Urgent action needed to improve air quality in London

London was named Saturday as one of six major cities in Britain where urgent action is needed to improve air quality.

Cleaning up China's big rivers

The health of China's rivers is due for a thorough examination, as an action plan for pollution control goes on stream.

A State Council plan on water pollution, released on Thursday, aims to reduce pollutants and protect resources through new, strictly quantifiable targets.

Water quality excellent at most of Europe’s bathing sites

European Commission, Press release, Brussels, 27 May 2014:

The water at Europe’s beaches, rivers and lakes was generally of high quality in 2013, with more than 95 % of these sites meeting minimum requirements. Coastal performed slightly better than inland bathing waters, the data shows.

All the bathing sites in Cyprus and Luxembourg were deemed ‘excellent’. These countries were followed by Malta (99 % excellent), Croatia (95 %) and Greece (93 %). At the other end of the scale, European Union Member States with the highest proportion of sites with a ‘poor’ status were Estonia (6 %), the Netherlands (5 %), Belgium (4 %), France (3 %), Spain (3 %) and Ireland (3 %).