Search Results for: China

BY ALAN OSBORN

HOW quickly events are moving in the energy sector at present, and how difficult this makes long-term planning by the power generation industry. One of the key documents for forecasters in Europe is the paper prepared by the National Technical University of Athens for the European Commission’s directorate-general for energy and transport on "Trends to 2030."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MEMBERS of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are for the first time seriously debating a global agreement on fishing subsidies, setting rules on their scope that would apply across the globe, and which could ban financial handouts for increasing fleet capacity.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

THE SUDDEN and phenomenal rise in the cost of raw materials over the past year for the US$2.6 billion Indian paint and coating industry has made business conditions tough for this formerly thriving sector. It is unlikely sustain the 18% growth rate achieved last year.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

IT could be an animal rights campaigner’s worst nightmare: not only is the testing of cosmetics China allowed, it is in fact compulsory for all products. And this is going to cause problems to the international cosmetics sector.…

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 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 DOMINIQUE PATTON, in Beijing; and RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

AS developed world clothing brands increasingly outsource production to emerging market countries, the demand for designing talent close to these growing manufacturing centres is growing. But how reliable is the source of creativity and are there sufficient numbers of designers in China, India and elsewhere for the big brands to start thinking about shifting creative aspects of their operations overseas as well as basic production?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pushing the European Union (EU) to increase investment in the recycling sector, to increase the supply of materials to European manufacturers faced with potential global shortages. With emerging market countries such as China and India gobbling up vast proportions of materials as they rapidly industrialise, MEPs fear European manufacturers will increasingly suffer from input shortages and high prices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NUMBER of counterfeit goods seized at the external borders of the European Union (EU) fell in 2007, the European Commission has concluded. After an annual survey, Brussels said 79 million fake goods were seized in 2007, compared with 128 million in 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed as a model a Portuguese scheme that retrained 1,700 unemployed workers in computer, Internet and telecommunications skills after losing jobs from the country’s textile and clothing sector.

Vladimir Spidla, the European Union’s (EU) social affars Commissioner praised the system at a conference staged near Porto by CITEVE, a private hi-technology textiles and clothing group.…