Global renewable power capacity to rise by 50% in five years-IEA →

Global renewable energy capacity is set to rise by 50% in five years' time, driven by solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on homes, buildings and industry, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Total renewable-based power capacity will rise by 1.2 terawatts (TW) by 2024 from 2.5 TW last year, equivalent to the total installed current power capacity of the United States. Solar PV will account for nearly 60% of this growth and onshore wind 25%, the IEA's annual report on global renewables showed. REUTERS

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Holistic herds create hectares of hope →

“Imagine if you could take billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, safely, effectively, economically and immediately,” says carbon-gathering cattle-rancher Tony Lovell. “Imagine if you could do it in a way that also increases biodiversity, boosts food security, reverses the advance of the desert and improves rural communities.” ATLAS OF THE FUTURE

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Sekem: The miracle garden in the desert →

Since the 1970s, development initiative Sekem has been revitalising the hot, arid sands of a once untouched part of the Egyptian desert, transforming it into fertile land. In 1977, award-winning social entrepreneur, philanthropist and drug designer Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish started the initiative an hour from Cairo after a vision. ATLAS OF THE FUTURE

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The movement to make workers’ schedules more humane →

Over the past three years, a wave of US cities have passed “fair workweek” legislation that aims to make schedules more predictable (or compensate workers when they are unpredictable). The laws require that certain companies take steps such as posting schedules two weeks in advance, compensating workers if there are last-minute scheduling changes, and allowing sufficient rest time between shifts. VOX

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Innovation buzz: Drones help Ghana's farmers ward off birds - and drought risks →

In a project run by the Netherlands-based Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) rice farmers are being taught how to use drones to carry out jobs such as spraying fertilizer more efficiently and mapping scarce water sources, said George Madjitey, CEO of GEM Industrial Solutions. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION

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Spanish coders harness tech to track health risks for firefighters →

A small team of volunteers based in Barcelona is hoping to deploy cutting-edge technology at home and further afield to protect the health of those on the frontline: the firefighters. After winning a global coding challenge backed by tech giant IBM in New York last weekend, they will receive financial and technical support to deploy more widely their open-source application, named Prometeo. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION

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The Nobel Prize in economics goes to 3 groundbreaking anti-poverty researchers →

The three researchers work on global poverty, studying interventions in a range of areas: combating teacher absenteeism, direct cash transfers to the extreme poor, policing drunk driving, and studying the effects of access to textbooks on students, among others. They’ve also made extraordinary contributions to developing the methods used to study these subjects, with a focus on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). VOX

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Climate change: Big lifestyle changes are the only answer →

Researchers from Imperial College London say we must eat less meat and dairy, swap cars for bikes, take fewer flights, and ditch gas boilers at home. The report, seen by BBC Panorama, has been prepared for the Committee on Climate Change, which advises ministers how to cut the UK's carbon footprint. It says an upheaval in our lifestyles is the only way to meet targets. BBC NEWS

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Drop the doom and gloom: Climate journalism is about empowerment →

When it comes to climate-related economic issues, news narratives typically focus on the trade-off between jobs and protecting the environment. What if the discussion in the news media, and in politics, instead focused on what a post-carbon economy would actually look like, and, crucially, how such an economy would actually thrive? It’s the vision of a society and of a prosperous, modern economy that has climate change baked into it. THE CONVERSATION

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The U.K. just used more renewables than fossil fuels for the first time since the Industrial Revolution →

Renewables just generated more electricity in the U.K. than fossil fuels—for the first quarter since the Industrial Revolution. Last quarter, over the months of July, August, and September, wind, biomass, and solar power produced 40% of the country’s electricity—edging ahead of coal, oil, and gas power stations, at 39%, according to an analysis from Carbon Brief. (The remaining generation came from nuclear.) FAST COMPANY

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This global map shows you how nature benefits you directly →

The importance of “natural capital”—resources such as healthy soil, clean water, and resilient ecosystems—is literally mapped out in a study published on Thursday in Science. A team led by Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, lead scientist for the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University, unveiled an interactive global map that demonstrates nature’s effects on crop pollination, water quality, and coastal hazard risks. VICE

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