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A searing late summer heatwave has sent the Great Barrier Reef into the red zone for risk, with scientists warning that high sea surface temperatures could have already caused coral bleaching across vast areas. The reef covers about 350,000 square kilometres, larger than the UK and Ireland combined. It’s so vast and remote that the agencies which monitor its health won’t know how much bleaching has occurred until they have completed systematic aerial surveys, due by the end of March.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chief scientist David Wachenfeld said reports of minor to moderate coral bleaching, at locations scattered across the reef, had been coming in for months and now, following the heatwave, he said “the question is how bad will it get and over how big an area?“...

The 5^th UN Environment Assembly concluded today in Nairobi with 14 resolutions to strengthen actions for nature to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The Assembly is made up of the 193 UN Member States and convenes every two years to advance global environmental governance.

The world’s ministers for the environment agreed to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee with the mandate to forge an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said this was most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord.

“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said Espen Barth Eide, the...

An agreement to negotiate a new legally-binding treaty to end plastic pollution has been hailed as “the most significant environmental multilateral deal” since the Paris climate accord, by the UN Environment Programme. Representatives of 175 countries backed a resolution at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi to draw up an international legally binding agreement by 2024 to help end plastic pollution.

“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said the President of UNEA-5 and Norway’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Espen Barth Eide.

Plastic production has soared from two million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017, and is expected to double by 2040.

But plastics, made from o...

By now, many symptoms of climate change, from heat-fueled superstorms to rising sea levels, are impossible to ignore. But there’s another, less-visible consequence of global warming that is just as disturbing: the staggering loss of plants and animals and the countless benefits they provide. 

In a new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers from 67 countries warned that warming is putting a large portion of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems at risk of extinction, even under relatively conservative estimates. Never before has an IPCC report — considered the gold standard for climate science — revealed in such stark detail how climate change is harming nature. 

What ails wildlife ails us, the authors wrote...

It was the silence of the sea that first rattled the teenage snorkeler, followed by a sense of horror as she saw the coral below had been drained of its kaleidoscopic color. This once-vibrant site on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — a site she’d previously likened to a busy capital city — had become a ghost town, the victim of yet another mass bleaching event.

On that day in 2020, Ava Shearer got out of the water and cried. Today, with the release of a United Nations climate report that paints a dire picture of the Great Barrier Reef’s future, the now-17-year-old marine science student and snorkeling guide wonders what will be left of the imperiled ecosystem by the time she finishes her degree at Australia’s James Cook University.

“I definitely worry about it,” says Shea...

The government is under pressure to safeguard Britain’s marine conservation areas after analysis showed the Dogger Bank protected site has seen a threefold increase in destructive bottom trawling since Brexit. A year ago, conservationists welcomed government proposals to ban trawling and dredging fishing practices, which involve dragging weighted nets over the seabed, in 14,030 sq km (5,400 sq miles) of English waters, an area equivalent to the size of Northern Ireland. The area includes Dogger Bank and three other marine protected areas (MPAs).

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) analysed fishing data tracked by Global Fishing Watch and found bottom trawling and dredging had increased at the site from about 1,700 hours a year between 2015 and 2018, to 5,500 hours a year between...

It’s crunch time! After a two-year pandemic-driven delay, world leaders will meet at the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference (IGC4) in just weeks to decide if our oceans are worth protecting. If world leaders can agree on a Global Ocean Treaty that protects 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, it will be one of the biggest conservation victories in human history.

Nearly 5 million people globally have signed the petition to world leaders – asking for a strong Global Oceans Treaty. Will you add your name to amp up the pressure during this crucial moment? Take action: Demand a strong global oceans treaty before IGC4 begins on March 7th. 

As Greenpeace USA’s Ocean Campaign Director, I have sailed around the world to sound the alarm for our dying oceans and confron...

Three in four people worldwide want single-use plastics to be banned as soon as possible, according to a poll released on Tuesday, as United Nations members prepare to begin talks on a global treaty to rein in soaring plastic pollution. The percentage of people calling for bans is up from 71% since 2019, while those who said they favoured products with less plastic packaging rose to 82% from 75%, according to the IPSOS poll of more than 20,000 people across 28 countries.

Activists say the results send a clear message to governments meeting in Nairobi this month to press ahead with an ambitious treaty to tackle plastic waste, a deal being touted as the most important environmental pact since the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015.

“People worldwide have made their views clear,...

“The planet is facing a triple crisis — climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution,” the United Nations Secretary-General said, adding that “we need the international community to intensify efforts to protect the ocean.”

Speaking at the recent One Ocean Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The ocean shoulders much of the burden. It serves as a giant carbon and heat sink. As a result, the ocean is growing warmer and more acidic, polar ice is melting and global weather patterns are changing. Ocean ecosystems are suffering. So, too, are the communities who rely on them. More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. The number of marine species is dropping. Coral reefs are dying.

“Coastal ecosystems have...

Big banks are pumping billions into new oil and gas production despite net zero pledges, campaigners have said. Banks including HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are still backing new oil and gas despite being part of a green banking group, ShareAction said. Investors should force banks to demand green plans from fossil fuel firms before funding them, it said. HSBC and Barclays said they were focused on achieving environmental goals.

“Net zero” means not adding to greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere by cutting and trying to balance out emissions.

If the Earth is to avoid damaging environmental effects, including more extreme weather, it needs to limit average global warming to below 1.5 degrees centigrade.

To achieve this, we need to get to net zero by 2050, experts have sa...