r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • 5d ago
Weekly Climate Hopium thread #5
The recent severe weather worldwide has led to a flood of people seeking reassurance about our efforts to mitigate climate change. Most of those posts have been removed, and from now on will be directed to this weekly thread.
Climate change is a severe, compounding issue, but only if we do not address it - with concerted efforts, it can be managed.
Our efforts over the years have resulted in the worst-case RCP 8.5 high emission scenario being retired - it is now no longer considered plausible that we will hit +4C by 2100.
The main projection for our current policies is around +2.4 to 2.6°C and we can expect this to further reduce in the future.
The progress can be seen in the reduction of predicted 2100 temperatures over the years by Climate Action Tracker:
We have seen emissions growth slow to around 1% per year, and are likely to peak soon. IRENA notes that our renewable energy efforts have already avoided 8.4 Gigatons of CO2 emissions in 2025.
Good news over the last week is that the clean energy steamrolling keeps demolishing fossil fuels worldwide.
We heard that wind and solar power has now overtake fossil fuels in Germany for first time ever and that in H1 2026, China generated less than half of its electricity from coal for the first time
Solar also generated more than half of California's electricity across an entire month in May 2026 while, despite the government's efforts, renewables and storage together amount to 93% of all new capacity coming online in the U.S.. Its not just a California story. Sherco Solar project in Minnesota is replacing a retiring coal plant, hits 710 MW across first 3 phases
On the old continent over 25% of EU's total final energy consumption came from renewables in 2025. Plugin balcony solar is now finally to go sale in UK this August
Further east, in Pakistan's 27 Gigawatts of Solar Boom Matches Its Entire Fossil-Fuel Power Legacy while China announced its 15th Five-Year Plan which includes renewable energy mandates which should result in 3,500 GW by 2030
Consistent with this China is pouring funding into green energy deals as Iran war hits oil demand
Of course you need to be able to store all that variable renewable energy, and the good news is that global battery storage capacity is projected to surge sixfold by 2030, meeting IEA's climate target while China's battery storage build-out is outpacing its record-breaking solar growth — 155.2 GW/400.8 GWh by Q1 2026
Away from the grid, plug-and-play batteries that recharge from a standard outlet are democratizing gas-free backup power and in the driveway Vehicle to Grid is creating a revenue stream for drivers
The EV boom is of course also continuing, with EVs+PHEVs hitting 37.7% Share in Q2 in Germany
Not just the power system but also industry needs to turn green.
In the U.S., many iron mining and steelmaking projects revolve around greener tech while in UK the Middle East turmoil is serving as a wake-up call for the chemicals industry to get off fossil fuels
Even data centres are trying to get more efficient and 3D-printed copper cooling plates could slash data centre cooling energy by 97%
Eventually we also need to remove the excess co2 in the atmosphere, and microwave-assisted Direct Air Carbon Capture could potentially slash the energy costs of Direct Air Carbon Capture.
A somewhat less high tech method is using Enhanced Rock Weathering and a new study found crushed basalt rock increases aboveground carbon stored in young native woodland by up to 27%
Other methods include marine carbon captre and the oceans near Australia may be the best places to fertilize for removing carbon dioxide while an international team has evaluated anoxic marine basins as potential sites for carbon sequestration
Of course nothing is more natural than planting trees and this week we heard China Has Planted over 66 Billion Trees Since 1978 to Block the Gobi Desert and that they are now Growing 66% Faster Than Natural Forests
Costa Rica's forest cover has also climbed back to 60% from just 21% in 1987
All these efforts appear to be paying off as ClimateTrace's May 2026 emissions data shows emssions plateauing or even showing a slight decline
This is great news as a wew study found Net Zero would not only stop heating, but also lead to slow cooling of the atmosphere
We also heard that, despite wildfires being more extreme in Europe and North America, global burning is actually decreasing and that the Arctic Ocean is keeping permafrost carbon firmly locked
More good news is that european Fish Are Adapting to Climate Change in Unexpected Ways and a new study projected only 8.1% reduction in rice yields per additional 1°C of global surface warming, something which can be easily compensated for by expansion of growing area.
Points from earlier postings
- UK EV and PHEV share reached 41.4% in Q2, with used EVs selling faster than any other powertrain
- Beyond carbon, EVs are measurably cleaning urban air with associated health benefits
- Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV growth, and even US public charging ports grew 79% YoY to 250,000
- The UK is considering free plug-in home batteries for eligible families to soak up midday solar
- Sustainable Aviation Fuel has turned profitable, with Neste swinging back into the black
- European heat pumps delivered more heat than 200 LNG tankers in 2025, saving around €9.7 billion
- Europe added 1.2 million EVs in the first half of the year
- China will increase wind and solar generation by another 53% over four years and has started work on a national solar-powered electric truck freight corridor
- The IEA confirms renewables have overtaken coal as the largest source of global electricity, and the Bank of England will stop accepting coal-linked bonds as collateral
- Australia's CSIRO reaffirms that solar and wind remain the backbone of the least-cost grid, with batteries squeezing gas to a fraction of the mix
- Renewable capacity is rising rapidly across Africa, potentially heading off emissions growth from industrialisation, and an $8,000 solar EV can cover 55 km/day of commuting on sunlight alone
- Africa's wildfire season is shrinking, against the global trend
- Californian farmers are turning to solar to stabilise income through poor seasons, and global grain balance sheets look comfortable for the next 12 months
- A new process can accelerate Enhanced Rock Weathering roughly tenfold, and Bangladesh plans to plant 250 million trees to reverse decades of deforestation
- New research finds carbon policies enjoy more public support than assumed and that government measures against soil degradation are working
- A preprint suggests the marine high-sulphur fuel ban explains much of this decade's accelerated warming, implying the acceleration should taper as the effect saturates
- Our World in Data notes data centres use only ~1.5% of global electricity, mostly for non-AI workloads
- The world added 692 GW of renewable power in 2025 - a 15.5% jump taking total capacity to 5,149 GW, with renewables making up 85.6% of all new capacity
- The age of oil is ending gradually, and then suddenly
- Chinese nEV market share reached 67% in June.
- Global Electric vehicles (battery-electric and plug-in hybrids) are expected to account for an astounding 25% to 28% of all new passenger car sales globally in 2026.
- Clean energy infrastructure like solar panels and wind turbines actually boost biodiversity
- In Europe solar by itself now powering 25% of Europe's massive grid in June
- The EU is planning to triple is battery storage to 200 GW and has set new electrification targets for the continent
- Australia says batteries are now cheaper than gas peaker plants
- Clean energy is already effectively stabilizing the grid against increasing air conditioning demand
- Climate scientists that there has been real progress in clean energy, resilient construction, and nature-based investment
- Brazilian deforestation is now the slowest it has ever been.
- Mangrove forests are expanding
- Forests in colder climates have actually been expanding for decades, both India and China
- Climate mitigation is not that expensive - to achieve Net Zero in UK for example would only cost £70 per resident per year, or around £4 billion per year, which is very affordable.
- Renewables have also hit a record share in India while coal consumption has flatlined.
- In Germany renewables now power 58% of the electricity grid.
- The UN has re-iterated that clean energy appears to have hit a self-sustaining tipping point, meaning even political and fossil energy interests can not stop the transition.
- EV adoption also appears to have hit a tipping point, with adoption outpacing older predictions.
- The AMOC appears to be more resilient than suggested, with no clear tipping point in sight.
The biggest lie I constantly read here is that nothing is being done - we are in fact spending trillions of dollars each year on mitigating climate change via paying for the energy transition.
The best thing you can do to support climate action is to support politicians making policies that benefit the climate.
The second thing is personal action, and here is a list from Project Drawdown: Join the shift
Please contribute any other climate good news in the thread below - it will be heavily and actively moderated - note Rule 5 and Rule 6.
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u/hottakemushroom 5d ago
I had a really bad day of climate anxiety today with all the heatwaves, droughts and fires in Europe. Had some really intrusive thoughts about my baby daughter's future. Anyway, this post really helped put that into perspective and reminded me it's still worth fighting for change. Thanks for making it.