5 good news stories about climate change

Earlier this year, Australia elected a new prime minister who pledged to make significant progress on climate change — a matter that had largely been ignored in the country before. The new leadership is already making good on this promise. PM Anthony Albanese announced new legislation that will slash the nation’s carbon emissions by more than 40% before the end of the decade.

The bill is the first major climate-related legislation to pass in the country in over a decade. It’s a major shift in approach for the nation, which has been one of the last remaining industrial countries to drag its feet on setting carbon reduction goals. Now, Australia has one of the more aggressive and ambitious targets.

2. Sierra Leone gives citizens the right to veto environmentally destructive projects

Here’s a novel idea: instead of allowing major projects to crop up in a community and make people deal with whatever disruption and harm it may bring, how about allowing that community to have a direct say in whether those projects get to move forward? That’s exactly what Sierra Leone is going to do. Under new laws, local communities will have the right to veto any environmentally disruptive project from mines to factories and farms.

If a company wants to launch into any sort of development that could have long-lasting impacts on a community, they will have to seek community members’ approval. It’s a major step toward autonomy over land for a nation that has dealt with significant pillaging of natural resources.