The European Commission will unveil on Wednesday a vast package of draft green legislation designed to govern a faster transition to a low carbon economy. A dozen legal texts — already under attack from political interests, industry lobbies and environmentalists — will seek to ensure emissions are cut by 55 percent over 1990 levels by […]
climate
Heat risks add to challenges for Tokyo’s pandemic-hit Olympics
Searing heat, dripping humidity, and face masks: it’s going to be a sweaty Tokyo Olympics and while coronavirus measures are top priority, heatstroke remains a serious risk, experts warn. Long before the pandemic forced Tokyo 2020’s postponement, the Japanese capital’s brutal summer heat was the main health concern for organisers. While the Games have been […]
Millions sweltering in US west as Canada takes emergency steps
Millions of people across the western United States and Canada were hit Sunday by a new round of scorching hot temperatures, with some roads closed, train traffic limited and new evacuations ordered. In Canada, with wildfires continuing to spread — including 50 more blazes erupting in the past two days — the government announced new […]
30 million people under heat alerts as western US swelters
Hot weather alerts are in place for more than 30 million people across the western United States after the region’s second heat wave in weeks brought another round of record-equalling high temperatures. Sweltering conditions have hit much of the Pacific seaboard and as far inland as the western edge of the Rocky Mountains over the […]
India’s poor can’t afford to beat the heat
Beating the merciless heat is hard in the Indian desert city of Sri Ganganagar, a reality facing millions across the vast country as the climate changes in the coming decades. While people in richer nations can find some respite from a warming planet with air conditioners and other modern luxuries, many here — and elsewhere […]
Better weather warnings could save 23,000 lives: UN
An estimated 23,000 lives a year could be saved through improving weather forecasts, early warning systems and climate information, the United Nations said Thursday. Investment in multi-hazard early warning programmes could create potential annual benefits worth at least $162 billion — 10 times the cost, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report. […]
EU slaps VW, BMW with 875-mn-euro antitrust fine
The EU’s antitrust authority on Thursday fined German auto giants Volkswagen and BMW 875 million euros for colluding on the development of anti-pollution technology for diesel cars. Launched after anti-cartel raids in 2017, the case marked yet another blow against the German auto-making sector, which was rocked by the devastating “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal that […]
Military put on standby to evacuate fire-threatened towns in western Canada
Ottawa prepared Friday to send military aircraft and other help to evacuate towns and fight more than 100 wildfires in western Canada fueled by a record-smashing heat wave. According to wildfire officials, at least 152 fires were active in British Columbia, 89 of them sparked in the last two days. Most were caused by lightning […]
Shell, France’s EDF to build US offshore windfarm
French energy giant EDF said Thursday a joint venture with Anglo-Dutch firm Shell will build “one of the most powerful” windfarms in the United States off the coast of New Jersey. The 1.5 gigawatt facility will supply power to 700,000 homes every year, EDF said in a statement. Construction will begin in 2024. The windfarm […]
New generation protests Pacific’s nuclear legacy 75 years on
Seventy-five years after the US military began using the Marshall Islands as a nuke testing ground, a new generation fired-up by climate activism is demanding justice. When the Able atomic bomb was detonated at Bikini Atoll on July 1, 1946, Alson Kelen’s family were among those forced from their palm-fringed ancestral homes. For decades, complaints […]