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In the 12 months to May 2026, drivers in the United Kingdom bought 516,490 new battery-electric cars against 504,010 petrol ones — the first time EVs have outsold pure petrol vehicles over a full year, according to a Carbon Brief analysis published on June 25, 2026.
MIT engineers added a nanoscale filtering membrane to a carbon-capture system, letting its capture and release stages each run at peak efficiency. The result: a sixfold jump in CO₂ absorption and costs cut by at least 20%, from roughly $600 to $450 per ton.
Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University built an artificial-photosynthesis device that makes liquid solar fuel from carbon dioxide and water, and keeps producing it steadily as sunlight rises and falls, all without the batteries such systems normally need.
On May 20, 2026, Vattenfall inaugurated the Bruzaholm onshore wind farm in southern Sweden — 21 turbines totalling 139 MW that will generate about 460 GWh of fossil-free electricity a year, enough for roughly 91,500 homes. Half its output is earmarked for AB Volvo's low-carbon manufacturing.
Environment and Climate Change Canada made operational a hybrid forecasting system that pairs its traditional physics model with GEML, an AI emulator built on DeepMind's open GraphCast, to predict extremes like high winds and heat waves more accurately and earlier.
Atoco, founded by 2025 Nobel laureate Omar Yaghi, unveiled a commercial prototype that harvests clean water from air using metal-organic frameworks, working even in dry climates with little or no electricity.
Britain's Vertical Aerospace completed a piloted transition flight of its VX4 electric air taxi, switching from hover to wingborne cruise and back under regulatory oversight, a milestone toward quiet, zero-emission urban flight.
On Earth Day 2026, the non-profit search engine Ecosia announced it had planted 250 million trees worldwide since 2009. Working with 125 reforestation partners and over 200,000 planters, it has put 1,600 native species into the ground — including 144 that are endangered or vulnerable — and invested more than 100 million euros in climate action.
In the Affric Highlands rewilding landscape, neighbouring landowners have come together to rewet and restore 1,000 hectares of degraded peatland. Peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests combined, and the restored bogs will lock away carbon, store water and revive habitat for rare birds, dragonflies and plants.
Seattle-based Mast Reforestation sold out all 4,277 credits in its first biomass-burial carbon removal batch, priced through Puro.earth, with buyers including Bain & Company, BMO and RBC — a boost for forest-fire restoration finance.
Rescued from the brink after the last wild individual was shot in 1927, the European bison now numbers roughly 7,000 free-roaming animals across at least seven countries. Beyond their comeback, the giant herbivores boost biodiversity and even help capture carbon.
A century after being hunted to extinction in the wild, the European bison now numbers around 7,000 free-roaming animals, up from 2,579 a decade ago. New research shows rewilded herds also act as climate allies, with a Romanian herd helping lock away carbon equal to tens of thousands of cars.
Despite rising emissions, 2025 delivered tangible environmental victories: renewable energy capacity surged to record levels, endangered green sea turtles hit milestone recovery numbers, and tiger populations grew across Asia, reports the BBC.
Cocoon Carbon raised $15 million to scale a process that turns electric-arc-furnace steel slag into a cement substitute, cutting concrete's embedded CO2 by 40% while staying cost-competitive with ordinary cement.
Researchers have engineered a cutting-edge catalyst using single indium atoms that converts carbon dioxide into methanol more efficiently than ever before, opening new pathways for carbon capture and green fuel production.
Researchers developed an iron-doped carbon nitride catalyst that uses sunlight to break down common plastics and convert the resulting carbon dioxide into acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, all at room temperature and normal pressure.
Scientists achieved the first direct radiocarbon dating of paintings in the Dordogne’s Font-de-Gaume cave, confirming a bison was painted around 13,000 years ago using charcoal hidden in the pigment.
A March 2026 paper in the journal Science identifies peatland restoration as a major climate solution. Peatlands cover only a few percent of Earth's land yet store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests. Restoring about 18 million hectares of drained tropical peatland could cut emissions by some 2 billion tonnes of CO2 a year by 2050.
When 4-year-old Brinley aimed a flashlight at a construction site across from Cleveland Clinic, the workers shone their lights back — sparking a heartwarming friendship of daily messages, gifts, and cheers.
Climeworks opened its Mammoth facility in Iceland in 2024, the world's largest direct air capture plant capable of removing up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually — ten times the capacity of its predecessor.
Brazil hosted COP30 in Belém — the first UN climate summit in the Amazon — and launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a new funding platform that rewards countries for maintaining their forests.
Argentine researchers at CONICET and the University of Buenos Aires modified low-cost activated carbon to remove arsenic from water, cutting it from 100 to under 10 parts per billion over 2,000-plus gallons without power or chemicals.
Community pilots combining weather AI alerts and soil recommendations showed lower losses and better harvest planning for smallholder families.
Brazil and partners launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility ahead of COP30 — a multibillion-dollar initiative that rewards countries for keeping forests standing and channels funding directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the true stewards of forest landscapes.
Verified report based on cited source.
Analysis by Carbon Brief finds China's CO2 emissions fell 0.3% in 2025 and have been "flat or falling" for 21 months since March 2024. A surge in solar (+43%), wind (+14%) and nuclear (+8%) generation met all of the country's electricity demand growth — a potential turning point for the world's largest emitter.
In the lead-up to COP30, Brazil and partners launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility — a multibillion-dollar initiative that rewards countries for keeping forests standing and channels funding directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The largest seagrass restoration project in history is creating vast underwater meadows that capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
A groundbreaking NHS weight-loss program has put 46% of participants with type 2 diabetes into remission, proving that lifestyle changes can reverse the condition.
A unique Kentucky initiative brings together city dwellers and rural farmers to tackle climate change together, discovering they have more in common than they thought.
Large-scale seagrass restoration projects are succeeding worldwide, reviving underwater meadows that capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
Renewable energy sources now generate 35% of global electricity, a new record that puts the world on track to meet key climate goals.
Marine biologists have developed heat-resistant coral varieties that can survive in waters up to 3°C warmer, offering hope for reef conservation as oceans warm.
Cities using AI-optimized traffic light systems are seeing dramatic reductions in vehicle emissions and commute times, proving smart infrastructure can tackle climate change.
Finnish startup TheStorage commissioned its first industrial-scale sand-based thermal battery at a brewery, storing renewable electricity as heat up to 800C and aiming to cut industrial energy costs and emissions sharply.
At the American Meteorological Society meeting, NVIDIA released Earth-2, an open, free stack of AI weather and climate models, libraries and tools, letting weather services and researchers run 15-day and storm-scale forecasts without building from scratch.
The world's most northern electric ferry is now operating in extreme Arctic conditions, proving that zero-emission maritime transport can work even in -13°F temperatures.
Researchers at Monash University and IIT Bombay built SunSpring, a floating solar-desalination membrane studded with microscopic "carbon flowers" that distills seawater continuously, up to 18 liters of fresh water a day, without clogging with salt.
A University of Oxford study of 27 million flights found that eliminating business and first-class seats could halve aviation emissions immediately.
Ming Yang Smart Energy unveiled the MySE23X, a more than 110-meter carbon-fiber wind blade it calls the world's first fully recyclable design, breaking down at end of life with a low-temperature chemical process.
Scientists have identified and mapped climate change refugia around the world that are naturally buffered from the worst effects of global warming.
Reported in December 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine, "off-the-shelf" base-edited CAR7 T cells drove very deep remissions in 82% of patients with resistant T-cell leukemia, with the earliest patients disease-free for three years.
Fervo Energy raised $462 million to complete Cape Station in Utah, set to be the world's largest next-generation geothermal project. Its first 100 megawatts of round-the-clock, carbon-free power are due online in 2026, scaling to 500 megawatts by 2028 — a major step for "always-on" clean energy.
Engineers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute created an enzymatic structural material that hardens in hours and locks away more CO2 than it emits, offering a carbon-negative alternative to concrete, which causes about 8% of global emissions.
After COP30 failed to mention fossil fuels, Colombia and the Netherlands led 25 nations in pledging to establish their own roadmap for abandoning coal, gas and oil.
RMIT University engineers developed electrodes that capture metals from wastewater to form catalysts for splitting water into green hydrogen, using carbon made from agricultural waste and tackling pollution and water scarcity at once.
China's carbon dioxide emissions dropped for the first time during economic growth, as electricity from new wind, solar and nuclear capacity was enough to cut coal-power output even as demand surged.
The International Court of Justice ruled that governments can be held legally accountable for climate emissions, in what was described as a once-in-a-generation moment for climate justice.
Researchers at NREL and the University of Portsmouth unveiled an enzymatic PET recycling process that cuts operating costs by 74% and emissions by nearly half, undercutting the price of virgin plastic.
An international team published in Science a passive cooling paint that combines reflection, infrared emission and evaporation, cutting building cooling energy by about a third even in humid climates.
Researchers used X-ray scanning and artificial intelligence to virtually unroll PHerc. 172, a scroll carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, revealing readable ancient Greek text held at the Bodleian Libraries.
All 411 buildings owned by the City of Chicago now run on renewable energy or offset emissions, powered largely by the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi.
The Paris 2024 Olympics achieved unprecedented sustainability, cutting carbon emissions in half while delivering an inspiring celebration of athletic excellence.
Three students won the 700,000-dollar Vesuvius Challenge grand prize by training machine-learning models to read more than 2,000 letters of philosophy from a Herculaneum scroll carbonized in the 79 CE eruption, without physically opening it.
