Environment

PARIS (Reuters) – Parisians confined to their flats by a lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus can at least now open their windows and breathe in fresh air, listen to the birds and enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep. French tenor singer Stephane Senechal sings from his apartment window in Paris as a lockdown

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Carbon dioxide emissions could fall by the largest amount since World War Two this year as the coronavirus outbreak brings economies to a virtual standstill, according to the chair of a network of scientists providing benchmark emissions data. FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and David Attenborough speak with school children

Giza Zoo keeper, Mohamed Rizq feeds a bear called ‘Hany’ after the zoo was closed to visitors to help prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh CAIRO (Reuters) – The chimpanzees, lions and hippos of Cairo’s zoo are getting a rare spell of

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Coronavirus-linked flight restrictions are hampering efforts to wipe out locust swarms on the verge of devastating crops in eastern Africa, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. FILE PHOTO: A man attempts to fend-off a swarm of desert locusts at a ranch near the town of Nanyuki in Laikipia county, Kenya,

FILE PHOTO: Hurricane Dorian is shown from the International Space Station more than 200 miles above the earth as it churns in the north-western Caribbean near the United States mainland in this photo taken September 2, 2019. Christina Koch/NASA/Handout via REUTERS HOUSTON (Reuters) – The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season could see a greater than average

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s biggest energy group, the state-run PGE, cannot significantly reduce carbon emissions by 2030, its Chief Executive Wojciech Dabrowski said on Thursday. “We are not able to resign from conventional energy and shift to solely renewable energy over the next ten years,” Dabrowski told a videoconference. He added that PGE will follow

LONDON (Reuters) – A climate summit that had been due to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed to 2021 because of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Wednesday, throwing new uncertainty into talks to tackle global warming. FILE PHOTO: Police outside the SEC Centre in Glasgow as the spread of the coronavirus

BEIJING (Reuters) – A spill from a tailings dam at a molybdenum mine in northeast China on Saturday has contaminated water up to 110 km (68 miles) downstream, environmental authorities said on Wednesday. Tailings dams are commonly used by mining firms to store waste remnants of ore but they have come under close scrutiny since

A long exposure picture shows cars of Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo displayed in front of a showroom of Stierli Automobile AG company in St. Erhard, Switzerland April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Swedish automaker Volvo Cars confirmed Tuesday it is in talks with California to reach a voluntary emissions agreement. Mary Nichols, who

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Air pollution has decreased in urban areas across Europe during lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, new satellite images showed on Monday, but campaigners warned city-dwellers were still more vulnerable to the epidemic. A general view shows the South Tower during the lockdown imposed by the Belgian government to slow down the coronavirus

(Reuters) – A large tornado struck the city of Jonesboro in Arkansas on Saturday, wrecking buildings and flipping cars, according to local media and images posted online. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was killed or injured by the tornado, which hit the city of about 75,000 people in the northeast of the state

(Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled measures to help oil refineries cope with fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, including waiving anti-smog requirements for gasoline and extending the deadline for small facilities to show compliance with the nation’s biofuels law. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler looks on during

A combination image distributed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on March 27, 2020, shows the average nitrogen dioxide concentrations from air pollution across Italy in March, 2019 (L), and from March 14-25, 2020, as mapped by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, a reduction that the ESA says is due to the strict quarantine measures during

OSLO (Reuters) – Equinor (EQNR.OL) will leave industry the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) lobby group over a disagreement on climate policy, the energy producer said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Equinor’s logo is seen at the company’s headquarters in Stavanger, Norway December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo The Norwegian company is undertaking a review

(Reuters) – The Trump administration has decided to ease its enforcement of environmental regulations on polluting industries to help them cope with the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: The Environmental Protection Agency headquarters is seen in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson The decision

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin, wed on Wednesday at her family’s Australia Zoo, in an event that spurred online protest as it came just hours before a ban on ceremonies with more than two witnesses took effect. Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, poses at