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These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest. WRI Dec 5, 2025 Joel Jaeger Electric vehicle sales have been growing exponentially due to falling costs, improving technology and government support. Globally, 22% of passenger vehicles sold in 2024 were electric. That's 8 times higher than it was just five years earlier. But which countries are leading the pack? In terms of total passenger EV sales, China is the clear leader, with 11.3 million in 2024. It's followed by the United States (1.5 million), Germany (570,000), the U.K. (550,000) and France (450,000). However, the picture changes when you look at EV sales as a share of all car sales. This gives a better idea of which countries are succeeding at electrifying their auto markets the fastest. According to the International Energy Agency, the top six countries with the highest share of EV sales are Norway (electric vehicles made up 92% of passenger vehicle sales in 2024), Sweden (58%), Denmark (56%), Finland (50%), and the Netherlands and China (tied at 48%). Notably, this makes China a leader in both total volume and share of EV sales. Meanwhile, the United States ranks much lower, with EVs at just 10% of passenger car sales.Some developing countries with low levels of car ownership are not covered by the IEA data but have reportedly seen impressive EV uptake in the last few years. A big reason for this is the availability of affordable EVs imported from China. For example, countries like Ethiopia, Nepal and Sri Lanka went from essentially no EV imports five years ago to the majority of their imports being EVs in 2024. By one estimate, EVs will need to reach 75% to 95% of passenger vehicle sales by 2030 to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) and prevent many harmful impacts from climate change. This is an ambitious target, and the world is currently off track to reach it. But as the countries here have shown, rapid uptake is possible. With the right policy support, the world can still feasibly get on track.
National EV Sales Follow a Pattern of Exponential Growth.....While EV sales have started accelerating in different years for different countries, they are all following a similar "S-curve" pattern of growth. This is a typical trajectory for the adoption of innovative technologies. Once a technology reaches a tipping point — for example, when EVs become cheaper than traditional gas- or diesel-powered vehicles — the trajectory curves upward. Eventually, growth diminishes as the technology approaches 100% saturation. Norway, for example, has already reached this slowing-down phase as EVs have exceeded 90% of its passenger vehicle sales. The initial acceleration and eventual slowdown create an S-curve.
Norway is the world leader on EV adoption rates, growing sales from less than 1% to more than 90% in 14 years. To meet 2030 climate targets, the world needs to scale up EVs sales roughly as fast as Norway. Other countries have also begun rapid growth in recent years: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and China are other leading EV adopters after Norway. In every country, once EV sales reached 1%, they accelerated. This acceleration happened faster in some places than others, but has typically followed an S-curve pattern.,,,,,to read the article- keep on scrolling https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest.
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The Top 12 Climate Developments of 2023 The past year saw historic developments in climate, energy, and more to help move us toward a clean and secure future.RMI December 19, 2023 Laurie Stone This past year saw some unfortunate climate milestones. It will be the hottest year ever recorded. Devastating floods swept Libya, Brazil, and China. Drought and record-high temperatures sparked catastrophic wildfires in Canada, Greece, Italy, and Hawaii. And global emissions of climate warming pollution will set a new high. Yet, there were also some promising and inspiring developments as well. From the implementation of the biggest US climate bill in history to new movement to slash methane emissions, we continue to make progress. Here we list the top 12 climate developments that give us hope for a clean and secure future — in no particular order......
1. Global investment in clean energy hits all-time high......Global investment in renewables and other clean energy technologies is on track to hit $1.8 trillion in 2023, $500 billion more than in 2022. RMI research shows that the growth in solar, wind, and battery capacity has brought the global electricity system to a milestone moment — where the transition away from fossil fuels has become hard to reverse, suggesting fossil fuel demand has peaked in the electricity sector and will be in freefall by the end of the decade.
2. The biggest climate bill in US history makes historic gains.....A year after passage, the impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act has already exceeded early estimates. In 2023, the IRA led to $372 billion in new private clean energy investments, more than 211,000 new clean energy jobs, and almost 50,000 new manufacturing jobs. Interestingly, the impact of the IRA to date has been weighted toward traditionally Republican-leaning regions.
3.Electric mobility skyrockets......Global electric vehicle (EV) sales reached an all-time high at almost 18 percent of global vehicle sales in 2023. And in the United States, EVs are on track to easily surpass 1 million annual sales for the first time ever. Demand for electric bikes (e-bikes) took off too, with global sales of approximately 40 million outpacing those of passenger EVs. In India, more than half of all new three-wheeled vehicles sold and registered in 2023 were battery-operated. Trucks are also going electric, with RMI finding that the majority of medium- and heavy-duty trucks are electrifiable today. Globally, EVs already displace 1.5 million barrels of oil consumption per day, with that expected to rise to 1.8 million barrels in 2023. Even Barbie and Ken charged into the EV fervor.
4. A loss and damage fund, finally!......On the first day of the annual UN climate conference, COP28, leaders made a historic decision, agreeing to launch and capitalize a loss and damage fund. Details on the loss and damage fund, which will provide financial assistance to climate-vulnerable countries, have been debated for over a decade. At COP28, the UAE and Germany pledged $100 million each, and the United States promised $17.5 million
5. A commercial airplane crosses the Atlantic without fossil fuels
In November, a Virgin Atlantic passenger jet flew from London to New York using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel, a historic first......read on https://rmi.org/the-top-12-climate-developments-of-2023/ ed....And the bad news in 2025- Trump wins and one of his first actions was to flush all future green actions down the toilet
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How Tribal Nations Are Charging Ahead with Electric School Buses WRI October 8, 2025 By Alyssa Curran, Carla Walker and Maranda Compton “The kids love it!" exclaimed Katie Tiger, the electric school bus project manager for school transportation fleet operator Cherokee Boys Club. What started as a single pilot, when the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' deployed its first electric school bus in 2022 has become a transportation transformation. Now, three years later, Cherokee Central Schools in Nort The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is among a growing list of tribal nations and Native communities leading the way in the U.S. on school bus electrification. This is particularly important, as data shows that Native children have higher rates of asthma, face longer routes to school and are more likely to ride the school bus than other non-Native students — all concerns associated with emissions from riding diesel buses. Without the tailpipe exhaust that emits harmful air pollutants, electric school buses offer a better path than diesel buses, with advantages for air quality, health, climate and long-term costs. Electric buses are also responsible for the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of any school bus type, even when accounting for emissions from the generation of electric power.
State of Play: Electric School Buses Serving Indian Country......As of July 2025, over 400, or about 3%, of the approximately 14,000 electric school buses nationwide serve tribal nations and Native communities across 70 school districts.h Carolina is on track to have a fully electrified fleet by the end of the year, which will give all its students a clean and quiet ride. Cherokee Nation was the first tribe to transition to electric school buses, with Sequoyah High School in Oklahoma deploying its first electric school bus in 2021 after receiving funding from several sources including a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2018. By the end of 2025, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will be the first tribal nation to fully transition its school bus fleet with all 21 of their school buses running electric.While motivations among tribal nations and Native communities to transition their school bus fleets to electric may vary, each brings benefits for their community. Here we spotlight how four school districts have made that transition.
Cherokee Central Schools........The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Boys Club electrified Cherokee Central Schools' fleet as part of their commitment to environmental conservation and to support a tribal resolution prioritizing renewable energy goals. They chose electric school buses over propane-burning alternatives for environmental benefits and because the new bus technology would bring workforce opportunities to their community. In addition to students noting the lack of diesel fumes and drivers praising the quiet rides, the transition has yielded substantial economic benefits, such as $300 to $500 in fuel savings per electric bus each month and reduced maintenance costs. It has also supported community resiliency as demonstrated this past summer when their electric school buses provided power back to their electric utility, Duke Energy, helping reduce grid strain during heat waves. It also fostered workforce development opportunities, with three Cherokee Boys Club technicians receiving specialized high-voltage training from the dealer and bus manufacturer. Cherokee Boys Club Service Manager Donnie Owle and Master Technician Cliff Cochran also provided high school interns with hands-on electric vehicle (EV) training experience — including converting golf carts to solar electric — preparing community members for participation in the green economy.
Despite these successes, there were some challenges. Because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean School Bus Program limits eligibility to certain types of applicants, nonprofit school transportation providers like the Cherokee Boys Club could not apply directly. Instead, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians had to set up complex arrangements to channel grant funds, which added administrative difficulty to the process. In addition, in the early stages of the transition, the Cherokee Boys Club was surprised by the high infrastructure costs for necessary upgrades for EV charger installation.......read on https://www.wri.org/insights/tribal-nations-electric-school-bus-transition
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E-Bikes could cut carbon, congestion, and costs — if cities take them seriously. Grist Matt Simon, Sophie Hurwitz 10 Nov 2025 Last year, San Francisco voters did something exceedingly rare in car-crazy America: They closed two miles of a coastal highway to vehicles, creating a sprawling park for pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists. Of course, furious residents in the neighborhood bordering the erstwhile highway voted last month to recall their representative at City Hall for championing the transformation and, to their minds, creating a traffic nightmare on side streets — even though commute times in the area have grown by just a few minutes since the closure.The battle in the City by the Bay is emblematic of the inflection point facing cities nationally. As more electric vehicles hit the road, the temptation is to invest heavily in the infrastructure — roads, highways, parking lots — that will preserve the status quo of prioritizing cars over people.
Meanwhile, the e-bike market is skyrocketing — and, according to some studies, outpacing electric cars — providing an even more environmentally friendly travel option. The question now is: Do officials double down on deadly car-centric urban design, or do they rethink cities to encourage people to ditch four wheels for two? Cities and states throughout the country are taking steps to make existing infrastructure more accommodating to those who prefer to pedal. They are lowering vehicle speed limits, building designated bike lanes, providing charging, and ensuring underserved neighborhoods don’t get left behind. All of this has been a big change in just the past few years, given that some locales didn’t regulate e-bikes at all until the late 2010s, said Leigh Ann Von Hagen, director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University. “All states have seen the writing on the wall,” she said. The promise of the e-bike is that it can help people of every age. Parents are carting children around on beefy models with built-in bins. Workers can use them to get to and from their jobs. Shoppers can slap saddle bags over the rear fender to haul groceries. And elderly folks, who may not be confident in their ability to operate a conventional pedaller, can use them in lieu of driving. “I have an uncle in Tennessee who started riding an e-bike when he retired because he just didn’t want to drive to the store anymore,” Von Hagen said.
In addition to that lowering of carbon emissions — how much exactly will depend on the city and the rate of e-bike adoption, but the drop may be somewhere around 12 percent — there’s also the harder-to-quantify health benefits of people exercising more. Plus, fewer cars spewing pollution improves air quality and public health. EVs, too, release their own form of pollution: Because they’re heavier than combustion cars, their tires produce more microplastics — though their brakes produce much less dust — that sully the air and wash out to sea. Drivers may experience range anxiety about their electric vehicle not having the juice to reach their destination, but the opposite is true for e-bikers. Older people or those with medical conditions might avoid conventional cycling because they worry about having the energy to make it somewhere, especially if there are hills in their way. With e-bike ranges far exceeding the average distance that riders are traveling (around 6 miles), range anxiety can be higher for those providing their own pedalling power. “When we do interviews with people, they will use the e-bike on eco, or even off, when they’re on flat terrain, and as soon as they get to that hill, they consistently report putting it up to the maximum,” said Jessica Bourne, an active travel researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. “As one participant described it: It’s just flattening their journey.
”You can see the potential for e-bikes to replace cars in how their riders compare to those on conventional bikes. Given that e-bike users have the option to let the motor do all the work, you might assume that they’re burning fewer calories. But research has shown that riders tend to travel significantly farther on e-bikes, meaning they’re getting about as much physical activity as those taking shorter trips on conventional bikes. Put another way: It’s less exertion, but more time spent exercising and running errands. “Once you account for increased frequency and increased duration and distance traveled, they spend longer on the bike overall, so they’re actually expending more energy on a weekly basis,” Bourne said. “That’s why they have more potential to substitute for motorized vehicles.” read on
https://grist.org/
And then there's METRO VANCOUVER...... Metro Vancouver has had regional bike routes in development for over a century, beginning with the Stanley Park Seawall in the late 1800s and continuing with the BC Parkway for Expo 86, a major milestone in the late 20th century. The Metro Vancouver Regional Greenway Vision in 1999 formalized a network, and TransLink began developing its Major Bikeway Network (MBN) concept in 2011, with significant expansions and continued updates under strategies like Transport 2050.
Early Development.....
Late 1800s/Early 1900s:
The region's history of greenway planning began with the construction of the Stanley Park Seawall, a very early and long-standing cycling path.
1986:
The BC Parkway, a significant multi-community bikeway, opened for Expo 86, marking a major step forward for regional connectivity.
Formalization of Networks......-
1990s:A broader regional interest in greenways led to a series of planning initiatives, culminating in the adoption of the Greater Vancouver Regional Greenway Vision in 1999.
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2011:TransLink launched its Regional Cycling Strategy, which included the initial concept for the Major Bikeway Network (MBN).
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2009:The MBN was established as a baseline, with 1,700 kilometers of bikeway in the region.
Significant Growth and Expansion.....
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2010s:The bike network experienced substantial growth, with the total length nearly tripling by 2019, reaching 4,595 kilometers.
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2018 & 2022:The MBN was expanded further, reflecting TransLink's updated strategies like Transport 2050.
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Present:The development of the MBN continues under Transport 2050, focusing on creating a complete network of traffic-protected bikeways connecting urban centers for comfortable, active transportation.
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Metro Vancouver has Canada’s best public transit system....TransLink doesn’t have the most stations (that would be Toronto’s subway) or the most riders (the Montreal Metro, in this case), but a decade after leaving my hometown of Vancouver for the University of Toronto and spending lots of time in Montreal, I am convinced it’s the case. Seattle, a city many Metro Vancouver residents visit from time to time, has been building out its own rail system over the last several decades, and while things started out in a very Portland-esque tram- or light rail-style direction, they are increasingly designing the new Link light rail transit (LRT) lines with designs that harken to its Canadian neighbour to the north, which manages to move several times more people on its rail system every day. In fact, there’s even a lot of discourse in Seattle about how emulating Vancouver more (Seattle’s Link system has drivers and only runs up to every eight to 10 minutes) would make it much better. I think the success of SkyTrain can be traced to a few things.No doubt the fact that it’s embedded in an urban area with a solid network of local buses and the best transit-oriented development in North America can help, but I think it really is the fundamentals that make the system popular. When you show up at a SkyTrain station, a train is going to be there to take you where you want to go shortly — even more shortly than the typical wait times in numerous larger North American cities. And once you are on it, the Expo, Millennium, and Canada lines are fast. It’s no wonder that on a continent that has frequently constructed street-level LRT systems that are only marginally faster than the buses they replace at great cost, one of the few systems that invested in technology that allowed trains to be unimpeded by cars or urban speed limits has seen massive ridership growth. So massive, in fact, that Vancouver’s plucky elevated train system now moves more people every day than the massive and famous 140+ station Chicago El system. A large part of it can be summarized by a comment I overheard while riding the system the last time I was home: “Oh, I always take SkyTrain; it’s way faster than driving.” And even the little details on SkyTrain are well done. The in-station retail is better than anywhere else in Canada. The system was the first to let you tap your credit or debit card to pay. The wayfinding system and the “T” logo are attractive and logical. Announcements are made with a real human voice. The stations are beautiful and feel like the natural answer to what happens when you cross BC and the train station.
Bold choices....How did Metro Vancouver get to a place where it has better-used transit than cities that started a century earlier and have several times its population? The answer: Bold choices. The initial construction of the Expo Line was bold: Automated rail systems have basically become the default for new networks and lines (Automated Metro lines exist in Sao Paulo, Santiago, London, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, and more), but when they get built there is still often consternation — is this technology really safe? While some in Vancouver have suggested SkyTrain is somehow “outdated,” the biggest transit projects under construction in Toronto (Ontario Line) and Montreal (REM) in 2024 both rely on fully driverless metro technology; to think Vancouver was open to it in the 1980s is kind of mind-blowing.
The Millennium Line, when first constructed and even to this day, is not all that heavily used (albeit still more than almost every LRT line on the continent), but when the Broadway extension to Arbutus opens, and as transit-oriented development in Burnaby and Coquitlam continues, it will likely come to rival the Expo Line in ridership.Meanwhile, the Canada Line almost didn’t happen, as politicians suggested it would never meet its ridership targets — targets it has consistently and substantially exceeded.
While the Canada Line’s overcrowding and small trains are well known, what’s less appreciated is that Vancouver still took the risk, built the line for a price lower than some LRT systems currently being constructed in Canada, and has seen a huge and sustained ridership uptick because of it. Suffice it to say that Metro Vancouver has repeatedly made bold transit investments with SkyTrain, and eventually, basically every single one has paid off. Ultimately, those who have advocated for SkyTrain should feel vindicated — cities building new subway lines in the past few decades have built a lot of automated metros, from Copenhagen to Sydney. And I think, in large part, Metro Vancouver’s huge success in transit traces back to the rail system at its core.....read on https://dailyhive.com/
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