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Ireland leads the way by moving away from fossil fuels

Source: None

Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund is going to be directed towards clean energy.

Ireland became the first country to fully divest from fossil fuels; a large majority voted in favor of divesting fossil fuels such as coal oil and gas, towards clean energy.

Ireland becomes world’s first country to fully divest from fossil fuel Source: Brightvibes

Paris Climate Conference

The agreements made at last year’s Paris Climate Conference are largely to thank for this. Late 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. And Ireland is doing great, but it is certainly not the only country that has made progress.

Oslo, Norway; Europe’s largest holder of oil and gas reserves, has taken about 8 billion euros away from fossil fuel as well. Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, of the Green Party in Oslo says: “We are very happy to announce that Oslo will take responsibility for the climate, both through our own policies and our investments.”

Sweden is taking preparations to have a strict climate law go in effect by January first 2018. By 2045 they want to cut emission levels by 85% within its borders. They focus will be on greening the transport sector, giving a boost to electric cars an biofuels. 

Source: Carbonbrief

China’s Large Contribution

One of the world’s largest emitter is also one of the most forward moving countries when it comes to clean energy. China is responsible for about 20% of the emissions but the country keeps moving steadily and rapidly towards clean energy while the demand for coal keeps falling. Their solar capacity grew by 81.6% in 2016, and it’s now double the total installed in the US. And their latest Five-Year-Plan on Energy Development is the most ambitious so far. It includes building the largest windmill park (1/3 of the world’s wind energy is already located in China).

One of China's large windparks next to Urumqi
One of China’s large windparks next to Urumqi Source: Flickr

With all the efforts from different countries, the divestment movement is certainly catching on. So far a total of over 2 trillion dollars has been redirected towards clean energy, with numbers only continuing to grow!

Make an Impact

Every bit counts

Of course it makes a great difference when an entire government chooses to go green, but we, the individuals can make a difference as well. Find out here which differences you can make!