This week’s good climate news

With so much still to do to slow warming and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, it’s important to fortify ourselves by celebrating wins along the way.

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Even though the story is about dogs, this is a picture of an olive tree. Look, I don't choose the images, and I'm sorry.

Hero dogs to save Italy’s olive trees

Southern Italy’s olive trees are plagued with a deadly disease and have been dying off for a decade. But help has come in the four-legged form of the Xylella Detection Dogs.

This experimental program trains dogs to identify the Xylella bacterium on infected trees through smell. Then the infected trees can be uprooted, hopefully stopping the spread of the disease.

Aerial view of the coast in New South Wales

New South Wales requires companies to show net-zero homework

In Australia’s “most comprehensive plan” to cut carbon emissions, New South Wales will require businesses to demonstrate how they will reach net-zero by 2050.

The Climate Change Policy and Action Plan 2023-26 that outlines companies’ climate action plans could become a model for other states.

A row of wind turbines in green fields with forests behind them

One-fourth of US energy will come from renewables by 2024

A new Energy Information Administration report predicts renewable energy will soon make up a quarter of the United States’ electricity generation. The report expects renewables to increase in market share, while non-renewables like gas and coal will decrease, signaling that a clean energy economy is on the horizon.

This increase should happen between 2023 and 2024, so stay tuned.

A bridge crossing the New River Gorge National Park

New River Gorge National Park expands

The newest national park in the United States just got 45 more acres of land. West Virginia’s New River Gorge National Park is expanding to provide easier access to lands within the national preserve.

This park addition will allow visitors to have easier access to other sections of the preserve, although access will remain limited while parking and boundaries are being established.

A row of yellow school buses

Electric buses coming to school bus stops across the US

School children are about to breathe cleaner air on their way to and from school. Thanks to federal funding, school districts in every state are electrifying their buses. This upgrade will reduce air pollution and improve children’s health.

Over the next five years, $5 billion will be awarded to school districts to help them transition to environmentally friendly vehicles.

Let’s take action on climate together