Signs of hope.

What are your signs of hope? 

I've seen a lot about businesses wanting action on climate change, city mayors banding together to demand action, and now airlines want governments to sign an emissions agreement "which aims to cap the carbon pollution of all international flights at 2020 levels, will be voluntary between 2021 and 2026 and then mandatory from 2027 for the world's largest emitters."

Here's a list of some positive things I've seen recently:

• Airlines urge governments to sign up for global aviation emission deal
• A Rare Agreement on Climate Rules
• Open letter to G20 leaders from the mayors of their great cities
• Chinese public overwhelmingly backs renewables push

There's been a lot more positivity since COP-21 in think, do you agree? What have you seen that's a sign of hope?

Hi Philip,

I agree there are so many signs of hope.  It feels as if politicians and business are really getting behind the climate agenda at last, which is helping us all be more climate-friendly in our day to day lives. Random examples include:

Nearly 50 countries are expected to have ratified the Paris Agreement by the middle of this week: http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/09/16/un-20-more-countries-ready-to-ratify-paris-climate-deal/

Public services are switching to electric vehicles: https://cleantechnica.com/2016/09/17/channel-islands-jersey-post-will-use-fleet-15-electric-nissan-e-nv200s/ and EVs are getting more efficient by the day: http://www.techspot.com/news/66323-new-electric-bus-proterra-can-travel-up-350.html,

People are ready to withdraw their money from climate-damaging activities: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/15/switching-banks-nearly-half-of-all-australians-would-consider-move-over-climate-change and

People are ready to buy green products: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/15/people-would-buy-green-products-if-only-e-commerce-showed-them-how/?utm_term=.308ba65187f3

California has set more ambitious climate targets than before: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/8/12852556/california-climate-change-law-governor-jerry-brown-carbon-emissions .

And countries are generating increasing proportions of their energy needs from renewable sources.  99% of Costa Rica's electricity was from renewables in 2015: https://cleantechnica.com/2016/02/04/how-11-countries-are-leading-the-shift-to-renewable-energy/

These are just a few examples from the last few weeks.  That's not to say that everything's wonderful, and for every piece of good news I'm sure you could find some bad news to counter it but... it does feel like we're moving towards a tipping point.