Climate Change & Environment
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Doctors say 'fossil fuel addiction' kills, starves millions

Extreme weather from climate change triggered hunger in nearly 100 million people and increased heat deaths by 68% in vulnerable populations worldwide as the world's "fossil fuel addiction" degrades public health each year, doctors reported in a new study.

Worldwide the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and biomass forms air pollution that kills 1.2 million people a year, including 11,800 in the United States, according to a report Tuesday in the prestigious medical journal Lancet.

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UN: World "nowhere near" hitting emissions targets

The United Nations says current pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on course to blow past the limit for global warming countries agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The U.N. climate office said Wednesday that its latest estimate based on 193 national emissions targets would see temperatures rise to 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial averages by the end of the century.

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Strong quake injures dozens, shuts north Philippine airport

A strong earthquake rocked a large swathe of the northern Philippines, injuring at least 26 people and forcing the closure of an international airport and the evacuation of patients in a hospital, officials said Wednesday.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Tuesday night's magnitude 6.4 quake, which was set off by movement in a local fault, was centered 9 kilometers (5 miles) northwest of Lagayan town in Abra province at a depth of 11 kilometers (7 miles).

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Post-Diwali Delhi wakes to toxic firecracker smog

New Delhi woke to toxic smog on Tuesday after Diwali revelers defied a firecracker ban and risked jail to celebrate the annual Hindu festival.

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Will Africa's metals boom suffer the same curse as oil?

Mechanical diggers are hard at work in the bleak landscape of the Moanda open-cast mine in Gabon, using giant jaws to rip out manganese and then dump the ore into trucks with a crash.

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Singapore targets net zero by 2050, eyes hydrogen power

Singapore announced Tuesday it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, giving a firm date for the first time, and will look at using hydrogen as a major power source.

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UK takes aim at company 'greenwashing'

Britain's financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed rules against "greenwashing", or deceptive claims by businesses about the environmental impact of their products or climate actions. 

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16 dead, million seek shelter as cyclone hits Bangladesh

At least 16 people died after a cyclone slammed into Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of about a million people from their homes, officials said Tuesday.

Around 10 million people were without power in 15 coastal districts, while schools were shut across southern and southwestern regions.

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African nations to finalize aims ahead of UN climate summit

The final meeting of African nations' climate negotiators ahead of the global U.N. summit kicks off in the Namibian capital Windhoek on Monday, with participants expected to focus on how to ramp up renewable energy on the continent.

Organizers of the annual Climate Change and Development in Africa conference said the meeting serves as the final chance for the continent's negotiators, government officials, climate scientists, grassroots civil societies and farming associations to fine tune the continent's interests and agree on a common position to promote at the climate summit in Egypt in November, known as COP27.

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COP27's Coke sponsorship leaves bad taste with green groups

This year's United Nations climate summit is brought to you by Coke.

Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co.'s sponsorship of the flagship U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, sparked an online backlash and highlighted broader concerns about corporate lobbying and influence.

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