This Week In Climate Change – Things You Might Have Missed

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Fix up, look sharp: here’s your quick-fire guide to the climate change movings and happenings you might have missed last week.

1. The Welsh are the second best recyclers in the world

While England’s recycling efforts came it at twelfth – behind South Korea, Slovenia and Belgium – Wales have steamed ahead, according to a report from environmental analysts Eunomia.

The country, which was pipped to first place by Germany, has grand plans to be zero waste by 2050.

Read more here.

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2. China bans plastic waste imports

Two thirds of the UK’s plastic exports need to go elsewhere, after China announced plans to ban plastic waste imports in early 2018.

We’ve shipped more than 2.7m tonnes of plastic scrap to China and Hong Kong since 2012 – meaning that the UK’s recycling operation is going to have to radically change or face ‘crisis’, according to experts.

Read more here.

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3. Beer could be the fuel of the future

Academics at the University of Bristol are working towards converting the ethanol in fermented alcohol (such as beer) into butanol, which would be used as a petrol alternative.

Read more here.

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4. The US, China and India reject a UN resolution on plastic pollution

An agreement that would have called for specific targets to reduce plastic waste in the oceans has been blocked by India, China and the US.

While all countries concurred that plastics need to stop entering the ocean, the final resolution is not legally binding and doesn’t include specific timeframes.

Read more here.

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5. A tax on meat could be coming

Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR), a UK-based investor initiative, have released new research arguing that a ‘sin tax’ on meat would help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by livestock consumption.

Read more here.

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