The rush to ‘go electric’ comes with a hidden cost: destructive lithium mining

EBRD announces that Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and connecting Europe and Asia, has joined its flagship EBRD Green Cities urban sustainability programme. The EBRD President welcomed Europe’s largest metropolis into the Green Cities family. She said: “The EBRD’s Green Cities programme offers a pioneering vision of how we can reimagine and reshape the cities we live in, and build a better and more sustainable future for us all. The EBRD is already financing two metro lines that keep Istanbul on the move, and we are ready to fund more improvements to public transport and other areas of city life.”

As the host for the COP26 this November, the UK is in the spotlight when it comes to reducing emissions. Plastic production and consumption is an important contributor to climate change, business models that are cutting back on single-use plastic offer important lessons, and inspiration, to drive an agenda that moves towards a circular economy. These are also timely inputs to the discussion on the Environment Bill, which includes several measures to tackle plastic pollution. In this blog Mariel Vilella looks at how businesses reduce their plastic waste and work towards circular economy principles. With increased public awareness about the impacts from plastic pollution, the transition towards a zero waste circular economy, where production and use of single-use disposable products is limited to the bare minimum, is ongoing and growing.