Climate Action
What is Climate Action? Climate Action is humanity's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our planet's resilience against climate change. From adaptation to mitigation, at The Optimist Daily you will learn about the most recent positive news stories and solutions targeting climate change and other environmental issues.
The EU proposes law that bans major products linked to deforestation
Last week, the European Commission proposed new legislation to ban the import of many key commodities if companies cannot definitively prove that their products aren’t linked to deforestation. Otherwise, these companies can expect to receive a hefty fine. The commodities under investigation Read More...
US allocates $6.6 million to Midwest Tribes for EV network
The US Department of Energy has approved $6.6 million in funding to create an electric vehicle charging network for Native American Tribes in the Midwest. Awarded to Native Sun Community Power Development and Standing Rock Renewable Energy Power Authority, the funding will be used to purchase Read More...
Could you build a net-zero city? This game lets you find out
More and more cities and countries are pledging to achieve net-zero emissions, but this task isn’t as easy as it seems. Some strategies, like installing renewable energy sources and electrifying public transport, are intuitive, but what about private households and emissions from landfills? To Read More...
How these 3 apps are tackling food waste in Canada
Anyone who works in the restaurant, catering, or supermarket industry will know that food waste is a gigantic problem. Too often, day-old baked goods and food items that have sat on the shelves beyond their expiry date are disposed of and end up in the trash. According to this 2019 report by the Read More...
Royal Air Force completes world's first flight powered by synthetic fuel
Earlier this month, Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) set a Guinness World Record for completing the world’s first flight that was powered entirely by synthetic fuel. According to a government press release, senior test pilot Group Captain Peter Hackett took off from Cotswold Airport on the Read More...
This NGO clones our greatest allies in the fight against climate change
David Milarch set up an NGO in 1994 called the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, which works hard to preserve and clone the world’s most ancient and resilient trees. Trees play an incredibly important role in the planet’s ecosystem and are one of our greatest allies in the fight against Read More...
Planners reimagine former coal power plant into a 15-minute neighborhood
As countries around the world make net-zero pledges in a bid to tackle climate change, many are phasing out coal as part of their green energy transition. This means that there’s an increasing need to find new uses for former or soon-to-retire coal plants. With that said, there are already a few Read More...
Winners of international James Dyson Award 2021 announced
Every year the international James Dyson Awards take place, where designers have to come up with new-problem solving ideas. Previous winners have included an at-home breast cancer detection box, a plastic alternative made from fish waste, and an urban wind turbine. The bar is set high for Read More...
This brand offers natural and sustainable textile dyes made of seaweed
Last month at Dutch Design Week, Dutch designer Nienke Hoogvliet and entrepreneur Anne Boermans showcased their brand Zeefier, which offers natural dyes made exclusively out of seaweed. Hoogvliet has been researching how to create a range of sustainable and eco-friendly dyes using different Read More...
7 takeaways from COP26
The 26th annual United Nations climate change summit has officially come to a close. We shared a few updates along the way about coal pledges, carbon-neutral countries, and Indigenous forest protection, but now that COP26 is wrapped up, let’s take a broader look at what the summit Read More...