Search Results for: Global Warming

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the European Union’s (EU) flagship Erasmus student exchange programme approaches its 20th birthday, EU education Commissioner Jan Figel has criticised it for failing poorer students across Europe. The Slovak said: "The Erasmus grant remains far too low to allow students from less favourable financial backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of the programme.…

BY MARK ROWE

DESPITE devastating hailstorms along Italy’s Adriatic Coast and concerns over damage from the olive fly, the forecast for the olive oil market for the 2006 season is positive, according to the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC).

"All the information available predicts a good harvest for this season" said a spokesman for the IOOC.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

IT may be in its infancy, but European scientists have high hopes for new research into more effective ways to store hydrogen, and particularly in how it can be applied to next-generation fuel cell systems for vehicles, research that could have global implications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WORLD Trade Organisation global trade figures for 2005 show that international exports for liquid fuels rose 41% to US$1.4 trillion in 2005, 13.8% of worldwide merchandise exports, higher than for almost two decades. Oil-rich Middle East, Africa, the ex-USSR Commonwealth of Independent States and south and central America recorded export growth of 35-25%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FRENCH government has proposed that the European Union (EU) imposes a "carbon levy" on goods imported into the EU from countries who have not signed the Kyoto Protocol, effectively penalising them for contributing to global warming. Prime minister Dominique de Villepin said he would make formal proposals to EU member states in early 2007.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is lending 320 million Chinese Yuan – RMB (US$40.8 million) to leading China pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor the Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceuticals Company. The IFC said the loan would support Chinese pharmaceutical sector reforms, while enabling Fosun Pharma to expand production of its anti-malaria products, build capacity and standardise environmental, health and safety management systems throughout its subsidiaries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has announced plans to wean Armenia off nuclear energy and onto renewables, rather than funding replacements for its ageing Soviet-era reactors. One unit at the former Soviet republic’s Metsamor plant currently supplies 40% of the country’s energy; a twin unit has been mothballed since a 1988 earthquake shook the power station, 75 km south of the epicentre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLDWIDE plan to promote the recycling of electronic waste could emerge from the oncoming and eighth meeting of the conference of the parties to the Basel Convention, in Kenya – its first session in Africa – from November 27 to December 1.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Bank expert group has called on oil companies to cut gas flaring, estimating that this waste disposal pumps 390 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is more than the potential yearly emission reductions from existing Kyoto Protocol-based initiatives, noted the bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH global trade ever increasing, and the power of brands to generate massive profits made starkly clear with every company report, the counterfeiting of goods is one of international organised crime’s major boom areas.

It is a serious problem for legitimate business, especially those based in developed countries with tough piracy controls, who are seeking to export to poorer countries where intellectual property crimes are a low priority.…