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Sustainable development

Berat Haznedaroğlu, director of the Istanbul Microalgae Biotechnologies Research and Development Center at Boğaziçi University, stands by a racetrack algae pool, a motor to one side.

This Turkish lab is turning algae into jet fuel

Energy

Scientist Berat Haznedaroğlu is the director of Türkiye’s first initiative to turn algae into fuel for airplanes — but scaling up is a challenge.

wood pellets in hand

Biomass energy may soon lose its green label in the EU

Energy
A Uniper energy company coal-fired power plant and a BP refinery are seen beside a wind generator in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Jan. 16, 2020. 

Did the world ‘build back better’ since the start of the pandemic? Not so much. 

Environment
Mossbrae Falls in the Shasta Cascade area in Dunsmuir, California. In many spiritual traditions, like the Lakota in the US, water represents “the living relationship between you and I and all things."

Spiritual leaders seek to spur an ‘ecological conversion’

Belief
Rainforest cleared for palm oil plantation

Converting forests into palm oil plantations is ‘total devastation’ for the planet

Climate Change
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"It sounded a load of rubbish" is how Grimsby port chief Martin Boyers remembers reacting to a plan to create a maintenance hub for new offshore wind farms in the depressed city. “I didn’t know anything about renewables."

Offshore wind projects breathe life into struggling UK ports

Environment

The UK’s big push into offshore wind power is bringing down the cost of the low-carbon energy sources, and bringing new life to some down-on-their-luck English ports.

Ninety five percent of urban Tanzanians use charcoal for cooking fuel, and the trade supports more than a million jobs. But charcoal production is taking a massive toll on the country's forests. After a failed attempt to ban the trade the country is now t

Tanzania is trying to turn the charcoal trade from an enemy to a friend of the forest

Environment

The illegal charcoal trade is a big contributor to deforestation in countries like Tanzania. After trying and failing once to curb the business, the country is now trying a new approach. The World’s Sam Eaton has the story.

Can solar power Tanzania?

Development & Education

Dedicated entrepreneurs are pushing solar power as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to the dangerous and dirty kerosene that powers much of the country.

The World

RIO+20: The Earth Conference Revisited

Twenty years ago the first U.N. Earth Summit convened in Rio, Brazil to tackle the biggest environmental challenges of the day. Now world leaders met in Rio again, with many global challenges today more extreme.

The Rio Environmental Summit: One Teen Activist’s View

Arts, Culture & Media

There might be sand in the gears at the official meetings at the UN sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro, but there is plenty of action among activists and others outside the building.

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