Our efforts to cut carbon emissions aren’t working and no-one else cares. Give up.

It’s not a great thought to start the day, but that’s the defeatist message Britain woke up to a couple of weeks ago, when the BBC’s Today Programme interviewed newly-sacked climate-sceptic environment secretary, Owen Paterson.

This climate defeatism also swirled around the rapturous reaction to Paterson’s argument from the usual suspects in the media. Having failed to undermine public acceptance of climate science or turn us against renewable energy, the high-carbon lobby wants to ensure that people have no appetite for the journey to a low-carbon society.

Hit-and-run attacks on effective policies, witnessed with the fuss over EU rules on vacuum cleaners and hairdryers, are accompanied by a drumbeat of doom and gloom designed to sap our will to act.

The Committee on Climate Change responded to Paterson with a reserved and systematic rebuttal, calmly pointing to the existence of 500 climate laws in 66 countries and legally-binding emissions targets in Denmark, Finland and Mexico.

These facts are important. But changing the mood music calls for another kind of intervention.

As the RSA identified in a recent report, the real barrier to action on climate change is not climate scepticism but a sense that we can’t really do much to help. The biggest threat to progress is cynicism – resigning ourselves to climate change because we don’t think we’re up to the task of fixing it.

10:10’s #itshappening project offers a brighter view, showcasing positive practical climate action taken by people and communities around the world, as well as ambitious solutions being rolled out on a grand scale by government and businesses. The goal: to restore a sense of possibility to the climate debate, countering fatalism and isolation with hope and a feeling of shared endeavour.

10:10’s #itshappening project promotes positive solutions to climate change. Photograph: Hackney Energy/10:10

Alongside concern about the consequences of inaction must come an optimistic sense that taking a low-carbon path is not just possible but often better; and that we are part of a global community walking it together. Polling we commissioned from ComRes showed that two out of three people would be more inclined to support climate action if they heard more about the solutions. And 71% say people are less likely to take action on climate change because they’re unsure of the difference their actions will make.

Similarly, when asked about what would make them personally more likely to take action on climate, they said hearing more about the solutions (41%) and benefits (39%). Less likely, though still one-third, said hearing more about the impacts (reflecting recent research from Yale that both feelings of concern and hope motivate support for carbon policies).

So take a look at the Dutch-style bike lanes planned for Los Angeles, the home (for now) of the gas guzzler. How about new solar-powered hospitals in Haiti and Nepal – two of the world’s poorest countries on opposite sides of the globe. In Cornwall, a state of the art lifeboat station keeps lifesavers warm with the UK’s first marine source heat pump, there’s also community-owned river turbines in the Philippines and a rapid-recharge electric ferry in Sweden. You might even want to drop in for a trim at the Aberdeenshire hair-dressing salon that’s using nearly 90% less energy than last year, following a green makeover.

Meanwhile change is happening on a global scale as China powers ahead as the world leader in wind power, and sales of electric cars are up by 77% in Europe this year.

A solar power hospital in Haiti beats blackouts. Photograph: Partners in Health/10:10

Our gallery is not a comprehensive picture of climate action, there’s no panel of august judges or an algorithm scouring the internet. It’s just a selection of things we wish more people knew about – a trove of inspirational stories that team 10:10 find during the year and squirrel away for autumn. They are there for people to share, to start conversations with friends and for when you need a reminder of what humanity is capable of.

There are many more stories out there. Nothing would make us happier to see the internet full of people sharing exciting carbon cutting projects we’ve completely missed.

But #itshappening isn’t just inspiration and motivation. Next time you find yourself cornered at a party by a Paterson-admirer telling you that our actions don’t matter because other counties aren’t acting, or that the solutions aren’t mature enough to be taken seriously – show them these pictures and tell them it’s happening already.

• Mal Chadwick is the creator and curator of 10:10’s #itshappening project