Environment | WPN World People News

A draft law to reform the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), by reducing the surplus of carbon credits available for trading into order to support the price, was backed by Environment Committee MEPs in a vote on Tuesday. They advocated introducing the mechanism early, by the end of 2018, and also proposed preventing the automatic return to the market, from 2019, of a portion of allowances “back loaded” last year in a separate vote.

Concerned members of the public, organized by 350.org and other groups, carry a 200-yard inflatable pipeline around the Capitol Building in 2014, demanding that the President Obama reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Skagit River in Burlington, WA.

Tokelau's low-lying Nukunonu Atoll, is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Satellite images, obtained by Greenpeace Africa, show that more than 3,000 hectares of rainforest bordering the Dja Faunal Reserve has already been destroyed inside the Chinese-owned Hevea Sud rubber and palm oil concession in Cameroon's Southern region. The reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to the western lowland gorilla, chimpanzees and mandrills.

A Coast Guard C-130 flies over the Arctic Ocean during an Office of Naval Research-sponsored study of the changing sea ice, ocean and atmosphere.

Oil and gas drilling in shale formations such as the formation underlying Silvertip area is commonly accomplished through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

Soil moisture 30 cm below ground projected through 2100 for high emissions scenario RCP 8.5. The soil moisture data are standardized to the Palmer Drought Severity Index and are deviations from the 20th century average.

Walruses sighted in the Chukchi Sea during a tagging survey in June 2010.

A crude oil tanker ship in Europe.