In connection with air quality, the Trnava Autonomous Region (hereinafter TTSK) is one of the less problematic areas, as the air quality here is not significantly (more…)

A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says energy-related CO2 emissions will rise to record levels in 2023, reports Agence France Presse. In its annual emissions update, the IEA says CO2 emissions rose by 1.1 % in 2023, rising by 410 million tonnes (MtCO2) to a record 37.4 billion tonnes – but slowing from a gain of 490 million tonnes CO2 in 2022 , the outlet reports. It notes that "growth has slowed compared to previous years due to the continued expansion of clean technologies." Bloomberg quotes the IEA as saying that "without clean energy technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions over the past five years would have been three times greater." (Carbonbrief, more at france24.com)

Over the last few years we have spent a lot of time researching new ways to produce green hydrogen using renewable energy – it is a very promising clean fuel with all kinds of applications. Stored as a cryogenic liquid or compressed gas, it can be burned as a hydrocarbon fuel substitute with relatively little modification to normal internal combustion engines. It can also be run through a fuel cell to produce electricity, which acts as a type of liquid/gas battery.

But in general, you need a lot of fresh water to produce it—about 9 L (2 gallons) of water for every 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of hydrogen you produce. And the electrolysis process, although improving, is still lossy. So every time you divert precious renewable energy from the grid to produce hydrogen, you're throwing away a percentage. This is somewhat redundant given the massively increasing energy demands that power grids around the world have to meet while also getting rid of the cheap, simple and dirty energy sources of the past. (Loz Blain, more at newatlas.com)

Countries must act now to address climate change, and collaborative approaches are needed that connect citizens with policymakers to create sustainable solutions. The Paris Agreement states that countries should "reach the global maximum of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible" and "then undertake rapid reductions in accordance with the best available scientific knowledge".

To this end, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), a member institution of UNAI in the UK, has partnered with the Carbon Literacy Project to promote an economy based on low-carbon energy sources with minimal emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.

The partnership seeks to galvanize a wide range of stakeholders to create a low-carbon culture by making climate change education accessible to everyone. MMU is pioneering carbon literacy in higher education as one of the first universities in the world to help students become carbon literate through its innovative carbon literacy training model for staff and students (CL4SS) in equal measure. (More on www.un.org)

A new wave of climate lawsuits is targeting state institutions that still provide public funding (more…)

The EU Nature Restoration Act received the green light from the European Parliament this week. The long-awaited 'nature restoration' law aims to repair the EU's damaged ecosystems over the next few decades. 

The final vote on the law came in the middle  farmers' protests across the EU and in response to canceling some other environmental  plans block. 

The law has become the focus of misinformation in recent months a experienced strong opposition from various groups. (CarbonBrief, more at carbonbrief.org)

Nano and microplastics are seemingly everywhere – water, soil and air. Although trying to get rid of these plastic ones (more…)

Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, together with 60 partner countries, presented several measures to achieve progress (more…)

Professor Brett Christophers, a researcher at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Sweden's Uppsala University, warns the Guardian, (more…)

A document that is published in a journal  Weather and Climate Dynamics with open (more…)

The EU Nature Restoration Act, agreed with Member States, will restore degraded ecosystems in all Member States, help achieve EU climate and biodiversity goals and increase food security.

To reach the EU's overall targets, Member States must restore at least 30 % of habitats covered by the new law (ranging from forests, grasslands and wetlands to rivers, lakes and coral reefs) from poor to good status by 2030, increasing to 60 % by 2040 and 90 % by 2050. In line with Parliament's position, EU countries should prioritise by 2030  Natura 2000 areas. Once the area is in good condition, EU countries will ensure that it does not deteriorate significantly. Member States will also have to adopt national recovery plans detailing how they intend to achieve these targets. (More on europarl.europa.eu)

David Wallace-Wells asks in his New York Times column, “How deadly can climate change be?” (more…)

If you want to secure climate change grants to support sustainable development, it is important to go through (more…)

Discover key insights from the Investment Barriers Report 2023, the European Investment Bank Group's authoritative assessment of investment barriers in the European Union. The report highlights the key role of investment in the economy, while detailing the constraints that hinder investment at national and EU level. This year's report focuses in particular on the role of commercial power purchase agreements in renewable energy projects, climate-resilient investments in transport systems, antimicrobial resistance, the forestry sector and cross-border infrastructure projects. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the investment environment within the European Union. (More on eib.org)

Antarctica and cover an area equivalent to the size of Greenland. The findings are part of the first-ever study of changes in the thickness of Antarctic ice shelves – extensions of land ice that float on the ocean – dating back to 1973. Previous observations date back only to 1992.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh used satellite images from the 50-year archive of the NASA/United States Geographical Survey (USGS) Landsat program to track variations in the appearance of points on the ice surface.

Anchor points are formed when a portion of a floating ice sheet becomes anchored to a ridge on the ocean floor , creating a visible bump on the otherwise smooth surface of the ice shelf. (University of Edinburgh, more at phys.org)

A new EEA briefing finds that while European countries are already taking many initiatives on waste management, (more…)

According to the latest data from the European Drought Observatory (EDO), analyzed by AFP, 45 percent of southern Europe suffered from soil drought, with 2.8 percent reaching the highest warning level in the first 10 days of February. Meanwhile, according to Copernicus, a quarter of all of Europe and North Africa are in drought conditions , with 19.3 percent of the region's land at an "alert" level, meaning a moisture deficit is underway.

The alert level covers 2.5 percent of the region, meaning vegetation is growing abnormally due to an advanced stage of drought, according to AFP calculations.

The situation has worsened since the end of January, but has slightly improved compared to the same period last year, when 31.3 percent of the territory was dry.

The western Mediterranean region, including southern Italy, Spain, northern Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, was particularly hard hit. (More on phys.org)

A survey by the European Commission shows that many respondents see that the EU authorities are well prepared to respond to the increase in natural risks due to climate change in Europe. In addition, respondents believe that the EU's coordinated preparedness and response should prioritize forest fires, floods and climate change-related cyclone disasters over health emergencies, earthquakes and other types of disasters. (More on climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu)

Negotiators from the Parliament and the Council reached a provisional political agreement on Tuesday on new measures to (more…)