Environmental issues

The majority of people in European cities live among unhealthy levels of air pollution, despite improvements over the past two decades and declining emissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was announced by the European Environment Agency (EEA), quoted by Reuters.

Air in Istanbul became more polluted this year after most of the measures that kept people at home and restricted the use of cars were scrapped.

Delhi shut down schools until further notice, urged people to work from home and banned non-essential trucks from entering the Indian capital due to dangerous levels of air pollution.

One of the world's most polluted cities and home to some 20 million people, Delhi is cloaked every winter in a thick blanket of smog.

Helping vulnerable nations cope with the multiplier effect of climate change on droughts, flooding, heatwaves and tropical mega-storms will require trillions of dollars, not the billions now on the table at COP26, a draft U.N. report obtained by AFP reveals.

The 65 most vulnerable nations will see GDP drop 20 percent on average by 2050 and 64 percent by 2100 if the world heats up 2.9 degrees Celsius, according to a report released on Nov. 8 at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

Glasgow – PM Janez Janša will attend the World Leaders Summit, a high-level political event held in Glasgow, UK, on Monday and Tuesday as part of the ongoing COP26 climate conference.

The summit, hosted by UK PM Boris Johnson, will be an opportunity to discuss ways of mitigating climate change and providing climate aid to the most vulnerable countries.

Ljubljana – Looking at the start of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), Dnevnik expresses reservations in Saturday’s commentary about the probability of success.

Turkey is taking steps for green economy as part of its fight against the negative impact of climate change, the Turkish vice president said on Oct. 4. 

Air pollution caused a total of 44,617 premature deaths in 2018 in Turkey, recent research has shown.

Most fatalities due to prolonged exposure to the airborne PM2.5, known as particulate matter, occurred in the provinces of Iğdır, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin, Manisa, Niğde and Burdur, said Professor Kayıhan Pala from the Uludağ University's Medical School who led the study.

The World Health Organization strengthened its air quality guidelines on Sept. 22, saying air pollution was now one of the biggest environmental threats to human health, causing seven million premature deaths a year.

Urgent action is needed to reduce exposure to air pollution, said the U.N. body, ranking its burden of disease on a par with smoking and unhealthy eating.