UNICEF Innocenti's Report Card 17 explores how 43 OECD/EU countries are faring in providing healthy environments for children. Beyond children’s immediate environments, over-consumption in some of the world’s richest countries is destroying children’s environments globally. This threatens both children worldwide and future generations. To provide all children with safe and …
A draft text of a ministerial decision on the controversial phasing out of refrigerant and global warming gases – hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – circulating in the negotiations stirred debate on late Friday night on how the talks would progress over the week when the ministers from more than 130 countries gather …
China will be "flexible" in U.N. talks for a new global climate change deal, but the key to progress is getting rich nations to keep pledges to fund mitigation steps by poorer countries, the country's top climate change official said on Tuesday. Representatives of more than 190 nations gather in …
Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 will be 8 billion to 12 billion tonnes more than the level needed to keep global warming to only 2 degrees Celsius and avoid severe climate change, a United Nations report estimated on Tuesday. The annual U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) report analysed countries' current pledges …
World governments are likely to recoil from plans for an ambitious 2015 climate change deal at talks next week, concern over economic growth at least partially eclipsing scientists' warnings of rising temperatures and water levels. "We are in the eye of a storm," said Yvo de Boer, United Nations climate …
Coal-fired power plants such as this one in Peitz, Germany, mean the gap between temperatures are unlikely to be kept to 'safe' levels of warming, according to a Unep report As world leaders prepare to meet in Poland for the latest United Nations summit on climate change, a major new …
This report contains information and recommendations on the work of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) in 2013, including: its 3rd meeting, held from 8 to 10 March 2013; its 4th meeting, held from 15 to 17 June 2013; and its 5th meeting, held from 27 to 30 August 2013, …
The European Union is on course to approve cultivation of a new type of genetically modified maize for the first time in more than a decade, according to a draft proposal from the bloc's executive seen by Reuters. The proposal was drawn up after Europe's second highest court last month …
Poland could halve its demand for coal by 2030 with a shift to renewable energies that would end its image as a laggard in European Union efforts to slow climate change, a study showed on Friday. The report, by researchers in Germany and Poland, renewable energy groups and environmental group …
The Indian Government has single-handedly blocked progress on an agreement to reduce emissions of the super-powerful greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The G20 - which includes India as the world's tenth largest economy - resolved in September to phase down the consumption and production of HFCs under the Montreal …
The European Union needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 1990 levels by 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change, according to a British government paper, likely to fuel debate on whether deeper cuts are affordable. Energy costs have shot up the political agenda across …
Poland could halve its demand for coal by 2030 with a shift to renewable energies that would end its image as a laggard in European Union efforts to slow climate change, a study showed on Friday. The report, by researchers in Germany and Poland, renewable energy groups and environmental group …
EU Finance Ministers fail to agree on putting any figure on the table at the Warsaw meet. Hopes of a commitment from the developed world to scale up finance for the short term at the Warsaw climate change conference have faded. The recently concluded meeting of EU Finance Ministers did …
Air pollution is dangerously high across many parts of Europe, resulting in premature deaths, ill health and huge economic losses linked to reduced crop yields, Europe's environmental watchdog said on Tuesday. While emissions of some pollutants have declined sharply in Europe in recent decades, more diesel cars and a rise …
The air in the small Black Sea nation is thicker with several major air pollutants than the air in any other country in Europe, according to a new study prepared by Europe’s environmental regulators. Bulgaria has the highest concentrations of the two major varieties of particulate matter, which are tiny …
Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary want the European Union to support nuclear energy projects and not to over-regulate the area, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday after a summit of the "Visegrad Four" countries. The four also threw their backing behind shale gas extraction in Europe, and …
European Union regulators are considering doubling the bloc's target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and setting a tougher binding goal for renewable energy use, EU sources said. The European Commission, the EU's executive, outlined new targets earlier this year but has yet to follow up with a firm …
Poland will reduce its carbon emissions through new technologies rather than by cutting output of polluting coal, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday. Poland relies on coal to produce more than 90 percent of its electricity and is home to the European installation that emits the most carbon dioxide …
Burning coal also costs companies and governments billions of pounds in disease treatment and lost working days Air pollution from Europe's 300 largest coal power stations causes 22,300 premature deaths a year and costs companies and governments billions of pounds in disease treatment and lost working days, says a major …
Climate change is likely to worsen floods on rivers such as the Ganges, the Nile and the Amazon this century while a few, including the now-inundated Danube, may become less prone, a Japanese-led scientific study said on Sunday. The findings will go some way to help countries prepare for deluges …
Emissions from power plants and factories covered by the European Union's carbon market fell by 1.4 percent last year, preliminary like-for-like data showed on Tuesday, helping keep the EU on track to reach its 2020 emissions reduction target. Around 10,000 installations out of some 13,000 firms operating under the EU's …
