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Press Release
Geneva, 06 December 2018 – Released today, a groundbreaking report from the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Resources Institute offers new insight on the global movement to curb single-use plastics. Through a first of its kind accounting, the report provides an overview of policy instruments and progress from countries regulating the manufacture, sale, use and disposal of single-use plastics.

Categorized Under: Global

Press Release
5 December 2018 - Belgrade, Serbia: Countries from South East and Southern Europe will pursue new measures that reduce pollution and benefit people’s health, the environment and economy.

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
At the precise moment when ISIS fighters were prepping for their retreat from the Iraqi city of Ramadi in February 2016, Hassan Mohammed lay in bed struggling to breathe.

Categorized Under: West Asia

Story
World Soil Day on 5 December reminds us why healthy soil is vital, how pollution affects it and what can be done. Did you know that a handful of soil can contain millions of bacteria and fungi as well as tiny insects and strange, microscopic animals like tardigrades? Healthy soil depends on a vibrant range of life forms living below the ground, but across the globe it’s being severely damaged by pollution.
Story
After four weeks in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the first results are in for Dutch inventor Boyan Slat’s hugely ambitious attempt to clean up the enormous marine dump with a giant U-shaped floater nicknamed Wilson. It’s a mixed picture.
Story
It was a cold, dark night. Navigating a bustling evening in Paris, Sarah Canner wound her bike through the busy roads on her way to a writers’ meeting. A recent commuter by bike, the film screenwriter had mustered the courage to take to the streets on two wheels.
Story
When Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, it was hailed as “the material of a thousand uses”. The production of synthetic plastics took off over the coming decades but now that the environmental cost of these miracle materials is becoming ever clearer, the hunt is on for more sustainable alternatives.  

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
When Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, it was hailed as “the material of a thousand uses”. The production of synthetic plastics took off over the coming decades but now that the environmental cost of these miracle materials is becoming ever clearer, the hunt is on for more sustainable alternatives.  

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
“Mama, why do I have to wear this again? It hurts my mouth,” says Norik, 5, to his mother, Igballe, before she puts a small, child-size air pollution mask over his face. Igballe Ferati, a finance specialist, makes the usual walk to a local kindergarten every weekday with Norik along the streets of central Skopje, a city which often experiences dangerous levels of air pollution.

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
Coral reefs provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world, support more than a quarter of all marine life, and protect communities and coastlines from natural disasters—and if urgent action is not taken, we risk losing them forever. 

Categorized Under: Asia and the Pacific

Story
Doñana National Park in southwestern Spain contains one of the largest wetlands in Western Europe. Lying within the estuary of the Guadalquivir River, the park covers over 110,000 hectares and includes dunes, marshes, temporary ponds, Mediterranean scrub and pine forests.

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
When Chakravorty, a 31-year-old journalist at the Indian Express, discovered that plastic pollution is so pervasive that it affects our food supply, he was shocked. “I was staggered to say the least,” he explains. “I felt that writing about the issue was not enough, so I decided to embark on a plogging journey—a combination of jogging with picking up litter.”

Categorized Under: Asia and the Pacific

Story
“I spent the first 10 years of my life travelling in dogsled, fishing for food,” says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, in Northern Quebec, Canada.
Story
In the crowded classroom, a music class is underway. The sounds of flutes and shakers, gradually becoming more synchronized with practice, fill the air. Teachers at the front laugh in approval as children dance and stomp their feet with such energy that the school’s tin roof begins to rattle.

Categorized Under: Africa

Story Transport
The city of Hangzhou in eastern China was once described by the Italian explorer Marco Polo as the, “finest and most splendid city in the world”. Today it is once again on the map thanks to a range of initiatives to cut air pollution and increase the livability of the city.

Categorized Under: Transport Asia and the Pacific

Story
A new report draws on the climate change mitigation experiences of a number of countries to highlight “win-win” options for Ethiopia and Kenya. The Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – have valuable experience in developing solutions that can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and save money in the longer term.
Story
Pakistani customs officers trained by UN Environment are responsible for a massive seizure of R-22 (also known as HCFC-22) refrigerant, a powerful ozone-depleting substance and greenhouse gas.
Story
The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, operational since early 2018, is starting to return high resolution maps of air polluting gases that are invisible to the human eye. Amongst the first images released by mission scientists were plumes of nitrogen dioxide flowing from power plants as well as traffic-choked cities in Europe.
African ministers of health and environment discuss how to turn health and environmental policies into action. In the African region, 23% of deaths are linked to the environment. New environmental threats have emerged in recent decades, including climate change and rapid and unplanned urbanization. Libreville, 5 November 2018 – Aiming to identify emerging environmental threats t
Story
The hum of moving garbage trucks and the squawks of scavenging birds at a sprawling landfill on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa, may seem to some like an unlikely location for a massively successful renewable energy project.

Categorized Under: Africa

Press Release
Geneva, 31 October 2018 – Athletics legend Paula Radcliffe has joined UN Environment’s work to beat air pollution - the single biggest environmental health risk of our time.

Categorized Under: Europe

Story
Could fungi help us deal with our plastic addiction? Scientists at London’s Kew Botanical Gardens think so. The first ever State of the World’s Fungi, produced by Kew Gardens and a team of around 100 scientists from 18 countries, reports that fungi successfully degrades polyurethane in a matter of weeks.

Categorized Under: Global

Press Release
Geneva, October 30, 2018: Millions of lives could be saved and one billion people living in Asia could be breathing clean air by 2030 if 25 simple and cost-effective measures are implemented, according to a new UN report. Currently, about 4 billion people – 92 per cent of Asia and the Pacific’s population – are exposed to levels of air pollution that pose a significant risk to their health.

Categorized Under: Asia and the Pacific

Story
Australia becomes the latest country to join the movement to turn the tide on plastic, as Melissa Price, the country’s minister of the Environment, announces that the country is joining the Clean Seas campaign.

Categorized Under: Global

Story
With an estimated 56 per cent of Africa’s urban population living in slums, wastewater management on the continent is a problem that needs urgent attention.

Categorized Under: Africa

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