The failure of wealthy nations to deliver on short-term climate commitments could hinder the rollout of a landmark treaty, a bloc of 134 developing countries, including India and China, warned Thursday at UN negotiations in Bonn. The diplomatic spat has…
‘Sound pollution causes high blood pressure, headache, indigestion, ulcer’ Dhaka – Motorcycles and private cars are the main sources of noise pollution in the country’s major cities, followed by public buses, says a new survey of the Department of Environment…
Lorenzo Bernasconi New York – In early October, shortly after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that his company could, given the opportunity, rebuild the island’s electrical grid using solar power. Coming…
Robert Watson Norwich – With the United Nations’ climate change conference underway in Bonn, Germany, rising global temperatures are once again at the top of the world’s agenda. But why care about the increase in temperature, if not because of…
Bonn, 10 Nov (Jade Chiang) – The climate talks in Bonn could be a historic moment if Parties are able to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol (KP) by ensuring the entry into force of…
It’s been a year of catastrophic climate events. Rains of biblical proportions across South Asia brought floods that affected more than 41 million people and killed at least 1,200. Record-breaking hurricanes claimed lives and destroyed infrastructure across several island states…
Illegal crop burning in farm states surrounding New Delhi, vehicle exhaust in a city with limited public transport and swirling construction dust have caused the crisis, as they do year after year.
By Daan Bauwens Follonica, Italy, Nov 9 (IPS) – As countless refugees arriving on Italy’s shores report torture, extortion and forced labour in Libyan detention centers, many say they never intended to make the journey to Europe until the chaos…
By Lourdes Tibig and Denise Margaret Matias Bonn, Germany, Nov 8 (IPS) – November 8 marks the fourth anniversary of Haiyan’s landfall in the Philippines. The super typhoon was the strongest ever to make landfall.
By Busani Bafana Bremerhaven, Germany (IPS) – Climate change is altering the ecosystem of our oceans, a big carbon sink and prime source of protein from fish. This is old news.
Bonn, 9 Nov (Meena Raman) — Developed countries opposed the inclusion of an agenda item dealing with implementing pre-2020 actions onto the agenda of the 23rd meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 23) taking place in…
Volunteers have taken to the streets of India’s capital and fitted green pollution masks over the mouths of willing residents to make a statement about the city’s choking smog. Not everybody wanted to play along and some batted the masks…
Schools closed across large swathes of north India on Thursday as a hazardous fog of toxic pollution cloaked the region for a third day, with growing calls for urgent government action to tackle what doctors are calling a public health…
Dhaka, Nov 8 – Some 52 Rohingyas including 22 children, 17 women and 13 men entered Bangladesh through Shah Porir Dwip point in Teknaf upazila of Cox,s Bazar on Wednesday, crossing Naf River by a raft made of plastic bottles…
Dhaka, Nov 8 – Some 450,000 (4.5 lakh) Rohingyas have so far been biometrically registered in 12 makeshift shelter camps in Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar.
Delhi shut all primary schools on Wednesday as pollution hit 70 times the World Health Organization’s safe level, prompting doctors in the Indian capital to warn of a public health emergency. Dense grey smog shrouded the roads of the world’s…
Myanmar on Wednesday hit back at a UN Security Council statement critical of its handling of the Rohingya refugee crisis, saying it could “seriously harm” efforts to repatriate the Muslim minority from Bangladesh. On Monday the top UN body called…
Syria told the UN climate talks in Bonn on Tuesday that it would join the Paris Agreement, leaving the United States as the only nation in the world opting to stay outside the landmark treaty. “We are going to join…
Nathalie Bernasconi – Osterwalder , Jorg Haas In 2016, global spending on oil and gas projects was more than double the total spent on renewables. That imbalance can be addressed only by restructuring the mechanisms, particularly existing trade treaties, that govern…
Dhaka, Nov 8 – A mild tremor jolted different parts of the country including the capital Dhaka on Wednesday morning.
Bangkok, Thailand – 8 November – The International Rubber Consortium (IRCo) — comprising representatives from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia — has forecast a reduction in the supply of natural rubber (NR) for the global market amidst strong sentiments for its…
Bonn, 8 Nov (T Ajit) — On the 2nd day of the ongoing climate talks in Bonn, developing countries called for emphasis to be given to a particular finance issue dealing with quantitative and qualitative information on projected levels of…
Bonn, 7 Nov (Jade Chiang and Meena Raman) – Developing countries raised several key concerns at the opening of the 47th session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 47) on 6 Nov., which was held after the official opening…
Bonn, 7 November (Zhu Zhenyan) – Meetings of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its Kyoto Protocol (KP) and Paris Agreement (PA) as well as those of the Subsidiary Bodies serving these treaties kicked off on…
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) on Tuesday urged the international community to come up with urgent actions to resolve the humanitarian crisis facing by Rohingya people. The CPA made the call in a statement unanimously adopted by its 63rd general…
The UN Security Council has called on Myanmar to rein in its military campaign in Rakhine state and allow hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya driven from their homes to return. In a unanimous statement backed by China, the council…
New Delhi woke up to a choking blanket of smog on Tuesday as air quality in the world’s most polluted capital city reached hazardous levels. The US embassy website said levels of the fine pollutants known as PM2.5 that are…
By Erik Solheim UN, Nov 3 (IPS) – For too long, the relationship between prosperity and environment has been seen as a trade-off. Tackling pollution was considered an unwelcome cost on industry and a handicap to economic growth.
By Baher Kamal Rome, Nov 6 (IPS) – The UN Climate Change Summit in Bonn is a step further, most experts say. Fine, but towards what? On the one hand, the organisers – the UN, Fiji and Germany – express…
Dhaka – Bangladeshi expatriates living in Europe, American and Australasia will get smart cards to and access all welfare facilities like any foreign wage earner and migrant worker.The new draft policy on expatriates and migrant workers will provide the equal…