Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HAMBURG’S ageing and crumbling sewerage network is to be upgraded by a Euro 420 injection of funding, with the European Union’s (EU) European Investment Bank (EIB) planning to provide Euro 180 million of this money. The scheme involves a large number of small repair projects to improve the north German port’s waste water services, including the modernisation of its sewage treatment system and the reconstruction and upgrading of its sewerage networks.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AN INITIATIVE to transform natural gas burnt off in Russia’s oil fields into electricity and consumable heat has been developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It is granting a six year US$80 million loan to a key subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil group – CSJC Lukoil-Perm – to help it cut gas flaring to 20 per cent by 2005, compared with 52 per cent at typical Russian oilfields.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS AMERICAN and British military forces secure control of Iraq from the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein using the latest military technology, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a cautionary report confirming for the first time that depleted uranium shells can and have contaminated drinking water.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is taking the unusual step of taking the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to court to try and force it to toughen moves to criminalise environmental offences across the EU.

Ministers in January adopted an EU Decision – without referring to other European institutions – that calls on Member States to criminalise wilful and negligent pollution, but leaves flexibility on what kind of offence is made a crime and on how it should be punished.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has offered to open up the European Union’s market in environmental services to suppliers based outside the EU, as part of the ongoing Doha Development Round at the World Trade Organisation.

If its trading partners offer adequate concessions in return, Brussels is offering to remove regulatory restrictions to foreign providers of waste water, sanitation, solid and hazardous waste management, soil clean-ups, air pollution reduction and similar services.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given the Spanish government two months to provide full information about the environmental impact of its highly controversial National Hydroelectric Plan (NHP) or face a possible action in the European Court of Justice. The Commission says Spain has not responded to a request for information made last September on how it assessed a proposed hydro-electric project in the catchment area of the River Ulla in Galicia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SPAIN is facing legal action at the hands of the European Commission over its failure to respond to a request for information on how it has applied the EU’s environmental Impact Assessment Directive with regard to a waste-water treatment plant serving tanneries at Lorca in Murcia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE PREMISES of five major European chemical companies have been raided by the European Commission’s antitrust services in a search for evidence of price-fixing in solvents, and a small list of other products. Brussels said the investigation was at a “preliminary stage” and could lead to no evidence of wrong-doing.…

Keith Nuthall
WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) wine and spirits rules of origin register talks chairman Eui-yong Chung, of South Korea, has released his draft proposal designed to end the long running negotiations. It tries to crystallise positions so a deal can be struck at the WTO TRIPs council, July 2-3.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government has proposed a summit of G8 environment ministers, the creation of a strong World Environment Organisation, which would take over the responsibilities of the United Nations Environment Programme as well as those of environmental departments amongst other multilateral agencies.…