Water supply in New York City and nearby Westchester County is to be improved through the construction of a $1.2 billion USD tunnelling project.

Dozens of cities across China are applying an unusual forensic technique to monitor illegal drug use: chemically analysing sewage for traces of drugs, or their telltale metabolites, excreted in uri

Ukraine is claiming to have stopped a VPNFilter attack which targeted a chlorine distillation station last week.

A binational environmental group is preparing a criminal complaint against the Baja California state government for negligence in the discharge of sewage from a Tijuana treatment plant that pollute

UN Environment (UNEP) and Google announced a global partnership July 16 that aims to expand what the world knows about the impacts of human activity on global ecosystems.

Long term, the partnership hopes to establish a platform for open-source data and analysis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As an entry point to development, the partnership has launched with an initial focus on fresh-water ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes. 

These areas account for 0.01% of the world’s water but provide habitat for almost 10% of the world’s known species and evidence suggests a rapid loss freshwater biodiversity.

Google will periodically produce geospatial maps and data on water-related ecosystems by employing massive parallel cloud computing technology. Satellite imagery and statistics will be generated to assess the extent of change occurring to waterbodies, and made freely accessible to ensure nations have the opportunity to track changes, prevent and reverse ecosystem loss.

When completed, the platform will leverage Google’s cloud computing and earth observation, public catalogs and for the first time enable governments, NGO’s and the public to track specific environment-related development targets with a user-friendly Google front-end.

The partnership was launched during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at UN Headquarters in New York, where world leaders are gathering to review of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“We will only be able to solve the biggest environmental challenges of our time if we get the data right,” Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim said. “UN Environment is excited to be partnering with Google, to make sure we have the most sophisticated online tools to track progress, identify priority areas for our action, and bring us one step closer to a sustainable world.”

"This partnership announcement builds on a common shared vision between our organizations," said Rebecca Moore, Director, Google Earth, Earth Engine & Earth Outreach. "We are excited to enable all countries with equal access to the latest technology and information in support of global climate action and sustainable development."

Other areas of collaboration include advocacy and capacity building activities as well as the development of partnerships with organizations like the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Power utility Eskom has said that it could meet proposed‚ significantly stricter pollution emissions standards‚ but that the South African public will have to pay for it — in cash and millions of l

The largest water desalination plant was officially opened, pumping up to 281,000 cubic metres per day.

The head of the Iranian Civil Defense Organization, General Gholamreza Jalali, has accused Tel Aviv of modifying the weather in Iran by "stealing" clouds heading to the country.

Increasing ethnic tensions in the province of South Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has turned into serious armed confrontations, creating