wildfire Washington State, USA
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2023: Earth’s Hottest Year

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 30, 2023 (ENS) – The year 2023 shattered climate records, delivered extreme weather, and left death, devastation and despair in its wake laments the World Meteorological Organization, which has pegged 2023 as the hottest year ever recorded. […]

COP28 Final Plenary
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COP28 Deal ‘Beginning of the End’ of the Fossil Fuel Era

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023 – The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, concluded this afternoon with an unprecedented deal among nearly 200 Parties to the Paris Agreement that signals the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. The governments agreed to accomplish this by preparing for a swift, just, equitable transition, characterized by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance. […]

COP28 delegates Dubai
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COP28: Last Scheduled Day Ends in Limbo

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 12, 2023 (ENS) – It was nearly midnight on Tuesday, December 12 when all but the few tired delegates intimately involved in the high-stakes international climate talks left the COP28 conference rooms at Expo City, Dubai. The closed-door talks would continue until 3 am Wednesday and then pause for consideration of the issues, the COP28 Presidency told negotiators. […]

oil worker ExxonMobil
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COP28: Oil Companies Jump On the Decarbonization Bandwagon

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 2, 2023 (ENS) – Fifty oil and natural gas producers, including Saudi Aramco, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and 28 other national oil companies, have signed an agreement to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 and curb methane emissions to near-zero by 2030. […]

wildfire Cuba 2023
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UN Climate Summit Opens With US$400M for Loss and Damage Fund

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, November 30, 2023 (ENS) – “This year’s climate conference comes as the crisis enters a new phase – and shows its full force, harming billions of people, and costing trillions,” UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell declared in a video message to the world Wednesday on the eve of the UN climate summit COP28. He detailed progress and setbacks in the year since COP27 in Egypt, and set out expectations for COP28, which opened today and runs through December 12 in the gleaming, high-rise city of Dubai. […]

humpback whale
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A World First: High Seas Treaty Signed By 80 Governments

NEW YORK, New York, September 22, 2023 (ENS) – The hard-won High Seas Treaty, the first agreement to protect the two-thirds of the world’s oceans beyond national jurisdiction, was opened for signature by United Nations Member States on September 20 at UN Headquarters in New York. Signing up enthusiastically, 80 countries and the European Union indicated their support […]

rock art monument
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New Monument Protects Sacred Native Lands Near Grand Canyon

TUSAYAN, Arizona, August 10, 2023, (ENS) – President Joe Biden has established a new national monument to protect three areas close to Grand Canyon National Park that the President said, “have been profoundly sacred to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Southwest since time immemorial…” […]

Colorado River Horseshoe Bend
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A ‘Critical Moment’ for the Colorado River

WASHINGTON, DC, May 23, 2023 (ENS) – The Colorado River flows for 1,450 miles across the western United States, carving the Grand Canyon on the way, and into Mexico, where it once flowed to the Gulf of California. Now, after years of drought and human pressure, the Colorado River just disappears into desert sands. […]

Mayor Hancock Denver declaration
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Cities of the Americas Share Climate Migration Solutions

DENVER, Colorado, May 7, 2023 (ENS) – Michael Hancock, third-term mayor of Denver, the Mile High City in the Rocky Mountains, has worked his way up. He knows from experience how essential the role of local governments is in limiting climate change, integrating climate migrants, and building sustainable cities. […]

golden lion tamarin
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All Is Not Lost: Pioneering Restorations of the Natural World

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2023 (ENS) – For the first time, the United Nations has recognized 10 trail-blazing efforts from across the globe that are restoring the natural world. Declared World Restoration Flagships, these 10 initiatives can now receive UN-backed advice, promotion, and funding in support of their work to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces. […]

wild ducks
Spotlight

Worst Bird Flu Outbreak in U.S. History Kills Millions

RIVERDALE, Maryland, January 31, 2023 (ENS) – Wild birds and commercially raised chickens alike are dropping dead from bird flu by the millions across the United States. Red-tailed hawks and great horned owls in Wyoming, American and Canadian wild birds along the Atlantic coast and across the Midwest, and 58.2 million birds in commercial and backyard poultry flocks in 47 states have died in the past year… […]

Arctic ice
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Melting Ice Worries Arctic Eight, But Opens Opportunities

WASHINGTON, DC, October 7, 2022 (ENS) – Today, the Biden Administration released a new 10-year National Strategy for the Arctic Region, which is melting at least three times faster than anywhere else on Earth. The new strategy addresses climate change with greater urgency and makes new investments in sustainable development to improve livelihoods for Arctic residents, while conserving the environment. […]

Webb telescope galaxies
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New Space Telescope Offers Infrared Look at Ancient Universe

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2022 (ENS) – “Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, presenting unique images of the universe from the newly launched telescope. “These images, including the deepest view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask… […]

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Funding Frustrations Plague Africa’s Great Green Wall

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, May 23, 2022 (ENS) – “We all play a role in the common fight against climate change and land degradation, recognizing that a healthy and safe environment is vital to the future of the Earth,” said Côte d’Ivoire Prime Minister Patrick Achi on Friday, to delegates from 196 countries and the European Union, wrapping up a two-week summit to combat spreading deserts in a warming world. […]

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Answering the Imperiled Ocean’s Silent Cries for Help

BREST, France, February 25, 2022 (ENS) – “Immense, restless and wild,” the ocean is beset by dangers, but solutions do exist and Europe is ready to lead the way to healthier seas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told attendees at the high-level segment of the One Ocean Summit in Brest on February 11. […]

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Offshore Winds Blow Everywhere

BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 23, 2022 (ENS) – “Offshore wind has the biggest growth potential of any renewable energy technology, but the policy environment needs to improve rapidly for offshore wind to reach international net zero targets,” the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council said in its latest Offshore Wind Report 2021. […]

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Women Sweep UN’s 2021 Champions of the Earth Awards

NAIROBI, Kenya, December 23, 2021 (ENS) – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been awarded the 2021 Champions of the Earth Award, the United Nations’ highest environmental honor, for her policy leadership. Mottley heads the first entirely female selection of awardees; others were recognized for their work on coral bleaching in the Pacific, protecting wildlife health in Uganda, and entrepreurship in Kyrgystan. […]

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Climate Polluters Collaborate on Carbon-Free Nuclear Fusion

PARIS, France, November 1, 2021 (ENS) – In the tiny 10th century French town of Saint-Paul-lès-Durance in Provence, the largest scientific research collaboration in history is underway in the most expensive building ever built. The international nuclear fusion megaproject has brought all the countries that top the greenhouse gas emissions list together in an unprecedented global collaboration. […]