Search Results for: Global Warming

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the first responses to concerns about climate change involved the search to sequester carbon, a component of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Increasingly, efforts are focussing on how to deal with another greenhouse gas, methane.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN a symbolically significant move indicating a major shift in the global food trade, the European Union (EU) has now permanently abolished set aside, the Common Agricultural System that ordered farmers to leave 10% of their land fallow and paid them for doing it.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

WORRIES about inflation and food shortages have left the Chinese government struggling to balance efforts to temper inflation with its ambitious biofuels development programme. Increasing demand for food and biofuels in China have been a key driver in increasing global consumption of fats and oils at an average 4% per year according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TRANSPORT sector should be a key focus of government efforts to develop technology reducing carbon emissions, said an International Energy Agency report. It wants a "global energy technology revolution" to reverse global warming trends. ‘Energy Technology Perspectives 2008 – Scenarios and Strategies’ to 2050 calls for carbon free transport, energy efficiency and non-fossil fuel power production.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the past 18 months, the rush toward biofuels as the new green alternative to fossil fuels has of course come to something of a juddering halt. Concerns over just how green they are, and the implications of growing crops for energy rather than food, have led to the UN, major energy companies, scientists and environmental organisations looking beyond the first generation of biofuels.…

By Alan Osborn

The European Parliament has strongly backed a report calling for a bigger role for women in European research and setting out specific initiatives to improve the gender balance. The report "Women in Science," drawn up by the Danish MEP Britta Thomsen, was adopted earlier this month (May) by 416 votes in favour with 75 against and 164 abstentions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ETHIOPIA COMMODITY EXCHANGE OPENS

ETHIOPIA has opened a commodity exchange, designed to bring order to the country’s often chaotic food markets. Their informality effectively forces farmers to sell locally to traders they know and trust. This prevents commodities moving from regions where there is abundance to those where there are shortages, intensifying the risk of famine and for prices to plummet in districts with a production glut.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore; and KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

THE SOUTH Asian knitwear industry is experienced mixed fortunes at present, with the impact of China’s production boom and the global liberalisation of the textile sector still changing sub-continental fortunes.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

TOBACCO companies aren’t usually credited with helping to save the planet. However, local hostilities tend to be easily forgotten when there’s a war going on and that’s how many eco-warriors view the global battle against climate change: old enemies can become allies, even Big Tobacco.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

ARE meat and dairy products from cloned animals safe to eat? Some countries are pressing ahead to open up a new potential food market. However, there are signs that the European Union is asking for more time before it makes its own decision.…