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UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Turkey was ready to finally ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change. Erdogan’s announcement at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly followed a year of violent weather events in Turkey — including wildfires and flash floods — that have claimed some 100 lives. Turkey in April 2016 signed the landmark agreement on limiting the dangerous emissions that contribute to […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Britain has signed a deal enabling it to restart production of captured carbon dioxide for three weeks, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said Tuesday, after a shortage of the gas had sparked renewed food supply concerns. Two UK fertiliser plants accounting for up to 60 percent of Britain’s CO2 supply — which is vital for the food industry — shut last week due to spiking natural gas costs. But Kwarteng announced […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – South Africa’s energy regulator on Tuesday approved generating licenses for three controversial floating power plants, stoking environmental concerns as Africa’s most industrialised nation grapples with electricity shortages. Turkey-based Karpowership, one of the world’s largest floating power plant operators, in March won a government tender to supplement South Africa’s fragile electricity supply with gas-to-power projects at three ports. But the environment ministry subsequently blocked Karpowership’s permit application over concerns about the environmental […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Wildfires in Siberia, North America and around the Mediterranean caused record levels of planet-warming CO2 emissions this summer, the EU’s Earth monitoring service said Tuesday. Globally, forests going up in flames emitted more than 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to India’s annual emissions from all sources — in July and August alone, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported. More than half of CO2 […]
by Shaun Tandon with Issam Ahmed in Washington Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – China will stop funding coal projects overseas, President Xi Jinping announced Tuesday, all but ending the flow of public aid for the dirty energy contributing to the climate crisis. Xi made his announcement at the UN General Assembly where US President Joe Biden, seeking to show leadership in a growing competition with China, promised to double Washington’s contribution to […]
LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) – Hundreds of firefighters were battling to protect several groves of giant sequoias in the United States on Monday, warning the enormous ancient trees were at risk from out-of-control blazes. A number of separate fires were converging on the California woodland that is home to the huge trees, highlighting the terrifying power of wildfires to consume everything in their path. Incident commanders said the Windy Fire, which has already charred 25,000 […]
by Véronique DUPONT Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Britain’s government does not expect a gas supply emergency during the winter as soaring prices threaten energy groups, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted on Monday. “We have sufficient capacity, and more than sufficient capacity, to meet demand and we do not expect supply emergencies to occur this winter,” Kwarteng told parliament after holding an emergency meeting with gas and electricity suppliers and consumer groups. Kwarteng […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Forcing wealthy nations to honour their UN climate fund pledges this week will “be a stretch”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted ahead of a Monday meeting with global leaders aiming to do just that. At the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference, rich nations promised to provide annual funding of $100 billion from 2020, for poorer nations to counteract the effects of climate change. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said […]
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AFP) – A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said on Sunday. “After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” said the foundation’s David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian. “This is a very rare occurence. We do not expect it to happen often, its a fluke. “There were also dead bees on […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) – Iraq has launched a new project that aims to recover gas normally set alight during oil extraction at two oilfields in the country’s south. Flaring, or burning off excess gas during oil extraction, is a highly polluting practice but far less costly than processing it for sale. According to the World Bank, Iraq is the second-biggest user of flaring worldwide after Russia. The new project, signed in 2017 with oil services company […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A message in a bottle released 37 years ago by Japanese high school students has been found — around 6,000 kilometres (3,700 miles) away in Hawaii. Members of a natural science club at Choshi High School in Chiba, east of Tokyo, released 750 bottles into the sea between 1984 and 1985 to investigate ocean currents. The bottles — which contained messages in English, Japanese and Portuguese asking the finder to contact […]
by RIJASOLO Agence France-Presse Nothing to eat, nothing to plant. The last rain in Ifotaka fell in May, for two hours. Across Madagascar’s vast southern tip, drought has transformed fields into dust bowls. More than one million people face famine. Across tens of thousands of acres, the countryside is desolate. Harvest season begins in October, leaving long, lean weeks before the meagre crops come in. Some villages are abandoned. In others, people should be working […]
