Who's the Debbie Downer Now?

2018 was a rough year for the environment. We learned that what we do in the next decade will effectively decide the future of our planet, and lawmakers (at least the ones in the news) don't seem concerned with doing much about it. But quietly and behind the scenes, there are many areas where globally we're moving in the right direction. Let's end 2018 optimistic — here are our favorite positive stories from the past year!

Valuing the Forest and the Ocean

The Indonesian government strengthened its forest protections with educational campaigns and better enforcement of forest laws, resulting in a 60% reduction in deforestation in 2017. They also hosted an Ocean Conference on the island of Bali in October, raising $10 billion in funding to protect 5.4 million square miles of the world's oceans from overfishing and climate change. This funding, which is the highest amount ever pledged to ocean initiatives, was a cooperative effort among government representatives, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, and civil society groups.

Protecting Nemo

The second largest reef in the world, located off the shores of Belize, was removed from Unesco's list of endangered world heritage sites. Belizean lawmakers placed a moratorium on all oil exploration in the country's waters in December 2017 (one of only a few countries to do so), taking "visionary" steps to preserve the extremely biodiverse barrier reef.

Abandoning Fossil Fuels

The Spanish energy company Repsol announced it will no longer seek out new oil and gas projects and is the first among its competitors to do so. Repsol's move shows that industry decisions are starting to be influenced by renewable energy growth and questions of future long-term demand. Also, the cost of renewable energy is dropping. In the later half of 2018, the cost of solar dropped by 14% and the cost of wind dropped by 6%. AND in 2018, the capacity of wind and solar passed 1,000 GW (1 GW= 3.125 million solar panels / 431 wind turbines / 3 million horses).

(Not) Bringing Back Coal

22 coal plants in the US closed this year. 11 European countries have committed to closing their coal plants, including France, Italy, the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Chile has quadrupled its clean energy. China committed to 35% clean energy by 2030. And California (the world's 5th largest economy) plans to be carbon neutral by 2045.

Reinventing the Road

Denmark banned the sale of fossil fuel powered cars by 2030, joining 15 other countries to do so by 2040, including India and China. The total global sales of electric vehicles hit 4 million.

Ditching Cheap Plastic

Single-use plastics will be banned in Europe by 2021, and India by 2022. 250 companies (Coca Cola, H&M, L'Oreal, Kellogs, Nestle) pledged that 100% of their plastic packaging will be reused, recycled or composted by 2025.

Going Vegetarian

According to a report from GlobalData, 70% of the world population is "either reducing meat consumption or leaving meat off the table altogether." Experts credit millenials with a large part of this global shift.