BELFAST, Northern Ireland, May 7, 2020 – The global consultancy Maximpact will extend its innovative online programmes that help Syrian refugees to Northern Ireland learn English and prepare themselves for employment in their new homeland. Northern Ireland went into lockdown on March 23 to keep the coronavirus from spreading during this ongoing global pandemic. Syrian […]
Broiler chickens raised for slaughter are crowded by the thousands into factory farm warehouses, January 3, 2008 (Photo by Farm Sanctuary) By Sunny Lewis GENEVA, Switzerland, January 8, 2019 (Maximpact.com News) – Sizzling juicy steaks, crispy fried chicken, tender pork sausages – all delicious but not sustainable as the world’s population balloons toward 10 billion finds […]
Targeting the 10 plastic products most often found littering European beaches as well as abandoned fishing gear, the European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional political agreement with the Commission on new measures to tackle marine litter at its source.
Glaciers are still melting, sea levels are still rising, extreme weather is still causing floods and droughts, but the planet may be better able to withstand these consequences of climate change now that delegates at the UN’s COP24 climate change summit in Poland have adopted implementing guidelines for the 2015 Paris Accord.
Negotiators from the European Parliament, Council and Commission have just reached political agreement on new EU rules for fertilizers proposed by the Commission in 2016 as a key deliverable of the Circular Economy Package.
Keeping the planet cool is now seriously stylish in the exclusive world of fashion. To demonstrate commitment, the global fashion sector Monday launched the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action at the annual UN climate conference now underway in Katowice.
Water contaminated with mercury and other toxic heavy metals is a major cause of environmental damage and health problems worldwide. Now, researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology have devised a new way to clean contaminated water – through an electrochemical process.
Heads of state and government, diplomats and climate scientists, economists and bankers have gathered in Katowice for the UN’s annual climate conference, and this one is anything but routine. Known as COP24, it has a daunting task.
“The global banking industry is stepping up to the sustainability challenge,” said Satya Tripathi of India, UN assistant secretary-general, UN Environment. “I’m optimistic we’ll see a realignment of business practice – one that embraces the fact that green and socially responsible business is the best business.”
“Earth’s climate is changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities,” warns a bombshell report from the U.S. government, released Friday. Produced by 300 scientists from 13 federal agencies, it finds that global warming is creating new risks and aggravating current vulnerabilities across the United States.
If global warming rises more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and no adequate adaptation measures are taken, Europe is at risk of being exposed to more frequent, intense extreme weather conditions with serious economic impacts.
“Investing in Biodiversity for People and Planet,” is the theme of the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place now in Egypt. Officials from 190 countries have gathered to halt the loss of animals and plants and protect the ecosystems that support the livelihoods of billions.
“These activities shine a light on scalable climate action around the world,” said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of UN Climate Change. “They are proof that climate action isn’t only possible, it’s innovative, it’s exciting and it makes a difference.”
A London supermarket today became one of the world’s first to introduce dedicated Plastic Free Zones. The Thornton’s Budgens store in Camden’s Belsize Park has assembled more than 1,700 plastic-free products and displays them in marked zones.
Present-day climate change could result in the spread of deadly mosquito-borne diseases to new places or their return to areas where they have already been eradicated, scientists are warning, based on the largest-ever study of the mosquito evolutionary tree, going back 195 million years.
Floating solar photovoltaic panels on the surfaces of lakes, hydropower and agricultural reservoirs, industrial ponds, and near-coastal areas is one of today’s fastest-growing renewable energy technologies.
Financial contributions are rolling in to fund dozens of initiatives aimed at healing and protecting the oceans at the fifth annual Our Ocean Conference held on the Indonesian island of Bali October 29-30.
An atmospheric water generator that condenses moisture in the air, making fresh drinking water, has won the Water Abundance XPrize worth US$1.5 million. The prize went to David Hertz and Laura Doss-Hertz co-founders of the Skysource/Skywater Alliance.
A Brazilian team of entrepreneurs has won the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation 2018 Ray of Hope Prize for the Nucleário Planting System, an all-in-one reforestation solution that mimics elements of natural forest progression to reduce maintenance costs and improve seedling survival rates.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates knows that €100 million can fund a lot of climate-friendly, clean energy research by European innovators, so as founding chairman of a new investment fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Gates is collaborating with the European Commission to provide that support.
Not every company, of course, but increasing numbers of corporations, led by some of the world’s largest tech firms, are taking responsibility to protect people and planet with renewable energy and other forms of low-carbon development.
Dr. Andreas Fath, professor of medical and life sciences at Germany’s Furtwangen University, broke a world record in 34 days this summer by swimming all 652 miles of the Tennessee River, from its headwaters in Knoxville, Tennessee, to its mouth in Paducah, Kentucky.
Due to the growing volume of plastic waste now being produced and the plastic waste import ban imposed by China on December 31, 2017, plastic wastes, primarily from Europe, Japan, and North America, are now adrift on the global market.
In the face of massive external and internal imbalances that resulted in loss of market access, in April 2010 Greece was forced to request financial assistance from its European and international partners. Unprecedented billions were provided, and now Greece is well along the road to recovery.
With ice caps melting at an alarming rate and worldwide coral reefs at risk of dying, we are becoming more aware of the role we play in combating global warming and saving the environment. But have you ever wondered if you’re living in a green country?
By 2050 cities are forecast to be inhabited by 6.5 billion people, and making cities smarter to accommodate the population boom is on the minds of transportation experts around the world.
Picture a unique color-generation mechanism in nature that has the potential to create cosmetics and paints with purer, more vivid hues, or create screen displays on phones or tablets that project the same true image when viewed from any angle.
Learn from a waste management expert through an intense 3- Day webinar about appropriate methods of storage, collection, transfer, treatment, and disposal, appropriate for industrialised and developing countries. As well as how to train others in the topic.
Philanthropic foundations from across the United States and around the world have just pledged $4 billion over the next five years to fight climate change – the largest climate-related philanthropic commitment ever made.
The Fast Track to Employment Programme for refugees and migrants. The programme enables refugees and migrants to become employable quickly, efficiently, and cost- effectively.
Search-and-rescue robots that act without risk to first responders, a robotic gripper that grasps and moves objects these applications and many more just moved closer to reality with the development of a new technology in a Yale University lab.
The health care industry is committing to quickly transition from dependence on climate-destroying fossil fuels to an economy based on clean, renewable energies such as wind and solar.
Global leaders from across the private sector, local government and civil society are in San Francisco this week to showcase progress, unveil new climate commitments and to launch new platforms to work in partnership across sectors to accelerate implementation of the Paris Climate Accord.
Using the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as arranger, the World Bank has launched the world’s first bond to be created, allocated, transferred and managed through its life cycle using blockchain distributed ledger technology.
Wind and solar farms are known to have local effects on heat and humidity … A new climate-modeling study finds that a massive wind and solar installation in the Sahara Desert and neighboring Sahel would increase local temperature, precipitation and vegetation.
Nineteen pioneering mayors, representing 130 million urban residents, have committed their cities to cut greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring that all new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030.
A global expert on infrastructure warns that China’s plan to string massive transportation and energy projects halfway around the Earth is “environmentally the riskiest venture ever undertaken.”
More nature-based solutions are urgently needed to avoid a violent global water crisis, warn the hosts of World Water Week 2018, which opened Sunday in Stockholm, attracting government leaders, water experts, development professionals and business representatives from throughout the world.
Chile has replaced many of its native forests with plantation forests to supply pulp and timber mills that produce paper and wood products. As a result, highly flammable non-native pine and eucalypt forests now cover the region.
Tax havens such as Singapore, Panama and the Cayman Islands provide financial secrecy for industries that are associated with environmentally destructive activities on a global scale, new research demonstrates.
Two of the world’s largest ocean economies – the European Union and China – have agreed to work together “to improve the international governance of the oceans in all its aspects, including by combating illegal fishing and promoting a sustainable blue economy.
Famous Hawaiian swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku always warned, “Never turn your back on the ocean.” He wanted people to guard against the physical danger of being hit by a wave from behind, and he wanted humans to show respect for the ocean – a warning that today is more urgent than ever.
Government officials in Thailand are struggling to limit a waste scandal after discovering a massive amount of plastic and electronic waste was imported to the Southeast Asian country this year, often illegally, by factories involved in recycling.
Bitcoin, just one of the many digital currencies, currently consumes enough electricity to power Denmark. Failure to lower the use of energy by Bitcoin and similar Blockchain designs may prevent nations from reaching their climate change obligations under the Paris Agreement…
The world’s six largest multilateral development banks increased their climate financing to a seven-year high of $35.2 billion in 2017, up more than 20 percent from the previous year.
It is estimated that hundreds of millions of pieces of space debris float through our area of the solar system. Many are as big as trucks, while some are smaller than a fleck of paint.
Cold, dark, and under extreme pressure, the deep sea holds a wealth of unique and unusual species, habitats and ecosystems. And it contains rich mineral resources, some of them in unique or highly enriched concentrations.
Limited educational opportunities for girls and barriers to completing 12 years of education cost countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings, says a new World Bank report.
The phenomenon of digital-detox is on the rise and could be an important part of the tourism industry in the future, researchers at Australia’s James Cook University have concluded.
“We have a water crisis, which is based on increasing population, urbanization and climate disruption. And there’s unsustainable use of our water,” said Argonne National Laboratory researcher Seth Darling. “Part of addressing this is through policy solutions, but we also need new, more energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies.”
