Category: International

‘We are nature’: Indigenous women come together at the United Nations

Read the full story at Inside Climate News.

The women had come from across the world, convening at the United Nations Plaza to share the struggles they’d faced reclaiming ancestral lands, fighting pollution from extractive industries and employing Indigenous knowledge to counter the climate crisis. 

“Our traditional knowledge systems are powerful,” said Aimee Roberson, a citizen of the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma and the executive director of Cultural Survival, an Indigenous advocacy group. “We draw on the strength of our ancestors, whose persistent resistance to oppression, greed and extractivism ensured that we are here today.”

Roberson spoke during the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues this week at an event hosted by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. Indigenous women had come—from Kenya and Tanzania, Siberia and the Onondaga Nation in upstate New York and beyond—to describe the connection between ancestral lands and Indigenous cultures and to advocate for free, prior and informed consent. 

Cities of tomorrow: young Poles share vision for smarter, greener living

Read the full story in Horizon Magazine.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “city”? For most of us, it is crowds, busy roads and noise. But a group of young Poles who spoke with visiting EU officials in Warsaw offered a more upbeat and constructive vision.

On 10 March 2025, they gathered at the prestigious Jasna Centre in the heart of Warsaw, home to the European Commission’s Representation in Poland. They were invited to share their vision for the European cities of tomorrow with the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.

At the start of the event, they were asked the same question: what does “city” mean for you? They replied “possibility”, “community”, “connection”, “high-quality education”, “opportunities and business”, “society” and “culture”.

These small sparks of inspiration were enough to ignite a conversation about what European cities should be like and to foster the changes to make them so.

Europe’s EPR: How the EU is harmonising packaging regulation

Read the full story at Food Navigator Europe.

As the UK’s EPR comes into force, the EU is harmonising its own schemes

‘An exciting moment’: England’s urban and rural trees mapped for first time

Read the full story in The Guardian. The Trees Outside Woodland Map is available on the U.K. Government’s Forest Research website.

England’s non-woodland trees have been mapped for the first time, using cutting-edge methods of laser detection and satellite imagery.

Tree scientists at the UK’s Forest Research agency have built a comprehensive picture of trees in urban and rural areas in a “groundbreaking” map that goes live on Saturday.

The tool will allow conservation groups and local authorities to target tree-planting efforts more accurately by pinpointing lone trees that could be connected to nearby wooded areas, bolstering habitats for wildlife, they said.

Farmers in England fear for nature after sustainable farming funding frozen

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Farmers fear they will no longer be able to afford to restore nature in England and reduce their carbon footprint after government funding for doing this was frozen.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, recently announced that the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which pays farmers for making space for nature on their land, would be paused and overhauled before June’s spending review. The scope of the scheme – and its budget – are being reassessed.

He is considering blocking farmers who make a lot of money from agriculture from applying for the scheme, which is part of a package of payments that replaced the EU’s common agricultural policy and paid land managers for the amount of land in their care, with the aim of paying farmers to look after nature, soil and other public goods, rather than simply for farming and owning land.

In England, 70% of land is farmed, so if nature is to recover, farmers need support to make space for it on their land. This includes planting trees and hedges, digging ponds and leaving strips of land for wildflowers.

EU legislators work to simplify sustainability reporting requirements

Read the full story at ESG Dive.

While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has stopped defending its climate-risk disclosure rule in the United States, legislators across the Atlantic are working to simplify corporate sustainability reporting requirements for companies operating in the European Union.

Efforts to simplify the bloc’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive began in earnest in February. The European Commission adopted a package of bills designed to streamline the scope of the laws and delay the next wave of CSRD reporting companies — which includes non-EU entities — and the first application phase for CSDDD reporting until 2028. 

The science of sourdough – how citizens are helping shape the future of fermented foods

Read the full story in Horizon Magazine.

Many will remember the sourdough bread-baking craze that emerged at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when people were stuck at home and looking for something creative to do.

With social media feeds full of images of sourdough “starters” with quirky names and crisp, freshly baked loaves, home bakers discovered the joys – and the health benefits – of fermented foods.

“During COVID, a lot of people started producing sourdough breads at home,” said Professor Christophe Courtin, a food biochemist at KU Leuven, the University of Leuven in Belgium.

Now, research funding from the EU is helping Courtin and a team of leading food experts from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland mobilise that army of home bakers in the interests of science – and our health.

Guardians of the glades: protecting Europe’s forests against climate change

Read the full story in Horizon Magazine.

EU-funded researchers are combining cutting-edge research with sustainable forestry practices to protect our forests and preserve the many environmental benefits they provide.

In New England, Canadian hydropower has slowed to an ominous trickle

Read the full story from Grist.

On March 6, at the start of the still-simmering trade war between the U.S. and Canada, hydropower generator Hydro‑Québec quietly stopped exporting electricity to New England.

At a time of year when Canadian hydropower typically supplies up to a tenth of New England’s power, the region has instead gone almost a month with virtually no cross-border flow of electrons.

Hydro‑Québec leaders say low prices in the New England market — not politics — are behind the decision to suspend sales. The disruption hasn’t affected power costs or reliability in the region yet, but some experts say it could if the cutoff extends into the summer cooling season. The situation also highlights a potential risk to state clean energy plans that count on Canadian hydropower to help offset fossil fuels.

EU targets clothes, furniture in crackdown on wasteful consumerism

Read the full story at Politico.

Textiles, furniture, tires and mattresses will be subject to much stricter design standards to ensure they last longer, as the EU aims to stamp out wasteful consumption, the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday.

Steel and aluminum will also be included in the first wave of regulations under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), along with a range of electronic goods from mobile phones to fridges and washing machines.

The ESPR is intended to embed durability, repairability and recyclability into the design of certain products, with the goal of reducing waste, improving energy efficiency, and boosting the EU’s circular economy. The framework legislation came into law last July, but requires delegated acts before it applies to specific products.

UK unveils plan to cut waste and boost circular economy

Read the full story at Packaging Gateway.

The UK government has introduced new policies aimed at cutting waste and advancing a circular economy, with changes to collection and packaging systems.

From high school science project to $18.3M: AI-accelerated enzymes are coming for fast fashion’s plastic waste

Read the full story at TechCrunch.

A U.K. startup, originating from founder Jacob Nathan’s high school science project on using enzymes to break down plastic waste, has secured an oversubscribed $18.3 million in Series A funding.

Founded in 2019 in London, Epoch Biodesign is now a 30+ strong multidisciplinary team of chemists, biologists, and software engineers. The startup will use the new funding to scale up production of its plastic-eating enzymes. This means transferring the biorecycling process from the labs where the team has been developing the enzymes to their first production facility this year, which Nathan says will be able to gobble through 150 tons per year of waste once it’s up and running.

Thereafter, the first production runs of commercial-scale capacity are expected by 2028 if not sooner, as Nathan says the startup is looking for ways to accelerate the scaling. They’ll be roughly doubling the size of the team over the next 12 months as they work on switching to a higher gear, he tells TechCrunch.

France’s Parliament bans PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in key products

Read the full story at EcoWatch.

The French Parliament voted on Thursday for ambitious new legislation to limit the sale and production of some products that contain toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals,” including cosmetics, most clothing and ski wax.

The bill seeks to prevent the import, sale and production of any product that has an alternative to PFAS, except certain industrial textiles that are deemed “essential,” beginning in January of 2026, reported AFP.

Canada moves to label ‘forever chemicals’ as toxic, eyes stricter regulation

Read the full story from The Canadian Press.

The federal government says it’s moving ahead with a plan to label so-called forever chemicals as toxic and expects to begin consultations in two years on further regulating their use in cosmetics, food packaging and other consumer products.

New packaging regulations take effect in the EU: what you need to know

Read the full story at Trellis.

The European Union’s new packaging regulation, which aims to reduce waste, increase recycling and standardize EU-wide rules, expands the scope and tightens the requirements of previous regulations.

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which went into effect Feb. 11 and replaces the 1994 Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, cover all packaging sold on the EU market and packaging waste from manufacturing, retail, services and households. Broad in scope, it applies to all economic operators, from manufacturers and importers to distributors and fulfillment service providers. The new regulation is much more strict and legally binding than the previous directive.