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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2019

Japan's Environment Ministry plans to boost ocean cleanup budget in bid to tackle plastic waste

The Environment Ministry plans to substantially increase its budget for reducing plastic waste in the ocean in fiscal 2020, in line with an action plan adopted by relevant Cabinet ministers in May, informed sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2018

Environment Ministry seeks funding for heatstroke prevention initiative

The Environment Ministry plans to launch an initiative in fiscal 2019 to comb the country for effective measures being taken to prevent heat exhaustion and heatstroke, sources said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2016

Japan's environment minister denies mocking radiation fears of Fukushima residents

Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa came under fire Tuesday for what opposition lawmakers called an insensitive gaffe that appeared to ridicule the fears of people in Fukushima Prefecture over radiation exposure.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 26, 2015

Japan to push coal technology despite OECD subsidy cut, Japan's environment minister says

Exports of advanced technology for coal-fired power plants will help fight global warming, the nation's environment minister has said, even though the world's richest nations has decided to restrict subsidies on such exports.
WORLD
Aug 28, 2014

As roads expand fast worldwide, better planning is needed to aid agriculture and the environment: study

New roads long enough to girdle the Earth 600 times are expected to be built by 2050, and better planning is needed to protect the environment while also raising food production, a study said on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2023

Ryuichi Sakamoto, an outspoken peace and environment activist

The award-winning composer took a particularly strong anti-nuclear stance that put him at odds with Japanese officialdom.
Danish ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen hopes for a "ketchup effect" in the development of Japan's offshore wind potential.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 27, 2023

Unlocking Japan's offshore wind potential requires change in mindset

While Japan has made progress in expanding its offshore wind power, Denmark’s ambassador to Japan says that the pace of change is still too slow.
BTS fans at an event in Seoul on June 17
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 3, 2023

K-pop fans fight big coal to protect beach made famous by BTS

Environmental groups are aiming to harness the immense influence that K-pop enthusiasts have to fight climate change.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) and his minister of indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, chat during the Amazon Summit IV Meeting of Presidents of States Parties to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 9, 2023

Brazil's Lula fosters regional unity in battle to save the Amazon

The Amazon Summit is taking place in Belem, the rainforest city slated to host the United Nations’ COP30 climate meetings in 2025.
The summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, in Belem, Brazil, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / ANALYSIS
Aug 11, 2023

Despite 'weak' accord, Amazon summit calls for rich to pay up

The final joint statement demanded that developed countries make good on a promise to deliver $100 billion annually in climate financing.
A farmer examines rice in a paddy near a farm house in Dhaka.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 1, 2023

First crops, now animals: Climate change hurts Bangladesh farmers

The country's coastal regions, which make up a third of all arable land, have been hit by worsening drought, heat and water scarcity.
Minnows swimming in Lake Areau in the French Pyrenees, in Seix, southwestern France.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Sep 5, 2023

Minnows blamed for algae-filled French and Spanish lakes

Some of the tiny fish, used as live bait, have managed to escape the hooks and have thrived, devouring amphibians, insects and zooplankton.
Nadia Umana, a Colombian environmental leader threatened by criminal gangs, poses for a picture during an interview in Bogota on Aug. 30.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 13, 2023

Colombia deadliest country for green activists in 2022: report

Many of those targeted were Indigenous people, members of Afro-descendant communities, small-scale farmers and environmental activists.
Commuters ride on rickshaws on a flooded road after heavy rains in Dhaka in September.
ENVIRONMENT / ANALYSIS
Oct 19, 2023

Can pre-disaster cash and aid help fix climate loss and damage?

Anticipatory action can help avert the worst effects of climate-related disasters.
A person walks past a COP28 sign in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 28, 2023

Biggest climate talks ever confront global chaos and record heat

Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and promises to cut pollution remain insufficient to take the risk of unmanageable warming off the table.
Indigenous people fish in the Pira Parana River in Vaupes province, Colombia.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 6, 2023

Carbon credit project 'destroys everything,' says Amazon community

Some two-thirds of Indigenous territory in the rainforest falls under carbon credit projects today, research in Colombia shows.
Environmental costs are estimated at $3 trillion from current agricultural land use and food production methods, which scientists say account for a third of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jan 30, 2024

Fixing food could produce trillions in annual benefits

On the current trajectory, food systems alone will push global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, potentially soaring to 2.7 degrees by 2100.
Activists hold placards during a rally ahead of environment day in Jakarta on June 4, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 1, 2024

Green pledges lack ambition, say Indonesian youth ahead of vote

While candidates have spoken during campaigns about the urgent risks posed by climate change, in a new development, detail is missing from policies.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 29, 2024

Politicians betting the earth on climate backlash in election year

Moves to roll back green policies and downplay climate change within the world's top climate polluters follow the hottest year on record.
Drivers in California’s Marin County rely on a single hydrogen fueling station.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 6, 2024

Few stations and $200 to fill up: Life on California’s ‘hydrogen highway’

Fuel shortages and soaring prices have stalled the adoption of hydrogen cars — but proponents aren’t throwing in the towel.
A helmet jellyfish recorded at depth in the Lurefjord, Norway. The creatures experience acute physical effects from short-term exposure to suspended sediment, which could be caused by deep-sea mining.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Apr 7, 2024

The weird deep-sea world, and how mining threatens it

Demand for metals such as lithium and nickel has driven a rush to take a stake in the seabed, with Japan being a major advocate of deep-sea mining.
The United Arab Emirates was battered on Tuesday by its heaviest downpour since records began in 1949.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 20, 2024

Dubai floods expose weaknesses to a rapidly changing climate

The United Arab Emirates was battered this week by its heaviest downpour since records began in 1949.
An activist holds an umbrella during a Fridays for Future movement climate strike on Friday in Stockholm.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 22, 2024

World's largest private firms fail to set climate targets: report

The Net Zero Tracker report compared 200 of the world's largest public and private companies.
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks stand on a log as plastic bottles and trash float on the the El Cerron Grande reservoir in Potonico, El Salvador, in 2022.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 22, 2024

Negotiations on global plastic treaty to resume in Canada

After promising to finalize a treaty by the end of this year, 175 countries are meeting in Canada from Tuesday to hammer out the details.
Pine trees in a coniferous forest Canterbury, New Zealand
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 28, 2024

Millions more trees isn’t the climate fix New Zealand envisaged

The result of a project linking incentives for forestry development and emissions trading turned out to be less effective than hoped.
In Catan: New Energies, players must decide between fossil fuels and clean energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 15, 2024

In Catan: New Energies, the goal is avoiding climate catastrophe

When put to the test, players were racked by indecision, laying bare the complexity of solving climate change.
Hjelmer Hammeken, Greenland's greatest polar bear hunter, rides his dog sled to look for seals on the sea ice outside Ittoqqortoormiit, on the frozen Scoresbysund Fjord.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 19, 2024

On thin ice: Greenland's last Inuit polar bear hunters

Climate change and hunting quotas have been threatening the livelihood on which Inuit families have long survived.
Seaweed in the ocean off Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Local residents aim to restore seagrass and seaweed beds suffering from marine desertification, and their project has also been certified to receive "blue carbon" credits.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jun 23, 2024

Japan looks to 'blue carbon' to cut emissions — and restore its coasts

The nation's net zero goal has driven interest in these ecosystems, but verifying the amount of carbon stored by seaweed presents a challenge.
Workers collect detritus after the Britain's Glastonbury Festival on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 4, 2024

Music festivals seek greener footprint

The world's top 1,000 DJs took 51,000 flights in 2019, equivalent to 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to climate group Clean Scene.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?