my second victory (2050) was way quicker and easier than my first, and i focused a bunch of cheap short term stuff at the start as well as the longer-term stuff

early biodiversity stuff seems good - you get points and also it helps prevent a lot of extinction type events that further tank your contentedness (and soon gives you lots of positive contentedness events too). increasing biodiversity damage to reduce emissions early is bad, and switching to biofuels is a big mistake, i discovered

dont be too afraid of ramping up electricity use, as you switch to more electricity and less fuel you can be making your electricity more renewable at the same time (the offshore wind is particularly good, and the batteries are important too)

and a slightly slower path to world veganism via meatless mondays and vegetarianism worked better than saving up all my points to make everyone vegan on turn 2, as much as i wanted to

putting more than 1 point into a research/infrastructure project doesnt seem worth it until a bit later when you have more points to work with - better to spread it over lots of projects, ive found