The German government has officially recognised the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an intergovernmental organisation, a move observers believe reaffirms the Union’s role on the global environmental and development stage. On Wednesday, 25 January 2017, the German Cabinet passed a regulation defining the legal status of IUCN as an “organisation created by intergovernmental agreement”. This decision recognises ...

As the National Council on Health meets in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, it is anticipated that major issues confronting Nigerians and particularly the health sector will dominate discussions. It is anticipated that the Council will discuss the implementation of the National Health Policy which is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s health system to deliver qualitative, efficient and comprehensive healthcare services. ...

The rate of maternal death in Nigeria is alarming. This report takes a look at circumstances surrounding this unsavoury development. Ruth King has more…

Millions of people along Africa’s Atlantic seaboard stand to benefit from an agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aimed at improving the analysis of contaminants in the Abidjan Convention area. The agreement, which focused on “Practical arrangements on Cooperation in the Strengthening of Data Quality Assurance in the Analysis of Contaminants ...

A High Court in London has dismissed a suit by Bille and Ogale communities seeking to sue Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in English courts for spill incidents in the Niger Delta. The communities had, on May 2015, through their UK solicitors, Leigh Day, brought oil spill litigation against The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), and also filed ...

A court has described the plan by the Lagos State Government to demolish all waterfront informal settlements as inhuman and degrading, and that it violates the law of the land. Honourable Justice Onigbanjo of the Lagos State High Court gave the decision on Thursday, 26 January 2017 in a fundamental rights enforcement case brought in October 2016, after the Lagos ...

The “Green Digital Finance Alliance”, a ground-breaking initiative to harness digital technologies in catalysing financing that addresses global environmental challenges, was launched last week at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland by its two founders, Ant Financial Services Group (Ant Financial), China’s leading online and mobile financial services provider, and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Financing sustainable development ...

Regions in Europe are facing rising sea levels and more extreme weather, such as more frequent and more intense heatwaves, flooding, droughts and storms due to climate change, according to a European Environment Agency report published on Wednesday, 25 January 2017. The report assesses the latest trends and projections on climate change and its impacts across Europe and finds that ...