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Delegates react during the closing plennary session at the Fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5) after the United Nations agreed to start negotiating a world-first global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed as a watershed moment for the planet at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi on March 02, 2022. – Nearly 200 nations at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi unanimously agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalise a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024. (Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images)

A triumph for the planet over plastic pollution

World leaders unanimously agreed to develop a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution by the end of 2024

About 422 000 local jobs are tied to exports to economies with active or incoming carbon border adjustment mechanisms (Oupa Nkosi)

Carbon tax to curb big polluters

Other steps to fight climate change include improved reporting, monitoring and laws

Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. (Photo: Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Barbara Creecy: ‘You can make a difference if you want to’

The minister of environment, forestry and fisheries, likes to watch the British medical drama series Casualty, she tells Sheree Bega

The United States left the Paris accord on Wednesday, becoming the first country to ever withdraw from an international climate change pact as the fate of its presidential election hangs in the balance.

US formally quits Paris agreement as election hangs in balance

Environmentalists say Trump’s announcement that he would withdraw from the Paris agreement three years ago made it easier for countries such Australia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil to…

Cyclone Idai’s devastation of Beira.

The decade that decides our fate

If we don’t do enough, in a decade’s time there’ll be droughts, floods, wildfires and crop failure on an apocalyptic scale

A firefighter wears a flame resistant uniform as wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece. (Reuters/Costas Baltas)

World “sleepwalking into catastrophe” — WEF

World Economic Forum warns that little action is being taken on climate change as the world splinters

Climate activists say the newly agreed rulebook does not do enough to put the world on this trajectory. (Reuters)

COP24 ignores dire climate warnings

The climate conference delivered a rulebook but nations failed to pledge to do more to cut emissions

A study released in March 2017 said that pollution from 2.6-million rigged Volkswagen cars sold in Germany would likely cause 1 200 premature deaths in Europe because of the excess emissions. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters)

EU to cut new car emissions by 37.5% by 2030

The targets will require new cars sold in 2030 to emit 37.5% less carbon dioxide on average compared to 2021 levels

COP24 President Michal Kurtyka speaks during a final session of the COP24 UN Climate Change Conference 2018 in Katowice, Poland (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

COP24: Nations agree on global climate pact rules after impasse

Nearly 200 countries overcame divisions, producing 156-page rule book for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement

(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)

Sadly, vegans can’t save Earth

Reducing the carbon footprint of farming will take more than some individual action

The Paris Agreement cannot come into effect in 2020 without a rulebook, which includes a clear mandate on finance. (Graphic: John McCann/M&G)

Money issues bedevil climate talks

But SA’s delegation leader Derek Hanekom believes everyone wants to see a deal reached

The two-week talks also meant to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to poor countries already feeling the sting of deadly storms, heatwaves and droughts made worse by climate change. (Reuters)

Climate talks must be rescued from failure, warns UN chief

The two-week talks are tasked with breathing life into the 2015 Paris Agreement, which vows to cap global warming at ‘well under’ two degrees Celsius

Tom Thabane. (Reuters)

Editorial: Your earth, take action

Change is happening at such a rate that animals, plants and ecosystems cannot evolve fast enough to survive

The president is likely to weaken laws preventing deforestation of the Amazon and boost mining there. His minister of agriculture wants to lift restrictions on chemicals. (Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

Bolsonaro spells ecological disaster for Brazil – and the world

‘To make destroying the environment even easier, Bolsonaro pledged to merge the environment and agriculture ministries’

Even taking into account voluntary national pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, submitted in an annex to the Paris treaty, the Earth is on track to heat up by an unliveable 3.5? or more by century’s end. (Graphic: John McCann)

Global warming outpaces efforts to slow it — UN

New calculations by the UN’s top science panel sharply reduce the real-world potential for drawing CO2 out of the air

Even taking into account voluntary national pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, submitted in an annex to the Paris treaty, the Earth is on track to heat up by an unliveable 3.5? or more by century’s end. (Graphic: John McCann)

UN report confronts nations with tough choices on climate

Of hundreds of climate models in 2015 projecting a low-carbon future, only two or three aimed for a 1.5℃ global warming cap

Environmental activists protest in front of the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. (Reuters)

Nations round on US, allies as UN climate talks wrap up

Talks foundered over the key issue of how efforts to limit climate change are funded and how contributions are reported.

Hulot, a TV star and veteran campaigner, had rejected previous job offers from presidents but decided to give Macron the benefit of the doubt, even though he had voted for the centrist’s Socialist rival.

Macron’s green record under scrutiny as top minister quits

When Nicolas Hulot agreed to join Macron’s government, campaigners dared to hope for a radical shift towards greener policies

Gatvol Capetonian trades on untruths (Photo Archive)

Gatvol Capetonian trades on untruths

The group’s stance is in line with the rise of global populism, which is rooted in falsehood

Federal flood maps are based on risk of a “100-year-event

Property crisis looms due to sea level rise, experts warn

Many will risk losing their largest financial asset — their homes. And municipalities will forfeit huge amounts of revenue from property taxes