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Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Astrid Puentes Riaño, has called on States, entities and businesses to address the dual public health and human rights crisis of air pollution.“Continued inaction on air pollution is a systemic failure,” Puentes [...]
©- - 09 march 2026 - 08:31:14 - thread Environment (477 words)


Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - As billions continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, UN climate experts on Friday highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling halfway across the world.“Air quality respects no boundaries,” said Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific [...]
©- - 05 september 2025 - 07:42:17 - thread Environment (566 words)


Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The international push for consensus on a legally binding deal to end plastic pollution proved beyond the grasp of weary UN Member States meeting in Geneva on Friday, as they agreed to resume discussions at a future date.“This has been a hard-fought 10 days against the [...]
©- - 15 august 2025 - 14:55:52 - thread Environment (606 words)


New York, US (PANA) - Trade must be part of the solution to end plastic pollution – a global problem which disproportionately affects developing countries.That assessment by UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, comes in an update published on Thursday ahead of the final round of talks to develop a legally [...]
©- - 01 august 2025 - 05:15:23 - thread Environment (539 words)


Busan, South Korea (PANA) - Talks began in Busan, South Korea, on Monday aiming to clinch a legally binding deal on plastics pollution, led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).The meeting follows two years of intergovernmental negotiations to develop a legally binding global instrument that covers land and the marine [...]
©- - 25 november 2024 - 17:40:19 - thread Environment (633 words)


Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Lead is in materials all around us, often unseen. From factories, mines and spices to being in our water supply pipes, cosmetics and toys, lead infiltrates our daily lives, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Lead paint also remains common in many countries, disproportionately affecting the poor, [...]
©- - 05 november 2024 - 08:01:21 - thread Environment (803 words)


Cali, Colombia (PANA) - Countries gathered in Colombia to work on a treaty to end plastic pollution must strive for “an ambitious, credible and just” deal that responds to the needs of communities everywhere, including some 20 million waste-pickers, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday.“We are choking on plastic,” [...]
©- - 31 october 2024 - 04:55:45 - thread Environment (479 words)


Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Unchecked climate change, wildfires and air pollution continue to have “a spiralling, negative impact on health, ecosystems and agriculture”, with millions of deaths attributed to dirty air, the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Thursday.“Almost everybody on Earth, basically nine out of 10 people breathe [...]
©- - 05 september 2024 - 12:44:38 - thread Environment (657 words)


Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – The 16th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP) began in Cape Town on Monday. South Africa becomes the first African country to host this unique conference that only focuses on one element. The Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Narend Singh [...]
©- - 22 july 2024 - 09:08:47 - thread Environment (217 words)


New York, US (PANA) - The State of Global Air (SoGA) report published in partnership with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns on Wednesday that air pollution is increasingly impacting human health - and is now the second leading global risk factor for premature death.The fifth edition of the report, [...]
©- - 19 june 2024 - 06:21:02 - thread Environment (596 words)


Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee tasked with drawing up an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution begins on Tuesday in Ottawa Canada, according to an official statement. The 7-day session will be preceded by regional consultations on issues including plastic pollution in the [...]
©- - 23 april 2024 - 13:36:40 - thread Environment (113 words)


Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) – Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa have emerged as Africa’s most polluted countries in terms of air pollution disease burden, with profound health consequences for Africa’s people and exacerbated impacts on climate change, a report prepared by Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace MENA reveals. Titled "Major Air Polluters [...]
©- - 28 march 2024 - 18:39:26 - thread Environment (809 words)


Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritius on Tuesday launched the PIM Recycling Ltd In the context of the Global Recycling Day, aiming to reinforce the recycling and recovery of plastic waste and promote the responsible use of plastics through local solutions. The Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mr Kavydass [...]
©- - 19 march 2024 - 08:01:36 - thread Environment (302 words)


Djibouti, Djibouti (PANA) - The Eastern Africa region is likely to suffer from a protracted environmental pollution whose effects could be felt over the next 30 years following the sinking of a fertiliser-laden ship, Rubymar, a regional body, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), warned on Thursday. The British-flagged ship came under [...]
©- - 07 march 2024 - 14:27:59 - thread Environment (375 words)


Juba, South Sudan (PANA) - Zero energy light bulbs and sturdy bricks for schools and homes. Some innovative communities in South Sudan are reusing waste in new ways as the world rallies to ban plastic pollution by the year’s end, with help from a small team of experts led by climate [...]
©- - 18 february 2024 - 05:55:38 - thread Environment (962 words)


New York, US (PANA) - Marking the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a powerful call for increased international cooperation to address the “global emergency” of worsening air pollution.  Airborne contaminants are one of the most significant environmental health risks. According to the [...]
©- - 07 september 2023 - 06:30:28 - thread Environment (687 words)


Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Over 2,000 delegates from around the world gathered at the UN in Geneva on Monday to discuss how best to curb chemical pollution, which has had increasingly dire consequences for health and the environment. Over the course of two weeks of meetings, countries are expected to make [...]
©- - 02 may 2023 - 05:42:00 - thread Environment (441 words)


Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – The Mauritian Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mr Kavydass Ramano, on Tuesday, said that the Environmental Awards had been launched to better showcase and valorize best environmental practices while also encouraging a major environment transformational change. Speaking in Port-Louis, Mr Ramano said the Award [...]
©- - 11 april 2023 - 10:36:19 - thread Environment (308 words)


Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritius on Wednesday launched an Air Quality Indexing (AQI) system to collect and analyse data with the view to reduce levels of key air pollutants and improve the quality of air, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. The Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change [...]
©- - 08 september 2022 - 09:36:57 - thread Environment (332 words)


Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Togolese phosphate effluents are damaging biological resources and the ecosystem in Benin, according to a communication from the Beninese minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, José Didier Tonato. Mr Tonato, who was responding to a government inquiry by the National Assembly on the issue, explained that [...]
©- - 20 june 2022 - 16:45:46 - thread Environment (381 words)


Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - The Mauritian Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mr Kavy Ramano, on Thursday, said that the government will impose penalties for littering and illegal dumping in public zones. Speaking at the launch of a National Cleaning Campaign, Mr Ramano, calling for a change in [...]
©- - 30 july 2021 - 05:46:19 - thread Environment (168 words)


Ebène, Mauritius (PANA) - The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) on Saturday launched a five-year the Indian Ocean Plastic Expedition (ExPLOI) project as a regional response against marine plastic pollution, official sources at the IOC headquarters in Ebène, in central Mauritius, said. The 6.7 million-euro project is funded by France, through the [...]
©- - 11 july 2021 - 09:59:29 - thread Environment (367 words)


Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian Blue Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping Ministry would promulgate the Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Harmful Substances Carried by Sea in Packaged Form) Regulations 2020 to prevent sea pollution from harmful chemical substances, the Government announced on Saturday morning, following its weekly Cabinet [...]
©- - 31 october 2020 - 08:36:11 - thread Environment (378 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) -  More than 400 young Africans were on Friday honoured for their leadership in addressing plastic pollution in their communities as part of the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge. At a high-level event, political leaders, senior UN officials and Grammy-nominated Ghanaian musician Rocky Dawuni lauded the leadership shown by [...]
©- - 16 october 2020 - 12:41:03 - thread Environment (787 words)


Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change minister, Kavydass Ramano, on Tuesday, told Parliament that the government will construct five Civic Amenity Centres where households can dispose of specific waste that is not collected by local authorities and can resolve the issue of illegal dumping [...]
©- - 08 july 2020 - 11:47:31 - thread Environment (338 words)


Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Human rights group Amnesty International and NGOs are stepping up pressure on oil companies to clean up the pollution of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. It said a new investigation by four NGOs has found that nearly 10 years after a clean-up was urged for areas polluted [...]
©- - 18 june 2020 - 06:05:18 - thread Environment (748 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Air pollution dropped significantly in Tunisia during the general COVID-19 health containment, which lasted about six weeks, the Tunisian National Institute of Meteorology (INM) has said in a report. The general health containment was introduced on 22 March, as part of preventive measures against the spread of [...]
©- - 27 may 2020 - 09:11:49 - thread Environment (187 words)


Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) -Wilderness Safaris, Africa’s leading ecotourism company based in Botswana, has reduced bottled water usage by 86% on its operations with the aim of eliminating the use of plastic water bottles in its camps. Warren Ozorio, Wilderness Safaris Group environmental coordinator,  said on Monday that an innovative waste reduction [...]
©- - 20 april 2020 - 14:32:03 - thread Environment (250 words)


Juba, South Sudan (PANA) – South Sudan has commenced a process to inspect the environmental impact of oil production with an announcement to foreign firms capable of undertaking the audit to show interest. Petroleum minister Daniel Awow Chuang said on Friday, the civil war in the world’s youngest state prevented the [...]
©- - 10 january 2020 - 16:54:17 - thread Environment (410 words)


Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) -  Rwanda is looking to phase phase out approximately 2.6 tonnes of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) scheduled in the Montreal Protocol, according to an official report obtained on Wednesday by PANA in Kigali. As part of these efforts, Rwanda recently introduced a new type electric vehicles  as a move [...]
©- - 13 november 2019 - 11:29:33 - thread Environment (308 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – The rapidly growing car population in East African cities is driving fears of increased rise in lung diseases linked to pollutants from car fumes, cooking stoves and the soot from industries found mostly near low income settlements in urban centres, state officials have warned. Experts drawn from [...]
©- - 05 november 2019 - 20:52:53 - thread Environment (415 words)


Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Congolese Tourism and Environment Minister Arlette Soudan-Nonault has asked four companies to comply with environmental standards, or face sanctions. These are the Research and Mining Corporation (SOREMI), the New Cement Corporation of Congo (SONOCC), the Dangote Cement Congo plant and the Congo Industrial Sugar Refining Agricultural Corporation [...]
©- - 08 july 2019 - 10:01:14 - thread Environment (324 words)


Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - The celebration of the 2019 edition of World Ocean Day took place Saturday in the historic city of Grand-Bassam, UNESCO World Heritage, under a sex-specific tone with the theme "Ocean and gender" in order to explore the gender dimension in the human relationship, and to seek [...]
©- - 08 june 2019 - 16:23:11 - thread Environment (320 words)


Bamako, Mali (PANA)   -   Officials from departments under the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs said here Wednesday there was no evidence of poisoning of dead fish found outside the Niger River, following heavy rains of May 15, 2019  in the Malian capital, sources told PANA. "We didn't say that the [...]
©- - 23 may 2019 - 23:42:10 - thread Environment (399 words)


Bamako, Mali (PANA)   -   The Malian Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries said here Monday significant amounts of runoff water from the Niger River had drained and caused high fish mortality in the village of Baguineda in the commune of Baguineda, Kati circle, Koulikoro region, about 40 km from Bamako. A statement [...]
©- - 20 may 2019 - 23:30:58 - thread Environment (289 words)


Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda will soon adopt a law regulating the use of non-biodegradable plastics and the distribution of these products, PANA reported on Wednesday from the Rwandan Environment Management Agency (REMA).   Though people in some places use banned plastic packaging, ignoring their negative impacts on the environment and health, [...]
©- - 27 march 2019 - 15:25:01 - thread Environment (340 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Scientists have called for the deepening of research on harmful and hazardous chemicals used in the manufacture of paint, ceramic products and home lighting through enhanced scientific research and innovation.   Scientists at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, March 4-15, discussing eliminating chemical pollutants want a globally [...]
©- - 13 march 2019 - 21:19:25 - thread Environment (687 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The world's Ministers of Environment and global leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, are due to meet in Nairobi to lay grounds for reducing the impact of pollution.  The UN Environment Assembly, gathering over 4,700 delegates, including the French President, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and [...]
©- - 11 march 2019 - 08:50:35 - thread Environment (682 words)


Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunis Ecology Association has warned against "visual and non-visual industrial pollution" which has reached 40% in some parts of Tunisia.   In a press statement on Friday, the president of the association, Abdelmadjid Dabar, said that the level of pollution in the country varies between 9 percent and [...]
©- - 09 march 2019 - 15:50:56 - thread Environment (204 words)


Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (PANA) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has built nine new classrooms with recycled plastic for 450 primary and preschool students in three Ivorian cities. The transformation of plastic into building materials, developed by the Colombian social enterprise, Conceptos Plasticos, was deployed in Gonzagueville, in the commune [...]
©- - 20 february 2019 - 21:58:26 - thread Environment (344 words)


Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwandan authorities say they will formally implement the ban on the use of straws and plastic cups throughout the country to protect the environment, PANA reported Wednesday, quoting official sources in Kigali. The ban was approved 15 year ago but has never been implemented. Most straws and [...]
©- - 30 january 2019 - 20:45:56 - thread Environment (315 words)


Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritian Merchant Shipping Regulations, designed to prevent oil pollution by Oil and Noxious Liquid Substances, comes into force on 1 February, 2019. Coming under the Merchant Shipping Act of 2007, the measure will be promulgated by the Mauritian Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping Minister, Prem [...]
©- - 15 january 2019 - 19:18:52 - thread Environment (218 words)


Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - Africa is the continent with the most rapidly-growing urban population, at an estimated annual rate of 3%. The surge in population is paired with rapid urbanisation and increased transportation for which emissions from transportation are growing significantly all across Africa, further driven by urban sprawl, [...]
©- - 13 december 2018 - 06:15:47 - thread Environment (542 words)


Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwandan Environment minister Vincent Biruta said here Tuesday that he will propose a legislation to enforce the country's ban on plastic shopping bags in order to save the environment. Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008 but Biruta sementaid that the existing law should be strengthened in order [...]
©- - 05 june 2018 - 16:31:30 - thread Environment (159 words)


Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Two United Nations agencies are combining their expertise to counter the growing threat of extreme weather, climate change and air pollution, which cause more than 12.6 million deaths a year, it was announced on Thursday. The legal agreement, signed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the [...]
©- - 31 may 2018 - 19:45:16 - thread Environment (423 words)


Gambia, Gambia (PANA) - Hundreds of youths from a Gambian coastal fishing town, Gunjur, about 25 kilometres from Banjul, on Thursday protested against a Chinese company that they allege is polluting their environment and the sea. [...]
©- - 23 march 2018 - 09:14:28 - thread Environment (418 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Growing antimicrobial resistance linked to the discharge of drugs and some chemicals into the environment is one of the most worrying health threats today, according to new research from the United Nations that highlights emerging challenges and solutions in environment. “The warning here is truly frightening: we [...]
©- - 05 december 2017 - 21:21:54 - thread Environment (620 words)


Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Everyone on earth is affected by pollution, according to a new report issued by UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday in Nairobi. The Report, "Towards a Pollution-Free Planet," draws on the latest data from every continent to examine what the world knows about pollution and lays out [...]
©- - 17 november 2017 - 10:24:04 - thread Environment (726 words)


New York, US (PANA) – While pollution has considerably negative impacts on human health and ecosystems, it is controllable and avoidable through political leadership, high-level champions and commitments, as well with local level action, says a new report launched on Thursday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The report, "Towards [...]
©- - 28 september 2017 - 22:28:17 - thread Environment (410 words)


New York, US (PANA) – A new report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says almost one in seven of the world’s children, 300 million, live in areas with the most toxic levels of outdoor air pollution – six or more times higher than international guidelines. "Clear the Air for Children" [...]
©- - 31 october 2016 - 08:56:34 - thread Environment (759 words)

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