Solar grazing, tile whipping and whisky: Positive environmental stories from 2025

Euronews

31-01-2025

Do you share our anxiety about the state of the planet? As green journalists, we are all too familiar with what climate anxiety, climate doom, and even environmental existential dread feel like.
These terms all describe the same thing: the negative feelings, such as stress, fear, anger and grief, that come up when we are confronted with the reality of a warming Earth. With almost daily stories of lives lost or ruined by extreme weather, it's hard to escape the consequences of climate change.
It's easy to feel helpless and dejected. But as many experts agree, we can use some of those feelings of despair and turn them into action.
At Euronews Green, we know we play a key role in combatting climate doom. While it's our job to be truthful and accurate in our reporting and not downplay or greenwash the situation, we also want to highlight that there is always hope.
This is why, for the past three years, we've kept track of all the positive environmental news stories throughout the year. Every year we writehundreds of good news stories, from eco-innovations and green breakthroughs to climate wins and feel-good reports on nature.
We hope to continue our efforts and keep doubling our numbers each year - because surely that's a good sign of momentum.
As climate activist Tori Tsui says, "I think the beautiful thing about climate action is that everyone has a role, whatever that looks like to you".
Here are January's top positive stories - including the small and local, the silly that made us smile - and the enormous and potentially world-changing.
If you came across a great, positive story that we haven't covered, please reach out to us on Instagram or X to share your ideas.
Positive environmental stories from January 2025
How the Arctic tundra is keeping seeds safe for future generations
Tucked beyond the Arctic Circle, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault sits proudly in a former coal mine and stores fruit and vegetable seeds from all over the world.
Holding over 6,297 crop species, last year saw the highest numbers of depositing genebanks and the highest number of newcomers in the history of the vault, proving that cooperation on conserving seeds is flourishing.
How the Scottish whisky industry is inadvertently tackling overfishing
A love of the oceans inspired one man to create a sustainable alternative to Omega-3 supplements for both humans and farmed fish.
Previously, Omega-3 has relied on wild fish, which takes vital food from coastal communities. The solution also cleans up a problem within Scotland's most popular industry.
Whisky wastewater usually ends up in the ocean, but the company MiAlgae uses nutrient-rich byproducts to create dried algae powder through a giant renewably-powered fermentation process. This is then used as aquafeed for farmed fish and pet food.
Tile whipping: The eco-friendly sport taking over the Netherlands
The Dutch have created a national sport out of tile-whipping to help make the Netherlands 'climate-proof'.
Tile whipping - or 'tegelwippen' - sees residents try to remove the most paving slabs from their gardens, ensuring that urban spaces are greened and rewilded. This also eases pressure on drainage systems.
Winning communities receive a golden shovel with prizes going to the 'whipper of the month'.
How deaf educators put tricky climate change terms into sign language
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh wanted to ensure a new generation could be part of climate conversations.
This was no mean feat, but British Sign Language has now expanded its vocabulary to include terms such as greenhouse gases, carbon footprint, and sustainability.
'Keep at it': At 74, anti-whaler Paul Watson continues to fight
After being released from prison and into the care of the French government, Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a direct action group focused on marine conservation activism, spoke to Euronews Green in early January.
Watson, who began protecting whales in 1974, highlighted that very few nations still hunt whales, with Norway, Iceland and Japan the only exceptions, and is increasingly confident about the future of these gentle giants.
And so Watson should be, as Euronews Green reported on multiple sightings of the magnificent humpback whale seen by people living along the UK coast - likely due to humpback whale populations having recovered extensively over the past half a century after whaling bans.
Scientists transform waste into batteries that could power grid
Scientists discovered a way to turn previously useless industrial waste into a vital material used in batteries that could power our future.
Discovered by scientists at America's Northwestern University, the redox flow batteries use a chemical reaction to pump energy back and forth between electrolytes.
They could be an invaluable solution for energy storage on the scale of an electricity grid and help smooth out the current issue of troughs and peaks in wind and solar supply.
Tiny British island is now home to the world's most remote EV charger
The island of St Helena in the British Overseas Territory has installed the world's most remote public EV charger in its capital Jamestown.
In a trial supported by Norwegian charging company Easee and Japanese car brand Subaru, the hope is that by improving the infrastructure for electric vehicles, more people on the island will ditch their petrol and diesel-powered vehicles and adopt EVs.
Italy, Albania and UAE agree deal to share renewable energy
Three countries signed a clean energy cooperation deal that means they will share wind and solar energy across the sea.
The UAE is lending its technology and expertise to develop Albania's renewable energy. Some of the energy produced from these new technologies will then be transferred to Italy via an underwater cable across the Adriatic Sea.
Researcher fired for refusing to fly wins monetary compensation
Sticking to your morals does eventually pay off, at least for the Italian climate researcher Dr Gianluca Grimalda, who was fired by his employers for refusing to fly back from a research trip.
In a bid to follow his beliefs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding flights and instead adopting slow travel, the researcher went viral on social media when he publicly shared his story in early 2024.
Grimalda filed a lawsuit for unfair dismissal, and in January, a settlement was agreed. €75,000 of the severance payment will be donated to environmental and climate protection and climate activism.
Solar grazing: Why sheep are the perfect partner for photovoltaics
Dubbed nature's best lawnmowers, farmers in the USA are waking up to the benefits of keeping sheep on solar farms.
Known as agrivoltaics, solar farms now realise the benefits of making good use of the ground underneath solar arrays. Not only is it grazing sheep and other livestock but also growing crops, and keeping bees.
Euronews Green shares some of the European projects that have been doing this for ages - and the benefits are numerous.
Dutch court orders government to cut nitrogen pollution by 2030
A Dutch court ruled that the government was failing to address critically high levels of nitrogen oxide pollution, mostly from farming and transport, in a case brought by Greenpeace.
Nitrogen pollution degrades soils and inadvertently fertilises trees, grasslands and tolerant species, putting them at high risk.
This is a huge win as nitrogen pollution is the third most influential driver of human-caused biodiversity loss after habitat destruction and greenhouse gas emissions.
Oil and gas workers will be helped to find green jobs in the UK
The UK is helping oil and gas workers switch to green energy careers by providing them with a 'skills passport' so that people working in the fossil fuel industry can make informed decisions about their jobs and future.
Research has found that around 90 per cent of fossil fuel workers have skills that are relevant to the clean energy transition.
The UK government has announced that regional skills investments worth almost £4 million (€4.7m) will help people make the move into clean energy jobs.
Solar energy outshines coal in a first for EU energy
Solar provided more power than coal did to EU countries for the first time last year, marking a new milestone in the unstoppable rise of renewables.
The EU's electricity transition has moved faster than anyone could have hoped for, as the sunlight-soaking renewable generated 11 per cent of EU electricity in 2024, overtaking the dirtiest fossil fuel, coal, which dropped below 10 per cent.