Thousands swarmed to beaches on Australia’s east coast on Tuesday, December 31, 2019, to escape fierce wildfires bearing down on several seaside towns, as the government readied naval vessels and military helicopters to aid fire-fighting and evacuations. Government officials called for Australian military support and assistance from U.S. and Canadian fire crews as authorities confirmed two people had died overnight, taking to 11 the total deaths in wildfires since the beginning of October. The huge bushfires have destroyed more than 4 million hectares with new blazes sparked into life almost daily by extremely hot and windy conditions in bushland left…
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The Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, says that the Federal Government has established 10 new National Parks, even as he assured of maximum security at the parks across the country. Abubakar made the disclosure during a news conference on issues relating to environment, on Thursday, December 17, 2020 in Abuja. The 10 new parks have brought the total number of national parks in the country to 17. The minister stated that an executive bill would soon be presented to the National Assembly to give legal backing to the development. The minister listed the new parks to include Allawa Game…
The Chairman, Climate Parliamentary, Rep Samuel Onuigbo, says the lawmakers will increase concerted efforts to combat and stem the effects of climate change in the country. Onuigbo said this at the inaugural meeting of Climate Parliament Nigeria on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 in Abuja. He said that legislators would be encouraged to vote for laws and policies that would be environmentally friendly. He said that climate change was the newest environmental challenge in Nigeria and other parts of the world. He urged the lawmakers to help strengthen global efforts to combat climate change. He said the idea of a Climate Parliamentary…
From January 1, 2022, there will be a ban on plastic bags in Germany. Following the approval of the Bundestag, the Bundesrat passed a corresponding amendment to the Packaging Act on Friday, December 18, 2020. In future, lightweight plastic bags with a wall thickness of 15 to 50 micrometers will no longer be allowed to circulate. In 2019, 1.49 billion lighter plastic bags were put into circulation in Germany. Federal Environment Minister, Svenja Schulze, said: “We discussed it for a long time, now the ban on plastic bags is becoming a reality. In recent years, consumers and retailers have increasingly tested alternatives…
Nigeria will soon get a boost in the electronic waste (e-waste) sub-industry with the opening of applications for establishment of some 30 collection centres nationwide. Disclosing this on Thursday, December 17, 2020 at the 2020 ITREALMS e-Waste Dialogue held in Lagos, the Executive Secretary, E-Waste Producer Responsibility Organisation of Nigeria (EPRON), Mrs. Ibukun Faluyi, said the application is free. Faluyi, who spoke on subtheme, “E-Waste in Nigeria and Opportunities in Recycling”, said that EPRON as technical assistant to the initiative is offering the application for free which could be accessed on its website, www.epron.org.ng. According to her, for now there is…
Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) says it is supporting the “Prevention of Marine Pollution in the Caribbean” (PROMAR) project with €4.9 million. The project is said to be one of the first approvals of the BMU funding programme against marine litter “Marine Debris Framework – Regional hubs around the globe” (Marine: DeFRAG). It is intended to help reduce plastic waste in the Caribbean Sea over the next three years. Environment Minister, Svenja Schulze, said: “Plastic waste in the seas ends up in the food chain, affects marine ecosystems and is thus becoming a global…
The Kaduna State Government has earmarked the sum of N2.8 billion to be spent on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions in 2021 under its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency. The amount is contained in the 2021 budget approved document obtained in Kaduna, the state capital, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. The document also showed that N1.4 billion was earmarked as a marching grant for Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Hygiene and Sanitation (PEWASH) project. In the budget document, N924.7 million was allocated for the construction and installation of 675 hand pumps boreholes as well as procurement of two…
The European Union (EU) will ban the export of plastic waste from the bloc to poor countries effective from January 1, 2021, it said on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, following concerns about pollution in third world countries. Plastic exports would also be “more strictly controlled,” according to the European Commission. The new rules still allow for “clean plastic waste sent for recycling” to be exported to countries not part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to a statement. Reports say that following China’s ban on plastic imports at the beginning of 2018, previously a major destination…
Clean-Up Nigeria (CUN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Tuesday, December 22, 2020 announced Abuja city as the cleanest city, while Akwa Ibom emerged the cleanest state in the country, Mr Prince Ene Baba-Owoh Jr., National Coordinator/Secretary, National Technical Study Group of the organisation, disclosed this in Abuja at a virtual meeting on the state of Nigeria’s environment. Baba-Owoh said that the study was scored on five performance indicators via physical verification which accounted for 20 per cent and the deployment of GEO-Eye-1 satellite. He said that GEO-Eye-1 satellite had the highest resolution imagery system in the world. “GEO-Eye-1 satellite is…
The Kano State Environmental Mobile Court on Saturday, December 26, 2020 sealed two factories, NINA Plastics and Prosper Plastics companies, for not participating in the monthly environmental sanitation exercise. Chief Magistrate, Auwal Yusuf-Suleiman, gave the order during an inspection of the Chalawa Industrial Area, in the Kano Metropolis. Yusuf-Suleiman said the factories operated within the stipulated environmental sanitation hours in contravention of sections 61 and 104 of the National Environmental Laws. He ordered the factories to be sealed, and imposed a fine of N500,000 each on them. “The factories will re-open after complying with the law by tendering a written…