Environment

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile said on Thursday it would start reopening its national parks next week to give people a “well-being alternative” after weeks of coronavirus lockdowns. A general view of the Chilean capital Santiago, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker said 21 national

LISBON (Reuters) – Looking to a more environmentally-friendly future after the coronavirus, Portugal is preparing a handful of multi-billion projects including a new hydrogen plant and will revive a delayed solar auction in June, a minister said. FILE PHOTO: (L-R) Portugal’s Environment and Energy Transition Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes, Health Minister Marta Temido, Economy

(Reuters) – Improved air quality in Europe due to lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic has delivered health benefits equivalent to avoiding 11,300 premature deaths, according to a study published on Thursday. Researchers extrapolated the likely impact on diseases caused or made worse by air pollution, which has fallen dramatically as hundreds of millions of

BERLIN (Reuters) – Governments should focus on climate protection when considering fiscal stimulus packages to support an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a media statement after a video conference of EU leaders on the spread of the new coronavirus disease

FILE PHOTO: Thyssenkrupp’s logo is seen outside the elevator test tower in Rottweil, Germany, January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German companies including ThyssenKrupp, Salzgitter, Bayer, Covestro, E.ON, HeidelbergCement, Puma, Allianz and Deutsche Telekom have called for coronavirus-related state aid to be tied to climate action, daily Handelsblatt reported. “We appeal to the

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s smog-prone northern province of Hebei met its air quality targets by a big margin over the winter after concerted efforts to tackle emissions, a local official said on Sunday, without mentioning coronavirus-related factory shutdowns. Average PM2.5 concentrations over the October-March period dropped 15% from a year earlier to 61 micrograms per

GUMMERSBACH, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s forests, covering a third of its territory and as much a part of its cultural landscape as its physical one, are in danger. An aerial view shows a forest near Gummersbach, Germany, April 24, 2020, following an unusually warm, dry winter after a summer of record temperatures leaving forests dried

(Reuters) – The world is looking for signs that the arrival of warmer weather in the northern hemisphere could slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 190,000 people and sent the global economy into a tailspin as countries impose lockdowns and restrict travel. FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by

EL YUGUELITO, Mexico (Reuters) – In the shade of a rust-colored hill, a dozen women gathered on a dusty road to fill buckets from a water tanker truck that pulled up to service their modest community built on a former Mexico City dump. Grappling with the largest public health crisis in modern times, Mexican health

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected arguments by President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to limit the reach of a landmark water pollution law in a Hawaii dispute over wastewater indirectly discharged into the Pacific Ocean – a ruling hailed by environmentalists. FILE PHOTO: The Supreme Court building exterior seen in Washington,

ENTEBBE, Uganda (Reuters) – Nyakato, an orphaned baby elephant at a conservation centre in Uganda, wants to play. She flaps her small ears while poking her trunk through the fence towards her keeper. For now, her biggest problem is loneliness. But soon it may be food – cash at the 68-year-old centre where she lives

STOCKHOLM/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined calls for a combined effort to tackle coronavirus and the climate crisis, saying the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on Wednesday was the time to choose a “new way forward”. Dramatic improvements in air and water quality as coronavirus lockdowns have cut pollution have prompted calls for

A man wearing a mask sits at a bench near uncut tulips after over 100,000 tulips were cut off to avoid people visiting the Sakura Furusato Square, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Sakura, Chiba prefecture in Japan, April 22, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon TOKYO (Reuters) – Flower lovers in Japan will have to wait

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As environmentalists celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this week, a new documentary poses a sobering question. FILE PHOTO: Director Michael Moore speaks during a rally by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., February 1, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo What if wind farms, solar

LONDON (Reuters) – U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged governments to use their economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic to tackle the “even deeper emergency” of climate change, in a message for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends an interview with Reuters, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference

FILE PHOTO: People sit in a Starbucks cafe in a mall in Beijing, China, January 29, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp said on Monday it would roll out a new plant-based lunch menu in China this week, launching Beyond Meat Inc’s products in a country where it is trying to recover from