Latest news with #environmentministry
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
India eases sulphur emission rules for coal power plants, reversing decade-old mandate
NEW DELHI, July 12 (Reuters) - India has reversed a decade-old mandate to install $30 billion worth of clean-air equipment, easing sulphur emission rules for most coal-fired power plants, a government order said. Reuters in December reported the government was reviewing 2015 norms that required nearly 540 coal-based power units to install flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems that remove sulphur from the plants' exhaust gases in phases starting in 2027. The federal environment ministry late on Friday issued a gazette notification that exempted 79% of the coal-fired power plants, outside a 10-km (6 mile) radius of populated and polluted cities, from the 2015 mandate. The mandate to install FGD for another 11% of the plants near populated cities would be taken on a "case-to-case basis," the notification said. The balance of 10% of the coal-fired power plants closer to New Delhi and other cities with a million-plus population will be required to install the desulphurisation equipment by December 2027, according to the new mandate. The notification comes after state-run NTPC ( opens new tab, India's top electricity producer, spent about $4 billion on installing the equipment at about 11% of the power plants, and about 50% of the units either placed orders for the desulphurisation systems or are installing them. The Friday notification did not mention the impact on the competitiveness or recovery of costs by these power plants. It said the decision was taken after the Central Pollution Control Board carried out a detailed analysis of the increase in "carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere due to operation of control measures being deployed."
Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
How to stop a bear in big city: Japan issues shoot-to-kill guide
For years, they have become ever bolder and more aggressive, entering towns and cities, walking along busy streets and trespassing into homes, even military barracks. Now Japan has authorised drastic measures for dealing with its plague of bears: turning the guns on them. The environment ministry has sent to local governments guidelines on a new law allowing them to deploy armed hunters against invading bears in urban areas. After centuries of shy coexistence with humans, occasionally glimpsed in the mountains by hikers and hunters, the creatures have run amok in recent years, killing and injuring more people than ever before. In the past, most bear encounters took place in the wild, often involving attacks on people gathering mushrooms and mountain plants. Every year, however, there are more reports of bears entering the human domain.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Yahoo
What is happening in South Korea? Seoul has caught the lovebug that nobody wants
South Korea has recently been hit by another surge of lovebugs. But romance is certainly not in the air for residents of Seoul and neighboring Incheon city, who have been plagued by these pesky insects in recent weeks, as rising temperatures due to climate change spur their spread. On Friday, dozens of government workers were sent to Gyeyangsan, a mountain west of the capital, to manage an 'extremely severe outbreak,' the country's environment ministry said in a statement. Videos on social media earlier this week showed scenic hiking trails along the peak transformed into buzzing corridors of chaos. Footage shows hikers thrashing through swarms of thumbnail-sized bugs, with one person engulfed by the black-winged creatures and another scooping thousands of tiny carcasses from the trail. In a YouTube video, a man collected thousands of the insects and took them home to make them into hamburgers, which he then appeared to eat. Lovebugs, known scientifically as Plecia longiforceps, get their nickname from their mating behavior when they fling into each other while flying. They are found in the subtropics including southeastern China, Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. They also occur in parts of Central America and the southern United States, including Texas and Florida. First detected in South Korea in 2015, they are believed to have arrived there from southern China, according to the environment ministry. Since 2022, they have appeared in and around Seoul, particularly port areas, between June and July, it added. Experts say climate change and warming temperatures are helping drive lovebugs northward into areas such as Seoul and Incheon. While global warming is a planet-wide issue, scientists have identified Seoul as an area where temperatures are rising at a faster pace than in other parts of the world. This is worsened by the city's heat-island effect, where temperatures are much higher than in nearby rural areas due to man-made structures absorbing and holding more heat. 'With climate change increasing ecological instability, we must remain vigilant throughout the summer,' Kim Tae-o, director of the environment ministry, said. Lovebugs do not transmit diseases or sting humans. However, there have been increasing public complaints about them sticking to car windows and the walls of houses, restaurants and subway trains. So far, officials have advised local workers and residents to combat swarms by spraying water or using sticky pads instead of chemical pesticides. Populations are expanding in the northwest of South Korea, however any further potential spread remains unknown. 'Compared with the past two years, the number of lovebugs sharply surged last weekend at the mountain,' Gyeyang district official Wang Hyeon-jeong said on Tuesday. Areas with a warm, humid climate could attract them, being favorable conditions for their survival and reproduction. The city government of Seoul views the lovebugs as 'ecologically beneficial,' posing no health risk to humans and helping pollinate flowers as their larvae convert plant materials into organic components. However, local media reports that complaints to the city have more than doubled, increasing from 4,418 in 2023 to 9,296 last year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On Friday, environment ministers agreed to strengthen and invest more in response procedures after the latest outbreak, which it described as 'extremely severe.' 'We will closely monitor the situation and work with local authorities from the early stages of any outbreak,' Kim said. But natural population control is reportedly setting in, as birds such as sparrows and magpies learn to eat the bugs, causing their numbers to fall.
CNN
04-07-2025
- CNN
What is happening in South Korea? Seoul has caught the lovebug that nobody wants
South Korea has recently been hit by another surge of lovebugs. But romance is certainly not in the air for residents of Seoul and neighboring Incheon city, who have been plagued by these pesky insects in recent weeks, as rising temperatures due to climate change spur their spread. On Friday, dozens of government workers were sent to Gyeyangsan, a mountain west of the capital, to manage an 'extremely severe outbreak,' the country's environment ministry said in a statement. Videos on social media earlier this week showed scenic hiking trails along the peak transformed into buzzing corridors of chaos. Footage shows hikers thrashing through swarms of thumbnail-sized bugs, with one person engulfed by the black-winged creatures and another scooping thousands of tiny carcasses from the trail. In a YouTube video, a man collected thousands of the insects and took them home to make them into hamburgers, which he then appeared to eat. Lovebugs, known scientifically as Plecia longiforceps, get their nickname from their mating behavior when they fling into each other while flying. They are found in the subtropics including southeastern China, Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. They also occur in parts of Central America and the southern United States, including Texas and Florida. First detected in South Korea in 2015, they are believed to have arrived there from southern China, according to the environment ministry. Since 2022, they have appeared in and around Seoul, particularly port areas, between June and July, it added. Experts say climate change and warming temperatures are helping drive lovebugs northward into areas such as Seoul and Incheon. While global warming is a planet-wide issue, scientists have identified Seoul as an area where temperatures are rising at a faster pace than in other parts of the world. This is worsened by the city's heat-island effect, where temperatures are much higher than in nearby rural areas due to man-made structures absorbing and holding more heat. 'With climate change increasing ecological instability, we must remain vigilant throughout the summer,' Kim Tae-o, director of the environment ministry, said. Lovebugs do not transmit diseases or sting humans. However, there have been increasing public complaints about them sticking to car windows and the walls of houses, restaurants and subway trains. So far, officials have advised local workers and residents to combat swarms by spraying water or using sticky pads instead of chemical pesticides. Populations are expanding in the northwest of South Korea, however any further potential spread remains unknown. 'Compared with the past two years, the number of lovebugs sharply surged last weekend at the mountain,' Gyeyang district official Wang Hyeon-jeong said on Tuesday. Areas with a warm, humid climate could attract them, being favorable conditions for their survival and reproduction. The city government of Seoul views the lovebugs as 'ecologically beneficial,' posing no health risk to humans and helping pollinate flowers as their larvae convert plant materials into organic components. However, local media reports that complaints to the city have more than doubled, increasing from 4,418 in 2023 to 9,296 last year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On Friday, environment ministers agreed to strengthen and invest more in response procedures after the latest outbreak, which it described as 'extremely severe.' 'We will closely monitor the situation and work with local authorities from the early stages of any outbreak,' Kim said. But natural population control is reportedly setting in, as birds such as sparrows and magpies learn to eat the bugs, causing their numbers to fall.
CNN
04-07-2025
- CNN
What is happening in South Korea? Seoul has caught the lovebug that nobody wants
South Korea has recently been hit by another surge of lovebugs. But romance is certainly not in the air for residents of Seoul and neighboring Incheon city, who have been plagued by these pesky insects in recent weeks, as rising temperatures due to climate change spur their spread. On Friday, dozens of government workers were sent to Gyeyangsan, a mountain west of the capital, to manage an 'extremely severe outbreak,' the country's environment ministry said in a statement. Videos on social media earlier this week showed scenic hiking trails along the peak transformed into buzzing corridors of chaos. Footage shows hikers thrashing through swarms of thumbnail-sized bugs, with one person engulfed by the black-winged creatures and another scooping thousands of tiny carcasses from the trail. In a YouTube video, a man collected thousands of the insects and took them home to make them into hamburgers, which he then appeared to eat. Lovebugs, known scientifically as Plecia longiforceps, get their nickname from their mating behavior when they fling into each other while flying. They are found in the subtropics including southeastern China, Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands. They also occur in parts of Central America and the southern United States, including Texas and Florida. First detected in South Korea in 2015, they are believed to have arrived there from southern China, according to the environment ministry. Since 2022, they have appeared in and around Seoul, particularly port areas, between June and July, it added. Experts say climate change and warming temperatures are helping drive lovebugs northward into areas such as Seoul and Incheon. While global warming is a planet-wide issue, scientists have identified Seoul as an area where temperatures are rising at a faster pace than in other parts of the world. This is worsened by the city's heat-island effect, where temperatures are much higher than in nearby rural areas due to man-made structures absorbing and holding more heat. 'With climate change increasing ecological instability, we must remain vigilant throughout the summer,' Kim Tae-o, director of the environment ministry, said. Lovebugs do not transmit diseases or sting humans. However, there have been increasing public complaints about them sticking to car windows and the walls of houses, restaurants and subway trains. So far, officials have advised local workers and residents to combat swarms by spraying water or using sticky pads instead of chemical pesticides. Populations are expanding in the northwest of South Korea, however any further potential spread remains unknown. 'Compared with the past two years, the number of lovebugs sharply surged last weekend at the mountain,' Gyeyang district official Wang Hyeon-jeong said on Tuesday. Areas with a warm, humid climate could attract them, being favorable conditions for their survival and reproduction. The city government of Seoul views the lovebugs as 'ecologically beneficial,' posing no health risk to humans and helping pollinate flowers as their larvae convert plant materials into organic components. However, local media reports that complaints to the city have more than doubled, increasing from 4,418 in 2023 to 9,296 last year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On Friday, environment ministers agreed to strengthen and invest more in response procedures after the latest outbreak, which it described as 'extremely severe.' 'We will closely monitor the situation and work with local authorities from the early stages of any outbreak,' Kim said. But natural population control is reportedly setting in, as birds such as sparrows and magpies learn to eat the bugs, causing their numbers to fall.
