DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ 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.

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."

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

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.

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.

☆ Why Patagonia's billionaire founder gave away his $3 billion company to fight climate change: 'Earth is now our only shareholder'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The founder of outdoor apparel maker Patagonia is donating his company to a greater cause: fighting climate change. Yvon Chouinard, the rock climber-turned-billionaire, and his family have transferred their ownership of Patagonia to the newly created Patagonia Purpose Trust and nonprofit Holdfast Collective. The company, which Chouinard founded in 1973, is worth $3 billion, according to the New York Times. "The Patagonia Purpose Trust ... exists to create a more permanent legal structure to enshrine Patagonia's purpose and values," the announcement reads. "Despite its immensity, the Earth's resources are not infinite, and it's clear we've exceeded its limits," Chouinard wrote on Wednesday.

Search resuls for: "United Nations Environment Programme"

12 mentions found