Summary of December's Top Good News Stories
- Editor OGN Daily
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
Quick synopsis of all the best news about health, wellbeing, conservation, wildlife, renewables and sustainability.
Health & Wellbeing
mRNA Flu Shot: In a Phase 3 trial, an mRNA influenza vaccine from Pfizer has outperformed standard seasonal flu shots by 34.5 percent. Making mRNA vaccines is significantly faster than developing traditional flu shots, and quick turnarounds would mean vaccines could be developed in response to more currently circulating flu strains, potentially better protecting people from serious illness.
More Vaccines: Gavi and UNICEF have secured a deal to cut the price of the R21 malaria vaccine by 25 percent, down to $2.99 per dose. The savings, roughly $90 million, will finance around 30 million extra doses and reach an estimated 7 million more children over the next five years, even as donor budgets tighten.
Not Incurable: A revolutionary treatment has reversed aggressive and incurable blood cancers in some patients, with almost two-thirds of patients in remission. The therapy involves precisely editing the DNA in white blood cells to transform them into a cancer-fighting “living drug”. The first patient treated, Alyssa Tapley, is now enjoying life and plans to become a cancer scientist.
End of Extreme Poverty: The Indian state of Kerala, home to over 60 million people, says it has eliminated extreme poverty - from over 60 percent of the population in the 1970s to nearly zero today.
Scorpion Venom: Amazingly, scorpions might help save a woman’s life some day. Researchers have identified that venom of the scorpion Brotheas amazonicus appears to attack breast cancer cells in a way similar to a widely used chemotherapy medication.
Good Surprise: The United States has reaffirmed its commitment (with $4.6 billion) to the Global Fund, the world’s largest financier of AIDS, TB, and malaria prevention and treatment programs. It surprised almost everyone and represents a lifeline for millions.
Conservation & Wildlife
Wild Cats: A rare Rembrandt drawing, Young Lion Resting, could fetch up to $20 million at auction in February 2026, with proceeds supporting wild cat conservation charity Panthera.
Keystone Species: Across Romania, Spain and Bulgaria, Europe’s skies are beginning to fill with giant silhouettes once again. Final releases of cinereous vultures in the Carpathians - alongside coordinated flights of new cohorts in Spain and Bulgaria - are restoring a keystone scavenger that stabilises food webs, limits disease and signals the revival of functioning ecosystems.
Poland Bans Fur: Poland has become the 18th European Union country has banned fur farming, which was welcomed as a historic moment for animal protection in the country. Poland is the largest fur producer in Europe.
Protection Reinstated: A U.S. federal judge reinstated a commercial fishing ban in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, protecting 490,000 square miles of ocean from industry pressures - ensuring one of Earth’s last pristine marine ecosystems remains intact for future generations.
Lost Ecosystems Returning: Across northeastern USA, rivers that were once blocked by outdated dams are now running freely again, and the results are remarkable.
New Species: A new pumpkin toadlet species was recently discovered in the mountains of southern Brazil. Bracycephalus lulai is just over one centimeter (only 0.39 inches) long and roughly the size of a pencil tip. It’s a completely new species of frog.
Historic Return: White storks, extinct as breeding birds in Britain since 1416, to make a historic return to the UK capital as part of an ambitious rewilding effort to bring charismatic nature into busy city communities.
Smoking Gun: AI technology is being used to help fight poaching in rainforests across Cameroon, Congo and Gabon. The Elephant Listening Project installed microphones able to detect gunshots in the forests, and when triggered, the devices send a real-time alert to officials who can try to catch illegal hunters.
Rights of Dolphins: Scientists in South Korea are fighting to give Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins the same legal rights as people to help save them.
Renewables & Sustainability
First Country Powered 100 Percent by Solar: It's the eighth country to run exclusively on renewables, but perhaps even more intriguing is the way it was achieved here - they used agrivoltaics.
Uruguay Hits 99 Percent: Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables - at half the cost of fossil fuels. Once the country adjusted the playing field that had long favoured oil and gas, renewables outperformed on every front: halving costs, creating 50,000 jobs, and protecting the economy from price shocks.
Zero to Hero: Romania's astonishing recycling success. In just two years, beverage-packaging collection and recycling has skyrocketed to an impressive 94 percent.
Biodegradable Plastic: Researchers from Japan have recently developed a new type of plastic: one that’s entirely plant-based and biodegradable. It’s not the first time a biodegradable plastic has been created, but while many versions take a long time to disintegrate, this one can fully decompose in marine environments in just a few hours.
Shipping Emissions Transformed: Maritime carbon capture technology converts cargo vessel exhaust into cement ingredients, providing a circular economy loop and an immediate decarbonization solution.
Closing The Door: The UK has become the first major economy to call time on new fossil fuel exploration, confirming that no more licenses for oil and gas drilling will be issued in the North Sea. “Britain has just made history,” said Greenpeace.
‘Windustrial Revolution’: New reports shows that, over 25 years, the British wind industry has led the world with colossal offshore solutions that can now power more than half the nation's homes.
Battery Power: A new report reveals that there's good news about battery storage: it has become cheap enough for solar power to be delivered around the clock. The cost of large-scale battery storage fell by a whopping 40 percent in 2024 and continues to drop in 2025. Indeed, globally, mega-batteries are now unlocking mega-energy and are the key to unlocking the clean energy revolution.
Balcony Solar: Germany has quietly become home to over one million mini solar power plants hanging from apartment balconies and mounted on terraces across the country. They are simple plug-and-play solar systems.
EV Fast Lane: The global electric vehicle (EV) market shifted up a gear - a quarter of all cars sold in 2025 were electric. Much of the growth has been driven by EV uptake in emerging markets where, until recently, adoption has been slow off the mark. "Emerging markets are no longer catching up, they are leading the shift to electric mobility.”
Good News From COP30: Whilst COP30 failed on the big ticket stuff - sabotaged yet again by petrostates and their armies of lobbyists - there was plenty to celebrate elsewhere at the global jamboree in Brazil. Here's a quick summary...