Tag - environment

 
 

ENVIRONMENT

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.
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.
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.
Members of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission have agreed to cut the 2024 catch quota for saury in the high seas in the northern Pacific in response to declining resources.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2024
Japan and others agree to cut northern Pacific saury catch quota
Nine economies agreed to introduce the rule to calculate catch quotas based on scientific evidence.
The combination of subsidence and rising sea levels is set to be a defining problem for Chinese cities; last year thousands of residents were evacuated from apartments in Tianjin after nearby streets split apart.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 19, 2024
China’s cities are sinking below sea level, study finds
An estimated 16% of the country’s major cities are losing more than 10 millimeters of elevation per year.
Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto attends a ceremony to unveil the official uniforms of Team Japan for the Paris Games, in Tokyo on Wednesday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 18, 2024
How green are your trainers? Team Japan uniforms to have carbon footprint labels
Japanese Olympians stepping up to the podium in Paris will have more than just a medal to be proud of this summer.
A worker inspects solar panels that provide electrical power to Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 2023. High-ranking scholars and clergy have issued fatwas, or edicts, on how to rein in climate change. On a smaller scale, Muslim activists are telling their friends, family and neighbors that their duty to save the environment is embedded in the Quran.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 17, 2024
What can ‘Green Islam’ achieve in the world’s largest Muslim country?
Proponents of the movement say educating 200 million Muslims on environmental awareness could drive much needed change.
Outside of some activist movements pressing governments for more climate action, global warming is not yet at the heart of the political agenda in most countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024
Climate change is political and we must treat it that way
Climate action hasn't made its way onto mainstream political agendas in most countries, to the detriment of our collective ability to solve the crisis.
Black bears have been added to the list of "designated wildlife species for control" by the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2024
Japan adds black and brown bears to subsidized hunting list
The government is stepping up the control measures as bear attacks on humans hit a record high in fiscal 2023 that ended in March.
Japan and other countries are holding annual talks on saury catch quota.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2024
Japan and eight other countries discuss saury catch rules
Slated to run until Thursday, the talks will focus on setting calculation rules to allocate catch quotas.
Yukio Kani, chairman and global CEO of Jera
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024
Japan’s top power producer Jera considers IPO to fund green push
The Tokyo-based company plans to develop 20 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by fiscal 2035.
On average between 1991 and 2020, the highest temperature in Sapporo on April 15 was 11.5 degrees Celsius, but the temperature rose above 25 degrees on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024
Japan's Sapporo sees earliest 25C day since records began
A city known for the 1972 Winter Olympics and hosting one of the country's biggest snow festivals saw summer-like temperatures.
Signage for MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in Tokyo. A coalition of climate groups filed shareholder proposals with the three banks calling for stricter board oversight of climate-related risks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024
Climate investors target board oversight of top Japan banks: sources
The proposal marks the first time climate groups have targeted bank boards as a way to pressure the lenders on climate change.
Japan's emissions in fiscal 2023 represents a 23% reduction from 2013 levels, but it’s still a way off from the 46% reduction the government has pledged to make by 2030.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2024
Japan’s annual emissions drop as industrial pollution shrinks
Emissions slipped 2.3% in the year ending March 2023 to 1.085 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the environment ministry said.
An Apple store in Shanghai. Apple manufactures iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches in Vietnam and suppliers for MacBooks are also investing in the country.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 11, 2024
Activists press Apple over Vietnam's detention of climate experts
Apple manufactures iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches in Vietnam and suppliers for MacBooks are also investing in the country.
Anne Mahrer and Rosmarie Wydler-Walti talk to journalists at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 10, 2024
In landmark climate ruling, European court faults Switzerland
Experts said it was time an international court determined that governments were legally obligated to meet their climate targets under human rights law.
Anne Mahrer and Rosmarie Wyder-Walti talk to journalists after the verdict of the court in the climate case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Apr 9, 2024
Swiss climate policy shortcomings violated human rights, top court rules
The European court's decision on the case, brought by more than 2,000 Swiss women, could have a ripple effect across Europe and beyond.
Flames blaze from a chimney at Western Europe's largest liquefied natural gas plant, Hammerfest LNG, in Hammerfest, Norway, on March 14.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 9, 2024
Banks made big climate promises. A new study doubts they work.
Researchers found a reduction in lending to sectors targeted under the pledges was the same as for banks that had not made the same commitment.
Jera's thermal power station in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, recently started co-firing coal with 20% of ammonia, a technology supported by the government's "green transformation," or GX, policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 7, 2024
Is Japan’s green transformation investing in the past or future?
Japan issued its first green transformation bonds, but the policy breathes new life into fossil fuel-based projects rather than pulling the plug on them.
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.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’