It would be too easy – and too conventional – to give in to despair. I won’t go into the endless litany of bad news that undermines our morale every day and saturates the headlines of the world’s press, until they blend into the background noise of habit. The planet is burning, humanity is teetering, and many people, especially the youngest and most lucid, are resigned to the collapse, harboring a dull anger towards their elders, judged guilty of having, through unconsciousness or selfishness, dug the foundations of the catastrophe.
And yet, without denying the seriousness of the perils, I would like to reiterate an obvious fact that is too often overlooked: the game is not over. Even if we’re down two goals to nil at half-time, we can still turn the game around – all the more so as the opponent is none other than ourselves.
For, in counterpoint to the predicted disaster, there are signs of renewal. Encouraging news, discreet, often ignored, but very real. They form a mosaic of hope that it would be criminal to ignore.
Over the past six months, several major advances have taken shape.
When it comes to energy, the changeover is accelerating. By 2025, according to the International Energy Agency, almost two-thirds of the world’s energy investments – i.e. 2.2 billion out of 3.3 billion – will have been directed towards renewable sources, relegating fossil fuels to second place. The United Kingdom and the European Union are closing their last coal-fired power plants and deploying solar and wind power on a massive scale. From 2027, all new British buildings will have to be fitted with photovoltaic panels. More than 340 European cities – Paris, Oslo, Milan, London – are reinventing their mobility by eliminating parking lots, pedestrianizing their centers and promoting soft transport. In Paris, automobile pollution has fallen by 45% since 1990.
Across the Atlantic, a symbolic threshold has been crossed: in March 2025, for the first time, more than half the electricity produced in the United States came from renewable energies. In China, CO₂ emissions from power generation fell for the first time, between March 2024 and March 2025. In India, annual growth in the share of renewables is spectacular. In South Korea, fossil energy production has fallen by 15%. The United Kingdom, already exemplary with a 54% reduction in emissions since 1990, is resolutely pursuing its trajectory towards carbon neutrality by 2050.
In the forests too, trees are growing back. In Guatemala’s highlands, Armando López Pocol plants between 20,000 and 25,000 trees every year, despite fires and adversity; his project breathes new life into ecosystems, stimulates ecotourism and contributes to the emancipation of indigenous women. In Central Africa, the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor project aims to restore 2,400 km of the largest tropical forest after Amazonia. In the Central African Republic, an FAO-supported initiative has restored 500 hectares of community forests, directly benefiting more than 4,600 people.
Agriculture is also regenerating: 15% of the world’s farms are now adopting regenerative practices, sometimes with the support of agri-food giants. Biodiversity is regaining its rights: in Mozambique, the Gorongosa National Park, once ravaged by war, is seeing the reappearance of antelopes, lions and wild dogs.
On the diplomatic front, progress has not been negligible. At COP16 in March 2025, 140 countries pledged to spend $20 billion a year now, and $200 billion by 2030, to protect 30% of terrestrial ecosystems and restore 30% of natural habitats. In June 2025, an international treaty was adopted to protect 30% of the world’s oceans, and is in the process of gathering the 60 ratifications required for it to come into force. In addition, 37 countries support a moratorium – or even a total ban – on deep-sea mining. The High Seas Biodiversity Treaty is due to come into force in early 2026. Finally, the member states of the International Maritime Organization have, for the first time, adopted a carbon pricing mechanism designed to kick-start the decarbonization of maritime transport from 2028: a discreet but decisive step forward.
Technology is not to be outdone: thanks to artificial intelligence and new-generation sensors, it is now possible to detect water leaks very quickly in even the most remote infrastructures, considerably reducing losses. These same technologies can be used to accurately measure the carbon stored in soils, paving the way for agriculture that is more respectful of natural balances.
On an even more fundamental level, CEA researchers have succeeded in maintaining plasma for 22 minutes, improving on the previous record by 25%; another step towards mastering nuclear fusion, a clean and virtually infinite source of energy, the same as that which powers the stars.
Of course, all this remains derisory in the face of the sheer scale of the perils. But it’s not nothing.
It proves that nothing is decided yet. And that everything will count: diplomacy, science, finance, collective intelligence and the silent gestures of each and every one of us. So that the future is not a mourning, but a design.
We must not despair.