5 things that make us hopeful about climate progress in 2025

2024 was the hottest year on record, but it was also a turning point for climate tech.

Climate change keeps getting harder to ignore. Phoenix lived through 113 consecutive days above 100 degrees last summer. A record number of fires burned in rainforests in South America in 2024. “Climate havens” like Asheville, North Carolina, were devastated by floods. Emissions keep growing. But it’s also true that climate solutions are rolling out faster than ever before. It took decades, for example, for the world to install 760 gigawatts of solar power by 2020; in 2024 alone, the world installed another 593 gigawatts, breaking a record set the year before. Here are five ways that the world is moving in the right direction.