As astronaut Victor Glover made his method to the moon earlier this month on NASA’s Artemis II mission, he mirrored on the unimaginable miracle that’s planet Earth.
“You are special,” Glover told an interviewer. Space, he mentioned, “is a whole bunch of nothing.”
But within the midst all that nothing, Glover might see a vivid blue dot out the window of his spaceship. “You have this oasis,” he mentioned, “this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”
Glover is correct. The solely planet within the universe recognized to be succesful of supporting life, our frequent house is one lonely speck of extraordinary abundance in a chilly, infinite vacuum.
On the local weather and surroundings crew at The Times, we spend a lot of time documenting the myriad methods wherein human exercise is wreaking havoc on Earth’s ecosystems. And there’s no query it’s been one other powerful 12 months for the planet. Temperatures maintain rising. Biodiversity loss is rising. The United States has withdrawn from international motion towards local weather change.
But forward of Earth Day tomorrow, we additionally wished to focus on some of the various issues which can be going proper within the push to gradual international warming and defend the planet.
The vitality transition
Curbing local weather change would require changing considerably all of the vitality produced by fossil fuels with vitality produced by clear sources, like photo voltaic and wind energy. And on this entrance, there’s a lot to have a good time.
While the expansion of clear energy has slowed within the United States as a outcome of the Trump administration’s insurance policies, the adoption of renewable and low-carbon vitality sources is booming world wide.
For the primary time, a renewable supply — photo voltaic — was the largest single contributor to new vitality provide worldwide, accounting for greater than 25 p.c of vitality progress final 12 months, based on data released this week by the International Energy Agency.
Globally, electrical automobile gross sales jumped 20 p.c final 12 months, to greater than 20 million autos. And installations of new wind vitality jumped 40 p.c over final 12 months with extra than 160 gigawatts installed in 2025.
“The economics of clean energy are now on our side,” mentioned Manish Bapna, chief govt of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Today, clean energy is the cheapest and quickest way to meet our growing energy demand. As a result, we’re seeing bright spots of hope all over the world.”
With rollout of renewables on the rise, emissions have began to fall in some key markets.
In the European Union, greenhouse gas emissions fell 3 percent between 2023 and 2024. With that drop, the E.U.’s whole emissions are 40 p.c decrease than 1990 ranges, even because the inhabitants and financial system have grown considerably.
In China, carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1 percent within the ultimate quarter of 2025, based on an evaluation by Carbon Brief. That possible will lead to a slight total decline in annual emissions, that means that the world’s largest polluter has managed to maintain its CO2 emissions both “flat or falling” for practically two years now.
And in India, emissions had been flat for the primary time for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, excluding the pandemic years. Wind and photo voltaic installations in India jumped nearly 60 percent last year, the most important improve amongst main nations.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the world transitions to clean energy,” Bapna mentioned, “and what countries will lead the way and reap the economic reward.”
Corporate motion continues
Earlier this 12 months, I wrote about how Wall Street turned its back on climate change. That dynamic hasn’t modified. But elsewhere within the company world, many companies proceed to take motion.
A report $2.3 trillion was allotted to scrub vitality initiatives final 12 months, according to BloombergNEF, and more than 10,000 companies now have objectives to cut back their emissions.
“That’s not retreat,” mentioned Mindy Lubber, chief govt of Ceres, a nonprofit group that helps corporations with sustainability efforts. “That’s acceleration.”
Lubber added that whereas some Wall Street companies have gone quiet on local weather points, many institutional buyers proceed to evaluate local weather danger and publicly held corporations are required to trace the problem. “Fiduciary duty hasn’t changed, and neither has their focus,” she mentioned.
And throughout the nation, states together with California, Illinois and Massachusetts are implementing insurance policies that can push companies to cut back emissions, whilst some Northeast states are pulling back.
“This isn’t a straight line, and it’s definitely not fast enough,” Lubber mentioned. “But overall, the direction is clear: markets, companies, investors, and policymakers are still moving forward.”
A resilient blue dot
There’s some excellent news from across the planet, too.
Scientists have discovered that rainforests can get better from deforestation in mere many years, my colleague Sachi Mulkey reports. A big-scale research, carried out throughout two nature reserves in Ecuador, means that a whole bunch of tens of millions of acres of previously deforested land internationally are regarded as regrowing.
“This is a message of hope,” one tropical forest ecologist mentioned of the research. “The exciting thing is that nature is capable of recovering by itself.”
From Oregon to Maine, rivers are being restored, permitting salmon to return. (California, for its half, is constructing literal bridges for wildlife.) And residents in all 50 states are developing with revolutionary fixes to local weather issues massive and small.
None of these developments alone will single-handedly cease local weather change, or reverse the harm that has already been accomplished. But collectively, they provide promise that even in difficult and complex occasions, humanity can summon the desire to care for our frequent dwelling.
“You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth,” Glover mentioned whereas zooming away from the planet. “But you’re on a spaceship called Earth, that was created to give us a place to live in the universe and the cosmos.”
Ask NYT Climate
How can I defend my automobile when the climate is scorching?
The mercury is beginning to rise outdoors. While which may be welcome information for gardeners and beachgoers, larger temperatures can take a toll in your automobile.
“Heat is a stressor on the vehicle, and in many ways, a much greater stressor than even cold temperatures,” mentioned Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering and analysis at AAA. “It affects nearly every system.”
Here’s how one can put together your automobile for what’s shaping up to be a hot summer. — Susan Shain
And learn extra from our Ask NYT Climate series.
In case you missed it
The local weather coverage case that remade the Supreme Court
In 2016, the Supreme Court issued a cryptic, one paragraph ruling that despatched each local weather coverage and the court docket itself spinning in new directions.
For two centuries, the court docket had typically dealt with main instances at a stately tempo that inspired care and deliberation, counting on written briefs, oral arguments and in-person discussions. The justices composed detailed opinions that defined their considering to the general public and rendered judgment solely after decrease courts had weighed in.
But this time, the justices had been sprinting to dam a main presidential initiative. By a 5-to-4 vote alongside partisan strains, the order halted President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, his signature environmental coverage. The justices acted earlier than another court docket had addressed the plan’s lawfulness. The resolution consisted of solely authorized boilerplate, with out a phrase of reasoning.
At the time, the ruling appeared like a curious one-off. But that single paragraph turned out to be a sharp and lasting break. The ruling marks the start, many legal experts believe, of the court docket’s fashionable “shadow docket,” the secretive monitor that the Supreme Court has since used to make many main choices. — Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak
More from ‘The Shadow Papers’:
Climate legislation
Environmental teams sue to dam BP’s plan to drill in deep Gulf waters
Environmental teams sued the Trump administration on Monday to cease the British oil large BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that exploded in 2010, from beginning a new $5 billion drilling undertaking in ultra-deep waters within the Gulf of Mexico.
The Kaskida undertaking, which was permitted final month by federal officers, can be about 250 miles off the coast of Louisiana at a depth of practically 6,000 ft. BP initiatives it’ll produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day from six wells beginning in 2029 in a part of the seafloor that’s estimated to carry 10 billion barrels of crude.
Opponents say the brand new undertaking poses higher dangers than the Deepwater Horizon rig did. — Lisa Friedman
The Climate Quiz
This query comes from a latest Times local weather article. Click a solution to see should you’re proper. (The hyperlink is free.)
For greater than 1,200 years, Japanese noblemen, monks and bureaucrats have fastidiously recorded one of essentially the most eagerly awaited days of the 12 months — when cherry blossoms bloom within the historic capital, Kyoto.
But man-made local weather change has helped make early blooms extra frequent. And in 2021, the height bloom in Kyoto occurred on March 26, its earliest arrival in 1,200 years. How a lot earlier did Kyoto’s peak bloom occur in 2021?
More local weather information from across the net:
Sales of electrical vehicles had been up 51 p.c in Europe final month, The Guardian reports as gasoline prices have soared throughout the Iran conflict.
The Washington Post, citing a beforehand unaired video, reviews that simply a few months earlier than she died, Jane Goodall, implored the world to take motion. “Just do something,” the famed conservationist mentioned.
The U.S. navy might not point out local weather change, Bloomberg reports, however it’s definitely getting ready for it.
Read past editions of the newsletter here.
If you’re having fun with what you’re studying, please contemplate recommending it to others. They can sign up here.
Follow The New York Times on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and TikTok at @nytimes.
Reach us at climateforward@nytimes.com. We learn each message, and reply to many!
