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DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) – Sam JAHAN Bangladesh’s high court has ordered the shutdown of 231 factories that have contributed to Dhaka’s main river becoming one of the world’s most polluted, a lawyer said Tuesday. The country is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, but a recent industrial boom, including the emergence of the world’s second biggest garment industry, has prompted officials to turn a blind eye to the industrial waste they dump into rivers. In a landmark […]
by David MILLIKIN Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s bushfires and other climate change effects are devastating the habitats of critically endangered species and driving the native platypus towards extinction, according to surveys highlighting the country’s vulnerability to rising temperatures. The unprecedented blazes that have swept through an area the size of Portugal have claimed 29 lives but also tested Australia’s rich and often unique wildlife, with experts warning up to one billion creatures […]
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Sebastian SMITH and Alex PIGMAN President Donald Trump tore into environmental “prophets of doom” at the Davos forum Tuesday, rejecting fiery warnings from teenage campaigner Greta Thunberg and talking up his own record in a counterpoint to impeachment back home. Thunberg was in the audience in the Swiss Alps to hear the typically bullish speech by Trump, delivered just before the US Senate opened the crucial next stage in his trial […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) – German sportswear giant Adidas said Tuesday more than half of the polyester used in its products this year would come from recycled material, including millions of shoes made from plastic waste. In 2020, the share of recycled polyester in Adidas products will “exceed 50 percent for the first time”, the company said in a statement. By 2024, Adidas “is committed to using only recycled polyester” across its entire range of […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – Patrick GALEY Some of the world’s biggest banks, insurers and pension funds have collectively invested $1.4 trillion in fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal, Greenpeace said Tuesday at the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. With the climate emergency expected to be front and centre at the annual summit of the world’s business elite, the charity accused some institutions in attendance of failing to live up to […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – Marlowe HOOD The world is using up more than 100 billion tonnes of natural resources per year for the first time ever while global recycling of raw materials has fallen, according to a report released Tuesday. The share of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass feeding into the global economy that is reused declined in two years from an already paltry 9.1 percent to 8.6 today, the Circularity Gap Report 2020 […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China will ban non-degradable plastic bags in major cities and single-use straws from restaurants by the end of this year in a bid to cut down on waste. The country is one of the world’s biggest users of plastic, and the plan targets a 30 percent reduction in non-degradable, disposable tableware for takeout in major cities within five years. In a document released Sunday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Prolonged drought and other effects of climate change are pushing Australia’s unique platypus population towards extinction, scientists warned in a study published Monday. The river-dwelling animal has already disappeared from up to 40 percent of its historical range on Australia’s east coast due to the drought, land clearing, pollution and building of dams, which fragment their habitat, the researchers said. They predicted that if the current threats persist, platypus numbers will […]
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – The first night train to set off for Belgium in 16 years departed from Vienna Sunday, carrying Austrian and European politicians who hope the new route can set an example as the continent tries to meet its climate targets. The carriages of the “OBB Nightjet” pulled out of Vienna’s main station punctually at 8:38 pm to the strains of a live band playing the EU anthem “Ode to Joy”, the slogan #loveyourplanet […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – While certain oil and gas majors have sought to burnish their green credentials, overall less than one percent of the sector’s total investment is going into clean energy projects, a report said Monday. Experts are increasingly worried that that target set in the 2015 Paris accord to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2C is rapidly becoming unattainable, condemning the world to a cascade of costly droughts, superstorms, floods and […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – Hundreds of climate activists, young and old, embarked on a three-day march on Sunday to the make their voices heard at the 50th World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos. The group, brandishing banners warning “Climate crisis: a world economic failure” and “there is no Planet B,” urged political and business leaders to take responsibility for averting environmental catastrophe as they set off from the small town of Landquart some […]
Doha, Qatar (AFP) – Gas-rich Qatar signed a $470-million deal on Sunday to build its first solar energy plant, capable of meeting up to one-tenth of peak national power demand. The Al-Kharsaah plant, near the capital, is a 10-square-kilometre (4-sq-mile) joint venture with French and Japanese partners due for completion in 2022 ahead of the football World Cup. “Eight times the solar power pledged in the World Cup bid will be produced,” Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi […]
