The latest figures put pollution on par with smoking in terms of global deaths. In comparison, COVID-19 killed about 6.7 million people globally since the pandemic began.

Nigerian civil servant and mother of four Grace Ekang has been having chest pains lately, and when she sneezes, black stains appear on her handkerchief. Inside her house in the Rivers state city of Port Harcourt, Ekang has noticed that the soot gathering on her floor is getting heavier. She and other residents blame this on illegal, makeshift oil refineries scattered across the Niger Delta.

Oil giant Shell will pay a Nigerian community $111m (£80m) over an oil spill more than 50 years ago. A spokesman said the payment would mark the "full and final settlement" to the Ejama-Ebubu community over a spill during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The company has maintained that the damage was caused by third parties.

Lake Victoria, the planet's second-largest freshwater lake and the largest in Africa, is in serious danger from pollution. Because lakeside communities from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have practically no access to sewage infrastructure, a constant flow of sewage, fertilisers, garbage and plastic waste is suffocating what has long been the main provider of food and livelihoods in this part of East Africa. Despite what seems like an uphill struggle, young activists are sounding the alarm in order to raise awareness. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24's James Vasina and Camille Nedelec.

With untreated sewage in the water and rubbish piled on the sand, pollution on Tripoli's Mediterranean coast is denying many residents of the war-torn Libyan capital a much-needed escape.

A new playground prototype in central Warsaw uses algae which feast on pollutants and carbon dioxide to provide a bubble of clean oxygen in the city.

The European Court of Justice said that German authorities did not take "appropriate measures" to limit air pollution caused by nitrogen dioxide.

Israeli soldiers scramble to clean the Hof Hasharon beach after a massive tar contamination hit the country's Mediterranean shore.

Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that more than 40,000 people can make claims against the European energy giant following decades of oil spills in the Niger Delta region.

Hundreds of thousands of newborns, mostly in India and sub-Saharan Africa, died from air pollution in 2019, a study has found. Noxious fumes from cooking fuels are blamed for causing the majority of the babies' deaths.

Three and a half billion people are confined in some way around the planet. That's almost half of the world's population. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily lives. With travel halted and industries slowed or stopped, what does that mean for the environment? What effect could it have on efforts to fight climate change? Down to Earth's team takes a look at carbon emissions, pollution, recycling and the impact on agriculture in this special episode in the midst of the coronavirus pandem

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