6 Things That Happened To The Environment In 2020 That Were Actually Good

LOADING ERROR LOADING The planet didn’t chalk up a lot of wins in 2020. And China’s president, Xi Jinping, said the country — the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide — would “achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.” Meeting these goals will hinge on both countries pivoting swiftly away from coal. In the United States, after four years of moving backward on the environment, President-elect Joe Biden outlined a climate plan to achieve “a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050,” which includes ambitions to hit milestone targets by 2025 — the end of his first term. All of which puts the Paris Climate Accord goals ‘within striking distance.’ Five years after the historic accord was signed, “the recent wave of net zero targets has put the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C within striking distance,” according to an international consortium of scientists and policy experts tracking government climate action. Echoing this hope, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a December speech, “I firmly believe that 2021 can be a new kind of leap year — the year of a quantum leap towards carbon neutrality.” Biden vowed that America would rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office.