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☆ Sand dredging is 'sterilising' ocean floor, UN warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsGENEVA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Around 6 billion tons of marine sand is being dug up each year in a growing practice that a U.N. agency said is unsustainable and can wipe out local marine life irreversibly. The findings from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coincide with the launch of a new platform 'Marine Sand Watch' backed by funding from the Swiss government that monitors dredging activities using marine tracking and artificial intelligence. "The amount of sand we are withdrawing from the environment is considerable and has a large impact," UNEP's Pascal Peduzzi told a Geneva press briefing. In some cases, companies remove all the sand to the bedrock, meaning that "life may never recover", Peduzzi added. China, the Netherlands, the United States and Belgium are among the countries most active in the sector, he said.

Persons: Ann Wang, Pascal Peduzzi, Peduzzi, Arnaud Vander Velpen, Emma Farge, Christina Fincher Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, University of Geneva, Thomson Locations: Taiwan, Swiss, Geneva, China, United States, Netherlands, Belgium

☆ Shein sent American influencers to China. Social media users are furious
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —A group of American fashion influencers and creators has received online backlash after they visited a model factory in China as part of a tour sponsored by Shein, an internet shopping giant, and posted glowing reviews. Kenya Freeman, a designer who has sold clothing on Shein, traveled to China and Singapore, where Shein is now based, as part of the junket and shared videos on her Instagram account. In a statement, Shein said the social media videos posted by the influencers were authentic. But its meteoric rise has come with scrutiny, especially as relations between the United States and China have deteriorated. In April, a US congressional commission said Shein, online superstore Temu and others in China were potentially linked to the use of forced labor, exploitation of trade loopholes, product safety hazards or intellectual property theft.

Persons: Kenya Freeman, ” Freeman, ”, Freeman, Shein, Gen, Dani Carbonari, “, Destene Sudduth, Instagram, Kelly Kellen, Z, ‘ Organizations: New, New York CNN, Shein, CNN, Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg, United, United Nations Environment Programme, Aurora University Locations: New York, China, Guangzhou, Kenya, Singapore, Atlanta, United States, Xinjiang

☆ The US is sending depleted-uranium ammo to Ukraine capable of piercing Russian tank armour, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US is set to approve depleted-uranium tank shells for Ukraine, the WSJ said. The shells are capable of blowing up Russian tank armor. For several months the Biden administration has been debating whether to provide the shells to Ukraine following concerns over their environmental and health impacts, the outlet reported. When used in tank shells, the material is effective because its bulk can penetrate through enemy armor. The weapons could hand Ukraine an advantage in tank battles as it launches its campaign to drive Russian forces back from territory they occupy in south and eastern Ukraine.

Persons: —, Biden, Jake Epstein, Vladimir Putin, Putin Organizations: Service, Wall Street Journal, White, EPA, United Nations Environment, Challenger, WSJ Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Netherlands

☆ 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

Ships in the Autonomous Port of Cotonou in Benin, West Africa. Prosper Dagnitche/AFP/Getty ImagesThe stream of used cars heading to West African ports is only expected to increase with the West’s shift to electric vehicles. “It’s not like people want to drive used cars; it’s an affordability issue.”Experts say demand for used cars could explode further as the take up of electric cars in the West increases the supply of used cars to African countries. Those states also have robust port operations, making them an ideal place to ship used cars to Africa. “In terms of where Africa goes, the transition shouldn’t necessarily be from used cars to brand new combustion engines, it should be from used cars to EVs,” Ipke said.

☆ 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.

Hong Kong/New York CNN —Temu and Shein are taking off in the United States, topping app stores and creating a frenzy with consumers. Shein was started in China, while Temu was launched by a Chinese company that now bills itself as a multinational firm. Both firms have enjoyed major success in the United States, noted Nicholas Kaufman, a policy analyst for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Topping the chartsTemu and Shein have taken the world’s largest retail market — the United States — by storm. It has quickly become the most downloaded app in the United States, and continues to expand its user base.

☆ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so huge and permanent that a coastal ecosystem is thriving on it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Haram and her colleagues examined 105 items of plastic fished out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between November 2018 and January 2019. Courtesy Linsey Haram/Smithsonian InstitutionCoastal aggregating anemones found on a black floating plastic fragment collected in the garbage patch. Oceans of plasticThe Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas, is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. If you look up at night, you see all those white dots, that’s essentially what you see in the garbage patch. A bag of plastics and debris collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unloaded in Sausalito, California in July 2022.

☆ Billionaires are fascinated by solar geoengineering — but climate scientists are far from convinced
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

David Gannon | Afp | Getty ImagesWhat is solar geoengineering? Solar geoengineering or SRM refers to a speculative set of technologies designed to cool the Earth. To be sure, researchers calling for the rigorous study of SRM are not endorsing solar geoengineering as a climate solution. watch nowThe paper advocates for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering, a call that has since received the backing of hundreds of climate scientists. Lili Fuhr, deputy director of the Center for International Environmental Law, described solar radiation management or solar geoengineering as "the ultimate false solution."

Depleted uranium is a dense by-product left over when uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. The United States, Britain, Russia, China, France and Pakistan produce uranium weapons, which are not classified as nuclear weapons, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons. Ingesting or inhaling quantities of uranium - even depleted uranium - is dangerous: it depresses renal function and raises the risk of developing a range of cancers. "It's worth making sure everyone understands that just because the word uranium is in the title of depleted uranium munitions, they are not nuclear munitions, they are purely conventional munitions," Cleverly said. A spokesperson from Britain's defence ministry said: "The British Army has used depleted uranium in its armour piercing shells for decades."

☆ The world is creating more single-use plastic waste than ever, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Hilary Whiteman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Brisbane, Australia CNN —The world is producing a record amount of single-use plastic waste, mostly made from polymers created from fossil fuels, despite global efforts to reduce plastic pollution and carbon emissions, according to a new report released Monday. The second Plastic Waste Makers Index, compiled by the philanthropic Minderoo Foundation, found the world generated 139 million metric tons of single-use plastic waste in 2021, which was 6 million metric tons more than in 2019, when the first index was released. In recent years, governments around the world have announced policies to reduce the volume of single-use plastic, banning products like single-use straws, disposable cutlery, food containers, cotton swabs, bags and balloons. Many countries have banned single-use plastic plates and cutlery. In the developing world, it’ll lead to people who would not otherwise have any work, having work making sure there’s no plastic waste going into the ocean, there’s no plastic waste on streets, there’s no plastic waste poisoning wildlife,” he said.

☆ Investors Push Mining Companies to Adopt Better Sustainability Standards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Investors are pushing miners to adopt tougher sustainability policies amid fears the rush for minerals to expand renewable energy will harm the environment and poor communities. The newly-launched Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030 said it would introduce sustainability standards by next January which will seek to overhaul the mining industry this decade. “We’ll improve the practices and outcomes in the mining industry more quickly,” he said. PREVIEWThe rules will draw on lessons from investors and the mining industry’s development of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management. The tailings standard came out about two years ago following the 2019 Vale SA Brumadinho disaster in Brazil where a tailings dam collapsed and killed 270 people.

☆ Bill Gates: We will overshoot 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, nuclear can be 'super safe' and fake meat will eventually be 'very good'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The world will not be able to avoid overshooting the goal established in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-Industrial levels, according to Bill Gates. The billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder answered questions from Reddit users on Wednesday and a handful of the questions revolved around climate change. A report out at the end of October from the United Nations Environment Program found "no credible pathway to 1.5° Celsius in place." Gates also said bedraggled climate mitigation efforts will "slow down the progress we make on improving the human condition." Despite Gates' dour outlook, he also maintains some amount of optimism: "I still believe we can avoid a terrible outcome," he said.

☆ Walmart bans single-use bags in more stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Walmart will eliminate single-use paper and plastic carryout bags at the register from stores in New York, Connecticut and Colorado this month. The company previously stopped giving out single-use plastic bags in New York and Connecticut and in some areas in Colorado. Plastic-bag bans reduce the number of these bags in stores and encourage customers to bring reusable bags or pay a small fee for paper bags. In New Jersey, a ban on single-use plastic and paper bags has meant grocery delivery services have switched to heavy-duty bags. Reusable bags — cloth totes or thicker, more durable plastic bags — aren’t a perfect solution, either, unless they are actually reused.

☆ Earth’s Ozone Layer Recovers as Airborne Chemicals Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Eric Niiler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Airborne chemicals that destroy ozone are now declining for the first time, helping to repair the atmospheric layer that protects humans from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new report by a U.N.-backed panel of scientists. In a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, researchers found a significant thickening of the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere from 9 to 18 miles high that absorbs ultraviolet rays and prevents them from reaching the Earth’s surface.

☆ 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.

☆ Earth’s Ozone Layer Recovering as Damaging Airborne Chemicals Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Eric Niiler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Airborne chemicals that destroy ozone are now declining for the first time, helping to repair the atmospheric layer that protects humans from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new report by a U.N.-backed panel of scientists. In a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, researchers found a significant thickening of the ozone layer, a region of the atmosphere from 9 to 18 miles high that absorbs ultraviolet rays (UV) and prevents them from reaching the Earth’s surface.

☆ Period underwear FAQS — answered
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Period underwear has grown popular over the past few years for several reasons. Period underwear brands offer a variety of absorbencies since people have different flows. Does period underwear affect symptoms and period length? Some people on social media platforms and product reviews have reported a lighter flow or shorter period while wearing period underwear. “People should be able to access and use whatever type of period management tools that work best for them, including period underwear,” Brandi said.

☆ Historic compensation fund approved at U.N. climate talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The decision establishes a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage. Early Sunday morning, delegates approved the compensation fund but had not dealt with the contentious issues of an overall temperature goal, emissions cutting and the desire to target all fossil fuels for phase down. This year’s talks “were very focused on the fund and less on the mitigation (cutting emissions) part,” Eide added. However, that fight was overshadowed by the historic compensation fund. But like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund, it’s another to get money flowing in and out, she said.

The Biden administration on Friday announced plans to significantly tighten regulations against methane emissions from domestic oil and gas drilling. The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed standards would reduce methane from the oil and gas sector by 87% below 2005 levels. In the United States, oil and natural gas operations are the nation’s biggest industrial source of methane, according to the EPA. The Biden administration announced its plan to reduce methane emissions in November 2021 at the last U.N. Last year, the U.S. and the European Union launched the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce the world’s methane emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade.

☆ 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.

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The world is falling far short at rounding up money to help struggling nations adapt to the increasingly dangerous impacts of climate change, according to a report released Thursday. Current international finance flowing to developing countries is between 5 and 10 times below what is needed, the United Nations Environment Programme report said. "It's time for a global climate adaptation overhaul," said United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres in a media statement, noting he had asked green climate funds to work with public and private financiers to pilot a new accelerator for adaptation investment. The accelerator will help financiers work with developing countries to invest in their adaptation priorities and specific projects. At the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow last year, developed countries agreed to double support for adaptation financing to $40 billion per year by 2025.

☆ Big brands set to miss plastic sustainability targets
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Joe Brock | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme also revealed that some companies - including Coca-Cola (KO.N) and Pepsi - are using more virgin plastic despite a pledge to reduce its use. Dozens of major brands have in recent years set targets to increase plastic recycling and reduce the use of single-use packaging in partnership with the Ellen MacAurthur Foundation, as part of efforts to burnish their green credentials. The headline pledge was that 100% of plastic packaging would be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, but this goal will "almost certainly be missed by most organisations", the environmental group's report said. Greenpeace said the report is evidence that voluntary corporate targets have failed and called on the U.N. to forge a treaty that forces governments and companies to use less single-use plastic packaging. "This underlines the need for governments to ensure that the global plastic treaty ... delivers major reductions in plastic production and use," said Graham Forbes, Greenpeace’s USA Global Plastics Project Leader.

☆ How companies can advance global action against the climate crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a live Insider event, a BASF exec said the company evaluates products' sustainability profiles. Get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. And in the last few years, major companies like IBM and Citi have started focusing on developing sustainable business practices. The event was part of Insider's series Climate Heroes 2022: Working Toward Solutions, presented by BASF, which featured interviews with leaders across industries who are pioneering innovative climate solutions. Measuring and tracking progress toward sustainability goals is keyTracking progress toward sustainability goals is critical, Sukhdev said.

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