Environment | WPN World People News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined a New Mexico company for improperly applying pesticides at the Sky City School in the Pueblo of Acoma. B&Y Pest Control had been contracted to address a prairie dog infestation at the school in June 2015.

The inquiry committee into emission measurements in the car industry (EMIS) continued its work on Monday afternoon by hearing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Chief Technical Officer Harald Wester, who was quizzed mainly on possible “defeat devices” in Fiat diesel engines and gap between emission values in laboratory testing and real driving conditions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined a Portland, Oregon based remodeling firm, Hammer and Hand Inc., $69,398, for failing to comply with federal lead-based paint rules. EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule protects the public from lead-based paint health hazards during repair or remodeling activities in housing built before 1978. Hammer and Hand failed to follow lead-safe work practices while performing renovation work on two older homes in Portland last year.

The Planning and Development Department of the Government of Sindh and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have launched a Secretariat for the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative in Karachi.

“WFP’s work is helping build a more food-secure future both for the poorest Ugandans and for refugees. It also comes with economic benefits for the country as a whole,” said WFP Acting Country Director Mike Sackett. “By purchasing food within Uganda for distribution to needy areas within and beyond its borders, WFP is empowering small-scale farmers and private sector traders, and helping Uganda achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

Geothermal energy is converted into electricity and used to heat the Gourmet Mokai glasshouse in New Zealand which grows tomatoes and peppers.

The backer of a proposed coal export terminal that would have brought as much as eight million tons of coal to Oregon on barges through the Columbia River Gorge has backed out of the project.

More than 170 countries today agreed to amend the Montreal Protocol to allow the phase out of hydroflurocarbons (HFCs).

To mark World Food Day 2016, the United Nations is highlighting the close links between climate change, sustainable agriculture, and food and nutrition security, with the message: “The climate is changing. Food and agriculture must, too.”

Marking the International Day of Rural Women, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that rural women are critical to the success of almost all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they all “have gender equality and women's empowerment at their core.”