Healthcare waste from COVID threatens environment: WHO 3/2/2022

According to the agency’s Global analysis of healthcare waste in the context of COVID-19: status, impacts and recommendations, the mainly plastic trashthreatens human and environmental health, and exposes a dire need to improve waste management practices. ...more

UN partnership aims to combat microplastics in cigarettes 3/2/2022

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) will launch a social media campaign to highlight the issue. ...more

Crows to help clean up cigarette butts in Sweden 3/2/2022

A Swedish company, Corvid Cleaning, is recruiting crows that will help clean the streets of Södertälje by picking out cigarette butts. Wild crows will be trained and rewarded with food for cleaning the city. The cigarette butts collected will be deposited in machines designed by Corvid Cleaning. ...more

Earlier flowering in UK raises risks for ecosystem, study finds 3/2/2022

Rising temperatures are causing plants in the United Kingdom to flower almost a month earlier than they did over more than two centuries to the mid-1980s, potentially posing risks to wildlife, scientists said on Wednesday. ...more

Storm Ana: Deadly Africa storm shows climate crisis reality - UN 2/2/2022

The deadly storm that hit southern African countries this week has shown the reality of the climate crisis, a UN official has said. ...more

EU to propose green investment label for gas and nuclear energy, source says 2/2/2022

The European Commission is set to propose rules on Wednesday to allow some gas and nuclear power plants to be labelled as green investments, with minor changes to a previous draft proposal, a Commission source told Reuters. ...more

Last year was fourth warmest for U.S. on record, report says 2/2/2022

The year 2021 ranked as the fourth-warmest year on record in the United States, with December 2021 being the warmest December ever recorded, as the country was hit by 20 separate billion-dollar disasters, according to an overview of a government report published on Monday. ...more

Brazil spent less than half its 2021 environmental enforcement budget 2/2/2022

Brazil's environmental agency spent less than half of its budget for enforcement last year, despite soaring levels of destruction in the Amazon rainforest, according to an analysis of federal spending released on Tuesday. ...more

Extreme heat in oceans ‘passed point of no return’ in 2014 2/2/2022

Extreme heat in the world’s oceans passed the “point of no return” in 2014 and has become the new normal, according to research. ...more

Fossil fuel subsidies to face tighter EU scrutiny 1/2/2022

The European Commission wants to increase scrutiny of whether countries are phasing out fossil fuel subsidies fast enough to meet climate goals, under EU rules due this year. ...more