US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called Thursday for clear standardized systems of measuring green investments, as countries strive to meet their climate goals. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) fund assets have grown from $10 billion in 2015 to $246 billion in March 2021, she said. Yellen urged global partners to “unlock progress towards greater ESG […]
environment
EU court raps Germany for dirty air in cities
The EU’s top court ruled on Thursday that Germany continually violated upper limits for nitrogen dioxide, a polluting gas from diesel motors that causes major health problems, over several years. Germany infringed air quality rules “by systematically and persistently exceeding” the annual nitrogen dioxide limit in 26 out of 89 areas from 2010 to 2016, […]
PM to announce four major ERIs on World Environment Day: Amin
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Wednesday announced that Prime Minister Imran Khan would announce four key “Ecosystem Restoration Initiatives” (ERI) on World Environment Day. The prime minister’s aide made the proclamation during a joint media interaction flanked by Special Representative of the Prime Minister on Religious […]
‘Limnic eruption’: DR Congo’s volcano nightmare
Orders on Thursday to evacuate Goma, a city lying in the shadow of DR Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano, have shed light on a rare but potentially catastrophic risk — a “limnic eruption,” when volcanic activity combined with a deep lake can spew out lethal, suffocating gas. The phenomenon first came to the world’s attention in […]
La Nina climate cycle over: UN
The 2020-2021 La Nina weather phenomenon has ended, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday. La Nina refers to the large-scale cooling of surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, occurring every two to seven years. The effect has widespread impacts on weather around the world — typically the opposite impacts to […]
Climate talks resume online as pressure to act grows
For the first time since 2019 and following a flurry of net-zero pledges from the world’s largest emitters, UN climate negotiations resumed Monday in a virtual format less than six months before the crunch COP26 summit. The talks, nominally hosted by the United Nations climate change programme in the German city of Bonn, will all […]
Bangladesh arrests notorious tiger poacher
Bangladesh police have arrested a notorious poacher wanted for 20 years and believed to have killed around 70 endangered Bengal tigers. Local police chief Saidur Rahman said that Habib Talukder — nicknamed “Tiger Habib” — lived next to the forest and would flee whenever officers raided the area. “Acting on a tip-off, we finally succeeded […]
Sri Lanka questions burning cargo ship crew as ecological devastation assessed
Sri Lanka’s criminal investigators began questioning the crew of a burning cargo ship Monday, as the Singapore-registered carrier smouldered for a 12th straight day in one of the island’s worst-ever marine ecological disasters. A fire broke out aboard the MV X-Press Pearl, which was carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid and a huge amount of […]
Doctors urge global action against climate-linked health risks
Hundreds of health workers marched to the World Health Organization on Saturday demanding that authorities in all countries recognise and act to counter the health risks of climate change. Around two hundred people wearing white medical coats and facemasks marched or were pushed in wheelchairs two kilometres (1.2 miles) through Geneva’s international district to the […]
Sri Lanka facing marine disaster from burning ship: official
Sri Lanka is facing its worst beach pollution crisis as tones of plastic waste from a burning container ship wash ashore, a senior environment official said Saturday. Fishermen have been banned from an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of coast near the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl as an international firefighting operation went into a 10th day. “There […]