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OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Norway gave approval Tuesday to a giant project to capture and store CO2 below the North Sea, a technology that could help efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The Northern Lights project aims to inject CO2 captured from Norwegian industrial firms into geological formations 2,600 metres (8,530 feet) below the seabed where it should be trapped permanently. Initially the project aims to capture and store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year […]
by Alfath Asmunda Agence France-Presse INDONESIA (AFP) — Sumini gets up at dawn to do her household chores — then leads a team of women into the jungles of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, on a mission to battle rampant deforestation and wildlife poaching. The 45-year-old mother of five heads a unique team of female rangers taking on illegal loggers and hunters threatening Sumatran tigers, pangolins and other at-risk wildlife. The culprits are mostly men, including neighbours […]
by Leon LORD Agence France-Presse CORAL COAST, Fiji (AFP) — Fiji dive operator Ashwin Pal was living his dream until the global pandemic hit, guiding tourists around an underwater wonderland of dazzling Pacific coral reefs. Now the 35-year-old hunts the neon-hued fish he once proudly showed off to international visitors, forced to kill the creatures he loves to feed his wife and four children. And the coronavirus-induced shutdown of Fiji’s tourism industry is not the […]
AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundations Tuesday for what he said would be the world’s largest renewable energy park, set to produce a massive 30 gigawatts of electricity. The vast project in the Kutch region of western Gujarat state spread over an area of 72,600 hectares (180,000 acres) — the size of Singapore — will contain solar panels, solar energy storage units and windmills. “The hybrid renewable energy park […]
BYRON BAY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s Byron Bay usually conjures images of bathers lounging on sunkissed shores, or blissed-out longboarders cruising along cyan-blue waves — but coastal erosion and lashing storms have reduced its seashore to a debris-strewn slither. The tourist hotspot’s main beach has been reduced to a thin strip by a sand-shifting phenomenon known as “headland bypassing”. Recent wild storms have then eroded it further. For more than six months, residents have watched […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Dependence on fossil fuels has an impact on the assessment of human progress, according to a report published Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme that takes carbon footprints into account for the first time. The report presents world leaders with a choice: take “bold steps to reduce the immense pressure that is being exerted on the environment and the natural world,” or risk stalling humanity’s progress, said a […]
NEW YORK, New York (AFP) — ExxonMobil announced Monday it will reduce its emissions over the next five years bowing to growing public pressure from activists, including the Church of England, to make changes. The US oil giant said in a statement that by 2025 it will cut emissions from upstream activities, which includes oil drilling and extraction, by between 15 and 20 percent compared to the 2016 levels. It also will cut its flaring […]
by Alberto PEÑA PUCON, Chile (AFP) — Thousands of people turned their heads to the sky to watch a solar eclipse that lasted around two minutes on Monday as southern Chile and Argentina were plunged into darkness. Heavy rain had threatened to prevent star gazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse but at the last moment the clouds parted just enough for the phenomenon to be partially visible. “It was beautiful, unique. The truth is […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — One in four health centres worldwide lacks access to water, putting around 1.8 billion people at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus, the World Health Organization said Monday. The lack of this basic amenity endangers patients and staff alike at such centres, the WHO said in a joint report with the UN children’s agency UNICEF. The study was based on data from 165 countries. “Working in a healthcare facility without water, […]
BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Australian firefighters have managed to control a bushfire that burned more than half of the UNESCO world heritage-listed Fraser Island, around two months after a suspected illegal campfire sparked the blaze. The fire on the world’s largest sand island, off Australia’s east coast, destroyed large swathes of the isle’s forests before heavy downpours arrived over the weekend. “With the help of welcome rainfall and a massive response from crews, the fire […]
by Jitendra JOSHI and Patrick GALEY in Paris Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The United Nations on Saturday urged leaders to declare a global climate emergency and shape greener growth after the coronavirus pandemic, as nations took gloomy stock five years since the landmark Paris Agreement. Fast-growing China, the world’s biggest emitter, outlined limited new ambitions in green energy at a virtual “Climate Ambition Summit” addressed by more than 70 leaders. In the […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Carbon emissions fell a record seven percent in 2020 as countries imposed lockdowns and restrictions on movement during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Global Carbon Project said Friday in its annual assessment. The fall of an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes is considerably larger than previous annual record declines, such as 0.9 billion tonnes at the end of World War II or 0.5 billion tonnes in 2009 at the height […]
