Paulina Hennig-Kloska, who was appointed climate and environment minister in December 2023, said that the half-year moratorium in forests across the country was the first step to limiting logging. The government promised in its coalition agreement to protect 20% of the country’s forests.
Poland to halt logging in 10 of its most ancient forest Read more
New research used 713 population surveys from 103 protected areas from Tanzania southwards to calculate rates of growth or decline from 1995-2020, covering more than 290,000 savannah elephants, 70% of the total in Africa. The scientists found that overall, populations had grown at 0.16% a year for the past quarter of a century.
Elephant populations stabilize in southern Africa Read more
A long-awaited suicide prevention barrier at the Golden Gate Bridge has been completed, marking the culmination of a tireless campaign by families who lost loved ones at the famous structure. Crews had been working to finish installing stainless steel nets on both sides of the bridge before a promised 2024 deadline.
Suicide-prevention net beneath Golden Gate Bridge completed Read more
The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours, according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh. Fossil fuels have been increasingly squeezed out of the electricity system by a surge in renewable energy generation combined with higher electricity imports from France and Norway and a long-term trend of falling demand.
U.K. use of gas and coal for electricity at lowest since 1957 Read more
Since the 2000s, Uruguay has installed about 50 windfarms across the country, decarbonized the grid, and bolstered its hydropower. Now, depending on the weather, anything between 90% and 95% of its power comes from renewables. In some years, that number has crept as high as 98%.
Uruguay now generates more than 90% of its electricity from renewables Read more
In a powerful victory for climate campaigners, the Brussels court of appeal ordered Belgium to cut its planet-heating pollution by at least 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. By 2021, Belgium had cut its emissions by just 24%. The court rejected arguments that Belgium’s impact on the climate crisis was limited by its small size.
Belgian court of appeals has ordered the country’s government to cut emissions faster Read more
“The EU will finally assume responsibility for its plastic waste by banning its export to non-OECD countries,” said Pernille Weiss, a Danish member of the European parliament. “Once again, we follow our vision that waste is a resource when it is properly managed, but should not in any case be causing harm to the environment or human health.”
E.U. agrees to ban exports of waste plastic to poor countries Read more
The court’s decision requires Galveston County to redraw its 2021 map by October 20. The revised lines must include at least one district with a majority of Black and Latino people among the four districts that elect representatives to the county’s commissioners’ court.
Judge overturns Galveston’s discriminatory electoral map in a voting rights victory Read more
Developed with the international police organization Interpol, whose database of cultural objects stolen from museums, collections and archeological sites worldwide lists more than 52,000 artefacts, the $2.5m virtual museum should open in 2025.
UNESCO to launch world’s first virtual museum of stolen cultural artifacts Read more
Wab Kinew, the 41-year-old head of the leftwing New Democratic party (NDP), has led the province’s party since 2017. A former rapper, broadcast journalist and university administrator, Kinew said his newly elected government will focus on reopening three emergency rooms shuttered in recent years.
Canada’s first First Nations provincial premier elected in Manitoba Read more
