Jack Graham

Governments are meeting in Paris this week to negotiate a global treaty on plastic pollution, as alarm grows over the environmental damage caused by surging amounts of waste.

Producing plastics causes major planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, while the accumulation of plastic products in the environment pollutes lands and oceans.

Governments are increasingly focusing on health risks fuelled by global warming, with most nations now considering concerns from malaria to heart disease in their climate plans, according to data shared exclusively by the World Health Organization (WHO).

More than 90% of countries have included health hazards in their commitments to tackle climate change, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), up from 70% in 2020, according to new WHO data, set to be released in a forthcoming report.

Few people have a better view of what happens under the sea's surface than a scallop diver.

Having foraged for the shellfish off England's south coast since the 1990s, John Worswick has witnessed the destruction of seabed habitats as large dredging boats hoovered up scallops beyond the golden cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast.

"The reefs were disappearing," said Worswick, now in his mid-60s, who lives in the small harbour of West Bay and dives for scallops in Lyme Bay, an area of the English Channel.

"Every year it was just getting worse and worse."

As King Charles prepares for his coronation this weekend, a study has highlighted the economic impact of climate change on the Commonwealth group of countries he heads as Britain's monarch - and revealed stark inequality within the bloc.

Under current global climate policies, Commonwealth nations face a median 63% hit to their GDP by the end of the century, according to the charity Christian Aid.

Former British government official Jenny McInnes made a major career switch last year, leaving the senior ranks of the civil service for the business world to join an expanded team of sustainability specialists at financial giant HSBC.

McInnes, who is group head of sustainability policy and partnerships for the bank, studied ecology and climate science at university before going on to work on international climate negotiations and finance for the UK government.

When the latest round of climate protests organised by Extinction Rebellion begins in London on Friday, far more peaceful actions are expected than the public disruption for which the grassroots environmental group has become famous.

Instead of blocking roads, throwing paint and smashing windows, about 30,000 people have signed up for four days of family-friendly rallies and marches, dubbed "The Big One" and timed to coincide with Earth Day.

At a metal recycling facility in central England, thousands of tonnes of shredded scrap from cars to construction debris arrive daily to be processed into individual materials and sold.

A mixture of metals, plastics and other materials are sent through an elaborate maze of more than 100 conveyor belt systems where they are further separated in several different ways - from floatation in water to using magnets and robots.

A global U.N. treaty to protect biodiversity on the high seas was agreed on Saturday after protracted negotiations involving more than 100 countries.

The high seas - areas lying beyond countries' exclusive economic zones - make up nearly two-thirds of the world's oceans, and are imperiled by overfishing, pollution and other threats.

When Scott Agnew worked on deep sea oil and gas tankers and cargo boats in the 1980s, he used to count whales and dolphins for conservationists' surveys on his voyages around the world.

Based in Dundee, Scotland, many of his jobs over the years have been for the offshore fossil fuel industry, including on drillships and ships supplying oil rigs.

Corporate climate pledges are mushrooming as global companies seek to reassure customers and investors about their green credentials by promising net zero emissions and carbon-neutral products.

But multinational companies branding themselves as climate leaders mostly have "inadequate and ambiguous" plans to fulfil their promises, according to a report published on Monday by the NewClimate Institute, a Berlin-based think-tank.