Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government has been alarmed by a call from Russia’s Gazprom to renegotiate its long-term natural gas supply contract, which is supposed to expire in 2022. Poland’s freshly-appointed prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said he was baffled by the move: “It’s hard to understand this step.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN OVERHAUL of the official statistics produced of catch landings across the European Union (EU) has been proposed by the European Commission, which would create national figures, instead of pan-EU data as at present. Brussels says, with member states already collecting the information, it would be no large job to divide data country-by-country, while at the moment, information is collated for all EU vessels, those of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), and other boats.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE CANADIAN government has followed in the footsteps of the European Union (EU) by banning the use of lead acetate in progressive hair dyes namely, Grecian Formula 16 (Canadian sister of the fabled Grecian 2000 Cream in the UK).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to simplify the European Union’s cosmetics industry rulebook, rolling 45 directives into one piece of legislation, under a comprehensive legal rationalisation programme. It has announced that Directive 76/768/EEC on cosmetic products and seven subsequent amendments – as well as 37 adaptations to technical progress and two directives postponing the prohibition of animal tests – will be codified and written into one new directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to simplify the European Union’s cosmetics industry rulebook, rolling 45 directives into one piece of legislation, under a comprehensive legal rationalisation programme. It has announced that Directive 76/768/EEC on cosmetic products and seven subsequent amendments – as well as 37 adaptations to technical progress and two directives postponing the prohibition of animal tests – will be codified and written into one new directive.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced plans to simplify European Union (EU) rules on a range of energy topics, part of a major overhaul of EU legislation that has been unveiled by the current Commission. In a bid to make European laws more user-friendly, Brussels has said it will:

*Rewrite and extend the field of a 1992 directive on labelling and product information regarding the energy consumption by household appliances;

*Simplify and reduce red tape associated with the EU’s 2001 energy efficiency labelling programme for office equipment;

*Repeal and rewrite seven regulations and directives on ensuring adequate oil and gas stocks, especially in an energy crisis;

*Recast 10 directives, decisions and recommendations on nuclear safety into one directive on “the protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation”; and

*Combine four regulations on maximum levels of radioactivity in food and animal feed following a nuclear accident.…

BY MARK ROWE
OVERSHADOWING the Japanese paint industry in recent years has been the overall shape of the country’s economy. The stagnation of the economy lasted for much of the 1990s but it showed signs of recovery in the first half of fiscal 2004-2005, driven by solid exports and strong corporate capital investment.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN times of conflict, cultural property, such as archaeological sites, works of art, museums and monuments, can also suffer grievously at the hands of opposing military and guerrilla forces. In recognition of this, such objects are accorded protection by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LAWRENCE Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA, has warned global warming could be much higher than expected, releasing new models suggesting average temperatures worldwide could rise by 7.8°C by 2300 if fossil fuel consumption continues unchecked. Polar ice caps would melt and sea levels rise seven meters, it claimed.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY – which until recently had a Green-Socialist government – is home to five of the 10 dirtiest electricity plants in the European Union (EU), a report from conservation group WWF claims. Its assessment of carbon-dioxide emissions from power stations found Germany’s lignite Frimmersdorf RWE plant second most polluting, behind Greece’s lignite plant at Agios Dimitrios.…