Environment | WPN World People News

Dhaka and other cities face severe air and water pollution due to rapid and unplanned urbanization. To achieve an upper-middle income status, Bangladesh must check environmental degradation, particularly in the urban areas and become climate resilient, says a new World Bank analysis.

The world’s first ever national inquiry into the responsibility of the fossil fuel industry for the human rights impacts resulting from climate change hits and important milestone in the Philippines on 11 December - one day after Human Rights Day (10 December). Companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Suncor and Repsol, are being asked to explain their role in making climate change worse.

A multiannual fisheries plan to tackle overfishing and offer more security to North Sea fishermen was agreed by MEPs and EU ministers on Thursday.

Ocean plastic trash

On December 5, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approved a settlement and issued a final decision on contested issues in the Puget Sound Energy (PSE) rate case. The Commission decision allows PSE to recover costs for the eventual closure and clean-up of four coal-fired generating units at the Colstrip Power Plant in Montana while protecting Washington energy customers.

Swedish company Husqvarna AB and its U.S. affiliate, Husqvarna Consumer Outdoor Products N.A., Inc., have agreed to pay a $2.85 million civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice announced on December 5.

A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a former high-level Volkswagen manager to seven years in prison for his part in the scheme to cheat emissions tests and defraud consumers.

Mother and baby next to a traditional cook stove in Bangladesh.

Species of wild rice, wheat and yam are threatened by overly intensive agricultural production and urban expansion, whilst poor fishing practices have caused steep declines in the Irrawaddy Dolphin and Finless Porpoise, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. The Red List update also reveals that a drying climate is pushing the Ringtail Possum to the brink of extinction.