Nyheder – Europe

The big British bag bash: In England, the use of thin plastic bags has decreased by 90 percent since a fee was introduced in 2015. The same idea is considered for single use coffee cups.

Italy to ditch coal: By 2025, Italy wants to stop using coal. Several other countries have also declared that they want to stop burning this dirty fuel.

Move against microplastics: From July 2018, the UK will ban harmful microplastics from products such as toothpaste and shower gel. The USA is expected to introduce a similar ban.

London puts a price on clean air: People with older diesel cars will now have to pay almost twice as much to drive into central London. The price hike is meant to improve the city’s air quality.

Forests spreading fast in France: Forest cover grew rapidly in France since 1990, going up by an average of 102,000 hectares a year. Almost a third of the country is now covered by woodland.

France bans whale breeding: In France, it’s now forbidden to breed whales in captivity to use them for whale shows. Whales already in captivity must be given substantially bigger pools.

Towards mine-free Falklands: A team of experienced deminers from Zimbabwe have now cleared more than 7 million square metres of previous minefields on the windy Falklands Islands.

End of landmines in Belarus: The last of Belarus’ 3 million landmines have now been destroyed. This makes Belarus the 159th country in the world to get rid of the insidious weapons.

Smart idea makes cities more clean: Barcelona is testing a new idea to make parts of the city nearly free of cars. This makes the air cleaner and people can use the roads for other things.

Ireland to sell off dirty assets: Taking action against climate change, the Irish parliament has passed a law to drop coal, oil, and gas investments from the Ireland Stategic Investment Fund.

Dutch trains now run on wind power: In the Netherlands, all trains now run on green power from wind turbines. Part of the electricity comes from Scandinavia.

Poland recycles all landmines: As the 158th country Poland has now destroyed all its landmines, many of which were of the type "hand grenade on a stick". They were dismantled and reused for peaceful purposes.

Poland recycles all landmines: As the 158th country in the world, Poland has now destroyed all its landmines. They were taken apart and the materials reused for peaceful purposes.