The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since …
IFAW’s research report, Disrupt: Wildlife Cybercrime – Uncovering the scale of online wildlife trade, highlights the scale and nature of the online trade in protected live animals and animal products, as well as the threat this trade poses to their survival. The latest in a long line of research, this …
Countries rely on out-of-pocket (OOP) spending to different degrees and employ varying techniques. The article examines trends in OOP spending in ten high-income countries since 2000, and analyzes their relationship to self-assessed barriers to accessing health care services. The countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, …
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion, conducted by James Blundell, an English obstetrician working just across the Thames from The Economist’s offices. Today blood is big business—with global exports worth more, in 2016, than global exports of aeroplanes. But that trade is distorted …
The five glaciers in Bavaria which today cover a total area of less than one square kilometer were frequently monitored by geodetic methods from the mid of the 20th century. In this paper, the record is extended by new surveys in 1999 and 2006. The glaciers show a prolonged surface …
People in Germany's small towns and rural areas are turning to renewable energy in a process that has special lessons for countries like India. Learning how Germany's citizen-owned, highly-decentralised energy transition, named Energiewende, is working to decarbonise the economy, could be most useful for India, the third-biggest solar installer after …
Tourism accounts for around 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study that marks the first attempt to quantify the industry’s total carbon footprint. In an ambitious paper published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, an international team of scientists has quantified the environmental …
Tourism contributes significantly to global gross domestic product, and is forecast to grow at an annual 4%, thus outpacing many other economic sectors. However, global carbon emissions related to tourism are currently not well quantified. Here, we quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 countries, and their carbon footprints under …
UN Climate Change yesterday launched its first-ever Annual Report, laying out the key 2017 achievements and pointing to the future of the climate change process. The report covers many areas of the 2017 work of UN Climate Change, which includes the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol and …
Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2017, largely thanks to the closure of coal-fired power plants, but car-makers and factories still need to do more to cut pollution, government officials said on Tuesday. Overall emissions in Europe’s biggest economy fell 0.5 percent through the year, according to preliminary data released …
The African Trade Insurance (ATI) and European Investment Bank (EIB) have launched a $1 billion Renewable Energy Facility for sub-Saharan Africa. The facility is supported by the government of Germany and the EU as part of their commitment to backing the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. The facility was …
Dar es Salaam — Tanzania and Germany have agreed to strengthen cooperation on scientific research involving various wildlife species. The commitment was made over the weekend by the director general of the Berlin Museum of Natural History, Prof Johannes Vogel, to the permanent secretary of ministry of Natural Resources and …
The Germany government says thousands of people die prematurely each year from the harmful effects of nitrogen dioxide, a gas that’s also produced by diesel engines. According to a study released March 8 by the Federal Office for the Environment, almost 6,000 people died prematurely in 2014 from illnesses that …
German cities should fight air pollution by charging drivers tolls according to their vehicle's emissions, rather than slapping general bans on older models, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said Wednesday. After a top court last month ruled driving bans in some city zones for the most polluting diesel vehicles were …
One of Germany’s top courts will rule next week on whether heavily polluting vehicles can be banned from the urban centres of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, a landmark ruling which could cause traffic chaos and dramatically hit the value of diesel cars on the country’s roads. First fall in car sales …
A court will decide on Thursday whether German cities can ban heavily polluting cars, potentially wiping hundreds of millions of euros off the value of diesel cars on the country’s roads. Environmental group DUH has sued Stuttgart in Germany’s carmaking heartland, and Duesseldorf over levels of particulate matter exceeding European …
German ministers have announced that free public transportation will be trialled in five cities by "the end of this year at the latest" in an effort to reduce road traffic, meet EU air pollution targets and avoid hefty fines. Three ministers, including the environment minister Barbara Hendricks, wrote a letter …
Anthropogenically released CO2 accumulates in the global carbon cycle and is anticipated to imbalance global carbon fluxes. For example, increased atmospheric CO2 induces a net air-to-sea flux where the oceans take up large amounts of atmospheric CO2 (i.e., ocean acidification. Research on ocean acidification is ongoing, and studies have demonstrated …
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany faces growing risks and high costs if it does not revamp its financial system to focus more on climate change and sustainability, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund and finance groups including Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE). The study faulted German conservatives and Social …
Heat accounts for over half of global energy consumption and is a significant contributor to CO2 emissions. Renewables play a key role in decarbonising and providing cleaner heat but currently account for less than 10% of heat supply. A range of barriers need to be overcome to increase renewable heat …
Berlin - Germany's Siemens says it has signed contracts worth some $824m to build two gas-powered electricity plants in Libya. The Munich-based industrial conglomerate said on Monday that the plants will be built in Misrata and Tripoli and that the value of the contracts with the state-owned General Electricity Company …
