Armenia hails ‘historic’ peace declaration with Azerbaijan
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan has described the joint peace declaration signed with Azerbaijan in Washington as “historic” a...
Plastic waste leakage in Southeast Asia, plus China, Japan and South Korea, could rise by nearly 70% by 2050 without stronger policies, according to a new OECD report.
The Regional Plastics Outlook says plastics use in the region is on track to almost double compared with 2022 levels, driven by rising incomes and living standards. ASEAN member states are expected to see a near tripling.
Plastic waste is projected to more than double, while leakage into the environment could grow by 68%, mostly from ASEAN lower-middle-income countries and China. In 2022, 8.4 million tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste entered the environment.
The report calls the region a “hotspot for plastic pollution”, noting that regional plastic waste grew from 10 million tonnes in 1990 to 113 million tonnes in 2022. Informal and unsafe practices, including open burning and dumping, remain widespread in rural areas of ASEAN countries and China.
Annual leakage could reach 14.1 million tonnes by 2050, with 5.1 million tonnes entering rivers, coastal areas and oceans. Over half of the plastics used in the region have a lifespan of under five years, becoming waste quickly.
The OECD says ambitious actions such as bans on single-use plastics and taxes could cut plastic use by 28%, raise recycling rates to 54%, and reduce mismanaged waste by 97%.
Talks on a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution resumed in Geneva on Tuesday, after previous negotiations in South Korea collapsed last year amid disagreements over curbing production and improving waste management.
The world’s biggest dance music festival faces an unexpected setback as a fire destroys its main stage, prompting a last-minute response from organisers determined to keep the party alive in Boom, Belgium.
According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Oaxaca region of Mexico on Saturday.
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will send an upgraded ‘version 3.0’ free-trade agreement to their heads of government for approval in October, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday after regional talks in Kuala Lumpur.
A resumption of Iraq’s Kurdish oil exports is not expected in the near term, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, despite an announcement by Iraq’s federal government a day earlier stating that shipments would resume immediately.
Chinese automaker Chery has denied an industry-ministry audit that disqualified more than $53 million in state incentives for thousands of its electric and hybrid vehicles, insisting it followed official guidance and committed no fraud.
After years of severe drought, a Spanish lagoon has experienced a hopeful recovery in flamingo breeding, signaling a positive turn for the vulnerable species and its ecosystem.
Wildfires driven by powerful winds swept through Greece on Friday, from the southern outskirts of Athens to the region near Ancient Olympia.
The residents of Pingtou, a small village in China's southern Guangdong province, are grappling with the worst floods in living memory. While the region is accustomed to typhoons and seasonal downpours, this week’s flooding has shocked even the oldest villagers.
A growing number of extreme climate events are inflating food prices around the world, with new research showing that key crops such as coffee, cocoa, rice and vegetables have seen sharp increases due to weather shocks.
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered its most significant coral decline in nearly four decades, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS).
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