Singapore seeks to slash waste with plastic bags charge

Singapore on Thursday recommended supermarkets start charging for disposable carrier bags, a move aimed at slashing carbon emissions in a tiny nation that produces enough annual waste to fill hundreds of Olympic-sized swimming pools. A 2018 study by the Singapore Environment Council found shoppers take… Read More

Goats, sheep and livelihoods lost to floods and cold in northern Kenya

Carcasses of goats and sheep strewn across the scrubland of northern Kenya are testament to the devastation wrought by the once-in-a-generation floods that have hit the region. In just one area of Marsabit County, herders lost around 20,000 goats and sheep last week after the… Read More

Climate change ‘steroid’ contributed to $130 bln in insured losses last year

Climate change played a part in insured losses from natural catastrophes that totalled $130 billion globally in 2021, the fourth-highest on record, broker Aon said in a report on Tuesday. Economic losses – the combination of insured and uninsured losses – reached $343 billion, Aon… Read More

Peru’s Castillo decrees major oil spill an environmental emergency

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo declared an environmental emergency on Thursday as clean-up teams struggled to contain a huge oil spill at the country’s biggest refinery, after rogue waves rocked a ship unloading crude there. The spill, blamed on unusual swells caused by a volcanic eruption… Read More

Indonesia aims to get mangrove restoration back on track in 2022

Indonesia aims to restore 150,000 hectares of degraded mangroves this year, after rehabilitating about a quarter of this total last year when funds had to be diverted from the state budget to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The Southeast Asian nation, which has huge… Read More

Germany’s climate movement

In late November 2021, Germany’s new coalition government announced its aim to phase out coal power across the country by 2030, eight years ahead of schedule. Earlier that month, the government of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where activists have been protesting against coal mining,… Read More