No time to lose on ocean treaty as threats to high seas rise – Greenpeace
Singapore Reuters Governments have no time to lose when it comes to implementing a new global ocean treaty to protect the high seas as threats from human activities intensify, a report by environmental group Greenpeace said on Thursday. In March, more than 100 countries completed a groundbreaking treaty to protect the high seas after years […]
Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records – say climate experts
SingaporeReuters The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea. As envoys gathered in Bonn in early June to prepare for this year’s annual climate talks in November, […]
Plastic-spewing artwork unveiled for Paris talks against waste
Paris, FranceReuters Lobbyists Greenpeace unveiled an artwork in Paris on Saturday in the shape of a machine churning out bottles in front of an oil derrick to coincide with talks on eliminating plastic waste. Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong said his five-metre-high work by the River Seine showed the link between fossil fuels and plastic […]
UN to start taking deep-sea mining applications this July
Reuters The International Seabed Authority will start accepting applications in July from companies that want to mine the ocean’s floor, a decision that came after the UN body spent the past two weeks debating standards for the new and controversial practice. Deep-sea mining would extract cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese – key battery materials – […]
Nations secure UN global high seas biodiversity pact
Reuters Negotiators from more than 100 countries completed a UN treaty to protect the high seas on Saturday, a long-awaited step that environmental groups say will help reverse marine biodiversity losses and ensure sustainable development. The legally binding pact to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of ocean biodiversity, under discussion for 15 years, was […]
Activists urge US apology, fair compensation, for US Pacific nuclear testing
Washington DC, USReuters More than 100 arms-control, environmental and other activist groups have urged the Biden administration to formally apologise to the Marshall Islands for the impact of massive nuclear testing there in the 1940s and ’50s and to provide fair compensation. The activists, led by the by the Arms Control Association and including Greenpeace, […]
“Lots of talk, little action”: Hundreds protest outside UN Ocean Conference
Lisbon, PortugalReuters Aboriginal Australian activist Theresa Ardler travelled halfway across the world to tell leaders at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal that they are failing to protect her fishing community back home. Ardler, 50, fears the humpback whales that travel through the deep blue waters surrounding her aboriginal village of Wreck Bay, on the […]
World delegates appear to kick deal to halt nature loss into long grass
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Negotiations on an ambitious global biodiversity deal to halt or reverse nature loss closed in Switzerland on Tuesday, with countries agreeing to little more than further talks in June. The Geneva meeting of around 1,000 negotiators from 164 countries was meant to be the last before the postponed UN Convention on Biodiversity meeting […]
Domain sale could do ‘irreparable harm’ to millions of charities, NGOs warn
Davos, SwitzerlandThomson Reuters Foundation Top NGOs including Greenpeace and Amnesty International called for the $US1.1 billion sale of the .org internet domain to a private company to be blocked on Wednesday, saying it could do “irreparable harm”. Registrations for the millions of nonprofits whose websites end in .org are overseen by the Internet Society (ISOC), […]
Deep sea mining could destroy “our last frontier”, environmentalists say
New Delhi, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation As India readies for the United Nations to give a green light to deep sea mining and boost its economy, the environmental group Greenpeace said on Wednesday that drilling the seabed could cause irreversible harm and worsen climate change. Without proper governance of the seas, mining could remove entire habitats […]