The race to decarbonize the world is on, and 2021 is set to break fresh records for investment and installations in renewable energy and clean technologies.

The world spent a record $501.3 billion in 2020 on renewable power, electric vehicles and other technologies to cut the global energy system’s dependence on fossil fuels. But the growth wasn’t spread evenly across the globe.

Israeli company StoreDot Ltd. has manufactured the first battery for electric vehicles that can be charged in just five minutes, a step toward making refueling as fast as cars at a gas station.

Oil and natural gas producer the United Arab Emirates aims to become one of the world’s lowest-cost producers of hydrogen, helping in the Middle Eastern state’s effort to slash polluting carbon emissions by nearly a quarter.

Here’s more evidence the clean-tech boom is only getting bigger. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the clean-tech venture capital fund led by Bill Gates, has raised $1 billion for a second round of investments after backing 45 startups with its first billion.

President-elect Joe Biden plans an early blitz of executive action to reverse some of President Donald Trump’s most contentious policies and address the coronavirus pandemic, according to an outline of Biden’s first 10 days in office. That may also include fulfilling a pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action, according to one report.

While the impact of the pandemic is dominant at the moment, other events will likely come to the fore, according to the survey. As in previous years, extreme weather is seen as the most-likely risk, just ahead of a failure on climate action. Infectious diseases make the top five for the first time in at least a decade.

As incoming Biden administration officials launch an ambitious environmental agenda across the executive branch, one Trump administration lawyer is anxious to see at least part of his legacy preserved.

Members of the nation’s largest firefighters’ union want their organization to stop accepting funds from gear makers until they commit to ridding the garments of so-called “forever chemicals.”

China welcomed the U.S. back to the Paris accord and promised to make greater contributions to the global climate response.