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

🌳 Payments for protecting forests

Brazil has proposed a fund that would pay 74 countries a total of $4bn per year for keeping their forests intact. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility, as it’s called, would underline forests’ position as a global public good. If it comes into play, it would almost triple the amount of financing for international forests, with one-fifth of the proposed fund going to forest communities.

🏆 Celebrating climate progress

The five Earthshot Prize winners have been announced, while all the finalists offer a breakthrough solution that combats our environmental and climate crises. The winners include Lagos Fashion Week, which spotlights circularity as well as creativity; a way of making reforestation profitable through AI; and the High Seas Treaty, which will safeguard biodiversity in international waters.

🐋 Listening to whales with underwater cables

Underwater fiber optic cables that carry the world’s data could double as a vast monitoring device for endangered species such as orcas. Scientists have found that sound disturbances from whales cause tiny deformations in the cables, a weakness that could be exploited to track marine life through the sounds they make.

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