In partnership with The Guardian
Microplastics should be banned in cosmetics to save oceans, British MPs say
Cosmetics companies must be banned from using plastic microbeads in scrubs, toothpaste and beauty products because of the marine pollution they are causing, say a group of MPs.
Air pollution now major contributor to stroke, global study finds
Air pollution has become a major contributor to stroke for the first time, with unclean air now blamed for nearly one third of the years of healthy life lost to the condition worldwide.
What has the EU ever done for my… dinner?
We take the food on our plates so much for granted that we tend to forget that the EU engineered a secure supply after a period of shortage, disruption and even famine within Europe.
VW and Shell accused of trying to block EU push for electric cars
VW and Shell have been accused of trying to block Europe’s push for electric cars and more efficient cars, by saying biofuels should be at heart of efforts to green the industry instead.
TTIP: Chevron lobbied for controversial legal right as ‘environmental deterrent’
Chevron lobbied the EU to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decisions in a major US-EU trade deal because it would act as a deterrent against laws such as fracking bans, the Guardian can reveal.
Paris climate deal: Countries with about half of global emissions to join this year
The White House has said countries accounting for about half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions would join the Paris climate agreement this year, bringing the agreement “within striking distance” of entering into force.
Report: Coal plants use as much water as 1 billion people and consumption set to double
Coal power plants use enough water to supply the needs of 1 billion people and that will almost double if all the world’s planned power plants come online.
Ed Miliband: Tories far too able to ‘do wrong things’ on climate change
David Cameron’s government is to blame for overseeing the fraying of the UK’s cross-party consensus for action on climate change, according to Ed Miliband.
Surge in renewable energy stalls world greenhouse gas emissions
Falling coal use in China and the US and a worldwide shift towards renewable energy have kept greenhouse gas emissions level for a second year running, one of the world’s leading energy analysts has said.
![The aviation industry wants to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel partly to reduce its impact on the environment. [Photo by Timothy Spence]](https://www.euractiv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/07/aviation_emissions_plane_wings.jpeg)
Anti-insect paint and electric planes: can technology make aviation sustainable?
Insects may not seem the most obvious problem to tackle when trying to make aviation more sustainable. But avoiding them on takeoff could help cut airlines’ fuel bills and emissions by up to 10%.
EU’s ban on inefficient toasters delayed to avoid pro-Brexit press attack
The EU has put plans to regulate inefficient kettles and toasters into cold storage amid fears in Brussels that they could galvanise support for the leave campaign in the UK’s 23 June referendum.
UK only days away from losing £125m EU flood fund aid, says Farron
The UK government has been accused of being too busy arguing about Europe instead of helping communities hit by flooding, after it emerged that it has only five days left to apply for a pot of at least £125m in EU funds to tackle natural disasters.
El Niño is causing global food crisis, UN warns
Severe droughts and floods triggered by one of the strongest El Niño weather events ever recorded have left nearly 100 million people in southern Africa, Asia and Latin America facing food and water shortages and vulnerable to diseases including Zika, international aid agencies and governments have said.
UK’s first sustainable European oysters go on sale
Native European oysters that are certified as sustainable have gone on sale for the first time in the UK.
The truth about London’s air pollution
“In the morning, this traffic island is packed with children and pushchairs and they are about a metre from all the exhausts,” says Shazia Ali-Webber. She is walking her three boys to school in Hackney, the eldest of whom, Zain, is eight and asthmatic.
Brexit would return Britain to being ‘dirty man of Europe’
Britain risks becoming the “dirty man of Europe” again with filthy beaches, foul air and weak conservation laws if it leaves the European Union, a group of leading environmentalists warned on Wednesday (3 February).
Germany leads Europe in offshore wind energy growth
Germany has overtaken the UK in the rate at which it is installing wind turbines at sea, industry figures show. Globally, wind installations grew by 25% in 2014, reaching a landmark 62,000 MW of capacity, according to a separate report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
Refugees in Middle East ‘need jobs and schooling’ to ease migration crisis
Europe will resolve its migration crisis only by giving people fleeing the Middle East new reasons to stay there, such as legitimate jobs, schooling and a future, the UK’s international development secretary has said.
Norwegian industry plans to up fossil fuel production despite Paris pledge
Norway wants other countries to leave their coal and oil in the ground to meet new global climate change targets, but its industry is planning to increase production of its own fossil fuels.
E.ON completes split of fossil fuel and renewable operations
German energy giant E.ON has officially separated its fossil fuel assets into a new company, dubbed Uniper.
Sweden to impose ID checks on travellers from Denmark
Sweden is set to drastically reduce the flow of refugees into the country by imposing strict identity checks on all travellers from Denmark, as Scandinavian countries compete with each other to shed their reputations as havens for asylum seekers.
Shrimp sold by global supermarkets is peeled by slave labourers in Thailand
Every morning at 2 AM, they heard a kick on the door and a threat: get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No 31 and his wife stood in the factory with their aching hands in ice water.
Naomi Klein criticises protest restrictions at Paris climate talks
French authorities are enforcing “unprecedented restrictions on civil society” at the UN climate change talks in Paris, the author and activist Naomi Klein has said.