Here is a look at five positive environmental news from 2021

SUMMARY

The year is coming to an end, and with it, the world is drawing closer to the deadline to eliminate carbon emissions and prevent global climate catastrophe. While companies, governments, and corporations are slowly beginning to move towards meaningful action, activists, scientists, and environmentalists are urging more ambitious targets to meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. But not all is doom and gloom. The world is making record progress, and in small areas, we are beginning to see the effects of these efforts being made.

By CNBCTV18.comDec 17, 2021 2:09:08 PM IST (Published)

Here are some of the biggest positive environmental news of the past year.

Climate Lawsuits Victories: Companies and nations find themselves increasingly under pressure from climate lawsuits to force them to do more to prevent climate change. The historic judgments of the Hague District Court against Royal Dutch Shell and the Karlsruhe, the German supreme constitutional court, against the German federal government have set the stage for greater environmental action.

India’s net-zero pledge: While India had committed to reducing its emissions in the past, it was still holding out on promising to commit to net-zero carbon emissions. But at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the world’s third-biggest emitter will reach net-zero emissions by the year 2070.

Shareholders force companies to go green as cases of shareholder activism rises The number of times when shareholders and board of directors start changing the direction of a company has also been increasing. The success of a small hedge fund changing the direction of the large energy company Exxon Mobil Corp was the biggest example of this trend. (Image; AP)

COP26: Though nations may not have taken the ambitious actions that many wanted, COP26 was still a platform for nations to announce plans to combat climate change and to help each other reach the goals set out for them. There’s still quite a lot of work to be done, mainly in phasing out fossil fuels completely, but COP26 was another step in the right direction.

Hydrogen aplenty: The fight against climate change isn’t a question with only one correct answer. Decarbonisation needs to be achieved by methods like electrification, renewable energy, and the use of emerging technologies like hydrogen utilisation. India’s biggest company and richest man, Reliance Industries and Mukesh Ambani, have pitched in to make sure that the price of hydrogen is brought down to affordable levels by establishing a Green Energy Giga Complex.