International

"As thousands of people descend on Montreal this week for a crucial U.N. biodiversity summit, fears are growing among delegates over whether the countries involved can agree on an ambitious global pact to protect nature this decade."

"The city of Port Townsend, Washington, on Monday proclaimed that Southern Resident Orcas have legal rights, marking the first time a U.S. city council has made such a recognition."

"Soil’s microbial communities keep it healthy, just like the one in our guts. But new research finds we’re not doing a good enough job of protecting it."

"Near the end of 2020, as the covid-19 pandemic continued to rage, a few climate scientists and energy experts made a prediction. They estimated that emissions from fossil fuels — which had just plummeted thanks to the global pandemic — might never again reach the heights of 2019. .... They were wrong."

"Global renewable power capacity is set to grow as much in the next five years as it has over the past two decades, as soaring energy prices and the climate crisis force governments to ditch fossil fuels."

"As countries prepare to negotiate a new global agreement to protect Earth's environment, the head of the United Nations warned there was no time to lose."

"As talks begin this week to agree a global pact to protect nature at the COP15 summit in Montreal, one target is expected to become a leading focus of negotiations: "30 by 30".

"As the world parses what was achieved at the U.N. climate change conference in Egypt, negotiators are convening in Montreal to set goals for curbing Earth’s other crisis: loss of living species."

"The first round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty ended on Friday with agreement to end plastic pollution but a split on whether goals and efforts should be global and mandatory, or voluntary and country-led."