Energy & Environment

Wind turbines rise above a forested landscape, underscoring the growing intersection between clean energy development, land use, and biodiversity protection.

Nature’s decline is a business crisis, IPBES says in global assessment

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More than 150 governments approve science-policy report showing that current incentives drive biodiversity loss.

Julio Cordano, a diplomat from Chile, accepts the gavel as newly elected chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution.

Energy & Environment

Chilean diplomat Julio Cordano wins chair of U.N. plastics treaty talks

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Procedural vote resets leadership of stalled negotiations as global pressure builds for more substantive progress.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen is interviewed at the end of the last round of plastic treaty talks outside the United Nations in Geneva.

Energy & Environment

Global plastics treaty talks regroup in Geneva after stalled negotiations

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A brief procedural session aims to reset leadership and process after divisions derailed talks last year.

A locally driven conservation initiative involving multiple organizations raised more than $78 million to secure the purchase of Fundo Puchegüín.

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Groups clinch deal to protect Cochamó Valley as a future park

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The transaction follows a three-year campaign that attracted $78 million from thousands of international donors.

Kenyan President William Ruto, whose nation hosts the U.N. Environment Assembly, emphasized that conservation and economic development must go hand-in-hand.

Energy & Environment

$8 trillion pollution risk prompts first global rules on AI resource use

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The resolution was paired with a measure on minerals and metals essential to AI and the clean energy transition.

Delegates to the CITES treaty met in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to advance crucial decisions on international trade regulations for numerous species.

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CITES CoP20 delivers historic shark protection, curbs illegal pet trade

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The conference agreed on new protections for the pet trade and rejected eased restrictions on rhino horns and ivory.

CITES is a multilateral treaty that covers over 40,000 species.

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CITES showdown looms on elephant ivory and rhino horn trade bans

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The global wildlife treaty is charged with regulating trade in 40,920 species, including 6,610 animals and 34,310 plants.

Energy & Environment

Minamata Convention pivots to enforcement, illegal trade control

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A new strategy will focus heavily on controlling black market flows, leveraging a decision to phase-out dental amalgam.

Officials open the Minamata Convention COP-6 in Geneva to strengthen global action on mercury pollution.

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Minamata Convention mandates global phase-out of dental amalgam

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The decision on dental amalgam was counterbalanced by the greater challenge of artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

Benjamin Von Wong’s The Thinker’s Burden, an art installation surrounded by plastic trash, drew attention outside the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Energy & Environment

UNEP schedules session to organize the resumption of plastic treaty talks

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Negotiators must finish the financial mechanism and agree on binding measures to phase out toxic chemicals in plastics.

Efforts to elevate the voices and roles of Indigenous peoples and local communities came to fruition at a first meeting as part of a new U.N. panel.

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U.N. treaty's new Indigenous panel bolsters 'environmental democracy'

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A new subsidiary of the Convention on Biological Diversity ended its inaugural session deciding how to be integrated.

Over 4,000 mercury-containing lamps were replaced in 2024 at Geneva's International Environment House where the Minamata Convention's Secretariat is headquartered.

Energy & Environment

Mercury treaty shifts strategy to aim at dental fillings, illegal cosmetics

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In the shadow of a decades-long toxic legacy, nations have been cracking down on mercury pollution with mixed results.

Energy & Environment

A lifeline for the ocean: U.N. High Seas Treaty secures ratification

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A global treaty that took almost two decades to create will become law early next year, enabling conservation areas.

The treaty is nearing the 60 nations needed to take effect.

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Negotiators debate funding and governance for high seas treaty

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The U.N.-brokered treaty is close to becoming law, with 52 countries signed on and eight more needed to make it official.

Heni Unwin, a Māori marine scientist with the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance, speaks at a rally outside the U.N.'s Palais des Nations in Geneva during the plastic treaty talks.

Energy & Environment

Advocates see human rights path forward for stalled plastic treaty

4 min read

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Leaders argue any successful treaty must be built on partnership with and respect for Indigenous communities.

After a 5:30 a.m. plenary was announced, the chair of the global plastic treaty talks was still waiting for delegages to fill the assembly hall inside the U.N.'s Palais des Nations at 6 a.m.

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Back to Busan: Global plastic pollution treaty talks end in disarray

5 min read

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The U.N.-hosted talks failed to overcome opposition to reducing plastic production among oil and gas producers.

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