Clean energy's share of electricity reaches 40%, and other nature and climate news

Record renewables growth led by solar helped push clean power past 40% of global electricity in 2024, according to a new report from Ember.

Renewable power sources added a record 858 terawatt-hours (TWh) of generation in 2024, 49% more than the previous record of 577 TWh set in 2022.

This was largely driven by an increase in solar power generation, which has doubled over the last three years to reach over 2,000 TWh.

Heatwaves contributed to high growth in electricity demand, resulting in a small increase in fossil fuel generation that has driven up power sector emissions to an all-time high.

March 2025 was the warmest on record for Europe and the second-warmest globally, according to the European Union's Climate Change Service, Copernicus.

The continent saw an average surface air temperature over land of 6.03ºC, 2.41ºC above the 1991-2020 average for the month. It was 0.26°C warmer than the previous warmest March in 2014.

The largest heat anomalies in Europe occurred across eastern Europe and southwest Russia. Meanwhile, temperatures exceeded averages across much of the Arctic, with the Canadian Archipelago and Baffin Bay experiencing particularly significant warming.

The US administration has been implementing significant policy changes in recent months. Here's some of the latest news:

Brazil has announced the preliminary round of negotiations preceding the global climate summit, COP30, for October 2025.

European Union climate targets to slash net emissions by 90% by 2040 are overly ambitious, Peter Liese, a senior member of the European Parliament, told Reuters. "We really think when the 90% is implemented without any flexibility, then it will lead to de-industrialisation," he said.

The European Commission is deliberating whether to count international carbon credits towards its next climate targets. This move would mean that EU countries could buy credits from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad.

The artificial intelligence chip supply chain is driving increased electricity consumption that threatens climate progress in East Asia, a report from Greenpeace East Asia suggests. Global electricity consumption from AI chipmaking increased by more than 350% between 2023 and 2024, researchers found, with East Asian nations meeting this new demand through burning fossil fuels.

Scientists have used ancient DNA from mummified remains to uncover secrets of the Sahara Desert’s greener past, according to CNN. Seven thousand years ago, the desert featured trees, rivers, hippos and elephants, they say.

Research published in Nature finds that the COP15 biodiversity conference received significantly less media attention than climate-focused COP27 and American singer Taylor Swift, even in biodiverse countries. Researchers warn that this attention gap threatens biodiversity conservation goals.

Microplastics are pieces of plastic less than five millimetres wide. They represent more than 90% of all plastic on the ocean surface. Recent studies indicate that microplastics can reduce photosynthesis in plants, increase antimicrobial resistance and affect brain function. Here are four things you didn’t know about this type of pollution.