Environment

Tomasz Klech, who heads the air-monitoring lab at the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection (GIOS) in Warsaw. Photo: Maria Wilczek A very Polish smog

The Philia (Friendship) Forum that convened in Athens on Thursday is an unprecedented effort by Greece to expand its network of allies from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.

Greece is legally bound by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and EU law - the bloc has signed and ratified UNCLOS - in any talks with Turkey on the delimitation of maritime zones, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said Friday.

Hard choices…

Ljubljana – The government and environmental NGO have welcomed the EU summit’s decision to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by at least 55%. The Environment Ministry believes the goal is realistic, whereas the NGOs would like it even more ambitious. A climatologist meanwhile says that for a true global impact, the EU should get China and the US on board.

"Going out onto the streets and protesting in a traditional manner is associated with risk, so for the moment we are focused on organising our actions online, in a safe manner," said Kozak. "For now, this is a warning strike, but we might escalate it if our request to dismiss the education minister is not heard."

The Federal Court of Justice on Monday ruled against German automaker Volkswagen in the country's first case brought by a car owner over the company's emissions test cheating. 

Turkey's coastal city of Antalya will host COP22, an international convention on the protection of the Mediterranean marine environment and coastline in 2021, the country's minister of environment said on Dec. 18.

Iranian authorities have ordered  several schools in in Tehran and several other cities in the country to be closed today because of the dangerous air pollution, health reports stated.

Tehran lay under a thick cloud of smog considered hazardous to health for several days now. Yesterday, the cloud could be seen from the valleys more than 20 kilometers north of the city.

More than 11 million saplings were planted during the "Breath for the Future" campaign on Nov. 11.