Environment

• Friday, August 9th 2019 - 08:13 UTC

  German lawmakers propose higher VAT rate on meat to combat global warming

  

  Green and Social Democrat (SPD) politicians in Germany say the 7% sales tax (VAT) rate on meat should be raised to 19% to help curb global warming and fund animal welfare improvements.

• Thursday, August 8th 2019 - 22:50 UTC

  World food security increasingly at risk due to 'unprecedented' climate change impact, new UN report warns

  

  More than 500 million people today live in areas affected by erosion linked to climate change, the UN warned on Thursday, before urging all countries to commit to sustainable land use to help limit greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late.

• Thursday, August 8th 2019 - 09:59 UTC

  Boris Johnson talks to Chilean president Piñera about trade and bilateral close links

  

  Chilean president Sebastián Piñera revealed that last Thursday he had a phone call from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and they discussed bilateral issues.

• Wednesday, August 7th 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Brazil's record on pesticides and weed killers could create problems for the Mercosur/EU trade agreement

  

  Brazil's agriculture minister on Tuesday defended a record number of pesticide and weedkiller approvals this year, saying the government was not “putting poison on anyone's plate.”

• Tuesday, August 6th 2019 - 12:55 UTC

  No end in Brazil to controversy, while deforestation continues: 67% increase over the same period last year

  

  Deforestation in Brazil's rainforest has jumped around 67% in the first seven months of the year, according to preliminary data from Brazil's space research agency, which the government has attacked as misleading and harmful to the national interest.

• Tuesday, August 6th 2019 - 09:41 UTC

  Ice patrol ship HMS Protector and crew readying for polar return

  

  The Royal Navy’s sole polar research, survey and science ship HMS Protector has come through fire, flood, breakdowns and helicopter crashes – all scenarios testing her ship’s company so that she is safe to operate thousands of miles from the UK.

• Monday, August 5th 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Sacked head of Brazil's space agency insists that rising deforestation in the Amazon was undeniable

  

  Ricardo Galvao, the sacked head of Brazil’s space research agency, said the trend of sharply rising deforestation was undeniable, a day after he was fired following a public spat with President Jair Bolsonaro over data published by the agency.

• Monday, August 5th 2019 - 09:24 UTC

  Some 20 pilot whales die stranded in Iceland in mysterious circumstances

  

  Some 20 pilot whales have died stranded in mysterious circumstances on the south-western coast of Iceland, emergency services said on Saturday, only two weeks after a similarly unexplained mass stranding had already killed dozens of the long-finned cetaceans.

• Monday, August 5th 2019 - 09:00 UTC

  Arctic buoy with yearlong Beluga recordings salvaged by Swedish icebreaker

  

  A year-long recording of the high-pitched clicks made by Beluga whales has been salvaged from the Arctic after the crew of a Swedish icebreaker chanced upon a research buoy adrift in hazardous pack ice.

• Saturday, August 3rd 2019 - 20:47 UTC

  Amazon deforestation: Bolsonaro ready to sack official who exposed him

  

  The head of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research said on Friday he was going to be sacked following a row with President Jair Bolsonaro over deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.