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1 week ago | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
Electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies are driving booming demand for metals and minerals – including copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel – which many countries now consider “critical” to their security. But will procuring those supplies harm the environment and human rights?
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1 month ago | 
climatechangenews.com | Nicha Wachpanich |Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
On a humid day in February, a small group of workers huddled in front of a large solar panel factory inside Thailand’s biggest manufacturing hub in the eastern coastal province of Chonburi, home to some of the world’s top solar panel-producing companies. The men and women, mostly in their twenties, all hoped to land a job on a production line assembling solar cells into panels destined for export.
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2 months ago | 
ibanet.org | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand |Joanne Harris
The deal being finalised between the US and Ukraine has placed a spotlight on a suddenly much-sought after group of minerals – rare earth elements. This set of 17 nearly indistinguishable soft metals are essential to many modern digital technologies, such as advanced defence equipment as well as the magnets used in electric vehicle motors and wind turbines – all at the forefront of the global agenda. Despite their name, rare earth elements are in fact relatively abundant.
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2 months ago | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
A dozen countries ravaged by conflict and humanitarian crises have joined forces to urge the international community to deliver the funding they need to be able to absorb and respond to worsening climate shocks, calling for a growing gap to be tackled at critical talks this year.
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Feb 25, 2025 | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
The UK said it will cut its overseas aid budget in a new blow to vulnerable nations. The move will make it more difficult for the government to deliver on a promise to increase climate finance to developing countries, analysts have warned. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to slash the UK aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income, which he said would allow the UK to spend £13.4 billion more on defense per year from 2027.
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Feb 21, 2025 | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand |Megan Rowling
The push for a global levy on international shipping emissions won additional support from another dozen countries during talks in London this week, but it is still opposed by a group of large emerging economies including Brazil, China and Saudi Arabia. The negotiations made little concrete progress, leaving much work ahead of a crunch meeting in April, according to observers.
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Feb 18, 2025 | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
Nearly all Bangladeshi migrants who leave areas hit hard by climate change to seek work in other parts of the country or overseas in Gulf States are subject to forms of forced labour, researchers have found.
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Feb 6, 2025 | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
The head of the UN climate change body has urged countries to submit new “first-rate” climate targets by September, after only a handful of countries published new plans to cut emissions ahead of a February deadline. Under the Paris Agreement, adopted nearly a decade ago, countries are expected to submit targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, and set out how they will reach them, by a – largely symbolic – deadline of February 10.
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Jan 30, 2025 | 
climatechangenews.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
The world should question its skyrocketing demand for energy-transition minerals and the roll-out of ineffective climate measures that damage people and the planet, the UN’s special rapporteur on climate change and human rights has warned. “The need for critical minerals in terms of climate action is an assumption that we need to challenge,” Elisa Morgera told an online event hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) on Wednesday.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
theguardian.com | Chloe Farand |Chloé Farand
The European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached. The advocacy group Global Witness (GW) said there remained a “high risk” of the EU’s mineral imports being used to fund militias and state repression in several countries.
