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A global plastics treaty is being negotiated in Ottawa this week – here’s the latest

MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM / shutterstock Antaya March, University of Portsmouth; Cressida Bowyer, University of Portsmouth, and Steve Fletcher, University of Portsmouth Plastic pollution spans the globe, yet national policies are generally not effective enough, and have so far focused primarily on … Continue reading

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Scotland is ditching its flagship 2030 climate goal – why legally binding targets really matter

Sam Fankhauser, University of Oxford The Scottish government has rescinded its 2030 target of a 75% emissions cut to greenhouse gas emissions, relative to 1990. The target was statutory, meaning it had been set in law in the Emissions Reduction … Continue reading

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Green cement production is scaling up – and it could cut the carbon footprint of construction

A new first-ot-its-kind green cement plant in Redding, California, has 70% lower emissions than conventional cement production. Fortera, CC BY-ND Jamie Goggins, University of Galway Aside from water, concrete is the most-used material in the world, with about 14 billion … Continue reading

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Survey reveals UK butterfly winners and losers in the wake of record high temperatures

Marbled white butterfly. Iain H Leach/Butterfly Conservation, CC BY-ND Marcus Rhodes, University of Exeter Butterflies are important bellwethers of environmental change. Highly sensitive to climatic conditions and undergoing large fluctuations in abundance from year to year due to vagaries of … Continue reading

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Only 57 producers are responsible for 80% of all fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions since 2016 – new report

StockStudio Aerials Matthew Carl Ives, University of Oxford; Belinda Wade, The University of Queensland, and Saphira Rekker, The University of Queensland Just 57 companies and nation states were responsible for generating 80% of the world’s CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels … Continue reading

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