Here’s today’s stories of progress in the fight against climate change and nature loss.

📦 The power of a Library of Things

A library in Maine is one of thousands around the world to implement a Library of Things, where residents can rent household items, cooking accessories, games, and everything from leg massagers to art supplies. This has the twin impact of saving people money while reducing the environmental toll of making things just to let them collect dust. The library also hosts repair cafes where people’s broken items can be mended, extending their lifespan and further reducing waste.

🚦 Curtailing emissions at traffic lights

Eco-driving techniques could cut emissions to a level equivalent to entire countries, a new study has found. Instead of traffic lights and stop signs – which mean cars linger at intersections – eco-driving involves apps that guide people’s speeds, dynamically adjusting speed limits, and even semi or fully-autonomous cars that speed or slow themselves. And if just 10% of cars on the road implemented these techniques, we’d reap up to half of the benefits, because these eco-driving cars would influence the speed of the cars around them.

⚖️ The woman fighting China’s environmental exploitation

Lawyer Jingjing Zhang is known as ‘the Chinese Erin Brockovich’ for her decades-long work pressuring the country’s companies to clean up their act. She has recently turned her attention to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the huge infrastructure project across the Global South which has generated immensely harmful pollution and disrupted livelihoods. This article outlines Zhang’s determined work for villagers who lost everything to a mining collapse in Zambia. 

The Green Light is written by freelance climate writer Molly Millar.