Can't install your own solar panels? Some areas let you join a community project.

Moldova used government regulations and local installations of solar panels and biomass systems to respond to the Russia energy crisis, empowering local communities to create their own renewable energy cooperatives. These have helped increase the nation's renewable energy from 3% to 25% and reduce heating electricity costs in participating towns.

Local governments in France are educating residents about waste reduction and finding ways to incentivize the behavior change necessary to meet the country’s ambitious zero-waste goals. Roubaix, for example, teaches residents simple lifestyle changes that will also save them money. Whereas, Smicval transitioned from door-to-door waste collection to a central collection point where residents drop off trash themselves.

Several nonprofits are running a solar cooperative in El Paso, Texas, that helps homeowners come together to buy and install solar panels in bulk, which makes them more affordable.

A first-of-its-kind renewable energy system in Hengbung, India, creates hydropower with solar pumps to prevent the community from experiencing prolonged power outages during extreme weather. At the same time, the project is increasing India’s renewable energy capacity.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, currently joined by 11 U.S. states on the East Coast, is a cap-and-invest system for power generation. States put a limit on the carbon emissions power plants can produce, then each plant buys allowances for every ton of carbon dioxide they produce up to the cap. The proceeds go towards initiatives that reduce emissions and make energy more affordable.

Spurred by federal and state incentives, farmers in Massachusetts are adopting agrivoltaics, the practice of installing a solar array on the same land they use for crops and livestock.

An activist organization in Poland, Krakow Smog Alarm, teaches people about poor air quality in their city and helps them organize together to lobby their local governments for effective clean air measures.

After extreme flooding damaged homes, the energy efficiency utility Efficiency Vermont offered emergency flood rebates to those impacted. Recovery teams helped people plan and find funding to repair and replace energy systems and appliances with more efficient models that will help them reach their decarbonization goals. In this circumstance, exceptions were made to include rebates for high-efficiency fossil fuel systems, too.

Memphis Gas Light and Water’s weatherization program is helping city residents prepare their homes for increasingly intense storms in ways that also reduce their energy use from fossil-fuel-derived sources and their utility bills. Contractors may install a new air conditioner or repair walls, but the resident is never charged for the services because ratepayers round up their bills to cover the cost.

In the Indian state of Bihar, women-led self-help groups are challenging traditional gender norms and saving money to buy and install solar irrigation pumps. The pumps increase the local agricultural capacity by providing a cleaner, more affordable alternative to the diesel pumps typically used to combat water scarcity in the region.