It can sometimes be hard to avoid succumbing to climate doomism: We’re already experiencing climate-fueled disasters, CO2 levels in the atmosphere are at a record high, and we’re not moving fast enough to meet global climate goals. But pessimism breeds inaction, and it’s important not to lose sight of the real progress that’s happening now. Here are five ways that climate action moved forward in 2022.

RENEWABLE ENERGY COULD OVERTAKE COAL POWER GLOBALLY BY 2025

The energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine led countries like Germany to speed up their plans to add new wind and solar power. The International Energy Agency projects that in the next five years, the world could add as much new renewable energy as it did in the past two decades, nearly doubling total global capacity. That’s 30% more than the agency projected last year. Renewables are now on track to overtake coal as the largest source of electricity in the world by early 2025.

There are still major challenges—including the fact that the war also accelerated new fossil fuel projects. And other parts of the energy transition are moving more slowly. “At the rate that the U.K. is installing heat pumps in old homes, the retrofit would take 600 years,” says Lila Preston, who leads growth equity at Generation Investment Management, the sustainability-focused firm founded by Al Gore, which puts out an annual report on global sustainability trends. “We don’t have 600 years to decarbonize our building stock.”

THE U.S. PASSED ITS MOST AMBITIOUS CLIMATE LAW EVER

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August, kicked off $370 billion in new spending on tax credits and incentives to support energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric vehicles, protecting forests, and other climate action. It’s already helping climate tech companies grow faster than they otherwise would have, like ONE, a new EV battery company launched by a former Apple engineer that’s building a $1.6 billion factory in Michigan and set to begin tests of its tech with major car companies.

The law could help cut U.S. emissions roughly 40% by the end of the decade. If that’s added to state policies and federal pollution standards, it’s possible to reach the government’s goal to cut emissions in half by 2030, according to the nonprofit Energy Innovation, which dubbed the law “the most significant climate legislation in United States history.”

ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE BECOMING MAINSTREAM

Electric car sales reached a record high last year, and are still growing. Nearly 10% of new car purchases globally are now electric or hybrid. In Norway, where strong policy has supported EVs, that number has jumped to more than 90%. In the U.S., Ford’s F-150 Lightning rolled out this spring, helping convince a new group of drivers to make the switch. One analysis suggests that the U.S. has reached a key tipping point in EV sales, when adoption starts to rapidly become more common, in the same way that smartphones quickly shifted from relative rarity to ubiquity.

A new network of EV chargers is being built with $5 billion in funding from the 2021 infrastructure bill. Larger electric vehicles are also beginning to show up in greater numbers on roads, from Amazon’s electric delivery vans to electric school buses. Still, progress could be held back by shortages of materials like lithium, and manufacturers also need to consider other potential environmental impacts of mining those materials.

MORE CITIES ARE AIMING FOR WALKABLE “15-MINUTE” PLANNING

If you visit Paris, streets that were filled with cars a decade ago are now filled with bikes. Mayor Anne Hidalgo was early to embrace the goal of becoming a “15-minute city,” where everyone lives within an easy 15-minute walk or bike ride from everyday destinations like work and grocery stores. By making it feasible to avoid driving, the work can cut both carbon emissions and local air pollution. C40, a global network of cities, is now working with several mayors to pilot new 15-minute projects around the world. Even more car-centric cities, like Cleveland, Ohio, are starting to make the same push.

THE HARDEST-TO-DECARBONIZE SECTORS ARE LOOKING EASIER TO ADDRESS

Some major sources of emissions, like industrial factories, haven’t had simple technological solutions to cut climate pollution. But a wave of new startups are beginning to prove what’s feasible now, from new ways to make concrete without emissions to making jet fuel from CO2. A factory in Sweden is starting to produce small batches of fossil-free steel; the first consumer product made with the material, a watch, rolled out this month. Other startups are making carbon-negative chemicals, CO2-based plastic, and microbes that can help replace fertilizer on farms.

Despite progress, there’s an urgent need to move faster, says Generation’s Preston, and what happens in the next five years will be critical to whether or not the world can meet long-term climate goals. “At this point, because we have a lot of commitments, if those commitments translate to action within the next five years…I think we have a chance,” she says.