I spent last week in Canada attending one of the regular meetings of the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund (MLF), the body established to help developing countries meet their commitments under the global ozone treaty
This week saw the death of one of the great scientific pioneers of modern environmentalism – F Sherwood Rowland, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist who, along with his student Mario Molina, identified the link between CFCs and ozone destruction
Environmental crime is recognised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as the third largest form of global crime, accounting for at least $3.5 billion a year. It exacerbates deforestation and climate change, threatens the existence of endangered species and affects the livelihoods of rural communities.
What is the most environmentally destructive industry? After oil and gas, a strong contender has to be ‘Big Fluorine’, a collection of chemical companies that have profited, and continue to profit, from some of the most environmentally damaging technologies on the planet
The outcome of the United Nations Climate Conference is an important step forward in terms of securing the credibility, even the survival, of the international climate regime but falls very short on substance and will delay meaningful action on climate change for a further decade unless Parties take the initiative
Our Global Environment Campaigner, Natasha Hurley, writes from the CoP17 meeting in Durban, South Africa where she reflects on the need to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gases used in air conditioning and refrigeration, despite these efforts being blocked by India, China and the chemical industry