Air pollution to kill thousands of Europeans: watchdogMarch 3, 2015 - 17:07 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of thousands of Europeans will suffer a premature death in the next two decades as the result of governments’ failure to act on air pollution, Europe’s environmental watchdog has warned, according to the Guardian. In 2011, the latest year for which figures have been reliably collated, more than 400,000 are estimated to have died prematurely as a result of breathing toxic fumes, despite recent improvements in some countries Europe is also faring badly on other environmental indicators, including the loss of biodiversity to intensive farming and urbanisation, and the poor state of many inland freshwater systems, according to the State of the Environment report for 2015, published by the European Environment Agency on Tuesday, March 3. There have been some successes: coastal water pollution has been cleared up in many regions in the last two decades, as untreated sewage is no longer allowed to foul bathing beaches, and greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced overall. But the EEA warned that although on areas such as industrial pollution, air pollution and waste management the EU was showing good progress, the outlook for two decades from now was increasingly grim on all environmental fronts. The agency rated key environmental indicators on a “traffic lights” system, rating them red, amber or green for how well they are being dealt with currently, and how that is likely to change in the next 20 years as current and prospective policies take a longer term effect. None of the 20 key indicators were rated as “green” in its 20 year-plus forecast. In its five-yearly report, the EEA also urged member state governments to take a more “joined-up” view of environmental issues. The study identified as a key problem the lack of coordination of regulation intended to address different aspects of environmental damage, such as water systems and biodiversity. Related links: Top stories David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met with Stephan Schütz, Executive Partner at Gerkan, Marg and Partners. The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. Partner news | Azerbaijan extends Rune Vardanyan’s arrest by 5 months A court in Azerbaijan has extended the arrest of former Nagorno-Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan by five months. “Great success”: Pashinyan pleased with new border protocol Pashinyan has described the signing by Armenia and Azerbaijan of a protocol on delimitation in Tavush as “a great success”. Armenia, Azerbaijan sign protocol on demarcation coordinates Armenia’s government took on May 15 another step towards handing over four border areas to Azerbaijan. U.S. warns Georgia not to side with Moscow against the west Georgia has been warned by the U.S. not to become an adversary of the west by falling back in line with Moscow. |