In our final #ICYMI column for 2024, we tried to bring you some good news about the state of the world. We succeeded briefly but this was quickly overshadowed by the tide of fossil fuels expansion.
However, the column ends on an uplifting note, with news of award-winners and events to anticipate in 2025.
The quotable?
…the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) offers a dismal outlook for those struggling the most.”
Some good news…
BBC reports: Seven quiet breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2024 you might have missed.
These include:
- The UK closed its last coal-fired power plant in 2024.
- A global surge in green power with renewable energy sources growing rapidly around the world. In the US, wind energy generation hit a record in April, exceeding coal-fired generation.
- The rivers, mountains, waves and whales given legal personhood
- The North Atlantic saw a new marine protected area (MPA) announced by the Azores.
- Amazon deforestation reaches nine-year low
- A major review of conservation initiatives this year found that more often than not they are effective in slowing or reversing biodiversity loss. The scientists reviewed 665 trials of conservation measures across the world, including several historic trials, and found they had had a positive effect in two out of every three cases.
- Indigenous-led efforts replenish skies and rivers. In California, wildlife has benefited from decades-long drives by the Native American Yurok Tribe to replenish animals on tribal territories. In 2024, this culminated in salmon returning to the Klamath River.
A landmark new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), known as the Nexus Report, offers decision-makers around the world the most ambitious scientific assessment ever undertaken of the complex interconnections between biodiversity, water, food and health.
The report is the product of three years of work by 165 leading international experts from 57 countries from all regions of the world. It finds that existing actions to address these challenges fail to tackle the complexity of interlinked problems and result in inconsistent governance.
…and the not-so-good news
H5N1 updates
CDC Confirms First Severe Case of H5N1 Bird Flu in the United States. Read more in The Guardian.
Wisconsin reports presumptive avian flu in poultry worker as California declares emergency
Other global health news
#AusPol
ACOSS urges the Federal Government to take stronger action to support people on low incomes and address the hardship facing communities across the country, warning the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) offers a dismal outlook for those struggling the most.
ACOSS urges the Government to:
- Increase income support payments, such as JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Parenting Payment, to at least $82 a day
- Fix our employment services system so that it supports people to build their skills and connects them with the right job.
- Increase revenue to fund essential services to ensure they are available for all people and meet soaring demand
- Make housing more affordable by reducing the tax breaks for housing investors that drive up house prices and rents and increasing the supply of social housing.
- Build on their critical investment into home energy upgrades for social housing to upgrade all social housing, and ensure people in private rentals and low-income homeowners can benefit from home energy upgrades to reduce energy bills and improve health outcomes.
First Nations health news
Awards and appointments
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