For the first time in years Europe plans to hunt more whales than Japan. This has divided European Union countries and is dismaying conservationists.
A 400km-long fence will enclose one of Africa’s most rugged national parks, writes John Vidal.
Production is soaring in Alberta’s bitumen belt, but the environment is suffering, writes John Vidal.
The future of northern Alberta’s aspen and pine woods, its rivers and animals are in doubt as the world’s greatest modern oil rush accelerates.
Several theories were emerging this week over the environmental effects of oil at a barrel or more. In the green corner were the optimists, who believe that the shock will force people to cut their energy use, invest in renewables and energy conservation, downsize their cars, take fewer foreign holidays and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Seven African governments and the world’s largest banks and construction firms meet in London on Monday to plan the most powerful dam conceived to date — an -billion hydro power project on the Congo River which, its supporters say, could double the amount of electricity available on the continent.
Developing countries, including China and India, are unwilling to sign up to a new global climate-change pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 because the rich world has failed to set a clear example on cutting carbon emissions, according to the United Nations’s top climate official.
Two years ago, the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organisation expected biofuels to help eradicate hunger and poverty for up to two billion people. Last week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon raised doubt over that policy amid signs that the world is facing its worst food crisis in a generation.
Britain is seeking to change the rules of European renewable energy targets to make it easier for the United Kingdom to fulfil its commitments. Only 3% of the UK’s power comes from renewable energy, but ministers have agreed to make this 15% within 12 years. To help reach this goal, the government has started lobbying the European Union over the way the target is calculated.
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/ 28 January 2008
In an expanse of grey rock and dust in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the United Arab Emirates is about to build what is being described as the world’s first sustainable city, designed by British architect Lord Foster.The site is far from promising. Miles from a polluted sea, a fierce sun raises temperatures to 50°C in the summer, and there is no fresh water, no soil and no animals.