National environmental programmes have been seeing no progress since the devolution of the Ministry of Environment two years ago.

All environmental conservation plans were approved by the Pakistan Environment Protection Council (PEPC) – the apex organisation at the national level for formulation and implementation of the national environmental policy and programmes – headed by the prime minister.

CHENNAI: In a bid to focus on environmental sustainability and realise the objectives of Vision 2023, the environment and forest department’s draft state environment policy is looking at strategies to revamp and restructure the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, the Directorate of Environment and related institutions to make them participative and transparent in decision-making.

Hong Kong has long preferred to blame its smoggy skies on polluting factories just over the border in mainland China. But new analysis suggests that the blame for much of the city’s pollution rests squarely on Hong Kong’s shoulders.

It seems like Singapore’s billion-dollar green investments have paid off.

A new study says that the city-state is Asia’s most livable city, beating regional rivals like Hong Kong, which now has one of the worst levels of air pollution in the world.

Hong Kong has decided to come clean with data on a dangerous form of air pollution, a month and a half after Beijing, a city with smoggier skies and a murkier approach to statistics, did the same.

After years of withholding the data, Hong Kong’s environmental protection department on Thursday began publicly releasing hourly measurements of the tiny pollutants known as PM2.5 – so called because they are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter – that health experts say are especially threatening because they penetrate deeply into the lungs.

Non-completion of the Western and Eastern Peripheral Expressway to divert traffic of heavy vehicles is costing the national Capital’s health dearly. According to a study, the city has the highest level of air pollutants called particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10). To make matters worse, the PM10 levels have risen during the past three years, while many other cities, including Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai, witnessed a drop.

In a blow to SAIL’s efforts for raw material security, a high level committee of the Union environment ministry has refused to accord green clearances for the steel major’s three key iron ore mines in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The move could deprive the firm of over 80,000 million tonne of ore annually.