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In early April 2024, Uruguay was ready to set a record. Lights flickered on across the country as people rose for work, drivers switched on their electric buses ready for a day of transit, and power plants churned to life. The country was about to celebrate its 10th month of running completely on renewable power. Across the Atlantic, on the west coast of Africa, winds whip through Marsabit county in Kenya headlong into an array of 365 wind turbines on the banks of Lake Turkana. There, clean electricity is generated in the handfuls. That wind farm has supplied 12% of Kenya's energy needs over the last six years.
But when we look out past those wind turbines, towards the horizon of climate change, storms seem to be brewing. It can be easy to give in to despair. Most days the spectre of the Trump regime, the rising tide of fascism, and the dire warnings of the latest IPCC reports rest heavily on my mind. But that is not the whole picture. We have come quite far in terms of environmental progress- especially since the turn of the century. And it's important not to lose sight of those victories as we stare down the dire climate models of worst-case scenarios. As author activist
Rebecca Solnit writes, we must "balance a sense of danger with a sense of possibility… not let[ting] one outweigh the other." We must remember that despite the crushing forces of capitalism, the looming threats of fossil fascism, and climate chaos, we have come so far. We've collectively accomplished a transformation that would have been unthinkable thirty years ago. Here's a glimpse not only of what we've achieved in terms of climate action, but also how we achieved it. This video is made in partnership with Cool Earth. If you want to learn more about how you can directly support people on the frontlines of climate action,
go to coolearth.org using my link in the description. Until December 31st, Cool Earth is generously offering to double all donations from anyone who donates because of this video. We are making progress: Back in 2012, the streets of Paris looked like this [play clip] Packed with cars, horns blaring, pedestrians scared to move around. Paris epitomized many urban centers around the world. Cars first, humans second. With hundreds of thousands of internal combustion engines roaming the streets, smog was common. Paris was a city of emissions. But 13 years later, the thoroughfares of Paris are unrecognizable. [play clip] The sounds of horns and engines have
subsided, and now the gentle ring of bike bells and pedestrian footfalls has replaced them. Paris has become a human-centered city, and one with significantly fewer emissions. In an era where the worst news makes for the best headlines, gets the most clicks, and generates the most ad revenue, it can be hard to feel like we've achieved any climate victories. Yes, things are getting worse, but they are also, simultaneously, in some places, getting better. The state of the climate movement and zero carbon infrastructure is vastly different than 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago. All over the world, we're witnessing a vast
transformation in electricity, transportation, and climate momentum that hints towards a future free of fossil fuels. Yes, right now, all of this progress is by no means enough and slower than we need, and we'll get into that a little later, but for now, release that cynicism, take a deep breath in, and celebrate the victories and progress we've made so far. Back in Paris, work crews rip up the streets, replacing them with infrastructure for people. As Streetsblog writer Roger Rudrick explained in a recent recap of his trip to Paris:
"Today in Paris, you can't walk more than a minute in any direction without coming across active construction sites where bus boarding islands, protected bike lanes, and protected intersections are being installed." Since 2020, Paris has rapidly accelerated its bike lane program, rolling out an aggressive and comprehensive strategy that added 180 km or 111 miles of protected bike lanes in just 2021 alone, and now is home to over 1,000 km or 620 miles of bike lanes. And cyclists have responded. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of Parisian cyclists
doubled. A number that continues to rise as Paris seeks to become a 100% cycling city by 2026. But Paris isn't the only city that has transformed in recent years when it comes to transit. In Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa, the government is implementing its City Corridor Project that has already installed 60 km of walkways and protected bike lanes, with plans to expand the infrastructure even more in the coming years. Across the Atlantic in Bogota, Colombia, an extensive zero-carbon transit plan is already well on its way. From 2015 to 2021,
Bogotá expanded its bike infrastructure by 33% from 443 km to 590 km (360 miles), but it didn't stop there. The city has continuously expanded its electric bus fleet and now boasts the largest electrified bus fleet outside of China. Because in China, cities like Shenzhen are light-years ahead of anyone else when it comes to transit. Public transit in Shenzhen relies on over 16,000 electric buses and 20,000 electric taxis, which have reduced 194,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. But of course, cities aren't just transforming their transit infrastructure; they're also
addressing climate change through the energy we use and even the food we eat. Like in Quezon City in the Philippines, where vacant lots were transformed into 337 gardens and 10 farms. Farms which helped train and employ over 4,000 urban growers. Meanwhile, Iowa City in the United States is accomplishing its climate targets well ahead of schedule. Thanks to an aggressive climate action plan that greatly accelerated wind power construction, electric vehicle adoption, and electrification retrofitting, Iowa City had already cut its emissions footprint by 45% in
2020, 10 years ahead of schedule, and is now on track to reach net zero emissions well before 2050. And thanks to these green initiatives throughout cities across the world, per capita urban emissions are falling. According to this report, per capita emissions for C40 cities fell 7.5 percent on average between 2015 and 2024. In short, cities are doing what so many countries have failed to do: they are leading the way on climate action. Although global emissions are rising, not all countries are following that trend. There are some bright spots of climate progress even on the countrywide scale. Here we return to Kenya,
where we can see this in action. Thanks to a combination of Africa's largest wind farm, which can generate 310MW of electricity from the consistent stream of wind channeled through what's known as the Turkana jet, alongside one the East Africa's largest solar plants soaking up the sun in Garissa County, as well as the extensive geothermal activity beneath Kenya's surface, the country now runs on 92% renewable energy. But Kenya has not only greatly expanded its renewable generation, but it's also expanded to clean energy access through a combination
of micro and macro grids. With initiatives like the Last Mile Connectivity Project and expansion of offgrid solar minigrids, electricity access in Kenya jumped from 37% in 2013 to 79% in 2023. But it's not just Kenya that is almost completely run on renewable energy; Costa Rica generated 98% of its energy from non-fossil-fueled sources over the last eight years, thanks to its extensive hydropower infrastructure, and as I mentioned earlier, Uruguay used 100% renewables for 10 months between 2023 and 2024. Increasingly more and more countries are joining the likes of Kenya and Uruguay as gigawatts upon gigawatts of renewable construction projects spring up across the globe. Like the world's
largest offshore wind farm off the coast of England, which is projected to be able to power 6 million homes annually. Or the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, India, which is the biggest solar farm in the world with the capacity to power 4.5 million households in India… the biggest, that is, if you're not counting Chinese solar farms. Because when it comes to clean energy installation, China is light-years ahead of everyone else. Indeed, China is home to the 10 biggest solar farms already in the world. You can't talk about
climate progress without talking about China. Because the world's largest country by population built more than double the renewable capacity of the rest of the world combined in 2024, and continues to break records with the amount of clean energy it's building throughout the country. China smashed through its goal of reaching 1,200 GW of wind and solar capacity by 2030, six years ahead of schedule. And even if it adds the same amount of renewable energy it did in 2023, China would nearly triple its already gargantuan capacity. All of these renewable installations
have meant that just under a quarter of the country's energy comes from renewable sources. But alongside renewable infrastructure, China has vastly transformed and electrified its transit, like we saw in Shenzhen. Over the course of a little over a decade, China built the longest electrified high-speed rail system in the world from scratch, and now electric vehicles account for over 50% of new car sales within the country. Although coal still remains a thorn in China's side, all of these renewable initiatives are putting in work. China's rise in CO2 emissions
seems to have hit its peak in 2024 thanks to all of these zero-carbon initiatives. With China at the helm, global renewable capacity has far outstripped any predictions for its installation. And all of this zero-carbon transformation, whether it be from the streets of Bogotá to the coast of England, has meant fewer emissions and a slightly less dire future. According to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA), renewables will usurp coal as the world's leading source of power generation this year, and according to this research group, the power sector's emissions may have already
hit their peak because the world will reach 30% renewable electricity generation in 2023. But at the same time, global emissions are on the rise, and fossil fuel companies continue to explore, extract, and lock in new mines, wells, and reserves. We can't ignore this. But it's also important to note that we aren't losing. In 2014, before the Paris climate agreement, the world was on track to heat up nearly 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, an outcome widely seen as catastrophic. Today, we've started to bend
the emissions curve. Current policies put us on pace for roughly 3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 - a better result, but still devastating. Unfortunately, despite all of this progress, global emissions continue to rise. Countries like India and China continue to rely on coal to satiate demand despite the fact that they are rollout renewable capacity in record amounts, and in places like the United States, fossil fuel fascist like Trump are rolling back subsidies and regulations that have been curbing emissions for the last decade. But there is still a sliver of
positivity in a graph like this. Between 2000 and 2010 emissions rose almost 3% annually, but in the very next decade growth in yearly emissions shrank to 0.9% per year. But of course, this is nowhere near fast enough. In order to avoid the worst of climate change, we need to reach into double-digit negative percentages when it comes to emissions. Zooming out and looking backward, we have actually made a lot of climate progress. In 2000, a massive wind farm off the coast of England, let alone a 20 GW farm in China or mass adoption of
car-free bikeable streets in Paris, would be unfathomable. Yet here we are 25 years later, expanding zero carbon strategies at an encouraging pace, and it's not because Big Oil keeled over and stopped extracting, because they are still very much doing that, it was thanks to the growing momentum of the climate movement and people pressure. How have we made progress? It was a cold December morning when over 1,000 young activists walked into the halls of the United States Capitol building, sat down, and demanded a Green New Deal. [play clip] A moment that would spark a fervor of climate organizing throughout the following year in 2019. The world was finally waking
up to the emergency that was climate change, and taking to the streets to demand change. However, the mass movement that peaked with 7 million people taking to the streets in September 2019 and led to multiple countries declaring climate emergencies, and adopting more ambitious climate plans didn't come out of nowhere. Sudden change is often the product of a long line of hard struggles lost and lessons learned. As Rebecca Solnit notes, "When [change] happens suddenly or appears to do so, it's because the consequences are suddenly arriving for longtime change or organizing that previously seemed inconsequential,
or the big change is the visible public effect of not-so-visible work." The global progress we've made on climate change is the result of the long struggle of activists and the climate movement to both build power as well as push those in power towards meaningful change. We have gotten this far not because of fossil capitalism, but in spite of it. All of the beautiful zero carbon initiatives you just saw aren't because governments and businesses all over the world suddenly woke up and decided to do good. It's often driven by everyday people, working together to make change.
Even 20 years ago, in the early 2000s, climate change, and indeed the environmental movement was fringe. Rarely was climate integrated into political conversations, let alone policy. And yet, two decades later, as we just saw, climate change is front of mind for cities and whole countries planning for their future. Joe Biden, a capitalist liberal to his core, even capitulated and championed the largest, albeit flawed, climate bill in U.S. history. The climate movement has grown from the margin to the center, building power along the way. Along it may not seem like it there have been many victories for the climate movement. Victories that have helped bend that temperature curve downwards, and worked
towards healing our relationship with the land and people. Victories that look like the Indigenous organizing that successfully blocked Enbridge's Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline in 2016 which would have crossed 130 First Nations lands in Canada, or the cancellation of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal project in southern Oregon because of Indigenous resistance, or the successful campaign to block the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Altogether Indigenous resistance has blocked the equivalent of 25% of the U.S. and Canada's annual carbon emissions.
All these wins compound, chipping away at the profits and bottom line of the fossil fuel industry. These campaigns to shut down fossil fuel infrastructure are the crucial companion to the continued rise in renewable and zero-carbon initiatives. Because building out renewables is not enough, we must also bring fossil fuel use to zero if we are to usher in a livable future. But of course, the climate movement has also had many defeats. Whether it be at Standing Rock with the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the destruction of Luzerath for a lignite coal
mine, or the clear-cutting of an Atlanta forest to build a Cop City. Within each of those defeats and the struggles that preceded them, however were kernels of strength that built more resilient movements in the future. Standing Rock, for example, was perhaps the largest convening of Indigenous nations in the continent's history, and the Luzerath brought together climate organizers from all over Europe, strengthening bonds while testing direct action methods. So yes, there are many defeats, and it may seem that wins are scarce, but as climate organizer Daniel Hunter
writes, "Movements don't ever win. At least, not in the sense that most of us typically think about." He goes on to add, paraphrasing the organizer and historian Vincent Harding, that movements are like rivers, "We step into the river, give our contribution, and the river keeps moving on and on. 'Winning' is a foreign concept to a river and does not speak to how movement rivers turn, bend, and flow." The climate movement is a river that is deepening its depths and widening its shoreline, at times imperceptibly. And those on the frontlines blocking coal plants in Lamu, Kenya, and the Aliaga region of Turkey, to those helping build
out a zero carbon future right now, are helping to add power to that growing current of the climate movement. We must celebrate our victories as much as we grieve our defeats, because, as Hunter again writes, "celebrating is so crucial. Who will want to join the river if it's all sadness and misery? Who will acknowledge our contributions if we fail to name it ourselves?" Yes, things do look dire, but the future is never decided, the river of the climate movement continues to flow, and at any moment it could burst over its banks and cleanse the land of its dirty fuels. But that only happens when people-yes, that means you- all over the
world dive head first into the current and add their strength to the coursing river. We can only build a beautiful world together: There's a famous story of the Buddha and his attendant Ananda. Sitting alone together on a hill overlooking the Ganges watershed, Ananda thought he had found the truth about life, and triumphantly explained to the Buddha, "It seems to me that half of the spiritual life is good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship." The Buddha turned to Ananda with a warm smile, corrected Ananda, explaining that he was wrong, friendship instead "is the entire spiritual life… that is, good friendship,
good companionship, good comradeship." Life is all about connections; it's about friendship, about comradeship, it's about jumping in the river. No one person has led to Kenya's renewable revolution or Paris' human-centered city; it's always been many people, together, often at the margins, pushing for a more just world for everyday people and the planet. There have been many defeats along the way, but also many wins. And just because we've made progress doesn't mean that it will continue. BUT the uncertainty of the future also means
that there is a possibility that things can change so much faster. That only happens, however, when you join in. When you dive headfirst and embrace the swift current of ecological justice for all. We can only build a zero-carbon world together. For many, however, jumping in can be a daunting prospect. The water may appear choppy on the surface- joining a local climate or leftist group in your area working to make change can be scary. But I assure you, this is the way; there are so many people exactly like you standing on the banks waiting to take the
plunge. I urge you to be courageous. Jump in, because the more who join us, the more wins we can celebrate. So, embrace the current, find your comrades, and let's overflow the banks together. And one of the easiest ways to jump in is through direct cash transfers to people on the front lines of climate action, which is why I've partnered with Cool Earth. A climate charity that gives Indigenous people on the frontlines of climate action cash and data with no strings attached. From the Amazon to the Congo, Cool Earth moves the money you donate directly into the
hands of communities protecting rainforests, like the Cutivireni Asháninka community in the Peruvian Amazon. There, Cool Earth not only provides unconditional cash transfers but also shares knowledge and technology to support a community-led forest firefighting training program. A program that has led to a 60% drop in forest fires in the region. Cool Earth funnels your money towards people who are pairing traditional knowledge with data and tech to protect their homes and ancient forests from extractivist industries that clear-cut them out of existence.
8% of annual CO2 emissions, and more importantly, keeping rainforests intact can provide 23% of the urgent climate mitigation needed to cool our planet. Moving resources towards people actively stewarding those forests is a no-brainer. And we know that Indigenous peoples and local communities, like the Asháninka peoples in the Amazon, manage 54% of the world's remaining forests; their very existence is the reason rainforests around the world still remain intact as they battle against mining, logging, and animal agriculture interests every day. So, if you are looking for a smart way to tackle the climate crisis, then donate to
Cool Earth by using my link in the description below. And make sure to donate soon, because until December 31st, Cool Earth is generously offering to double all donations from anyone who donates because of this video. That's right. One donation means twice the impact. Again, go to coolearth.org using my link in the description to directly fund people on the frontlines of climate action.
