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Amid accelerating climate change and desertification, Iraqi farmers are adopting sprinkler irrigation systems to revive agriculture in the country’s southern deserts—where average summer temperatures soar past 50°C and rainfall is virtually nonexistent. Traditional flood irrigation from the once-mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers has become unreliable, with upstream damming in Turkey and Iran reducing flow by […]

Brazil is experiencing a rapid expansion in corn-based ethanol production, driven by a recent government decision to increase the national biofuel blending mandate from 13% to 15% by 2026. Traditionally known for its sugarcane ethanol, Brazil is now emerging as the world’s second-largest producer of corn ethanol, with production expected to exceed 6.5 billion liters

In response to the European Union’s new Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR), the Malaysian government has established a national committee aimed at strengthening the country’s compliance and defending its trade interests. The regulation, which takes effect at the end of 2024, requires companies exporting products like palm oil, cocoa, rubber, soy, and timber to the EU

At the UN climate talks in Bonn, member countries have agreed to raise the UNFCCC core budget by 10% for the 2024–2025 period, marking the first such increase since 2018. The move comes in response to growing demands on the UN Climate Secretariat, which is tasked with overseeing implementation of the Paris Agreement, coordinating annual

In a firm statement ahead of upcoming EU negotiations, Denmark has warned fellow European Union members against backtracking on climate commitments and delaying the bloc’s green transition. Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard emphasized that despite political shifts and economic concerns across Europe, abandoning or weakening the EU Green Deal would endanger the continent’s leadership in

In the arid highlands of Guatemala, one man’s decades-long dedication has turned a barren landscape into a thriving forest—transforming not only the environment, but the future of his village. Don Jesús León, a farmer from the village of Chiquimula, began planting trees on degraded land in the 1980s, when severe deforestation had led to soil

A groundbreaking study published in Science Advances reveals that plants—especially in densely vegetated or urban green spaces—can emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to air pollution under certain environmental conditions. These compounds, such as isoprene and monoterpenes, are naturally released by leaves but can react with sunlight and other pollutants to form ground-level ozone

A new study published in Nature Sustainability reveals a strong correlation between Japan’s shrinking rural population and ongoing biodiversity decline, particularly in traditional agricultural landscapes. As rural communities age and depopulate, once-managed farmlands, rice paddies, and satoyama (human-nature hybrid landscapes) are being abandoned. This loss of human stewardship has led to the degradation of vital

Tesla has signed its first major deal to construct China’s largest grid-scale battery storage facility, marking a pivotal step in the country’s clean energy infrastructure. The project, located in Zhejiang province, will feature Tesla’s Megapack technology, capable of storing over 800 MWh of energy—enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes during peak demand. This

A new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) shows that transforming recently closed surface coal mines into solar power plants could generate nearly 300 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. The analysis highlights over 300 coal mines that have shut down since 2020, with more expected to close by the decade’s end, covering nearly