World Cleanup Day 2026: Strive for Five
Twenty-four thousand square kilometres. Five hours. Fifty thousand people. In 2008, that was Estonia's answer to decades of illegal dumping: an entire country cleaned in a single coordinated sweep. ...
State of the Union: von der Leyen focuses on independence, competitiveness and the climate
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”: Ursula von der Leyen quoted Dickens’s words describing the period of the French Revolution at the opening of her State of the...
CBAM: the European Parliament stalls on the emergency clause
Yesterday, 15 September, the European Parliament voted on the revision of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the EU system that taxes the emissions contained in certain goods imported fr...
The ecological transition according to BRICS: a path that challenges the West
Work continued late into the night: not usually a good sign in international negotiations, and indeed, on the eve of the negotiations, no one was betting on a successful outcome. Yet in New Delhi, i...
Novamont publishes the Impact Report 2025 together with the Sustainability Report
Novamont, a Versalis company (ENI), has published its sixth Impact Report since acquiring benefit corporation status in 2020. Unlike previous editions, the 2025 report introduces a significant chang...
HBI Unveils the Future of Sludge Management
Zero Branco (Treviso) - In a warehouse on the outskirts of Treviso, the word “sludge” no longer means waste. On 11 September, HBI inaugurated EVA 3, the first fully industrial-scale impl...
Climate and air quality, UNEP: every dollar invested generates 15 in benefits
Climate change and air pollution are closely interconnected phenomena, yet they are almost always analysed separately. On the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September 2026, the ...
August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded globally
The warning signs were clear to anyone paying attention, given the numerous consecutive heatwaves, but Copernicus data have now confirmed it: August 2026 has entered the climate record books as the ...
Plastics treaty: Cordano presents “Aid to negotiations” but disappoints science
The next informal meeting of heads of delegation on a global plastics treaty will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 27 to 30 September. In preparation for the meeting, INC Chair Julio Cordano pu...
UNEP: The 1.5°C threshold will be exceeded, but global warming can still be limited
Global temperatures are likely to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels within the next few years, according to a new UNEP report, Limiting Overshoot, published today, 2 September. The t...
Rangelands at the centre, communities at the margins: taking stock of COP17
Twelve days of negotiations, 196 Parties, and more than 110,000 people attending across the Blue Zone and Green Zone. In the end, COP17 on combating desertification, held in Ulaanbaatar, one of the ...
A flood in Nepal leaves hundreds dead or missing
An enormous mass of debris, water and mud swept away buildings, roads, bridges and thousands of people within moments, many of whom are still missing. Terrifying images are emerging from Nepal, wher...
Europe moves to secure gallium supply as METLEN signs US deal
On July 29, METLEN Energy & Metals announced a long-term deal to supply approximately 25% of the annual gallium output expected from its planned production facility in Greece. The agreement was ...
MAIRE wins €1.3bn contract for Argentina’s largest urea complex
MAIRE has secured its first large-scale contract in Argentina, strengthening its international footprint through a €1.3 billion award for the development of what is set to become the largest ur...
Design in times of political and environmental urgency: when manifestos emerge in times of multiple crises
There is an image that recurs in the winning project from the Manifesto for Shared Futures course: a student standing still, motionless, in the middle of a street in Milan, whilst around him the cit...
ETS reform: the EU is going along with the most polluting industries
On Friday 17 July, the European Commission presented its proposal to revise the Emissions Trading System (ETS), the EU’s carbon market, which since 2005 has helped halve emissions from th...
At the NATO Summit, Energy Security Got a Word: Climate Got None
NATO leaders used the 32nd summit in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, to showcase the alliance’s growing military ambitions, reaffirming higher defence spending targets, fresh support for Ukrai...
EurEau presents the state-of-the-art of european water services in 2026
This article is part of the thematic channel The Water Observer: subscribe to our newsletter and receive exclusive contents from the world of water One year after the presentation of the Europ...
Energy, China puts security first: more renewables, but coal remains
"Energy security will always be our priority." Wang Hongzhi, head of China's National Energy Administration, wasted no time in getting to the point when presenting the details of the country's 15th ...
Plastic treaty: civil society and science excluded from Nairobi talks
When Chilean ambassador Julio Cordano was elected the new President of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) tasked with drafting an international plastics treaty, on 7 February in Genev...