20 Good Things That Happened in 2020

By Alys Marshall

We don’t associate 2020 with good news. It’s been a year of doom scrolling, mask wearing and quarantining for many, but behind the miserable clickbait there are plenty of positive stories flying under the radar, from sudden onset lust for Andy Burnham to a fourth season of Big Mouth. Despite the British government’s inevitable bungling of Christmas, we’re determined to give you some ammo for a positive start to the new year, pandemic or not, so here are 20 good things that happened in 2020.

Scotland became the first nation in history to provide free period products for all.

Chelsea F.C. Women won the 2020 Women’s League Cup and donated all £100,000 of their winnings to Refuge – the largest domestic abuse charity in the UK.

The first legally registered same-sex marriage took place in Northern Ireland.

An organisation in central France has developed a revolutionary means of infinitely recycling PET plastics – which make up more than 50% of single-use plastics across the globe.

Argentina took a historic step towards the legalisation of abortion, after the bill passed through the lower house.

In England, Marcus Rashford successfully campaigned for the free school meals scheme to be extended throughout the summer holidays, and embarrassed Boris Johnson in the process.

In record-breaking time, multiple vaccines for the Covid-19 virus have been developed and approved for mass distribution by the FDA.

South Korea set a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, and China – thought to be responsible for up to 25% of global emissions – set a target for net zero emissions by 2060.

Meanwhile, the UK government brought forward the ban on the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles to 2030, and new hybrids to 2035.

Montenegro, Costa Rica and Switzerland all voted to legalise same-sex marriage, and Thailand legalised same-sex unions.

All eyes may have been on Miss Rona, but the WHO officially declared that wild polio had been eradicated in Africa on the 25th August.

In Asia, the vulnerable pangolin (also known as the scaly anteater) was removed from the pharmacopoeia of traditional Chinese medicines, to help prevent their endangerment.

Brazil’s national women’s football team will now be paid the same as the men’s team, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation.

Beavers are back! Originally becoming extinct in the 1600s, beavers have since been reintroduced across multiple sites in Britain, and this year built their first dam in Exmoor in over 400 years.

For the first time on record, more coal plants closed than opened over the course of 2020, with solar and wind power more affordable than ever.

Yukon in Canada, Virginia in the US, Mexico City and Albania in Europe all banned the practice of conversion therapy.

The 2020 Nobel chemistry prize was awarded to two women – Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna – for developing a genome editing method, which has the potential to treat or prevent human diseases.

The NHS blood service has announced that gay and bisexual men will be able to donate blood more easily, after a policy change that’s due to take place in 2021.

Thanks to forestry and rewilding projects, woodland in the UK now covers as much ground as it did during the Middle Ages, according to new data from satellites.

TRUMP WAS NOT RE-ELECTED. We keep reliving November 7th with relish. Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 US presidential election, winning the popular vote by 7 million and more than 4 percentage points. Kamala Harris was elected VP alongside him - the first black woman to be vice president in history.

We hope you enjoyed these cheerful snippets – and if you’re in need of a more regular dose, head over to The Happy News – a dreamy alternative perfect for those suffering with Matt Hancock exposure.

Cover art by the brilliant Natalie Byrne.