International

"Support is growing internationally for a new global treaty to tackle the plastic pollution crisis, it has emerged, though so far without the two biggest per capita waste producers – the US and the UK – which have yet to signal their participation."

"In many parts of the world, journalists who report acts of environmental destruction risk threats, violence and even murder. These crimes, which frequently target Indigenous reporters, often go unpunished."

"A few days after being declared president-elect, Joe Biden is already conferring with heads of state about a crisis he sees as on par with the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession: climate change. Biden elevated the issue of rising temperatures in talks on Tuesday with four European leaders."

"More than 15,000 mink in the United States have died of the coronavirus since August, and authorities are keeping about a dozen farms under quarantine while they investigate the cases, state agriculture officials said."

"Amid growing alarm about methane’s role in driving global warming, a Canadian firm has begun selling a service to detect even relatively small leaks. At least two rivals are on the way."

"Though scientists know that clouds are critical to the climate system, their exact role is still uncertain. New studies are starting to fill in the knowledge gap."

"Preparations for the next vital UN summit on the climate – one of the last chances to set the world on track to meet the Paris agreement – have been given a boost by the election of Joe Biden as president."

"The U.S. Federal Reserve for the first time called out climate change among risks enumerated in its biannual financial stability report, and warned about the potential for abrupt changes in asset values in response to a warming planet."

"Work is beginning on what is thought to be the world's first major plant to store energy in the form of liquid air."