UN experts met to review a draft report that raises the probability that climate change is man-made to 95% and warns of ever more extreme weather unless governments act.

One third of the food produced worldwide is wasted, costing the global economy around $750bn (€570bn) a year, said a report by the UN food agency.

The world must clamp down hard on the illegal global wildlife trade, the head of the UN’s environment agency warned yesterday, calling it a multibillion-dollar criminal business that is threatening to wipe out the planet’s most iconic species.

THE world must act immediately to stop the rapid loss of animal and plant species that allow humans to exist, the United Nations warned yesterday at the start of a major summit on biodiversity.

TARGETS to stop wildlife and habitats vanishing across the world have not been met – and nature is at risk of further “dramatic” losses without radical action to protect it, the UN has warned.

SALES of household electrical gadgets will boom across the developing world in the next decade, wreaking environmental havoc if there are no new strategies to deal with the discarded TVs, cell phones and computers, a UN report said yesterday.

The world faces being swamped with a tidal wave of electronic waste as sales of household gadgets boom over the next decade, according to a report out today.

A SPECTACULAR picture of a humpback whale raising itself out of the sea off Hook Head, in Co Wexford, made it to the front page of this newspaper last Tuesday.

A massive mile-thick brown pollution haze has settled over vast areas of the planet, changing weather patterns and threatening health and crops, according to the UN.

A 3KM-THICK cloud of brown soot and other pollutants hanging over Asia is darkening cities, killing thousands and damaging crops — but may be holding off the worst effects of global warming, the UN said.

THE UN yesterday announced it would become “climate neutral”, starting by offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions caused by travel to the Bali conference on climate change.

United Nations and international maritime agencies promised to give Lebanon immediate technical advice today to help clean up an oil slick, and warned the operation could cost more than €50m.

Polar bears, hippos and freshwater fish are among more than 16,000 species of animal, bird, fish and plant threatened with global extinction, the World Conservation Union said today.

HUMANITY’S exploitation of wildlife and destruction of habitats is threatening to kill off more than 15,500 species of plants and animals - from frogs to sharks - unless urgent steps are taken to ensure their survival, conservationists warned yesterday.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has welcomed delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development with a call to action to band together to save the global environment and combat poverty.