Following an investigation by Unearthed and Greenpeace Africa, a new report has revealed the presence of discarded clothing by UK brands such as Marks & Spencer, George at Asda and Next in a protected wetland, Densu Delta Ramsar Site, of Ghana. The report also found clothing from M&S, Zara, H&M and Primark dumped along riverbanks outside of the conservation areas.

As Unearthed reported, Ghana receives 15 million items of discarded clothing every week, and in 2024, the UK exported more clothing waste (about 57,000 metric tons) to Ghana than any other country.

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Originally, there was just one landfill in the Accra region that had been funded by the World Bank and it opened in 2013. The Kpone landfill was supposed to take eight to 10 years to reach capacity, but thanks to textile waste, it met capacity after five years. Then, methane trapped inside the clothing waste ignited in August 2019 and burned for eight months, Corporate Knights reported.

With around 40% of each bale of discarded clothing being unusable, more dump sites are popping up to handle the incoming waste, with sites recently established around protected wetlands about one hour outside of the capital Accra.

“Dumping of refuse at any part of the wetland contravenes best international conservation protocols,” said Eric Atta-Kusi, wetlands operations manager at Ghana’s Forestry Commission, as reported by Unearthed. “The local assembly have been made to understand the negative implications of dumping of waste materials in the wetlands on, not only the fauna and flora but also the impact on the free flow, a major contributing factor to the flooding situation in the area.”

Not only are there growing mounds of wasted clothing, but Greenpeace Africa testing found that nearly 90% of this waste is made with synthetic fibers and contributes to polluting wildlife habitats. Some of the wasted clothing is burned, which also worsens local air quality.

As Unearthed revealed, two dumping grounds have recently opened within the Densu Delta Ramsar Site, along with a third dump site on upstream riverbanks.

NEW: Fashion waste is overwhelming Ghana — and now it’s spilling into Accra’s protected wetlands.
With @greenpeaceafrica.org, we found UK brands and huge new dump sites in a conservation area home to endangered turtles.
unearthed.greenpeace.org/2025/06/18/u…

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— Unearthed (@unearthednews.bsky.social) June 18, 2025 at 1:12 AM

The Densu Delta Ramsar Site includes mangroves, marshes and salt pans and is an important habitat for waterfowl, including roseate tern (Sterna dougallii), little egret (Egretta garzetta), curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and at least 54 other waterfowl species. It is also a nesting site to vulnerable Olive Ridley turtles and two endangered turtle species: leatherback turtles and green turtles.

With the Ramsar Site designation, the wetland area is considered internationally important for its biodiversity and ability to sustain human life. However, locals have noticed a decline in water quality in recent years.

“For some time now, we do not get [as] much fish [as] we used to,” Daniel Nii Okai, a local fisherman, told Unearthed. “The Densu river pushes along all the waste from the dumpsites as it flows into the sea, this destroys where the fish lives and drives them away.”

Fishers must untangle the clothing waste from their nets. Locals have also complained that the river water has changed color and is not drinkable, and the garbage has left a horrible smell in the area, especially after a rain. Wildlife, aside from an abundance of mosquitos, is seen less frequently.

There are also concerns over how PFAS and other chemicals present in synthetic textiles could have long-term impacts on the environment and public health.

“The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of microplastics in aquatic organisms and humans could pose risks such as physical damage, chemical exposure and disruption of biological processes,” Jones Quartey, a wetland ecologist at the University of Ghana, told Unearthed.

“Dumping of non-biodegradable textiles could alter the structure and function of several habitat types provided by wetlands,” Quartey added. “This will leave in its trail severely fragmented and modified local landscapes.”

The post Discarded Clothing by UK Fast Fashion Brands Found in Protected Wetlands in Ghana: Report appeared first on EcoWatch.

https://www.ecowatch.com/discarded-clothing-uk-ghana-protected-wetland.html

The United States Senate Committee on Finance has released draft legislation that would quickly end or scale back most major tax credits for clean energy, solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and other benefits provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The plan would get rid of a $7,500 EV tax credit for consumers within 180 days, along with home energy rebates for heat pumps and other products. A tax credit for rooftop solar panels would also expire six months after the legislation passed.

Chief Executive of America’s Clean Power Jason Grumet said the Senate bill “would increase household electricity bills and threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country,” reported The New York Times.

Grumet predicted that “good paying jobs, technology innovation, and AI data centers will be driven overseas.”

Federal tax credits for solar and wind power would be quickly phased out, and companies would only qualify for the biggest tax credits if they start construction within the next six months. If they began construction next year, they would receive 60 percent, with the credits falling to 20 percent the following year. Projects built beyond 2027 would not get any tax benefits.

The Republican controlled Senate has released their Finance committee text. On energy policy, it improves slightly over the House bill — but it will still gut clean energy projects, killing jobs largely in Republican districts. This is a garbage bill. THREAD.
www.finance.senate.gov/tax-reform-2…

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— Leah Stokes (@leahstokes.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 5:46 PM

Tax breaks for power sources like nuclear, geothermal and hydropower would be phased out in 2036, a summary of the bill said.

“It appears Senate Finance has taken this bill from a flat D to a solid D+ for the clean energy industry,” said Ethan Zindler, a BloombergNEF analyst and U.S. Treasury Department official during the Biden administration, as Bloomberg reported. “And that may be with a bit of grade inflation factored in.”

The Senate draft preserves renewable energy tax credits slightly longer than the House version, which would have done away with them almost immediately, reported The New York Times.

Under the IRA, 10 percent of refining or recycling costs for critical minerals were covered by a permanent tax credit, Heatmap reported.

However, the Senate changes start phasing out the critical minerals tax credit beginning in 2031, with 75 percent able to be claimed that year, half in 2032 and a complete end to the credit in 2034.

“In practice, this means that the Senate GOP text would end the IRA’s permanent tax credit for producing many critical minerals, which would damage the financial projects of many mineral processing and refining projects,” Heatmap said.

The new Senate version of the legislation expands slightly the type of qualifying battery components.

Overall, the Senate phaseout of clean energy tax credits is faster than many supporters of the technologies had hoped, with some analysts warning that electricity prices could increase due to the changes, reported The New York Times.

The new draft would make companies that lease solar energy ineligible for federal tax credits. Analysts say this change could lead to a sharp decline in the rooftop solar market.

“This is worse than I thought it would be,” said Sam Ricketts, co-founder of clean energy consulting group S2 Strategies, as The New York Times reported. “I was expecting senators who had purportedly supported the clean energy industry to step forward and make a mark here and improve the bill in a material sense. They have not done that.”

FACT SHEET: The “Baseload Fallacy”: Undercutting Wind, Solar, and Batteries While Supporting Nuclear and Geothermal Won’t Protect the Grid—Or Families’ Energy Bills, from @ClimatePower
climatepower.us/news/fact-sh…

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— Sam Ricketts (@samtricketts.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 10:14 AM

While no Republicans voted for the IRA in 2022, almost 80 percent of the $841 billion-plus clean energy investments that have been announced since have gone to Republican districts in states like Georgia and Wyoming.

Clean energy groups and Democrats called the new Senate draft a disaster, saying the plan would destroy manufacturing and jobs all over the country while driving up the cost of energy.

The changes to the IRA would also make meeting the country’s goal of cutting emissions by at least half below 2005 levels by the end of the decade virtually impossible.

“This bill would endanger hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and take food out of the mouths of millions of children,” said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the leading Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, as reported by The New York Times.

Ari Matusiak, chief executive of nonprofit Rewiring America, called the Senate package a “profound mistake.” Matusiak pointed out that in 2023 more than 3.4 million U.S. homes used the residential clean energy and energy efficiency home improvement credits to make upgrades.

Jackie Wong, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s senior vice president for climate and energy, referred to the revised package as “a 20-pound sledgehammer swung at clean energy,” adding that it “would mean higher energy prices, lost manufacturing jobs, shuttered factories, and a worsening climate crisis.”

The post A ‘Profound Mistake’: Senate Republican Rollback of IRA Clean Energy Tax Credits Would Cost Jobs, Raise Energy Prices and Bring More Climate Extremes appeared first on EcoWatch.

https://www.ecowatch.com/senate-republicans-clean-energy-tax-credits.html

In new research, scientists from the Wageningen University & Research have confirmed regular activity by sharks and rays at offshore wind farms around the Netherlands. The team was able to confirm the presence of these elasmobranchs through traces of environmental DNA, or eDNA, in the waters around Dutch wind farms.

The researchers collected 436 seawater samples to analyze for DNA traces, a method that the team noted was affordable and non-invasive, making it more humane for the marine life. It served as an alternative to actually capturing any sharks or rays present in the study areas.

“It’s like finding a fingerprint in the water,” Annemiek Hermans, Ph.D. candidate at Wageningen University & Research, said in a statement. “Even if you don’t see the shark, the DNA tells you it’s been there.”

A researcher takes laboratory samples to analyze for DNA traces. Wageningen University & Research

The results, part of the university’s larger ElasmoPower project, revealed the presence of five shark and ray species at four offshore wind farms, including Borssele, Hollandse Kust Zuid, Luchterduinen and Gemini. Thornback rays (Raja clavata) were the most common and were present year-round at three of the offshore wind farms. The scientists published the results in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.

The researchers were able to learn more about the migration of basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) through detecting their DNA around the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm during the winter. As Earth.com reported, the basking sharks’ winter migratory path in Dutch waters was previously unknown.

The Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm. Esgian / Silco Saaman / s2foto

Other notable findings were the starry smooth-hound (Mustelus asterias) and the blonde ray (Raja brachyura). Both species were found at multiple offshore wind farm sites through various seasons.

“We’re trying to understand whether these animals are actually using the wind farms as habitat, or whether they’re being displaced by them,” Hermans explained.

The scientists noted that the elasmobranchs could be drawn toward the offshore wind farms because trawling is not allowed in these areas and fishing and shipping near wind farms comes with restrictions, which could potentially create safer areas that may benefit and attract marine life. The lack of seabed disturbance further allows smaller fish and other marine life to recover, creating a more abundant food source for sharks and rays, Earth.com reported.

Ongoing research will be needed to determine whether the elasmobranchs are using the offshore wind farm sites as safe habitats and how they affect other marine life. In particular, the study authors warned that preventing seabed-disturbing activities in these areas will be vital for protecting marine life.

“We must tread carefully,” Hermans said. “If we start allowing bottom trawling in these areas, we risk losing the very protection these zones may offer.”

The post Are Sharks and Rays Using Offshore Wind Farms as Habitats? appeared first on EcoWatch.

https://www.ecowatch.com/offshore-wind-farms-marine-life-habitats.html