Sustainability and ESG news: Drive the
change
Bringing you timely and informative articles that shed light on the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability, responsible business, and ethical investing.
Sustainability and ESG news: Drive the
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Climate Change Cuts Fish Stocks and Disrupts Livelihoods in Tanga
Fishermen and traders at Tanga's Deep Sea Fish Market say fish supplies are shrinking and business is suffering, and they point to climate change among the causes.
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Denmark Moves Towards a Ban on "Turbo Chickens" as Parliamentary Support Grows
Denmark's Nature and Animal Welfare Minister wants a national ban on fast-growing "turbo chickens", and a broad majority in parliament now appears ready to back it.
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Zimbabwe Braces for Destructive Thunderstorms and Hail as Heat Fuels Stronger Storms
Zimbabwe's Meteorological Services Department has warned of thunderstorms, hail, strong winds and heavy rain from 27 to 29 October, with officials linking the intensity to high temperatures.
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Dodoma Faces a 68 Million-Litre Daily Water Gap as Tanzania's Capital Grows
Dodoma's water authority says the capital is about 68 million litres a day short. New boreholes, pipelines and the Farkwa Dam are meant to close the gap as the city grows.
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Switzerland Taps Diesel Reserves as Winter Tests Energy Resilience
Switzerland has begun releasing strategic diesel reserves after pipeline delays from France. As winter approaches, the episode shows why resilience and sustainability have to be planned together.
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Egypt Forum 2026 Sets Wage, Renewable Energy and Tree Protection Goals
At the close of Egypt Forum 2026, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly presented recommendations to lift the minimum wage to EGP 15,000, reach about 30 GW of renewable capacity by 2028 and criminalise unregulated tree cutting.
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Estonia Weighs Grid Fees Against Battery Storage Investment
Six energy companies say new network fees from 2027 could push battery storage investment out of Estonia, while the grid operator Elering says its restructured charges are fairer and approved by the Competition Authority.
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Ghana Sets Three Safeguards for Mineworkers Under Contract Mining
Ghana's government has outlined three measures to protect workers as mining companies shift from owner mining to contract mining, with a 30 November deadline.
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Amsterdam Explores a Ban on Single-Use Packaging
Amsterdam has commissioned a study into banning single-use packaging, a category the city says makes up 30% of its litter.
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New York Votes to End Central Park's Horse Carriages, as European Cities Take Different Roads
New York City has voted to end horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park from 2028. In Europe, cities from Prague and Brussels to Rome, Vienna and Valletta have taken very different paths on the same question.
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Prince William Brings a Children's Earthshot to Mumbai as Young Indians Pitch Climate Fixes
Schoolchildren from across India will present their own environmental solutions in Mumbai next month, as Prince William's Earthshot Prize stages a Children's Earthshot alongside its global awards.
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Malta Plans to Dig Deeper at Magħtab Landfill While Cutting Reliance on Landfilling
WasteServ has issued a tender to deepen the Magħtab landfill from 10 to 54 metres, adding more than 2.9 million cubic metres of capacity and turning excavated stone into construction products.
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Egypt's Central Bank Trains 11 African Central Banks to Stress-Test Climate Risk
Twenty-five officials from 11 COMESA central banks spent five days in Cairo learning how to build climate risks into stress tests, and their recommendations now head to central bank governors.
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Macron Rejects Migration Blame for French Unrest and Warns of Foreign Disinformation
In Doha, Emmanuel Macron rejected claims by foreign leaders that migrants caused the riots in France, pointing instead to disinformation, including AI-generated videos, and to a protest movement that began over school conditions and the cost of living.
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Lithuania Weighs Delay to Its EUR 3 Billion Baltic Offshore Wind Farm
Ignitis Group has asked Lithuania's ministries to delay a 700 MW offshore wind farm costing about EUR 3 billion, after the National Audit Office found costs had risen 27% and projected returns had fallen 40% since 2023.
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Algarve Told to Fix Existing Waste Plants Before Reaching for Incineration
Environmental association ZERO wants the Algarve to upgrade its two existing waste treatment plants and treat organic waste before landfill, rather than build new capacity or turn to incineration.
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Malta's Renewable Energy Share Climbs to 18.8%, Nearly One-Fifth of Consumption
Renewables supplied 18.8% of Malta's energy consumption in 2025, up from 17.2% a year earlier, according to provisional Eurostat data, leaving 6.2 percentage points to close by 2030.
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Drought Drains Czechia's Orlík Reservoir and Uncovers a Lost Village
Prolonged drought has drained Czechia's Orlík reservoir to a historic low, exposing the foundations of Podolsko and highlighting how much stored water has been used to keep the Vltava flowing.
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UN Nature Talks Seek a Reset as 2030 Biodiversity Goals Fall Behind
At the halfway point to 2030, a UN progress report finds the world off track on its nature goals, and COP17 in Yerevan is the moment to reset.
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Malta Innovators Propose a Green Mobility Wallet for Cleaner Commutes
Ahead of Budget 2027, Malta's innovation community proposes a green mobility wallet that rewards cleaner commuting, alongside four other priorities.
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Uganda Gives Defaulting Mining Firms 14 Days to Pay or Lose Their Licences
Uganda's energy and minerals ministry has published lists of mining licence holders who defaulted on rents, royalties and late lodgement fees, and given them 14 days to pay or face losing their licences and prosecution.
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Ireland's Industry Is Set to Miss Its 2030 Climate Target, Advisory Council Warns
Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council projects that industrial emissions will rise rather than fall, leaving the sector well short of its 35 percent cut by 2030.
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Greenpeace Takes Carpathian Logging Row to IKEA's Doorstep in Bucharest
Greenpeace Romania protested outside IKEA's Bucharest store, alleging that timber from a clear-cut Carpathian forest proposed for strict protection may have entered a key supplier's chain. IKEA rejects the claim, saying the logging was legal and the area was not classed as virgin forest.
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Tanzania's Blue Economy Starts on Land, Scientists Warn at COP12
Falling prawn catches and polluted coasts point back to the farm, says Tanzania's agricultural research chief, urging farmers and ocean planners to work together.
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Zambia's Solar Surge Lifts Power Capacity by 945 MW, But the Grid Must Catch Up
Zambia has added about 945 MW of generation in two years, most of it solar, but President Hichilema says transmission and distribution are now the weak link.
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A Slick That Vanished: What Sweden's Baltic Oil Scare Reveals About Marine Protection
European satellites flagged a suspected oil spill in a Baltic shipping lane southeast of Gotland. By the time Swedish responders arrived, it had disappeared, leaving an investigation with no suspect.
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Portugal Backs a €5.1 Million Ocean Energy Centre in Viana do Castelo
Portugal's government has cleared the way for a €5.1 million centre in Viana do Castelo dedicated to ocean energy and marine technology, with around 40 specialists expected on site by 2030.
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Polish Entrepreneurs Put 500 Million Zloty Behind Small Nuclear Reactors
A group of Polish entrepreneurs, including the founders of InPost and ElevenLabs' chief executive, has invested 500 million zloty in Synthos Green Energy's small modular reactor venture, which now has funding secured for the next two years.
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Spain Extends Its Wildfire Campaign to 31 October After a Season Burning 275,000 Hectares
Spain's government has extended its summer wildfire campaign to 31 October after a season of 8,122 fires, 275,209 hectares burned and 21 deaths.
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Libya Opens the Door to Solar, Wind and a Power Link with Europe
Libya's Renewable Energy Authority has sat down with a British business delegation and major energy companies to discuss solar, wind and an electricity link to Europe, a signal that a nation built on oil is seriously courting clean-energy investment.
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Italy Closes the Greenwashing Loophole: New EU Rules on "Green" Claims Take Effect
As of 27 September, Italian law bans vague "green" and "eco" claims and blocks companies from calling a product "climate neutral" just because they bought carbon credits — a direct transposition of new EU consumer-protection rules.
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UN Chief Demands Fossil Fuel Deadlines — Malta's Own Timeline Tells a Different Story
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged governments to set binding fossil fuel phase-out deadlines, warning the 1.5°C threshold is close to being breached — a call that lands awkwardly for Malta, whose own gas dependency is locked in until 2035.
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Kenya's 30x30 Gap: New Regional Outlook Ranks Kenya Eighth for Conservation Ahead of COP17
A new regional biodiversity outlook launched in Nairobi places Kenya eighth in Eastern and Southern Africa for protected land, and shows how far the country still has to go to meet the global 30x30 goal before COP17.
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Africa's $247 Billion Climate Finance Gap: Sahara Group's Call to Action at UNGA
At a UN General Assembly roundtable, Sahara Group's Kola Adesina laid out the stark math behind Africa's climate investment shortfall — and argued that closing it is the key to unlocking the continent's growth.
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EU Backs €126 Million Cross-Border Drive to Link Germany, Poland and the Baltics on Renewables
The European Commission is putting nearly €126 million behind three renewable energy projects that only work because two countries agreed to build them together — climate-neutral district heating spanning the German-Polish border, and an onshore wind park straddling Latvia and Lithuania.
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Kenya's Path From Green Power to a Carbon-Free Economy
Kenya already generates more than 90% of its electricity from renewable sources — but a new Strathmore University study argues that reaching a truly carbon-free economy will take far more than clean power generation alone.
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Power to the People: UNDP Backs 18 Community Groups to Restore Ghana’s Black Volta Basin
A new $457,000 UNDP-backed programme is handing conservation of Ghana’s Black Volta Basin to the people who live there — funding 18 community organisations to restore land, protect biodiversity and build climate resilience from the ground up.
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Over 50 Nigerian Firms Move to Adopt Global Sustainability Reporting Standards
Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council says more than 50 organisations across banking, manufacturing, oil and gas, fintech and the SME sector are moving to fully adopt the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards — a shift it frames as a strategic push for transparency, governance and competitiveness.
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Kenya Turns Up the Heat: KenGen's Geothermal Push Adds Clean Power to a Straining Grid
Kenya's clean-energy push has received a fresh boost as KenGen moves to add about 63 MW of geothermal power to the national grid, deepening the country's reliance on a steady, weather-proof renewable source at a time of record electricity demand.
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Here Comes the Sun: Ireland's Solar Scale-Up Proves the Renewable Dream Is Real
While Ireland is criticised for only modest progress on cutting carbon emissions, one technology is quietly hitting its targets: solar. A gigawatt a year is now being connected, the sun met a third of national demand during the May heatwave, and 8GW is on course by 2030 — if the grid and planning system can keep pace.
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Nigeria Unveils 23 Solar Mini-Grids Across 15 States as Minister Pledges Improved Power Before Year-End
Nigeria's Rural Electrification Agency, the UNDP and the Global Environment Facility have unveiled 23 solar mini-grids across 15 states under the Africa Mini-Grid Programme, bringing electricity to more than 50,000 people — as Power Minister Joseph Tegbe assured Nigerians that national supply would improve before the end of 2026.
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Impact Fund Denmark Closes $760 Million Blended Finance Fund to Back SDG-Aligned Businesses in Emerging Markets
Danish development finance institution Impact Fund Denmark has reached the final close of SDG Fund II, securing DKK 5 billion (about $760 million) to invest in private companies driving the green transition and inclusive growth across developing and emerging markets — with the backing of five pension funds, Jyske Bank and an EU guarantee.
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Drought Tightens Its Grip on the Horn of Africa: 6.5 Million Face Hunger as the Rains Fail Again
Another failed rainy season has deepened one of the world's most neglected emergencies: at least 6.5 million people across Kenya and Somalia now face severe hunger, 2.5 million of them children, in a drought scientists link firmly to a warming climate.
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Europe's Deadly Heatwave: Record Temperatures Push Heat-Linked Deaths Past 1,300
A punishing second heatwave has engulfed Europe, smashing June temperature records from France to the Netherlands and pushing heat-linked deaths past 1,300 — a toll the World Health Organization has called a health emergency.
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Paris Court Orders TotalEnergies to Address Scope 3 Climate Risks in Landmark Duty-of-Vigilance Ruling
A Paris court has ruled that TotalEnergies must identify and disclose how it will address the climate risks of the greenhouse gas emissions released when customers burn its oil and gas — bringing Scope 3 emissions squarely within France's duty-of-vigilance law and handing campaigners a closely watched, if partial, win.
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UK to Make Deforestation Checks Mandatory for Business Supply Chains
The UK Government has announced plans to require businesses to ensure their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation, introducing mandatory due diligence rules aligned with the EU's Deforestation Regulation and a consultation due later this year.
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Stegra Closes $1.6 Billion Raise to Complete Europe’s Largest Green Steel Plant
Swedish green iron and steel maker Stegra has closed a €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) financing round, providing a lifeline to complete the world’s first large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden.
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EBA Cuts ESG Reporting Burden for Large Banks While Extending Disclosure to Smaller Institutions for the First Time
The European Banking Authority has finalised draft technical standards that simplify ESG risk disclosure for Europe's largest banks — cutting their reporting datapoints by more than a third — while extending sustainability reporting, in proportionate form, to every bank in the EU for the first time.
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DP World Launches EcoRoute to Cut Emissions Across Global Supply Chains
Logistics giant DP World has unveiled EcoRoute, a suite of tools designed to help companies cut emissions and build more efficient, resilient supply chains — at a time when freight accounts for roughly a tenth of global energy-related CO₂.
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Nestlé Brings Regeneratively Farmed Wheat to All 1.5 Billion KitKat Bars Made in the UK
Nestlé is bringing regeneratively farmed British wheat into one of the country's best-loved chocolate bars, partnering with farming brand Wildfarmed to source the grain for the 1.5 billion KitKat bars made every year at its York factory — without changing the taste or signature snap.
