86 Stories of Progress from 2024

Journalism as I see it is riding the train of history, looking out the window and telling people what I see, and as best I can, describing where it is heading. The shifting tectonic plates of history are invisible but transformative.

Richard Engel
NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent
Damascus, Syria, 14th December 2024

Global Health

While this year's biggest 'health' stories were about CEO assassinations, vaccine skepticism and scary viral outbreaks, history was being made in the background. Multiple countries declared victory over age-old afflictions like malaria, leprosy and trachoma, the global campaign against cervical cancer reached a turning point, with widespread HPV vaccination putting humanity on track to eliminate a cancer for the first time, and in places like Gaza and Sudan, health workers achieved the near-impossible, vaccinating millions.

Scientific breakthroughs, from personalised mRNA vaccines to GLP-1 therapies, offered new hope for billions suffering from previously intractable conditions, and we saw world-first treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes and lupus. Most importantly, healthcare increasingly reached those who need it most, with expanded access to vaccines, treatments, and coverage for people in low and middle income countries. From South Asia's dramatic reduction in child mortality to Africa's unexpected progress on tuberculosis, this year demonstrated that sustained political commitment can change the trajectories of entire nations.

1. A game-changing HIV drug was the biggest story of 2024

In what Science called the 'breakthrough of the year', researchers revealed in June that a twice-yearly drug called lenacapavir reduced HIV infections in a trial in Africa to zero—an astonishing 100% efficacy, and the closest thing to a vaccine in four decades of research. Things moved quick; by October, the maker of the drug, Gilead, had agreed to produce an affordable version for 120 resource-limited countries, and by December trials were underway for a version that could prevent infection with just a single shot per year. 'I got cold shivers. After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.'

2. Another incredible year for disease elimination

Jordan became the first country to eliminate leprosy, Chad eliminated sleeping sickness, Guinea eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus, Belize, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, India achieved the WHO target for eliminating black fever, India, Viet Nam and Pakistan eliminated trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, and Brazil and Timor Leste eliminated elephantiasis.

3. Weight loss drugs took on the obesity crisis, and possibly more

It's still early days but GLP-1 therapies like Ozempic and Wegovy look set to become some of the most successful medicines in history. Experts believe they may have already helped drive down the adult obesity rate in the United States, and they’re treating heart and kidney disease, being tested for Alzheimer’s, addiction and more. One study tracking 17,000+ patients found they died at a lower rate from all causes. Obesity affects over one billion people globally: the potential to transform lives is off the scale.

4. We fought back against the world's deadliest infectious disease

Global tuberculosis deaths reached their lowest level ever recorded, with Africa recording the greatest progress among all regions - a 42% reduction in deaths and a 24% decrease in infection rates since 2015. Cambodia estimated it's saved 400,000 lives from tuberculosis in this century, and Ethiopia announced a sixfold drop in infections since the 1980s, a remarkable turnaround for a country that once had the world’s highest infection rate. Also this year, the WHO recommended three new oral regimens for multidrug-resistant TB - allowing patients to be cured in nine months compared to the current, conventional 18-month regimen, which includes daily painful injections.

5. And we’d be remiss not to mention malaria

The WHO certified Egypt, home to 100 million people, as malaria-free, Cabo Verde became the first sub-Saharan African country in 50 years to achieve malaria-free status, the Philippines eliminated malaria everywhere except for a last foothold in the mountains, and Bangladesh, Ghana, and Lao PDR reported 90% reductions in malaria mortality in the last two decades. Most importantly, 17 African countries began their rollouts of the malaria vaccine this year, including Nigeria, which has the world's largest burden of the disease, and in December the WHO reported that the global malaria death rate is falling again after the setbacks of COVID-19.

6. Vaccines saved millions of lives (again)

This year, Gavi outlined new plans to protect half a billion children in the next five years, began funding preventive Ebola vaccinations and started accepting applications for rabies vaccines. The WHO approved a new dengue vaccine, Nigeria became the first country in the world to roll out a 'revolutionary' new meningitis vaccine, and world leaders pledged $1.1 billion to boost African vaccine production. We also got some big picture numbers: childhood vaccines in the United States have saved $540 billion in healthcare costs in the last three decades, and prevented 1.1 million deaths (paging RFK Jr.), and at the global level, since the 1970s, immunisation efforts have saved approximately 154 million lives.

7. India extended health coverage to millions of elderly citizens

Fulfilling a key election promise, in September 2024 the Indian government expanded its national medical insurance scheme to provide citizens aged 70 and above with annual coverage of around $6,000 per family. India already provides free health services to 500 million low-income people, and the new plan is expected to benefit an additional 60 million. 

8. Incredible progress in reducing infant mortality in South Asia

This year we learned about one of the greatest human progress stories of all time: between 1990 and 2022, the number of young children in South Asia dying each year fell from five million to 1.3 million. In these nine countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) the probability that a child will die before the age of five has fallen by 62% since 2000. Those are staggering numbers, and well worth remembering the next time anyone insists the world was a better place a generation ago.

9. We're on track for the first ever elimination of a cancer

The global effort to eliminate cervical cancer got a huge boost in March 2024 when international donors pledged nearly $600 million towards expanding access to vaccination, screening, and treatment worldwide. 142 countries now include the HPV vaccine in their immunisation schedule, and this year Nigeria and Bangladesh concluded the world's two largest rollouts of that vaccine, reaching almost 20 million girls between them. "For the first time, the elimination of a cancer is within our reach."

10. Cancer mortality declined in many wealthier countries

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, and new research showed that the mortality rate has fallen by around 12% in the last ten years. In the United States, the mortality rate has fallen by around a third in the last three decades, saving an estimated 4.1 million lives, fewer middle-aged people are dying from cancer in the United Kingdom than at any other point in the last 25 years, and in Europe mortality rates declined by an estimated 6.5% among men and 4.3% among women between 2018 and 2024, thanks to advances in treatment, technological innovations, and lower smoking rates. 

11. And better cancer treatments are coming

The first cancer therapy that uses immune cells from a person’s own tumour became clinically available, the world’s first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma was found to halve the risk of patients dying, and trials of a groundbreaking mRNA vaccine for lung cancer launched in seven countries. There was more good news on lung cancer (which kills 1.8 million people a year), with a new drug called lorlatinib, showing 'unprecedented results' in trials.

12. Humanity is kicking a bad habit, and taking up a less harmful one

150 countries are reducing tobacco use, and there are 19 million fewer smokers than there were just two years ago. Smoking is falling particularly fast in Africa, which is on track for a 30% reduction by 2025 compared with 2010. Also, this year Indonesia raised its smoking age to 21, and the United Kingdom moved forward with plans to become the world’s first 'smoke-free' country. Meanwhile Brazil became the largest country to decriminalise marijuana, Germany became the ninth country to legalise its recreational use, and Ukraine and Malawi legalised it for industrial and medicinal uses.

13. Pioneering medical innovations led the way

An international team of researchers announced a discovery that could lead to a treatment for hepatitis B (a disease that infects more than 250 million people worldwide), a woman with type 1 diabetes became the first person to have the disease reversed using cells extracted from her own body, and doctors announced a groundbreaking new treatment for lupus, and researchers celebrated the first new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years. Other breakthroughs include a biodegradable contraceptive implant and an experimental malaria vaccine offering long-term protection for pregnant women for the first time. 

14. Gaza's polio campaign gave us a glimpse of light

In August 2024, a baby contracted Gaza’s first case of polio in 25 years. Humanitarian organisations snapped into action to prevent the spread of the disease, and what followed was nothing short of a miracle. Working rapidly during nine-hour humanitarian pauses, health workers provided polio vaccines to more than half a million children in September and October, and then followed that up with a second campaign to reach the same children again in November. Nine in every ten children in Gaza were vaccinated, thanks to the ‘tremendous dedication, engagement and courage of parents, children, communities and health workers’.

Conservation

Nature delivered a masterclass in resilience this year, helped along by some important legal victories. The European Union passed one of the world's most ambitious nature laws, in the United States the Klamath River flowed freely for the first time in a century, and around the world numerous species were brought back from the brink. These weren't isolated examples - from plummeting deforestation rates in the Amazon to the quiet revival of whale populations, we saw encouraging progress on many fronts.

Indigenous communities across the Americas won historic rights to protect their ancestral lands, massive new protected areas were created in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans, and many countries cut down on plastic. Perhaps most remarkably, nature found ways to thrive in unexpected places - from spontaneous forest regeneration in Ukraine's disaster zones to the world's largest desert greening project in China - proof of our living world's remarkable ability to recover.

15. The EU passed a landmark nature restoration law

When countries pass environmental legislation, it’s big news; when an entire continent mandates the protection of nature, it signals a profound shift. Under the new law, which passed on a knife-edge vote in June 2024, all 27 member states are legally required to restore at least 20% of land and sea by 2030, and degraded ecosystems by 2050. This is one of the world’s most ambitious pieces of legislation and it didn’t come easy; but the payoff will be huge - from tackling biodiversity loss and climate change to enhancing food security.

16. Deforestation in the Amazon halved in two years

Brazil’s space agency, INPE, confirmed a second consecutive year of declining deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. That means deforestation rates have roughly halved under Lula, and are now approaching all time lows. In Colombia, deforestation dropped by 36%, hitting a 23-year low. Bolivia created four new protected areas, a huge new new state park was created in Pará to protect some of the oldest and tallest tree species in the tropical Americas and a new study revealed that more of the Amazon is protected than we originally thought, with 62.4% of the rainforest now under some form of conservation management.

17. Some big wins for Amazon communities

In Brazil, the Munduruku reclaimed land rights to their Sawré Muybu territory, covering 1781 km² and in Colombia, four Indigenous reserves were expanded by a combined total of 1,693 km². Next year, the Siekopai people of Ecuador will return to their ancestral home for the first time in 80 years, after a legal victory that will permanently protect over 20,000 km² of rainforest in Ecuador and dismantle legal and political barriers to gaining title for an estimated 161,000 km² of ancestral Indigenous territory in Peru.

18. And victories for Indigenous conservation around the world

In one of the largest Indigenous-led conservation efforts in the world, 22 First Nations governments in Canada signed a ten year, $375 million funding agreement to establish new protected and conservation areas. The African Union ordered the Democratic Republic of the Congo to hand back parts of the giant Kahuzi-Biéga National Park to the Batwa people, and in the United States 31,000 acres was returned to the Penobscot tribe in Maine, the largest land transfer without restrictions in the country's history.

19. The largest dam removal in history was completed

The story of the Klamath River might just be our favourite things that happened this year. After decades of activism by the Karuk and Yurok tribes, the river was finally freed of four huge dams, ahead of schedule and on budget. More than 644 kilometres of water reopened, and within one month of completion hundreds of salmon had returned to the river to spawn.

20. A rising tide of Indigenous-led marine protection

This year, the Gitdisdzu Lugyeks marine protected area off the west coast of Canada became the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park,' the massive Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in California became the first tribally nominated marine conservation area in the United States, the Inuvialuit signed an agreement to safeguard almost 8,500 km² of the Yukon’s northeast coast, and a new Inuit marine conservation area off the east coast of Canada will protect a vital transition zone between Arctic and Atlantic ecosystems.

21. Something of a mixed bag for ocean conservation

Countries are still not moving fast enough to reach the global target of protecting 30% of their national waters by 2030, but there were some big conservation wins in China, Australia, the United Kingdom and the Azores, which created the largest marine protected area in Europe. Spain and Israel announced their first national marine parks, Ireland, Puerto Rico and Peru managed to safeguard some real diversity hotspots and thanks to the collaboration of six countries, over 10,000 km² of 'refugia' have now been established in the South China Sea.

22. A lot of new land was protected

Eleven new biospheres were added to a global list, Mongolia safeguarded 144,000 km² of land and waters including the planet’s last intact temperate grassland, in Alaska 113,000 km² of public land were protected from mining, and a new 16,187 km² conservation area was established in the Florida Everglades. Spain saved one of Europe’s most important wetlands, Mexico announced 20 new protected areas covering 23,000 km², Canada protected nearly 2,000 km² of endangered caribou habitat, a group of environmentalists in Chile saved 1,315 km² of the most ecologically significant territory in South America, Bhutan expanded its network of protected areas with a new biological corridor, and in the Republic of the Congo the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park became the world’s first Key Biodiversity Area.

23. Australia saw unexpected conservation progress

This year we counted the establishment of eight new national parks, including the conversion of two former cattle stations; 'Vergemont' in Queensland, which contains more than 34 ecosystems and 'Comeroo' in New South Wales that is home to 14 threatened species. The Mirarr traditional owners won their decades-long fight to end mining on the controversial Jabiluka site, which will now be absorbed into Kakadu National Park, and an eradication program on Lord Howe Island saw the recoveries of more than 30 species of threatened flora and fauna.

24. Hopeful signs of a reduction in overfishing

Efforts to crack down on illegal and unregulated fishing paid off with the number of fish on the US overfishing list hitting an all-time low, and fishing mortality rates in the Mediterranean and Black Seas also hitting their lowest levels on record. In the ocean waters off Southern California nearly all species have achieved full recovery, thanks to a 20 year fishing moratorium, Canada and Alaska agreed to a seven-year moratorium on fishing in the Yukon River, and thanks to global coordination, Pacific bluefin tuna rebounded a decade ahead of schedule, Southern bluefin tuna was delisted as a threatened species, and the Atlantic hake, which was on the brink of collapse twenty years ago, saw a remarkable recovery.

25. Did we save the whales?

Thanks to its groundbreaking moratorium on commercial whaling in 1985, it looks like the International Whaling Commission may have put itself out of a job. There was an upswing in humpback populations in Icelandic waters and in the South Atlantic Ocean their numbers recovered to pre-whaling levels. Scientists confirmed the comeback of fin whales in the Scotia Sea; blue whales were spotted in the Seychelles for the first time in decades; and the numbers of Antarctic blue whales also increased.

26. Another great year for river and lake restoration

The Mersey River, dubbed the 'greatest river recovery in Europe,' continued to thrive with 45 different kinds of fish recorded, triple the amount from 2002; fish stocks in the Yangtze River increased by 25.6% thanks to a ten-year fishing ban; the Dominican Republic has regreened one fifth of the country thanks to its Yaque River restoration project, and the restoration of Seoul's Han River saw wildlife return and millions of trees planted. Sustainable projects offered new hope for the Mekong River, China protected its largest saltwater lake; 50 companies joined forces to clean up the Motagua River in Guatemala; Ecuador started cleaning its rivers with conveyor belts; and conservationists in Bali, Indonesia installed 268 rubbish barriers along its rivers and initiated more than 1,000 weekly cleanups with volunteers, collecting over 1.7 million kilograms of waste.

27. And a boost for rivers across the United States

The Klamath wasn’t the only American river to get attention this year. New Mexico voted to safeguard over 400 km of rivers and streams;  $92 million was invested into aquatic ecosystems in California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; a further $700 million was poured into projects across the Lower Colorado River Basin, South Carolina secured $50 million to protect 250 km² of the Pee Dee River basin, and the restoration of Bear River kicked off. The Maple River in Michigan became the first in the country to return to a free-flowing state, and recovery efforts on three of America’s most polluted waterways, the Willamette, Anacostia and Cuyahoga rivers, started to see results.

28. Forests in Ukraine thrived after disaster

In the wake of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam disaster last year, experts predicted the bottom of the reservoir would turn into a desert. The opposite happened. The Dnieper River resumed its original flow patterns, sturgeons returned to old spawning grounds, and about 40% of the land is now covered with four metre high forests of willow that were native to the area before the reservoir was created.

29. A whole lot of legal victories for nature

Colombia declared the constitutionality of the Escazú Agreement to protect environmental defenders in 'the most dangerous place in the world for environmental advocacy,’ Papua New Guinea and Islamabad passed new legislation to protect biodiversity, the EU cracked down on greenwashing and environmental crime and the ‘Rights of Nature’ movement continued to redefine the relationship between people and planet, with personhood granted to waves in Linhares, and the Marañón River in Peru.

30. The world’s doomsday seed vault received its largest-ever deposit

Svalbard Global Seed Vault is humanity's most important backup site for seeds and this year it banked more than 30,000 new samples from 23 depositors across 21 countries, including seven international gene banks. The deposit includes vegetables, legumes, and herbs from Palestine; pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnuts from India; a huge rice sample from the Philippines; and the first-ever seeds from Bolivia and Chad.

31. The phase-out of plastics continued in some places

Nigeria banned single-use plastics, the European Union continued its crackdown on microplastics and agreed on a new law to cut down packaging waste for fruit and vegetables. The United Kingdom's price hike on single-use plastic bags resulted in an 86% decrease, California passed a landmark plastic reduction law and retail giant Amazon finally made good on its promise to replace the plastic air pillows inside its packages with paper-based padding.

32. Roads became safer for animals… and humans

Wildlife crossings are incredibly effective and this year they multiplied across the United States: Washington State added 16 to its network, Colorado recorded a 90% reduction in wildlife-involved crashes thanks to its 40 underpasses and three overpasses, and construction began on the world’s largest wildlife bridge in California that will reconnect the Santa Monica Mountains with the Simi Hills, giving threatened mountain lions, bobcats and mule deer safe passage over a 10-lane freeway, and vastly extending wildlife habitat.

33. Re-wilding and restoration efforts continued

Scotland committed to recover 30% of its land and seas in a bid to become the world’s first ‘rewilding nation’; a crowdfunding campaign in Wales raised enough to kickstart the largest restoration project in the country; across the United Kingdom 20 new nature projects received funding to restore critical habitats; the largest restoration project in the Mediterranean reported the regeneration of around 20,000 km² of degraded forests; Bulgaria's re-wilding of the Rhodope Mountains saw the remarkable comeback of many species; conservation efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 'triangle of death' brought elephant and zebra populations back from the brink; and Nepal’s pioneering Terai Arc Landscape initiative was recognised as one of the best examples of ecosystem restoration in the world.

34. Tree planting efforts continued in many places

The Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved 90% of its target of one billion trees, with almost 895 million trees planted across 22 provinces, in Kenya a tree planting app mobilised locals to plant 241 million trees, Sri Lanka approved a plan to increase forest cover to 32% by 2032, the Philippines passed laws requiring parents to plant two trees for every child and students to plant two trees when they graduate. And just to show that every tree counts, here's the best green shoots story we found this year.

35. China completed a 3,000 kilometre green belt around a desert

For decades China has been planting its own Great Green Wall round the shifting sands of the Taklamakan, a desert in its north-western region. The desert’s edge is 3,000km long and over a kilometre wide in places, and in November this year, the final section of trees was planted 'locking the desert shut.' It's the completion of the first phase of the largest ecological restoration project on the planet, 46 years in the making.

36. Some hard-earned wins for animal rights

2024 signalled the end of some of the world’s cruellest and most enduring practices. Romania became the 22^nd European country to ban fur-farming, Columbia ended bullfighting, Chile became the 3rd South American country to abolish cosmetic testing on animals and 11 states in America have now banned the practice of caging hens. South Korea made dog meat illegal while efforts to ban the trade of dog and cat meat ramped up in Viet Nam, Indonesia, India and China. South Africa made the historic decision to phase out the captive breeding of lions and rhinos and Belgium banned the import of hunting trophies from endangered species.

37. Keystone species returned home

Przewalski’s horses returned to central Kazakhstan after a 200-year absence, dozens of southern white rhinos were reintroduced to the wilds of South Africa, jaguars returned to the Iberá area in Argentina for the first time in 70 years, India’s cheetah reintroduction programme celebrated the birth of five cubs in Kuno National Park  and 31,000 bison are roaming the prairies of America, Canada and Mexico again, thanks to historic conservation agreement between the three countries.  

38. All of these endangered species recovered

Saimaa ringed seal | Scimitar oryx | Red cockaded woodpecker | Siamese crocodile | Narwhal | Arapaima (fish) | Chipola slabshell and Fat threeridge (mussels) | Iberian lynx | Asiatic lions | Australian saltwater crocodile | Asian antelope |  Ulūlu | Southern bluefin tuna| Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog | Yellow-footed rock wallabies | Yangtze finless porpoise | Pookila |Orange-bellied parrots | Putitor mahseer (fish) | Giant pandas |Florida golden aster |

Living Standards

Amidst this year's many horror stories of war and deprivation, classrooms filled with a new generation of students, and school feeding programs reached nearly half a billion of them, along with cleaner drinking water, proper sanitation and access to electricity and the internet. Confounding the doom-mongers, global happiness reached post-pandemic highs, air pollution fell, and many lower and middle income nations made remarkable strides in improving their quality of life.

It wasn't all bad news in wealthier nations either; the United States saw improving social and economic indicators, lower drug prices and a return in manufacturing jobs to levels not seen since the 1970s. Even long entrenched inequalities began yielding to pressure, as a worldwide push for tax justice gained momentum. A lot of things went wrong for a lot of people this year, but for millions of others, life got better - even if their stories didn't make the headlines.

39. Millions more children got an education

Staggering statistics incoming: between 2000 and 2023, the number of children and adolescents not attending school fell by nearly 40%, and Eastern and Southern Africa, achieved gender parity in primary education, with 25 million more girls are enrolled in primary school today than in the early 2000s. Since 2015, an additional 110 million children have entered school worldwide, and 40 million more young people are completing secondary school.

40. We fed around a quarter of the world's kids at school

Around 480 million students are now getting fed at school, up from 319 million before the pandemic, and 104 countries have joined a global coalition to promote school meals, School feeding policies are now in place in 48 countries in Africa, and this year Nigeria announced plans to expand school meals to 20 million children by 2025, Kenya committed to expanding its program from two million to ten million children by the end of the decade, and Indonesia pledged to provide lunches to all 78 million of its students, in what will be the world's largest free school meals program.

41. Global negative emotions fell for the first time in a decade 

This will come as a surprise to anyone with a regular news habit, but Gallup's annual global survey of 146,000 people in 142 countries revealed that negative emotions declined for the first time in a decade, and positive emotions reached their highest level since before the pandemic, with an uptick in people feeling more well-rested, experiencing more enjoyment, and smiling or laughing more. Among all age groups, young people were by far the best off, and Latin American and Southeast Asian countries topped the list of places where people felt better about their lives. 

42. We saw mixed progress on reducing global poverty

The World Bank says that global poverty has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but progress has stagnated. More encouragingly, there have been some notable individual success stories: Brazil reported a 40% decline in extreme poverty in just one year, Mexico's social policies have lifted 9.5 million people from poverty since 2018, Cambodia has lifted nearly half of its poor population out of poverty since 2017; in the Philippines the poverty rate will fall from 17% in 2021 to an expected 10% by next year; Viet Nam continued its successful multidimensional poverty reduction efforts, and researchers suggested (controversially) that India had eliminated extreme poverty altogether.

43. And much better news on access to water, sanitation and hygiene

In what might be this year's most invisible story of progress, a WHO-UNICEF report revealed that between 2015 and 2023, over 200 million children gained access to improved water, sanitation, or hygiene services at school. That's not a typo. Also this year, Malaysia closed in on universal access to clean water and sanitation, Mexico announced a €5 billion investment in clean water, Nepal reported a three-fold decline in diarrhoea rates for children, a new project in Brazil gave over a million rural residents access to water and sanitation, Senegal kicked off a project to provide water and sanitation to seven million people, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo one-upped that with a project to provide access to 12 million people.

44. Global air quality improved

In Europe, emissions of the main air pollutants maintained a downward trend with PM2.5 and PM10 decreasing on average by 2.72% and 2.45% annually for the past two decades. India’s national program to combat pollution has seen a 5.9% decline in PM2.5 levels in Delhi, China’s average density of PM2.5 was 30 micrograms per cubic meter, almost 3 micrograms per cubic meter lower than the annual target, and global deaths of children under five from household air pollution have decreased by 36%, largely driven by reductions in exposure in China and South Asia.

45. Global access to electricity and the internet improved

Global electricity access continued to improve in 2024 and in April, the World Bank and the African Development Bank announced a transformative project to deliver electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030, backed by a pledge of $30 billion. Nigeria launched a rural electrification project to provide electricity to 17.5 million people, and Uganda kicked off a project to provide free electricity to at least one million low-income households. On the digital front, the World Bank launched an eight-year initiative to extend broadband internet access to 180 million people in Eastern and Southern Africa, and approved funding for better internet access for 20 million people in the Philippines.

46. Cities got greener and cleaner

Paris continued to be at the forefront of global urban renewal efforts, implementing a ban on motorists driving through central areas of the city, announcing plans to swap 60,000 parking spaces for trees, and reporting a 40% decline in air pollution in the last decade. Kigali, Rwanda, became Africa’s cleanest city thanks to community efforts and government policies, a mass cleaning drive in the Chennai, India removed 250 tonnes of waste from parks in a single day, In Italy, Turin continued its evolution from 'motor city' to a cycling haven, Medellin, Colombia cut temperatures by 2°C in three years by planting trees, Berlin became a sponge city and New York opened around 60km of 'greenways.'

47. The Biden Administration left a lasting legacy

This year saw the government secure lower prices for ten costly drugs and the largest ever recorded drop in overdose deaths, Minimum wage increases went into effect in 25 states, over $180 billion in student debt relief helped nearly 4.8 million Americans, teen smoking hit an all time low, incarceration rates were 11% lower than in 2019, school violence declined precipitously (aside from gun violence) and historic investments in manufacturing led to the first full recovery of manufacturing jobs in 30 states since the 1970s. The Biden Administration also cracked down on untraceable ghost guns, and allocated billions to combat hunger, repair water infrastructure, and support survivors of domestic abuse.

48. Countries promised to crack down on the super-rich

The past year marked a pivotal moment in the global push for tax justice, with significant strides made toward reshaping the international tax system. In November, G20 finance ministers confirmed a historic agreement to “engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed. In the United States, the Biden administration recovered $172 million from 21,000 wealthy taxpayers who hadn’t filed returns since 2017, and a few ultra-wealthy individuals used their money for good: Melinda French Gates announced a two-year, $1 billion commitment to protect women’s rights, and MacKenzie Scott has so far given away a staggering $17.3 billion following her divorce from Jeff Bezos.

49. Crime fell in some surprising places

America’s crime trends in 2024 were remarkably positive with an enormous decline in murder, a continued small but steady decline in violent crime, and a sizeable decline in motor vehicle theft on the heels of several years of surges. The nation’s murder rate has largely erased the post-COVID surge, reported violent and property crime were likely amongst the lowest rates recorded since the 1960s and 1970s, and the shoplifting epidemic of the last few years turned out to be a mirage. In Mexico, homicide rates dropped to their lowest level since 2016, in Brazil, homicide rates fell to a 14-year low, and in the Phillipines crime rates have fallen by more than 50% compared to six years ago.

Energy

2024 was the year of solar and batteries – a double act that reshaped global energy systems. While political discourse remained heated, the economic reality of cheap renewables became undeniable, with installations shattering all forecasts. China stunned observers by reaching its solar and wind targets six years early, the United States experienced its largest manufacturing boom since World War II, and in Europe, fossil fuels fell to historic lows.

For all the legitimate worries over climate change, progress has been made - the world is at least ten gigatonnes of emissions below the worst case scenarios of a decade ago. Clean energy is now eating into fossil fuel's share not only in the power sector but also in transport, industry and beyond. From China's falling oil demand, to geothermal's surprise emergence, to breakthrough steel and shipping technologies, this year confirmed that despite headwinds, the energy transition has become unstoppable.

50. Solar installations shattered all records

Global solar installations look set to reach an unprecedented 660GW in 2024, up 50% from 2023's previous record. The pace of deployment has become almost unfathomable - in 2010, it took a month to install a gigawatt, by 2016, a week, and in 2024, just 12 hours. Solar has become not just the cheapest form of new electricity in history, but the fastest-growing energy technology ever deployed, and the International Energy Agency said that the pace of deployment is now ahead of the trajectory required for net zero by 2050.  

51. Battery storage transformed the economics of renewables

Global battery storage capacity surged 76% in 2024, making investments in solar and wind energy much more attractive, and vice-versa. As with solar, the pace of change stunned even the most cynical observers. Price wars between the big Chinese manufacturers pushed battery costs to record lows, and global battery manufacturing capacity increased by 42%, setting the stage for future growth in both grid storage and electric vehicles - crucial for the clean flexibility required by a renewables-dominated electricity system. The world's first large-scale grid battery installation only went online seven years ago; by next year, global battery storage capacity will exceed that of pumped hydro.

52. Coal exits proliferated worldwide

The United Kingdom closed its last coal power plant in September this year, 142 years after opening the world's first coal plant. Slovakia closed its last coal plant six years early, Italy committed to stop coal generation by 2025, and Poland's second-biggest power utility agreed to shut down coal plants by the end of the decade. Chile is phasing out coal faster than any other developing nation due to its robust environmental standards, and Indonesia announced plans to retire all coal plants within 15 years and install 75GW of renewable energy. In the United States, a new report revealed that 99% of coal plants are now more expensive to run than replacing them with local wind, solar, and energy storage.

53. China's clean energy installations broke all the records (again)

China stunned analysts with an unprecedented clean energy rollout that put peak emissions in play years ahead of schedule. This year the country will install around 100GW of wind, over 230GW of solar, and well over three million new charging points for electric vehicles, even as its commissioning of coal plants decelerates rapidly. In a pivotal moment, mid-way through this year wind and solar capacity overtook coal capacity for the first time, and the country reached its goal of 1,200GW of wind and solar installations six years ahead of schedule.

54. China's EV boom threatened to push gasoline demand off a cliff

China announced that its consumption of refined oil will decline in 2024, thanks to its rapid uptake of electric vehicles. 'New energy' vehicles now make up 10% of cars on Chinese roads, a figure expected to double by 2027 and potentially reach 100% by the 2040s. This rapid transition forced OPEC, traditionally the most bullish voice in oil markets, to cut forecasts for five straight months in the second half of the year. The implications are profound - China has driven 41% of global oil consumption growth for three decades.

55. An American energy renaissance took hold

In 2024, $272 billion was invested across the United States in the manufacture and deployment of clean energy, clean vehicles, building electrification and carbon management technology, with most investments heading to Republican-leaning communities. The country added 86% more clean power capacity in the first three quarters of 2024 than it did in the first three of 2023, and now has 294GW of clean power capacity installed, enough to power 72 million homes. Solar generation is doubling every three years, while clean energy jobs are growing at double the overall rate of job growth.

56. Europe accelerated its clean energy transition

The EU's emissions fell by over 8% last year - this year they are on track to fall by even more. Wind turbines and solar panels generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU in the first six months of the year, causing power sector emissions to drop by 17%, and the continent is also kicking its fossil gas addiction, with overall gas demand is down by 138 billion cubic meters since August 2022, and imports of Russian gas falling from a 45% share in 2021 to only 18% in August 2024. “If member states can keep momentum up on wind and solar deployment then freedom from fossil power reliance will truly start to come into view."

57. Grid modernisation ramped up

The largest global grid infrastructure buildout since World War II gained momentum in 2024. The US approved major reforms governing grid connections, and invested billions of dollars in 58 projects across 44 states. China spent a colossal $83 billion on transmission, and investment finally started coming in for Europe's ailing grids. The Sun Cable project linking Australia to Singapore secured key approvals, while the UK green-lit five subsea cable projects to connect with continental Europe. This massive expansion of transmission capacity will be crucial for integrating the surge in renewable energy.

58. India emerged as a clean energy powerhouse

In 2024 the government launched an ambitious plan to install rooftop solar on 10 million homes, while announcing the world's largest solar farm at Khavda - a 30GW project capable of powering entire nations. Coal's share of power generation fell below 50% for the first time since the 1960s, and total installations of clean energy crossed the 200GW mark, with renewables accounting for 99% of all new capacity installed between June and September 2024, and coal making up just 1%. In the third quarter of the year India started outpacing China as a destination for clean technology funding, and the country now has enough solar manufacturing capacity to produce 63GW of panels per year.

59. Legal victories transformed the climate landscape

The European Court of Human Rights sided with over 2,000 Swiss women in a landmark case against their government's climate inaction, South Korea's constitutional court ordered a revision of the Carbon Neutrality Act, marking Asia's first high court ruling on government climate action, and the US Supreme Court allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce new rules requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions by 90% by 2032 or shut down. Climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies have nearly tripled since the Paris Agreement, with 86 cases filed against the world's largest oil, gas, and coal corporations.

60. Emerging markets provided a few big surprises

Pakistan emerged as the world's third-largest importer of solar panels, with $1.7 billion of equipment imported in the first nine months of the year - enough to generate 17GW, a third of the country's power capacity. Brazil has added about 1GW of solar every month since 2022, becoming the world's sixth-largest solar generator, and Türkiye increased its solar generation by 40% in a single year. One in five emerging markets now have a larger share of renewables in their energy mix than the average developed country. 

61. Industry embraced clean steel

Swedish company H2 Green Steel secured $5.17 billion in financing for the world's first large-scale green steel plant, Turkey's largest steelmaker Erdemir pledged $3.2 billion to achieve a 25% emissions cut by 2030, while ArcelorMittal invested $2 billion in electric furnaces. Almost half of the world’s steelmaking capacity under development will use electric-arc furnaces, up from just 33% in 2022.

62. Clean energy's dark horses gained momentum

Geothermal had its coming-of-age year when Lazard revealed it was now cost-competitive with fossil gas, and in October landed its first mega project in Utah. Innovation flourished in unexpected places - researchers developed a prototype device that can produce ammonia using wind energy to draw air through a mesh, hundreds of thousands of German households turned their balconies into 9GW-worth of plug-and-play solar panels, farmers in Europe and America embraced agrivoltaics, using the same land to grow food and generate electricity, floating solar parks spread across Asia's lakes and reservoirs, and perovskite solar is finally starting to see some large scale commercial deployments.

63. Transformation came for the entire transportation sector

Beyond passenger vehicles, 2024 saw electrification spread throughout the transport sector. The EU approved laws requiring a 90% cut in emissions from new heavy-duty vehicles by 2040. Electric buses and delivery vehicles proliferated in major cities worldwide, while the first electric ferries entered service in several countries. More than 50 leaders across the marine shipping value chain signed a call to action to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission fuels, and we learned that around half of the world's tonnage of ships under order have capacity for clean fuels, meaning that a fifth of all global capacity will be alternative fuel capable by the end of the decade.

64. Concerns about the lack of critical materials evaporated

After years of warnings about the scarcity of metals, 2024 saw those fears largely dissipate. In just one year, the world's known lithium reserves increased by enough for 250 million EVs, cobalt by enough for 500 million EVs, nickel by enough for 600 million EVs, and copper by enough for 1.7 billion EVs. A massive lithium discovery in Arkansas revealed up to 19 million tons of reserves, prospectors uncovered 2.34 billion metric tons of rare-earth elements in Wyoming, and Europe’s biggest deposit of rare-earth minerals was discovered in Norway. 

Human Rights

In a year when populists and authoritarians dominated the news cycle, there were still some bright spots for tolerance and equality. Democracy proved surprisingly resilient during a record year of elections, Thailand and Greece celebrated historic victories for their LGBTQ+ communities, while reproductive rights expanded globally with France leading the way.

A landmark UN conference saw over 100 countries commit to ending violence against children, while sustained campaigns against child marriage and gender-based violence achieved big wins in Africa and Asia, and millions of stateless people moved closer to citizenship, with Thailand alone creating pathways for half a million long-term residents. Even in challenging times, humanity continued to make progress toward a more just and equitable world - it's just that this year, you had to look a little harder for those stories.

65. Democracy proved remarkably resilient in a record year of elections

More than two billion people went to the polls this year, and democracy fared far better than most people expected, with solid voter turnout, limited election manipulation, and evidence of incumbent governments being tamed. It wasn't all good news, but Indonesia saw the world's biggest one day election, Indian voters rejected authoritarianism, South Korea's democratic institutions did the same, Bangladesh promised free and fair elections following a 'people's victory', Senegal, Sri Lanka and Botswana saw peaceful transfers of power to new leaders after decades of single party rule, and Syria saw the end of one of the world's most horrific authoritarian regimes.

66. Global leaders committed to ending violence against children

In early November, while the eyes of the world were on the US election, an event took place that may prove to be a far more consequential for humanity. Five countries pledged to end corporal punishment in all settings, two more pledged to end it in schools, and another 12, including Bangladesh and Nigeria, accepted recommendations earlier in the year to end corporal punishment of children in all settings. In total, in 2024 more than 100 countries made some kind of commitment to ending violence against children. Together, these countries are home to hundreds of millions of children, with the WHO calling the move a 'fundamental shift.'

67. The LGBTQ+ community notched up some big wins

Thailand—home to over 70 million people—became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, and Greece made history as the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to do the same. Namibia and Dominica struck down colonial-era laws against same-sex relationships, South Korea ruled that gay couples are entitled to the same health insurance benefits as heterosexual couples. China recognised that a child can have two mothers for the first time, Israel ruled that LGBTQ couples can adopt and in Japan public support for gay marriage reached 70% following a series of high-profile court cases. The Catholic Church softened its tone towards LGBTQ people, the European Union ruled that member states must recognise legal changes to gender made elsewhere within the bloc and the UN Human Rights Council passed a historic resolution to combat discrimination against intersex people.

68. The largest reduction of statelessness in recent history

In October, the UNHCR announced that it has helped more than half a million displaced people acquire citizenship in the last decade, with at least 22 states taking action—including Kenya, which has granted nationality to minorities; Kyrgyzstan, the world’s first country to resolve all known cases of statelessness; and Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Liberia, who all recently granted women the right to confer their nationality on their children. The big news however, came in November, when Thailand announced an accelerated pathway to end statelessness for 500,000 long-term residents and minority group members, and their children. Once implemented, this will be the single largest reduction of statelessness by any country worldwide. 

69. Humanity made progress on reproductive rights

A reminder that America is an outlier - 60 countries around the world have made their abortion laws more liberal in the past 30 years, only four have made them more restrictive. Even so, seven US states voted this year to enshrine a women's right to choose in their constitutions: Colorado, New York, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Arizona and Missouri. France became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right, and Poland reversed its restrictive measures on abortion and access to the morning-after pill. Ireland and Canada extended free contraception to all women and in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of women using modern contraception has nearly doubled over the past decade, reaching 66 million.

70. Workers’ rights saw some upgrades

The European Parliament approved rules to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made with forced labour, and Germany’s Supply Chain Act compelled factory owners in Pakistan to comply with minimum wage laws, provide written contracts, and give bonuses. In Colombia, a bill to restore and expand labour rights rescinded two decades ago advanced to a second round of legislative debates and in Belgium, a world-first law means that sex workers now enjoy the same employment protections as all employees, including pension rights, sick leave, and maternity pay.

71. Generation Z are not doomed

The popular view is that the generation of people born between 1997 and 2012 will live grimmer, poorer lives than their elders. This is not true. Four-fifths of the world’s 12-to 27-year-olds live in emerging economies, and they are richer, healthier, more educated, better informed and more connected than their parents. In the rich world, politicians are also finally starting to do something about the curse of smartphones and social media. At least 19 US states have passed laws or enacted policies that ban or restrict students’ use of phones in schools, Australia became the first country this year to ban social media for children under the age of 16, and next year France will become the first country to ban phones at school for children under the age of 15 nationwide.

72. We got closer to eradicating gender-based violence and child marriage

After 17 years of campaigning by advocacy groups and eight failed legislative attempts, Colombia finally outlawed child marriage. Sierra Leone introduced new legislation that makes even witnesses to child marriages liable to imprisonment, and Zambia raised the minimum marriage age to 18—a big step for a country with 1.7 million child brides. Thailand reported that it has halved teen pregnancy in the last decade, the Netherlands became the 17th EU state to classify non-consensual sex as rape, Croatia introduced the harshest penalties for femicide, and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief when lawmakers in the The Gambia rejected a bill that would have overturned its existing ban on female genital mutilation.

Science and Technology

This year, we plucked a skyscraper-sized rocket out of the air, artificial intelligence revolutionised multiple scientific fields from biology to nuclear physics, and gene-editing moved from lab to clinic as the first commercial CRISPR treatments reached patients. We learned more about dark matter, investigated the dark proteome, and discovered dark oxygen. Desalination technologies promised greater resilience to water-stress, and next-generation materials transformed everything from batteries to carbon capture.

Doctors gave speech back to patients through brain-machine interfaces, restored sight through stem cell transplants, and made breakthrough discoveries on Alzheimer's. From mapping the human brain in unprecedented detail to bringing extinct species back to life, many of these advances will form the foundation stones of future human progress, reminding us that ingenuity and determination remain our greatest assets in solving global challenges.

73. Space exploration hit new milestones

NASA’s Europa Clipper began a 2.9 billion kilometre voyage to Jupiter to investigate a moon that may have conditions for life; astronomers identified an ice world with a possible atmosphere in the habitable zone; and the James Webb Telescope found the farthest known galaxy. Closer to Earth, China landed on the far side of the moon, the Polaris Dawn crew made a historic trip to orbit, and Starship moved closer to operational use – and maybe one day, to travel to Mars. 

74. Next-generation materials advanced

A mind-boggling year for material science. Artificial intelligence helped identify a solid-state electrolyte that could slash lithium use in batteries by 70%, and an Apple supplier announced a battery material that can deliver around 100 times better energy density. Researchers created an insulating synthetic sapphire material 1.25 nanometers thick, plus the world’s thinnest lens, just three atoms across. The world’s first functioning graphene-based semiconductor was unveiled (the long-awaited ‘wonder material’ may finally be coming of age!) and a team at Berkeley invented a fluffy yellow powder that could be a game changer for removing carbon from the atmosphere.

75. Scientists took steps towards feeding the world

The GMO panic may have ended in Africa, where Uganda and Ethiopia are joining a group of countries to approve CRISPR-edited crops, and gene-editing projects saw incredible results – like sorghum that’s resistant to a destructive parasite. Israeli scientists produced gene-edited tomatoes that consume less water without harming output, and CRISPR’s co-developer said we’re on the way to more drought-tolerant rice, crops that suck up more carbon, and cattle with coats suited to hotter temperatures.

76. Desalination got cheaper, more efficient, and more like magic

Renewables made desalination cheaper, heralding a more secure water supply for farming (and drinking) in water-stressed regions. Tech breakthroughs should help too: researchers built a trailer-sized, solar-powered system that desalinates around 5,000 litres a day, an evaporation-based device that’s five times more efficient than current systems and a device made from cheap materials that captures water directly from the air and condenses it in a sealed chamber. Oh, and a stunning discovery: MIT scientists found that light, not just heat, can vaporise water, pointing to a host of new applications.

77. Robots entered the workforce

Humanoid robots started working on factory floors as Mercedes-Benz and BMW brought them into the car manufacturing process. This is part of a wider story of robots becoming more human-like (and useful!) as they’re able to perform more complex tasks and gain new physical characteristics – like Sanctuary’s Phoenix bot, with autonomous hands working at near human speed, the jelly-based AI that learned how to play Pong, demonstrating basic ‘memory’, and arms that completed the first fully robotic dental surgery. As robots continue their move from explicit programming to AI-powered self learning, the trend is set to grow.

78. We got better at detecting disease

An AI-led revolution in how we diagnose illness sped up, with a skin cancer-spotting handheld device, a model that detects disease from tongue colour and a system that finds hidden brain cancer in under ten seconds. ChatGPT-4 beat real doctors in a diagnosis test, and a tool used in 1,400 GP clinics boosted cancer detection in England. Humans did well too: finding bowel cancer without invasive biopsies, making a proteome-based test for early-stage cancers, and inventing a device that scans for biomarkers in an hour from a single drop of blood (yep, this time it’s real).

79. Doctors gave people the gift of speech, sound and sight

Tell us this isn’t like magic. An ALS patient received treatment that allowed him to speak to his daughter again, using sound decoders in his brain and AI software, part of a new wave of brain-machine interfaces that could transform life for paralysed people. Three people with profoundly impaired vision saw major improvement in their eyesight following the transplants of reprogrammed stem cells, and an 11-year-old Moroccan boy received gene therapy for congenital deafness, and started to hear again. “There’s no sound I don’t like.” 

80. Scientists learned heaps about the brain

A flurry of breakthroughs in understanding Alzheimer’s raised hopes that the world's most common cause of dementia may one day be defeated — just one possible outcome from a much larger neurological journey of discovery under way. The world’s most powerful MRI delivered its first human brain images, with ten times more precision than hospital machines. Scientists also identified the individual cells that encode the meaning of words, modelled how memories are stored, revealed a spectacularly detailed new map of the brain, and showed that a high dose of psilocybin resets the circuits of the brain critical to the sense of self.

81. The human genome got more accessible

Researchers opened the lid on the dark proteome and found thousands of previously overlooked genes, including one linked to a childhood cancer, while the discovery of a gene associated with longer lifespan heralded treatments for age-related disease. Expect more such finds as the knowledge bank grows: Chinese academics assembled the most detailed human genome, scientists gained access to a downloadable 'Google for DNA' that’s already indexed 10% of known genetic sequences, and Ultima Genomics debuted a line of instruments that can read a human genome for $100. 

82. Biotech achieved astounding breakthroughs

In a year of landmarks, this stood out: a South Korean transplant patient received a lab-grown windpipe, with cartilage and lining grown from donor stem cells. Japanese biologists got closer to generating human sperm and eggs in vitro, and Google DeepMind’s new system designed novel proteins that bind to target molecules far more effectively than current methods. In good news for the climate, lab-grown chicken got cheaper, and researchers made progress on synthetic milk and created bovine muscle cells that produce their own growth factors, a step that could slash costs for cultivated beef. 

83. Gene-editing left the lab and entered the real world

The first commercial CRISPR treatment started reaching sickle cell patients, and the first patient received in vivo gene therapy for blood cancer. There’s a way to go, and prices need to drop, but the turning points will keep coming: researchers have already wielded genetic scissors to ‘cut’ HIV out of cells and built DNA switches to precisely control gene expression. Bit by bit, intractable diseases are getting more…tractable.

84. De-extinction got real

Jurassic Park eat your heart out. Bioscientists looking to bring back the extinct Tasmanian tiger reconstructed 99.9% of its genome, based on RNA samples from a 110-year-old preserved head. A biotech company hoping to resurrect the woolly mammoth created induced pluripotent stem cells for its closest living relative, Asian elephants, and can now try creating elephants with mammoth traits. And a startup started planting chestnut trees brought back from functional extinction in New York state as part of an eco-restoration push.

85. We launched new machines for monitoring our world

This year, we saw the launch of two methane-detecting satellites, and from next year, a constellation of satellites from Google will monitor Earth’s surface for wildfires as small as five square metres, catching them before they grow into forest-eating monsters. The most detailed map to date of human activity on the ocean was unveiled, making it easier to see – and tackle – illegal fishing. Spain launched a cutting-edge research ship to enhance understanding and protection of deep ocean ecosystems, and NASA announced six new missions to study our changing planet, covering coastal change, retreating glaciers, urban air pollution and more.

86. We inched a little closer to understanding the nature of reality

A new prime candidate was identified in the hunt for dark matter, Einstein’s theory of general relativity was validated (again) and experiments yielded new info on the structure of a proton. The movement of electrons was recorded at extremely high resolution, making it possible to settle questions unanswered since the 1980s, and in 2024 we became the first generation to see the precise shape of a particle of light, the first clear image of atoms behaving like a wave, and ultracold atoms flowing freely. The world keeps spinning… and we keep making fundamental discoveries about its properties.