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☆ The world wastes more than 1 billion meals every day as hundreds of millions go hungry, UN report finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —More than 1 billion meals are wasted across the world each day while nearly 800 million people go hungry, a new United Nations report has found. This is on top of the 13% of the world’s food lost as it makes its journey from farm to fork. The vast majority of food waste goes to landfill, generating methane as it breaks down. The report also said food waste is not just a “rich world” phenomenon. The amount of food wasted in high- and middle-income countries differed by just 7 kilograms (15 pounds) per person each year.

Persons: Inger Andersen, ” Andersen, “, unrefrigerated, Richard Baker Organizations: CNN, United Nations, UN, Programme Locations: London

☆ Migratory species are in a shocking state of decline, landmark UN report shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-12 | by ( Angela Dewan | Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Migratory species include some of the most iconic animals on the planet, like elephants. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty ImagesBaby Leatherback sea turtles head to the sea at sunset on Indonesia's Lhoknga Beach in February 2023. Those activities also fragment migratory species’ pathways, sometimes making it impossible for them to complete their journeys. Around 58% of the monitored locations recognized as important for migratory species are facing what the CMS says are unsustainable levels of pressure from humans. “Migratory species have a special role in nature as they don’t recognize political boundaries,” said Anurag Agrawal, professor of environmental studies at Cornell University.

Persons: They’ve, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Chaideer Mahyuddin, Didier Brandelet, Kristin Laidre, Amy Fraenkel, Scott Gibbons, Zheng Yuanjian, Carl de Souza, Sergio Pitamitz, Wolfgang Kaehler, ” Inger Andersen, ”, Anurag Agrawal Organizations: CNN, UN, Convention, Animals, Getty, McCormick, United Nations Environment, Cornell University Locations: Asia, Alaska, Kimana, Kenya, AFP, Beach, Greenland, Elsehul, South Georgia, longline, Chicago, Lake Michigan, Xinhua, Mongolia, UN, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

If China and India were excluded from the count, world carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacturing would have dropped, Friedlingstein said. The world in 2023 increased its annual emissions by 398 million metric tons, but it was in three places: China, India and the skies. China’s fossil fuel emissions went up 458 million metric tons from last year, India’s went up 233 million metric tons and aviation emissions increased 145 million metric tons. Outside of India and China, the rest of the world’s fossil fuel emissions went down by 419 million metric tons, led by Europe’s 205 million metric ton drop and a decrease of 154 million metric tons in the United States. Last year the world's carbon emissions increased but dropped in China, which was still affected by a second wave of pandemic restrictions.

Persons: Pierre Friedlingstein, Jim Skea, ” Friedlingstein, Friedlingstein, India’s, Inger Andersen, ___ Read, Seth Borenstein Organizations: United Arab Emirates, Carbon Project, University of Exeter, United Nations Environment, AP Locations: DUBAI, United Arab, China, India, Paris, COP28, United States, U.S

The world is heading for considerably less warming than projected a decade ago, but that good news is overwhelmed by much more pain from current climate change than scientists anticipated, experts said. Even though emissions of heat-trapping gases are still rising every year, they’re rising more slowly than projected from 2000 to 2015. “It requires the tearing out the poisoned root of the climate crisis: fossil fuels,” said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Guterres, numerous climate scientists and environmental activists all say what’s needed is a phase-out — or at the very least a phase-down — of coal, oil and gas. “This is throwing the global energy transition and humanity’s future into question.”___Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.

Persons: That’s, It’s, ”, Niklas Hohne, Bill Hare, Rob Jackson, Ani Dasgupta, ” Dasgupta, Hare, Anne Olhoff, “, ” Jackson, Melanie Robinson, that’s, Johan Rockstrom, Antonio Guterres, Sultan al, Jaber, Greta Thunberg, Adnan Amir, ’ ’, Majid Al Suwaidi, we’ve, Institute’s Hohne, Al Jaber, ” Hohne, Dasgupta, can’t, Inger Andersen, ” ___ Read, Seth Borenstein Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Environment, NewClimate, Stanford University, Project, Resources, UNEP, World Resources Institute, Potsdam Institute, Climate Research, Center for Biological Diversity, Biden Administration, Twitter, AP Locations: Dubai, Paris, Europe, Pakistan, Libya, Arab Emirates, ”, al, greenwashing, Russia, Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to visit Africa this year, but 2023 is drawing to a close with no trip in sight yet. “I’m eager to visit your continent,” Biden said at the summit almost a year ago. “We’re hoping that President Biden will also be here to restore that trajectory,” he said. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan told Harris that her country was excited for a Biden visit. “Tanzanians are now anxiously waiting for President Joe Biden’s visit in Tanzania,” she said to the U.S. vice president.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, “ I’m, ” Biden, “, ”, Jideofor Adibe, John Kirby, Xi Jinping, ramping, Daniel Russel, Inger Andersen, “ Joe Biden, Mohamed Adow, Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen, Lloyd Austin, Harris, Nana Akufo, Donald Trump —, —, Barack Obama, George W, Bush, Bill Clinton, “ We’re, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Joe Biden’s, Seth Borenstein, Chinedu Asadu, Asadu Organizations: WASHINGTON, Africa, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Nigeria’s Nasarawa State University, White House, Administration, Associated Press, Pacific, Hollywood, Asia Society Policy Institute, U.S ., Republican, Biden Locations: Africa, Dubai . U.S, Israel, Vietnam, Ukraine, Washington, U.S, California, Glasgow, Scotland, Egypt, China, Dubai, United States, Ghana, Tanzania, ”, Abuja, Nigeria

☆ Global tax would spoil investors’ plastic party
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

This may change if supporters of taxes and other restrictive measures prevail at ongoing talks for a global treaty to end plastic pollution by 2040. And the world lacks sufficient infrastructure to sort discarded resins: only 9% of global plastic is recycled each year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reckons. Some 90% of people support measures to combat plastic pollution, a global Ipsos survey from 2021 shows. Countries including Britain have already started applying levies on virgin plastic packaging. CONTEXT NEWSRepresentatives of 175 countries in March endorsed a landmark resolution to develop international, legally binding rules to end plastic pollution by 2040.

Persons: Inger Andersen, Barr, Aimee Donnellan, Pranav Kiran Organizations: MILAN, Reuters, Big Oil, ExxonMobil, Dow, Indorama Ventures, Saudi Aramco, Minderoo, Organisation for Economic Co, ” United Nations, Reuters Breakingviews, Barclays, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Sinopec, Britain, Paris

Environment Programme (UNEP), which is hosting the talks, released a blueprint for reducing plastic waste by 80% by 2040. The report, issued earlier this month, outlined three key areas of action: reuse, recycling and reorientation of plastic packaging to alternative materials. This week, dozens of countries were listing public health as one of their priority concerns in limiting plastics production and waste. The UNEP report also identified 13,000 chemicals associated with plastic production, more than 3,000 of which were considered hazardous. Greenpeace, meanwhile, issued a report collecting findings from scientific research papers that suggest plastic recycling processes can release many of these chemicals including benzene into the environment.

☆ The world can cut plastic pollution by 80% by 2040, the UN says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Countries could slash plastic pollution by 80% in less than two decades, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme. Plastic pollution is a scourge that affects every part of the world, from the Arctic, to the oceans and the air we breathe. UNEP’s report aims to offer a roadmap to governments and businesses to dramatically cut levels of plastic pollution. This would be the most “powerful market shift,” reducing plastic pollution by 30% by 2040, the report said. Scaling up recycling levels could reduce plastic pollution by a further 20%, according to the report.

☆ UNEP chief on the $1 billion Green Climate Fund pledge and taking critical action on climate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Tania Bryer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailUNEP chief on the $1 billion Green Climate Fund pledge and taking critical action on climateTo mark Earth Day 2023, CNBC's Tania Bryer talks to Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, about U.S. President Biden's recent $1 billion climate pledge and what more needs to be done globally to accelerate tackling the climate crisis.

☆ The world is on track to overshoot 1.5 degrees of warming, so it's time to study reflecting sun away from the Earth, UN says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

With the world not responding to climate change urgently enough, a "speculative group of technologies" to reflect sunlight back away from the Earth have been getting more attention recently, UNEP said in a written statement accompanying the report. This category of technologies is often called solar radiation modification (SRM) or more broadly solar geoengineering. So solar geoengineering could be considered a one-time shot to mitigate extreme suffering and death caused by climate change. "Even as a temporary response option, large-scale SRM deployment is fraught with scientific uncertainties and ethical issues. In addition to needing rigorous scientific study, the report added there needs to be a globally coordinated governance strategy for any potential use of solar-geoengineering technology.

☆ UN says ozone layer slowly healing, hole to mend by 2066
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Earth’s protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing at a pace that would fully mend the hole over Antarctica in about 43 years, a new United Nations report says. “In the upper stratosphere and in the ozone hole we see things getting better,” said Paul Newman, co-chair of the scientific assessment. Natural weather patterns in the Antarctic also affect ozone hole levels, which peak in the fall. A third generation of those chemicals, called HFC, was banned a few years ago not because it would eat at the ozone layer but because it is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. The report also warned that efforts to artificially cool the planet by putting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect the sunlight would thin the ozone layer by as much as 20% in Antarctica.

☆ COP27: U.N. to hunt sources of climate-warming methane from space
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Richard Valdmanis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The system, dubbed MARS or Methane Alert and Response System, will build on a pledge signed by 119 countries since last year to cut methane emissions by 30% this decade, a goal scientists say is crucial to averting extreme climate change. "The Methane Alert and Response System is a big step in helping governments and companies deliver on this important, short-term climate goal," Inger Andersen, executive eirector of the U.N. "Reducing methane emissions can make a big and rapid difference, as this gas leaves the atmosphere far quicker than carbon dioxide." UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory will then share information about the leak with whoever is responsible in the hope they will find the cause of the leak and repair it. U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry, who helped spearhead the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions last year, called the new system "critical" to climate efforts.

☆ IMF chief says rich countries alone can 'never close' the funding gap for climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Su-Lin Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

watch nowPublic aid and funding from governments of developed countries alone won't be enough to close the funding gap on climate change initiatives in developing countries, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC. More private investments are needed to help developing countries to meet their climate change targets, said the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Public aid and funding from governments of developed countries alone would not be enough to close the funding gap on climate change initiatives in developing countries. Stability in developing countries also secures trade between advanced and developing countries, Georgieva said. Disruptions in supply chains caused by climate change events could pose a bigger risk than the one posed by the pandemic, she added.

☆ COP27 climate summit: Here's what to watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Given countries’ current promises, Earth’s temperature will climb to between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100. “No country has a right to be delinquent,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry told reporters in October. It is likely loss and damage will have space on the official COP27 agenda this year. And US officials often stress they want to also unlock private investments to help countries transition to renewables and deal with climate effects. Getty ImagesCOP27 is intended to hold countries’ feet to the fire on fossil fuel emissions and gin up new ambition on the climate crisis.

Representatives from around the world will meet from Nov. 6-18 at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt to try to agree pledges to limit warming to below 2C above pre-industrial levels and ideally to 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Policies in place, without strengthening, will likely lead to a 2.8C rise in temperature by the end of the century, 0.1C higher than was estimated last year. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster," UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said. The gap between pledges and limiting warming to 2C is 15 GtCO2e a year and for 1.5C it is 23 GtCO2e a year. read moreOn Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said greenhouse gas concentrations climbed at above-average rates to new records last year.

These "conditional" pledges, if implemented fully, could reduce expected warming to a 2.4C rise, while unconditional pledges could lead to a 2.6C rise, the report said. "We still aren't anywhere near enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions (to the levels required)," UNEP executive director Inger Andersen told reporters at a briefing. The gap between pledges and limiting warming to 2C is 15 GtCO2e a year and for 1.5C it is 23 GtCO2e a year. According to a separate U.N. report earlier this week analysing the latest pledges submitted by countries, 2.5C of warming is likely by the end of the century. read moreOn Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said greenhouse gas concentrations climbed at above-average rates to records last year.

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