovative solutions and catalyzes impactful action in nature conservation and sustainability. 

At the end of this year’s forum, President Razan Al Mubarak proudly announced the launch of “Ocean Breakthroughs.” It is a global marine conservation and climate action initiative. The Ocean Breakthroughs aim to improve 5 key ocean sectors: marine conservation, ocean renewable energy, shipping, aquatic food, and coastal tourism. Sounds exciting, right? Moreover, successfully implementing Ocean Breakthroughs will help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 35 % by 2050.

I believe all participants at the forum set a great example to mobilize global support in saving world oceans. The impact will further raise public attention for the major and annual international climate meeting, The United Nations Climate Change Conference. (Hopefully the conference can further scale up the effort of saving oceans. I am sure with our determination and an increasing sense of urgency to take climate action, more climate change good news will transpire in the future! 

As I am wrapping up with our good news story today, If you want to learn more about this story, you can always visit iucnleadersforum.org. If you have a good news story to share with the public, please email us at Radio@CitizensClimatelobby.org. 

Thank you Horace. I am pleased to announce that Horace will continue his internship with Citizens’ Climate Radio for another season. Horace is a recent graduate with B.A in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan. He now lives in Chongqing, China and works for a hoisting machinery manufacturing company. In his spare time, Horace enjoys weightlifting, watching sports, nature sightseeing, and reading history 

Our next Good News Story comes from COP28. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel cynical about these  gatherings of nations, non-governmental organizations, and corporations. The process often feels convoluted and slow moving. Many young people express their extreme frustration and displeasure with the adults who are not doing enough to address the causes and impacts of climate change. 

According to a Wall Street Journal article and many other news sources, this year’s COP has resulted in a historic step forward. 

In an unprecedented move, nations have agreed for the first time to begin the transition away from fossil fuels. This historic decision marks a pivotal moment in our global climate narrative.

The United Arab Emirates, under the leadership of Sultan Al Jaber, has successfully brokered a compromise. This deal, born from all-night talks, is not just a statement but a robust action plan to hasten our journey towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

For the first time, a U.N. climate agreement explicitly calls for governments to cut back on all fossil fuels. This is a significant shift, especially considering the past resistance from major fossil fuel producers and rapidly developing nations.

In fact, this is the first time one of these agreements has actually included the words fossil fuels in them and I…

Tony: Coming through, coming through. 

Peterson: Tony? Tony Buffusio

Tony: Yeah, this Tony Buffusio from the Bronx

Peterson: Um, great to see you, but I’m actually in the middle of telling a good news story. 

Tony: HA! You call that good news?!? 

Peterson: Well, Yeah, it is a step forward. It’s historic. 

Tony: Oh yeah, I tried plain no-fat Greek yogurt for the first time this week, and it made me want to puke. A lot like this good news story of yours. 

Peterson: You sound about as sour as that yogurt

Tony: Listen Peterson, this is a group that almost 30 years ago set themselves up with big plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming. All this time and they finally said out loud what everyone already knew. Extracting and burning Fossil Fuels is the cause of climate change! I know slow and steady wins the race but this is like watching a snail moving through a pile of jello with two other snails on its back!

Peterson: I hear you. This decision hasn’t come without its critics. Some environmental groups worry about potential loopholes for the fossil fuel industry. But it’s important to acknowledge the strides taken, even as we recognize the journey ahead.

Tony: Sorry I’m not buying it

Peterson: Ok but what do you think we should do? 

Tony: What do I think? I’ll tell you what I know. When people get off their butts and talk to their members of congress, it makes a difference. Not just one person. Not just a dozen, but thousands and thousands in every congressional district in the USA and beyond telling lawmakers we need smart solutions NOW. 

Peterson: You mean like a CBAM? 

Tony: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Exactly. You know when I first heard about CBAM I thought it had something to do with a holiday meal. 

Peterson: What do you mean, like some imported food might now be available. 

Tony: No, not that. It’s like when you sit down for a big Buffusio family meal. I eat so much, I can’t move. I get all gassy. I got to lossen my belt or put on sweatpants. It is my post-meal Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. 

But no, a CBAM is a fee placed on imports of goods that are carbon intensive. The EU is working on this right now. We need to get in that game. 

Peterson: Yes, I hear you. There is a lot we can do without the UN or global agreements. The USA has vast power in the world. 

Tony: That’s why we need to talk to the people who make the laws. They know it has to happen, and we have great solutions like CBAM, carbon fee & dividend, and permitting reform. 

Peterson: And those ideas are really getting traction. More and more laws are being introduced by Republicans and Democrats. 

Tony: So yeah, if you really want to become part of something historic, visit CCLUSA.org/action. Today you can do something significant, and you don’t even have to fly all the way across the world to do it!

Peterson: That website again is CCLUSA.org/action. Thank you, Tony for crashing my good news story. 

Tony: Yeah well someone has to keep an eye on you. 

Coming up: more good news PLUS I reveal big plans ahead for Citizens’ Climate Radio. Stay Tuned

[Adverts]

Peterson: You already heard from Lily and Horace. Now we get Good News from Karina Taylee. But first congratulations are in order. Over the last year has been working on an accelerated Master’s degree in Global Strategic Communications with a certificate in Science Communications. This month she graduated and earned her degree! 

Here is Karina with her good news story. 

Karina: Hi everyone, I’m Karina with a good news story for you! I’m from Miami, FL and I grew up near the ocean. Protecting our seas is really important to me so I was really excited when I heard about the High Seas Treaty currently in the United Nations. The high seas are the parts of the ocean that are not controlled by any country. They cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans. How much of that do you think is protected? Surely two thirds of it, right? Maybe half? Actually, it’s only about 1%  of that is currently protected. 

Luckily, this treaty is trying to do something about that. If the treaty comes into effect, large parts of the ocean will gain protection from oil drilling and other damaging human activities. These regions will be kind of like gigantic National Parks, but in the ocean. The High Seas Treaty will also regulate how countries and companies take the ocean’s resources so they are used more equitably. Lastly, it will update how countries conduct environmental impact assessments.Essentially, there will be a new and improved way to record what’s happening in the high seas. The result? A big win for the ocean and its wildlife. 

This treaty has been in the works for almost two decades! Last Spring, the UN finally decided on the terms of the agreement. It was then translated into the six official languages of the UN. Earlier this Fall, 76 countries and the European Union signed it! !That’s 103 countries and there’s still time for more countries to sign it!

Although these countries signed the High Seas Treaty, 60 nations still need to ratify it before comes into effect. Each country has a different ratification process, so it will take some time. Fortunately, the treaty  performed way better than expected, and that makes me very optimistic. 

This global commitment to protect the ocean shows that most of the world wants to see the high seas flourish. Personally, I’m excited that I get to keep enjoying the ocean here in Miami. I’m hopeful that future generations will have that same privilege.   

Want to learn more about the latest status of The High Seas Treaty? Visit treaties.un.org I put this link in the show notes for you.

Peterson: Thank you, Karina. And before we end I have good news for you about Citizens’ Climate Radio. After 91 consecutive monthly episodes without missing a single month, we will take a very brief pause. In February we will start Season Two of Citizens’ Climate Radio. Yeah, I know 7 years is a very long season. In 2024 my team and I will also premiere two special limited series. Karina Taylee and I have been working on a Spanish language podcast called Voces del Cambio. In it we will highlight countries and regions in Latin America. We will explore a particular problem related to climate change and then share creative solutions that are proposed or enacted to address the problem. The show will be completely in Spanish. In each episode we will direct listeners to Climavivible.org. This is CCL’s Spanish language website. Voces del Cambio will air on a different podcast channel, and we will be sure to share those details when the show premieres. 

The other limited series takes a wildly different approach to climate change. Team member Lily Russian inspired us to consider climate change as a crime and to explore it through the lens of a true crime podcast. I find the true crime genre so compelling. But climate change is huge! How on earth would we be able to investigate it as a crime? We decided to focus on a special and pivotal time in history from about 1997 to 2007. During this period there was a dramatic and dangerous shift in the US political landscape. There has been bipartisan agreement that global warming posed a genuine risk to humans and the planet. Many prominent figures on the right and the left took part in national campaigns to raise awareness. Then less than 10 years letter, everything changed. Suddenly half the lawmakers in the country refused to even acknowledge climate change was real. What happened? Who is responsible? Turns out the answers are not as straight-forward as you might imagine. Lily Russian, Horace Mo, and I have been investigating this story, and in 2024 we will release our limited True Crime Climate Change podcast! Plus we will continue to produce our monthly show with guests and topics that typically do not get covered by the media. We will continue to help you in your own climate work by giving you expert tips and insights to climate communication. We will highlight solutions, and most of all we will cheer you on as you do this vital work. Thank you for all you do. 

 AND If you have Good News to Share, we would love to hear about it. Please Email us radio@citizensclimatelobby.org. That is the correct email address. Radio at CitizensClimateLobby.org

Closing

Thank you for joining me for Episode 91 of Citizens’ Climate Radio

If you like what you hear, and you want to support the work we do, visit CitizensClimateEducation.org to learn how you make a tax deductible contribution.

Here at Citizens’ Climate Education, we want you to be effective in the climate work you do. So we provide training, local group meetings and many resources. They’re all designed to help you build the confidence and skills needed to pursue climate solutions. Find out how you can learn, grow, and connect with others who are engaged in meaningful work visit CCLusa.org, that’s CCLusa.org. We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill a short survey. You will find a link to the survey in our show notes, or just email me, radio @ citizensclimatelobby.org

Citizens’ Climate Radio is written and produced by me—Peterson Toscano along with the CCR Team: Karina Taylee, Lily Russian, and Horace Mo..  Other technical support come from Ricky Bradley and Brett Cease. Social media assistance from Flannery Winchester and Samantha Johnstone.  Moral support from Madeline Para. 

The music on today’s show comes from Epidemicsound.com. 

Please share Citizens’ Climate Radio with your friends and colleagues .You can find Citizens’ Climate Radio wherever you listen to podcasts. Radio. You can also listen at NortherSpiritradio.org 

Thanks for Lily and the CCR team, you can now follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok Feelfree to Call our listener voicemail line: (619) 512-9646. +1 if calling from outside the USA that number again. (619) 512-9646.

Visit http://cclusa.org/radio to see our show notes and find links to our guests. 

Citizens’ Climate Radio is a project of Citizens’ Climate Education.

The post Episode 91: Good News appeared first on Citizens' Climate Lobby.

Episode 91: Good News

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Greenhouse Gases

DeBriefed 10 October 2025: Renewables power past coal; Legacy of UK’s Climate Change Act; Fukushima’s solar future

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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.

This week

Renewables overtake coal

‘HISTORIC FIRST’: Renewables have overtaken coal to become the world’s leading source of electricity for the first six months of this year in a “historic first”, BBC News said. The analysis, from the thinktank Ember, found the world generated “almost a third” more solar power in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2024, while wind power grew by “just over 7%,” reported the Guardian.

HEAVY LIFTING: According to the report, China and India were “largely responsible for the surge in renewables”, while the US and Europe “relied more heavily on fossil fuels,” the Guardian wrote. China built more renewables than every other country combined in the first half of this year, the newspaper added.

CONTINENTAL SHIFTS: A second report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted a “surge” in global wind and solar capacity by 2030, but shaved 5% off its previous forecast, the Financial Times said. The IEA revealed that India is set to become the second-largest growth market for renewables after China, “with capacity expected to increase 2.5 times by 2030”, Down to Earth reported. The IEA also upped its forecast for renewables in the Middle East and north Africa by 23%, “helped by Saudi Arabia rolling out wind turbines and solar panels”, but halved the outlook for the US, the FT noted.

Around the world

  • EV BOOM: Sales of electric and hybrid cars made up “more than half” of all new car registrations in the UK last month, a new record, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers, reported BBC News.
  • BANKING COLLAPSE: A global banking alliance launched by the UN to get banks to slash the carbon footprint of their loans and investments and help drive the transition to a net-zero economy by 2050 has collapsed after four years, Agence France-Press reported.
  • CUTS, CUTS, CUTS: The Trump administration plans to cut nearly $24bn in funding for more than 600 climate projects across the US, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
  • PEOPLE POWER: A farmer, a prison guard and a teacher were among those from the Dutch-Caribbean island Bonaire who appeared at the Hague on Tuesday to “accuse the Netherlands of not doing enough to protect them from the effects of climate change”, Politico reported. 

400,000

The number of annual service days logged by the US National Guard responding to hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters over the past decade, according to a Pentagon report to Congress, Inside Climate News reported.


Latest climate research

  • Politicians in the UK “overwhelmingly overestimate the time period humanity has left to bend the temperature curve”, according to a survey of 100 MPs | Nature Communications Earth and Environment
  • Fire-driven degradation of the Amazon last year released nearly 800m tonnes of CO2 equivalent, surpassing emissions from deforestation and marking the “worst Amazon forest disturbance in over two decades” | Biogeosciences
  • Some 43% of the 200 most damaging wildfires recorded over 1980-2023 occurred in the last decade | Science

(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)

Captured

UK_Climate_Change_Act_DeBriefed

The UK’s Climate Change Act, landmark legislation that guides the nation’s response to climate change, is increasingly coming under attack from anti-net-zero right-leaning politicians. In a factcheck published this week, Carbon Brief explained how the UK’s Climate Change Act was among the first comprehensive national climate laws in the world and the first to include legally binding emissions targets. In total, 69 countries have now passed “framework” climate laws similar to the UK’s Climate Change Act, with laws in New Zealand, Canada and Nigeria among those explicitly based on the UK model. This is up from just four when the act was legislated in 2008. Of these, 14 are explicitly titled the “Climate Change Act”.

Spotlight

Fukushima’s solar future

This week, Carbon Brief examines how Fukushima helped to recover from nuclear disaster by building solar farms on contaminated farmland.

On 11 March 2011, an earthquake off the pacific coast of Japan caused 15m-tall waves to crash into the eastern region of Tōhoku, killing 19,500 people and injuring a further 6,000.

In the aftermath, flooding at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant caused cooling systems to fail, leaching radioactive contaminants into the soil and leading to a major nuclear incident.

Some 1,200km2 around the site was restricted and up to 100,000 people were evacuated – in some cases forever.

In the years following, Japan entered a fraught debate about nuclear energy.

In 2010, nuclear power provided 25% of Japan’s electricity, but, in the years following the disaster, its 54 nuclear reactors were taken offline.

Successive governments have fought over reintroducing nuclear power. Today, some 14 reactors are back online, 27 have been permanently closed and another 19 remain suspended. (Japan’s newly-elected prime minister Sanae Takaichi has promised to make nuclear central to her energy strategy.)

Against this backdrop, Fukushima – a prefecture home to 1.8 million people – has emerged as a surprise leader in the renewables race.

In 2014, the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute (FREA) opened with the twin goals of promoting research and development into renewable energy, while “making a contribution to industrial clusters and reconstruction”.

That same year, the prefecture declared a target of 100% renewable power by 2040.

Contaminated land

“A lot of these communities, I know, were looking for ways to revitalise their economy,” said Dr Jennifer Sklarew, assistant professor of energy and sustainability at George Mason University and author of “Building Resilient Energy Systems: Lessons from Japan”.

Once evacuation orders were lifted, however, residents in many parts of Fukushima were faced with a dilemma, explained Skarlew:

“Since that area was largely agricultural, and the agriculture was facing challenges due to stigma, and also due to the soil being removed [as part of the decontamination efforts], they had to find something else.”

One solution came in the form of rent, paid to farmers by companies, to use their land as solar farms.

Michiyo Miyamoto, energy finance specialist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told Carbon Brief:

“The [Fukushima] prefecture mapped suitable sites early and conducted systematic consultations with residents and agricultural groups before projects were proposed. This upfront process reduced land-use conflicts, shortened permitting timelines and gave developers clarity.”

As a result, large-scale solar capacity in Fukushima increased to more than 1,300 megawatts (MW) from 2012 to 2023, according to Miyamoto. Moreover, installed renewable capacity now exceeds local demand, meaning the region can run entirely on clean power when conditions are favourable, Miyamoto said.

Today, aerial pictures of Fukushima reveal how solar panels have proliferated on farmland that was contaminated in the nuclear disaster.

View of Shinchi town, Fukushima in 2011 (top) and 2016 (bottom).
View of Shinchi town, Fukushima in 2011 (top) and 2016 (bottom). Credit: Newscom/Alamy Stock Photo

Charging on

Last year, 60% of Fukushima’s electricity was met by renewables, up from 22% in 2011. (The country as a whole still lags behind at 27%.)

And that is set to grow after Japan’s largest onshore windfarm started operations earlier this year in Abukuma, Fukushima, with a capacity of 147MW.

The growth of solar and wind means that Fukushima is already “ahead of schedule” for its 2040 target of 100% renewable power, said Miyamoto:

“The result is a credible pathway from recovery to leadership, with policy, infrastructure and targets working in concert.”

Watch, read, listen

OVERSHOOT: The Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, in partnership with Planet B Productions, has released a four-part podcast series exploring what will happen if global warming exceeds 1.5C.

DRONE WARFARE: On Substack, veteran climate campaigner and author Bill McKibben considered the resilience of solar power amid modern warfare.

CLIMATE AND EMPIRE: For Black history month, the Energy Revolution podcast looked at how “race and the legacies of empire continue to impact the energy transition”.

Coming up

Pick of the jobs

DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

The post DeBriefed 10 October 2025: Renewables power past coal; Legacy of UK’s Climate Change Act; Fukushima’s solar future appeared first on Carbon Brief.

DeBriefed 10 October 2025: Renewables power past coal; Legacy of UK’s Climate Change Act; Fukushima’s solar future

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Greenhouse Gases

Guest post: How Caribbean states are shifting climate legislation

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The Caribbean region is among the most vulnerable to climate change, despite historically contributing less than half of one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Rising sea levels, extreme heat and more frequent and intense storms – such as the 2024 Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in Grenada – pose urgent and growing threats to the small island states, coastal nations and overseas territories that comprise the Caribbean region.

With global progress to address climate change still too slow, Caribbean countries are taking matters into their own hands by enacting more robust legislation to help protect against climate risks.

In a new study published in the Carbon and Climate Law Review, we identified 78 climate laws and legally binding decrees across 16 Caribbean states, as well as two constitutional references to climate change and a growing recognition of the right to a healthy environment.

Our analysis suggests that, together, these developments are not only enhancing resilience, but also positioning Caribbean states as influential actors in the global climate arena.

Caribbean climate laws on the rise

Climate governance in the Caribbean has expanded significantly in recent years. In the past decade, countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic have embedded climate obligations and programmatic guidelines into their national constitutions.

At the same time, legislative recognition of the human right to a healthy environment is gaining momentum across the region. Six Caribbean nations now affirm the right in their constitutions, while 15 have recognised it through international instruments, such as the UN Council, UN Assembly and the Escazu Agreement, as shown in the figure below.

Map of the Caribbean sea showing Sixteen Caribbean nations have formally recognised the right to a healthy environment
Illustration of Caribbean states that recognise the right to a healthy environment at the domestic and/or international level. Source: Heredia Ligorria, Schulte and Tigre (2025). Graphic: Carbon Brief.

More recently, there has been a notable rise in targeted, sector-specific climate frameworks that go beyond broader environmental statutes.

Saint Lucia stands out as the only country with a climate framework law, or a comprehensive national law that outlines long-term climate strategies across multiple domains. Meanwhile, several other Caribbean governments have adopted climate-specific laws that focus on individual sectors, such as energy, migration and disaster management.

According to our analysis, more than a quarter of climate-relevant legislation in the region – comprising 21 laws and legally binding decrees – now has an explicit focus on climate change, as illustrated in the chart below.

Our research suggests that this represents an ongoing shift in legislative focus, reflecting changes in how climate legislation is being structured in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.

Chart showing the breakdown of climate legislation in the Caribbean region
Distribution of climate legislation in the Caribbean, showing the share of climate-specific and climate-related laws among those reported. Source: CCLW, ECOLex, FAOLex, Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition.

Caribbean nations are also advancing legal reforms to structure and institutionalise climate finance and market mechanisms directly into domestic law, aligned with Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

For example, the Bahamas has introduced provisions for carbon credit trading, while Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Grenada have established national climate financing mechanisms to support mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Some states, including Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis, have incorporated regional bodies such as the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre – the climate arm of the intergovernmental Caribbean community organisation CARICOM – into national frameworks. This indicates an increasing alignment between regional cooperation and domestic law.

In addition to the influx of regulations specifically addressing climate change, Caribbean nations are also legislating broader environmental issues, which, in turn, could provide increased resilience from climate impacts and risks, as shown in the graph above.

Key trends in these types of climate-related laws include the expansion of disaster risk management governance, which addresses national preparedness for climate-induced weather events or related catastrophes. Likewise, energy law is an increasingly prominent focus, with countries including Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines integrating renewable energy and energy efficiency goals into national climate governance.

More broadly, many Caribbean nations have adopted wide-ranging and comprehensive environmental laws, many of which were developed in alignment with existing climate commitments. In combination, these legal developments reflect a dynamic and evolving climate governance landscape across the region.

Proactive vs reactive approaches

Despite general alignment with these broader regional trends, our research reveals distinct developmental pathways shaping domestic climate regulation.

In the eastern Caribbean, for example, we saw both proactive, long-term planning strategies and reactive, post-disaster reforms.

Saint Lucia’s multifaceted approach to climate resilience evolved steadily over the course of more than a decade. During this time, the country developed numerous adaptation plans, strengthened cross-sectoral coordination and engaged in institutional climate reforms in areas such as energy, tourism, finance and development.

More recently, the passage of Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Act in 2024 marked a milestone in climate governance, by giving legal force to the country’s obligations under the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement – making Saint Lucia one of the few small island states to incorporate global climate commitments into domestic law.

Our research indicates that this strategy has not only positioned the country as a more climate-resilient nation, but also solidified its access to international climate financing.

In contrast, Dominica’s efforts evolved more rapidly in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, which destroyed over 200% of the country’s GDP. The storm’s impacts were felt across the country and hit particularly hard for the Kalinago people – the Caribbean’s last Indigenous community – highlighting the role of socioeconomic disparities in shaping climate vulnerability and resilience.

In response, the government passed the Climate Resilience Act, creating the temporary Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica (CREAD).

Beyond establishing an exclusively climate-focused institution, the act aimed to embed resilience into governance by mandating the participation of vulnerable communities – including Indigenous peoples, women, older people and people with disabilities – in shaping and monitoring climate resilience projects.

Damaged homes from hurricane Maria in 2017, Dominica.
Damaged homes from hurricane Maria in 2017, Dominica. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

As noted in a recent statement by the UN special rapporteur on Climate Change, Dr Elisa Morgera, these frameworks underscore the government’s ambition to become the world’s first “climate-resilient nation.”

Although challenges persist, Dominica’s efforts demonstrate how post-disaster urgency can drive institutional change, including the integration of rights and resilience into climate governance.

Uneven progress and structural gaps

Despite significant progress, our research shows that several key opportunities for climate governance across the Caribbean continue to exist, which could enable improvements in both resilience and long-term ambition.

The region’s legal landscape remains somewhat heterogeneous. While Saint Lucia has enacted a comprehensive climate framework law, the rest of the region lacks similar blanket legislation. This includes some states that entirely lack climate-specific laws, instead relying on related laws and frameworks to regulate and respond to climate-related risks.

Other nations have yet to adopt explicit disaster-risk management frameworks, leaving Caribbean populations vulnerable before, during and after climate emergencies. Most have yet to enshrine the right to a healthy environment at the national level.

Our research suggests that outdated legal frameworks are further limiting progress in addressing current climate risks. Because many of the longer-standing environmental laws in the region were adopted well before climate policy became a mainstream concern, some fail to address the nature, frequency and intensity of modern climate challenges, such as sea-level rise, tropical storms, wildfires, floods, droughts and other impacts.

More broadly, many Caribbean climate laws include limited integration of gender equity, Indigenous rights and social justice. As Caribbean nations such as Grenada and the Dominican Republic begin to link climate resilience with these issues, the region has an opportunity to lead by example.

Ultimately, capacity and resource constraints persist as significant barriers to implementation and adaptation.

The Caribbean region faces debt that exacerbates ongoing development challenges, a burden made heavier by the repeated economic shocks of climate-related disasters. Along with regional debt-for-resilience schemes, increased funding from high-emitting countries to support adaptation measures in climate-vulnerable nations – as endorsed under the Paris Agreement – is likely to be critical to ensuring the region’s climate laws can be executed effectively.

Global implications of Caribbean climate law

Our research suggests that Caribbean countries are outpacing other regions in terms of the scope and ambition of their climate laws. This legislation has the potential to serve as a model for climate-vulnerable nations worldwide.

Continuing efforts in the region show that legal frameworks in the field can not only drive resilience, embed rights and strengthen claims to international finance, but also highlight how regional cooperation and diplomacy can enhance global influence.

These findings demonstrate that innovation in climate law need not wait for action from major emitters, but can instead be led by those on the front lines of climate change.

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Guest post: How Caribbean states are shifting climate legislation

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IEA: Renewables have cut fossil-fuel imports for more than 100 countries

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More than 100 countries have cut their dependence on fossil-fuel imports and saved hundreds of billions of dollars by continuing to invest in renewables, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It says nations such as the UK, Germany and Chile have reduced their need for imported coal and gas by around a third since 2010, mainly by building wind and solar power.

Denmark has cut its reliance on fossil-fuel imports by nearly half over the same period.

Renewable expansion allowed these nations to collectively avoid importing 700m tonnes of coal and 400bn cubic metres of gas in 2023, equivalent to around 10% of global consumption.

In doing so, the fuel-importing countries saved more than $1.3tn between 2010 and 2023 that would otherwise have been spent on fossil fuels from overseas.

Reduced reliance

The IEA’s Renewables 2025 report quantifies the benefits of renewable-energy deployment for electricity systems in fossil fuel-importing nations.

It compares recent trends in renewable expansion to an alternative “low renewable-energy source” scenario, in which this growth did not take place.

In this counterfactual, fuel-importing countries stopped building wind, solar and other non-hydropower renewable-energy projects after 2010.

In reality, the world added around 2,500 gigawatts (GW) of such projects between 2010 and 2023, according to the IEA, more than the combined electricity generating capacity of the EU and US in 2023, from all sources. Roughly 80% of this new renewable capacity was built in nations that rely on coal and gas imports to generate electricity.

The chart below shows how 31 of these countries have substantially cut their dependence on imported fossil fuels over the 13-year period, as a result of expanding their wind, solar and other renewable energy supplies. All of these countries are net importers of coal and gas.

Chart showing that many countries have significantly cut their reliance on fossil-fuel imports by building renewables
Share of national electricity supplies that depend on imported fossil fuels in 2023, actual (left) and in the IEA’s “low renewable-energy source” scenario (right), in 31 countries that are net importers of coal and gas. Source: IEA.

In total, the IEA identified 107 countries that had reduced their dependence on fossil fuel imports for electricity generation, to some extent due to the deployment of renewables other than hydropower.

Of these, 38 had cut their reliance on electricity from imported coal and gas by more than 10 percentage points and eight had seen that share drop by more than 30 percentage points.

Security and resilience

The IEA stresses that renewables “inherently strengthen energy supply security”, because they generate electricity domestically, while also “improving…economic resilience” in fossil-fuel importer countries.

This is particularly true for countries with low or dwindling domestic energy resources.

The agency cites the energy crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exposed EU importers to spiralling fossil-fuel prices.

Bulgaria, Romania and Finland – which have historically depended on Russian gas for electricity generation – have all brought their import reliance close to zero in recent years by building renewables.

In the UK, where there has been mounting opposition to renewables from right-wing political parties, the IEA says reliance on electricity generated with imported fossil fuels has dropped from 45% to under 25% in a decade, thanks primarily to the growth of wind and solar power.

Without these technologies, the UK would now be needing to import fossil fuels to supply nearly 60% of its electricity, the IEA says.

Other major economies, notably China and the EU, would also have had to rely on a growing share of coal and gas from overseas, if they had not expanded renewables.

As well as increasing the need for fossil-fuel imports from other countries, switching renewables for fossil fuels would require significantly higher energy usage “due to [fossil fuels’] lower conversion efficiencies”, the IEA notes. Each gigawatt-hour (GWh) of renewable power produced has avoided the need for 2-3GWh of fossil fuels, it explains.

Finally, the IEA points out that spending on renewables rather than imported fossil fuels keeps more investment in domestic economies and supports local jobs.

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