Wind power in Finland has more than doubled since 2020 to supply a quarter of the country’s energy. The closure of a coal power plant in Finland today brings the country to the brink of a full coal phase-out – four years ahead of schedule. Power utility company Helen officially decommissioned its Salmisaari plant in […]
More than 47,000 species around the world are threatened with extinction, according to the latest update of a global Red List of endangered animals, plants and other organisms. The figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature highlight how factors such as deforestation and the expansion of agricultural and urban areas are causing an irreversible loss of species. […]
Political changes, higher defence spending and a shift in focus towards national priorities have seen many European aid budgets slashed recently. Several key Western European countries including the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France and the Netherlands have slashed their aid budgets considerably in the last few months. This trend comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions and global […]
In the past, intact forests absorbed 7.8 billion tonnes of CO2 annually — about a fifth of all human emissions — but their carbon storage is increasingly at risk from climate change and human activities such as deforestation. A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that failing to account for […]
Since satellites began tracking it, Arctic sea ice’s winter peak has shrunk by an area about the size of Pakistan. Arctic sea ice had its weakest winter buildup since record-keeping began 47 years ago. It is a symptom of climate change that will have repercussions globally, scientists said Thursday. The Arctic reaches its maximum sea […]
A Dubai lawyer who has spent four decades studying plants and animals native to the Emirates has had a species of gecko named after him. Scientists have named it Feulner’s semaphore gecko (Pristurus feulneri) after Gary Feulner. The name is a reference to how it communicates using its tail and body. The gecko is commonly found across […]
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said that the clean energy transition can be “Europe’s economic engine-room”. Installation of renewable energy worldwide hit a record high last year, with 92.5 per cent of all new electricity brought online coming from the sun, wind or other clean sources, an international agency reports. Nearly 64 per cent of […]
Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous pollutants. Created through a combination of soft chemistry gels and electrospinning — a technique where electrical force is applied to liquid to craft small fibers — the team constructed thin fiber-like strips of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a […]
There is major debate over the consequences for oceans and over the exact benefits for the climate. From the grounds of a gas-fired power plant on the eastern shores of Canada, a little-known company is pumping a slurry of minerals into the ocean in the name of stopping climate change. Whether it’s pollution or a […]
UAE scientists have sounded the alarm over the uncertain future of dozens of at-risk wild varieties of staple crops, which could hold the key to strengthening the food chain against the growing threat of climate change. New research has highlighted that the Emirates is home to 87 crop wild relatives (CWRs), some of which possess genes which […]
