Scientists seeking to make a quieter wind turbine are mimicking owl wings after uncovering the secret of the bird’s ability to silently descend on its prey.

Researchers examining owl feathers found downy microscopic coverings and a porous elastic fringe on the trailing edge that scatters sound without affecting aerodynamics, the University of Cambridge said Monday. They mimicked the structure with 3D-printed plastic that can be applied to wind turbines, plane propellers or even computer fans to muffle their noise.

Google will convert an old coal-fired power plant in rural Alabama into a data center powered by renewable power, expanding the company’s move into the energy world.

The technology giant said on Wednesday that it would open its 14th data center inside the grounds of the old coal plant, and had reached a deal with the Tennessee Valley Authority, the region’s power company, to supply the project with renewable sources of electricity. With the coal plant rehab, Google solidifies a reputation among tech companies for promoting clean energy.

European Union ministers are seeking an ambitious, durable and legally binding deal to curb global warming, enforced through five-yearly reviews, a draft of their position statement for U.N. climate talks shows.

EU environment ministers meet on Sept. 18 in Brussels to iron out their joint position ahead of the U.N. talks in Paris in December. Diplomats have already drawn up a draft text.

The first time I met Ron Naveen was in the dining room of an Antarctic cruise vessel. Most passengers on the Akademik Ioffe were dressed for the south pole; two or three base layers, lots of high-quality goosedown. Naveen was wearing a very old pair of jeans, a baseball cap emblazoned with images of hairy penguins, a disintegrating T-shirt and a pair of sandals. I reckoned, with his afterthought hair and warm eyes, he must have been in his mid-70s. He looked, frankly, like a bum.

Over the next few days, I watched Naveen in penguin colonies throughout the Antarctic peninsula. All the time, he talked to camera about the different breeds and the survival issues that they faced. He talked about corners of the Antarctic continent where few people had ever been, the challenges posed by increased tourism and the temperamental life cycle of the penguins’ main food source, krill.

A series of initiatives and recent investment successes in the field of renewable energy were announced at the White House Clean Energy Investment Summit in June.

“Unbelievably exciting advances" are "happening in real time” in the field of clean energy, senior adviser to the president Brian Deese, told summit attendees. Mr. Deese spoke of progress made in meeting the “global challenge” in the field of renewable energy, and characterized the advances his team and the Obama administration have made as “improbably American success[es].” Chief among these gains, Deese noted, are a 50 percent decrease in the cost of solar energy and a three-fold increase in the amount of energy produced by wind since 2009.

NEW “holistic” plans to create an affordable green heating supply for Scotland will have financial and environmental benefits, according to green campaigners.

Scottish ministers say the country’s heat system should be largely decarbonised by 2050 in an effort to battle climate change.

Early in June, the United Nations climate change negotiations wrapped up in Bonn, Germany. The negotiations, aimed at consolidating a text in time for the massive COP21 conference in Paris later this year, succeeded in trimming the agreement draft a mere five pages in 10 days of talks -- down from 89 pages to 85.

The co-chairs of the process -- representatives from Algeria and the United States -- stressed the importance of investing time in Bonn building trust rather than streamlining the text. They lauded countries' willingness to cooperate, all the while dismissing that it would require months to reach a meaningful agreement at this pace, not the 10 days that are actually scheduled between now and Paris.

Environmental degradation has emerged as one of the key challenges facing Lebanon’s socio-economic development, costing the country $908.8 million each year.

What initiatives aimed at improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of solid waste management is the Ministry of Environment currently undertaking?

Fourteen recommendations to improve the regional response to climate change have been agreed to following a meeting of the Middle East and North Africa region, held in Geneva, Switzerland on 28-29 2015, and hosted by Lebanon. The meeting, gathering eleven countries from the Middle East and North Africa region, was the last in a series of Climate Vulnerable Forum workshops being convened during 2014-2015 in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific, and involving 50 countries.

The Climate Vulnerable Forum regional event for the Middle East and North Africa was organized by the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations at Geneva and the Ministry of Environment with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 11 governments participated in the event, with 14 recommendations adopted by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.

Planning Commission Water Resources Chief Naseer Ahmed Gilani said that Pakistan is facing an annual loss of $24 billion due to the adverse impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

He was addressing a seminar, early in June, titled combating climate change impacts arranged by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in connection with the World Environment Day.