GEF Council
Business

Global Environment Fund Gives $1B+ to Help Climate, Species

WASHINGTON, DC, February 9, 2024 (ENS) – The Global Environment Facility’s 186 member governments have agreed to invest $1.1 billion for international action on biodiversity, climate change, nature renewal, and pollution control, during the GEF’s first meeting as the Council of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, GBFF. […]

rhino research
Latest News

Success and Tragedy Mark First Rhino Embryo Implant

BERLIN, Germany, February 8, 2024 (ENS) – For the first time, a rhinoceros has successfully become pregnant following embryo transfer. Although the surrogate mother rhino died before she could give birth to the transferred calf, scientists say the successful embryo implantation paves the way for use of the same method to save the entire northern white rhino subspecies from extinction. […]

spraying oilseed rape field
AmeriScan

NEW YORK: First to Protect Birds, Bees From Neonic Pesticides

ALBANY, New York, January 30, 2024 (ENS) – New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law first-in-the-nation legislation to protect birds and bees from toxic neonicotinoid pesticides used on outdoor ornamental plants and turfs, and the seeds of corn, soybeans and wheat. This law is the first in the United States to limit neonicotinoid coating on seeds. […]

Daimler hydrogen fuel cell truck
Latest News

European Union to Phase Out Heavy-Duty Diesel Trucks

BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 18, 2024 (ENS) – European lawmakers today agreed on emission targets for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from heavy-duty vehicles that will phase out almost all sales of new diesel trucks by 2040. After passenger cars, heavy-duty vehicles are the second biggest transport polluter in Europe. […]

Swinton Alabama solar farm
Latest News

Stormwater Violations by Solar Farm Builder Draw Big Fines

SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 17, 2024 (ENS) – Swinerton Builders, a California-based builder of utility-scale solar farms nationwide, has agreed to pay a hefty $2.3 million penalty to settle allegations that through inadequate management of stormwater the company violated the federal Clean Water Act … […]

flooding DRC
At Risk

Flooding Congo River Overwhelms Countries on Both Banks

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, January 12, 2024 (ENS) – After two months of heavy rain, the waters of the Congo River have risen higher than anyone has seen them in more than 60 years. The flooding rains have claimed more than 300 lives and disrupted 300,000+ households in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 17 lives in the Republic of the Congo, authorities on both sides of the river said. […]

electric school bus
Latest News

Electric School Buses Have Another Billion-Dollar Year

WASHINGTON, DC, January 9, 2024 (ENS) – Imagine waiting for the school bus – you’re trying to remember algebra for a test, you didn’t get much sleep because of your asthma, and the diesel school bus pulls up, reeking of emissions, making it hard for you to breathe again today. […]

Scientists deploy ROV
Latest News

WWII Munitions, DDT Remain on Southern California Seafloor

SAN DIEGO, California, January 7, 2024 (ENS) – Tons of munitions, petrochemicals, chemicals from manufacturing the pesticide DDT, and other hazardous materials were dumped for decades in deep ocean basins off the coast of Los Angeles, scientists from three California universities are discovering. […]

South Africa Mabola River
Land Use/Forests

Weak South African Law Allows Mining in Protected Areas

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, January 6, 2024 (ENS) – South Africa’s limited protected-area estate is increasingly coming under threat from mining. This is facilitated by an enabling regulatory environment that permits mining and related activities within certain protected areas. […]

Portland Harbor Superfund Site
Latest News

Oil, Chemical Firms Pay Millions to Fix Portland Harbor

PORTLAND, Oregon, December 31, 2023 (ENS) – People who eat fish that live year-round in Oregon’s Lower Willamette River are taking a big risk, as these fish contain levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls high enough to harm health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been warning for decades. […]

2019 RAM 2500 truck
Latest News

Cummins Fined Record $1.6B for RAM Emissions Defeat Devices

COLUMBUS, Indiana, December 31, 2023 (ENS) – Installing emissions defeat devices on hundreds of thousands of engines over the past decade will cost engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. $1.675 billion to settle claims that it violated the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Justice Department has announced. […]

wildfire Washington State, USA
RSS

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. […]

Indian star tortoise seized
Latest News

Interpol Links Wildlife Smuggling to Organized Crime Groups

LYON, France, December 29, 2023 (ENS) – Rare live primates, pangolins, birds, and reptiles; body parts from endangered elephants, rhinos, and big cats as well as protected tropical hardwoods have been seized in a joint Interpol – World Customs Organization operation to stop wildlife and timber trafficking. […]

wildfire Nevada
AmeriScan

IDAHO: Execs Indicted for Firefighting Fuel Truck Wire Fraud

BOISE, Idaho, December 19, 2023 (ENS) – After a court-authorized wiretap investigation, a federal grand jury in Boise, Idaho, this week charged two executives of competing companies with conspiring to rig bids for forest firefighting contracts and allocate territories in violation of the Sherman Act. […]

COP28 Final Plenary
RSS

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. […]