Search Results for: Climate change

BY MARK ROWE
MENTION Albania and money, and the image that comes to mind is of the extraordinary pyramid schemes that gripped the country in the mid-1990s as the country stepped out into a post-Stalinist dawn. Albanians poured their assets into the schemes, with an enthusiasm that was as remarkable as it was misguided.…

BY MARK WILSON
AWASH with recently-passed legislation and newly-established Financial Investigation Units, the small nations of the Caribbean have transformed their money laundering controls since the mid-1990s. In 2000, five Caribbean island jurisdictions made up one-third of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of fifteen non-cooperative countries and territories, each of them with ‘serious systemic problems,’ in the words of a FATF review published on June 22 of that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S increasing reliance on cars is threatening efforts to combat climate change, according to a report published by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Although its report ‘Oil Crises and Climate Challenges’ found that oil consumption has been declining since 1973 in every other industrial and service sector, soaring transport demands meant overall levels have not declined.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is prolonging its dispute with the United States at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over Washington’s assessment of benefits enjoyed by privatised steel companies from past public subsidies. Following a protracted WTO dispute, the US was last January (2003) ordered to reform its “change in ownership” methodology, through has justified countervailing duties protecting American steel producers.…

Keith Nuthall
BELEAGURED European Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF is to come under further pressure this year, being audited by the EU’s financial watchdog the Court of Auditors. Its president Juan Manuel Fabra Vallés told the European Parliament that the probe would be a key priority for this year and would examine OLAF’s “efficiency and effectiveness.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MINING companies could be prevented from walking away from their responsibilities to deal with mine waste in the European Union (EU), even after the end of extraction, under amendments approved this week to a waste directive by the European Parliament.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PARIS-based International Energy Agency (IEA) says more efforts must be undertaken to decouple energy consumption and economic growth. Although its report ‘Oil Crises and Climate Challenges’ found that since the 1970’s wealth has increased much faster than energy use, it found 1970’s oil crisis sparked more effective energy conservation measures and greenhouse gas emission reductions than recent Kyoto Protocol linked policies.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union (EU) internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein has admitted that the proposed directive on reforming Europe’s audit oversight rules were tailored to dovetail with American regulations, as amended by the sometimes controversial Sarbanes Oxley Act.

Speaking at a Brussels power breakfast with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) chairman Bill McDonough, the Dutch commissioner said in framing the EU reforms, his officials had reacted to Sarbanes Oxley, in a “constructive, cooperative way forward, jointly, respecting to the maximum degree possible our different legal traditions and cultures”.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
WHY do we change our cars so often? Most drivers spend between two to three years with their car before trading in for a new model, long before the average mechanical lifespan. Perhaps it is because every year car manufacturers claim to improve on vehicle performance, reliability, efficiency, safety and handling?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has fuelled an ongoing row with environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom over whether the EU should abide by the Kyoto Protocol. She told the Financial Times that the EU should examine alternative ways of dealing with climate change, while Russia dithers over ratification.…