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The seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) concluded in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday with Member States adopting 11 resolutions, three decisions and a ministerial declaration aiming to advance solutions for a more resilient planet.
Contentious supply chain directive will be weakened but not scrapped under late-night deal in Brussels
Life insurance companies continue to invest in oil and gas, even though they fuel illness, morbidity and higher costs
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Environmental groups sued to overturn a decision by South Africa’s environment department allowing state-owned Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to breach air-pollution limits.
Nigeria has granted permits to 28 firms to buy gas currently being burned off by the oil industry, as the West African nation seeks to cut emissions and earn revenue from a resource otherwise going to waste.
Sumitomo Corp. will invest 200 billion yen ($1.3 billion) on several Indian renewable power projects, to take advantage of rapid growth in demand from major industrial users.
In sprawling landfills, thousands of Argentinian families scavenge for survival amid toxic waste and government neglect, dreaming of steady jobs and escape The sun rises over the plateau of Neuquén’s open-air rubbish tip. Maia, nine, and her brothers, aged 11 and seven, huddle by a campfire. Their mother, Gisel, rummages through bags that smell of rotten fruit and meat.Situated at the northern end of Argentinian Patagonia, 100km (60 miles) from Vaca Muerta – one of the world’s largest fossil gas reserves – children here roam amid twisted metal, glass and rubbish spread over five hectares (12 acres). The horizon is waste. Continue reading...
Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agricultureOn the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season.“These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations],” says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan’s breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture. Continue reading...
Conservationists fear up to 11% of Tapanuli orangutan population perished in disaster that also killed 1,000 peopleThe skull of a Tapanuli orangutan, caked in debris, stares out from a tomb of mud in North Sumatra, killed in catastrophic flooding that swept through Indonesia.The late November floods have been an “extinction-level disturbance” for the world’s rarest great ape, scientists have said, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects. Continue reading...
While it’s impossible to escape the emissions associated with flying, some travel methods are more carbon-intensive than othersChange by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.comAs the Australian summer gets under way, many of us are planning holidays.When it comes to limiting emissions associated with travel, a staycation or local holiday – by train, bus or car – remains the lowest-impact option. But overseas travel by Australians has been increasing in recent decades, with Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States and China among the top destinations, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Continue reading...
In this week’s newsletter: The government’s bid to speed up nuclear construction could usher in sweeping deregulation, with experts warning of profound consequences for nature• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken.But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentially the biggest deregulation for decades, posing peril for endangered species, if wildlife experts are to be believed, and a likely huge row with the EU.2025 ‘virtually certain’ to be second- or third-hottest year on record, EU data showsJust 0.001% hold three times the wealth of the poorest half of humanity, report finds‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake Continue reading...
There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have madeToday marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate treaty, one of the landmark days in climate-action history. Attending the conference as a journalist, I watched and listened and wondered whether 194 countries could ever agree on anything at all, and the night before they did, people who I thought were more sophisticated than me assured me they couldn’t. Then they did. There are a lot of ways to tell the story of what it means and where we are now, but any version of it needs respect for the complexities, because there are a lot of latitudes between the poles of total victory and total defeat.I had been dreading the treaty anniversary as an occasion to note that we have not done nearly enough, but in July I thought we might be able celebrate it. Because, on 23 July, the international court of justice handed down an epochal ruling that gives that treaty enforceable consequences it never had before. It declares that all nations have a legal obligation to act in response to the climate crisis, and, as Greenpeace International put it, “obligates states to regulate businesses on the harm caused by their emissions regardless of where the harm takes place. Significantly, the court found that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is fundamental for all other human rights, and that intergenerational equity should guide the interpretation of all climate obligations.” The Paris treaty was cited repeatedly as groundwork for this decision. Continue reading...
Rising temperatures and extreme rainfall might not seem connected, but they often are. Here's how.
The young plaintiffs, who won a major case over climate change policy in 2023, argue that legislators are illegally ignoring the effects of fossil fuels.
A federal lawsuit argues that proposed work by ConocoPhillips could threaten delicate ecosystems in the largest tract of public land in the U.S.
