Scientists say that air pollution is a ‘global health catastrophe’.
Only seven countries in the world met safe air pollution levels in 2023, a new report by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir reveals.
The World Air Quality Report, released this week, draws on data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries, territories and regions.
Of these, 124 were found to breach safe levels of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. READ MORE...
The latest developments from the Ukraine war.
Zelenskyy rules out wartime elections
“Now is not the time for elections,” Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, trying to put to rest a growing debate amid Russia's grinding invasion.
"Now is the time for defence, for battle, on which the fate of the state and people depends, and not for farce, which only Russia expects from Ukraine," Zelenskyy said in a speech. "I think this is not the time for elections.
“We must come together, not divide ourselves, not disperse ourselves in quarrels or other priorities,” he added. READ MORE...
Spain has moved a step closer to investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament agreed to examine a proposal for an inquiry, after years without a large-scale probe.
The Spanish Catholic Church has so far refused to set up an independent commission, despite acknowledging more than 200 existing abuse claims over the past twenty years.
A separate 2018 report by El País has listed 1,246 victims of sexual violence by the Church since the 1930s.
The request for an investigation was made by Podemos -- a coalition partner -- as well as smaller left-wing pro-independence parties.
Meanwhile, Spain's Attorney General's Office has asked the country's 17 senior prosecutors to refer all complaints about sexual abuse in the Church within the next ten days.
The move to centralise all open cases is another unprecedented step towards an official investigation.
Unlike other countries -- such as France, Germany, and Ireland -- Spain has failed to officially examine claims of paedophilia against members of the Catholic Church.
The parliament proposal for an inquiry will soon be voted on -- with a date yet to be set.
"We are going to do it, and we are going to do it well," government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the executive was looking for "the best possible solution".
Defining nuclear and gas as sustainable has led to calls of greenwashing, threats of legal action from some EU countries and a lot of column inches dedicated to the obscurely titled 'taxonomy' system.
But what is all the fuss about?
On Wednesday, the European Commission is set to sign off on its latest plans for the EU’s taxonomy labelling system, which helps private investors identify which energy investments are sustainable.
The aim is to direct money into sustainable energy sources and help the bloc achieve its ambitious plan of being carbon neutral by 2050.
The current proposal has caused a stir by labelling nuclear and gas as sustainable sources of energy, something that has caused outrage from green activists and organisations.
When the Commission adopts the act, the Parliament and Council will have two months to raise any objections. Failing this, it will enter into force.
A majority of MEPs or 20 out of 27 member states could block the plans, but before that happens the arguments for and against marking the two energy sources as sustainable will have to be laid out.
Nuclear energy
For many, nuclear represents the perfect opportunity to maximise energy output, while minimising carbon emissions. For others, it symbolises just another environmental problem, with a solution to the disposal of radioactive waste yet to be found.
For French MEP Christophe Grudler, there is no other alternative but to include nuclear energy as a sustainable source.
“If we want to meet the Green Deal goals, we have no choice. We have to include nuclear in the taxonomy,” Grudler told Euronews.
“The question is, do we want to meet the Green Deal goals? If we want to do it, we need decarbonised energy, like nuclear. The Commission said we need around 15% of nuclear in the energy mix in 2050 to meet the goal.”
On nuclear waste, the European lawmaker – who is member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s ‘La République En Marche!’ party – says people are working hard to find an answer to the problem. READ MORE...
