Environment | WPN World People News

“We want an open debate with all players so we can make palm oil production sustainable, without cutting down forests and in compliance with dignified human rights conditions”, said Kateřina Konečná (GUE/NGL, CZ) who drafted the resolution, which was approved by 640 votes to 18, with 28 abstentions.

The Arctic Ocean urgently needs protection as melting sea ice is opening up previously inaccessible areas to activities such as shipping, bottom trawl fishing and oil exploration, according to a scientific report launched by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), on April 4th, in partnership with the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre.

With more than 170 peaceful protests, marches and festivals in over 60 countries around the world, the growing movement to Break Free from fossil fuels shows it is tireless, unified and unstoppable.

The fact that diesel cars’ nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are much higher in real driving conditions than in laboratory tests was known to the EU member states and Commission over a decade ago. They should now act swiftly to improve tests and checks on new cars on EU roads, say MEPs in recommendations voted on Tuesday. In a separate vote, MEPs also amended EU “type approval” rules to make environmental and safety testing more independent, with stricter oversight of cars already on the road.

Sustainable energy.

The current pace of progress on three global energy goals – access to electricity, renewable energy and efficiency – is not moving fast enough to meet 2030 targets, according to the latest Global Tracking Framework (GTF) report released on April 3, 2017 by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency as part of the Sustainable Energy for All Knowledge Hub.

On March 30, Activists brought construction to a standstill for 13 hours at what will be the largest coal power plant in Southeast Asia. The activists are demanding the Indonesian government cancel the Batang coal power plant project and that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) pull its financial support.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), has successfully cleaned up abandoned, and potentially leaking, underground petroleum storage tanks throughout the state. Since 2013, actions taken at 381 tanks located on 157 properties have prevented contamination and paved the way for redevelopment.

In an effort to protect one of the most important places for migratory birds on the Pacific Coast, on March 30, conservation and hunting groups filed suit to stop a large expansion of oyster farming in Humboldt Bay that will dramatically increase the footprint of existing oyster operations. This unprecedented expansion in Humboldt Bay—which would increase the state’s aquaculture acreage by 34 percent—would cause irreparable damage to eelgrass beds and mudflats that migratory birds such as Brant and Western Sandpiper need to survive.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on March 30, announced a legal agreement with the Sherwin-Williams Company to clean up lead and arsenic contaminated soil and sediment at the Route 561 Dump site in Gibbsboro, N.J. The site is near a former paint manufacturing plant and was used as a paint waste dump. The Route 561 Dump site includes businesses, a vacant lot, White Sand Branch creek, and wetlands. Sherwin-Williams will pay an estimated $14 million to clean up the site, and pay the EPA’s expenses in overseeing the work.