Search Results for: Climate change

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

AGRICULTURE ministers worldwide are digesting the details of the agreement struck at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which stressed the need for livestock production systems to be more sustainable.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

BRITISH nurses are not alone in receiving wider prescribing powers that would include special classes of government regulated drugs, considered prone to greater potential for abuse: Canadian nurses are also gaining similar responsibilities.

The UK government changed legislation in April, to expand the prescribing and drug mixing powers of pharmacists and nurses to cover ‘controlled drugs,’ which the government falling under two legislations: the Medicines Act, managed by the UK Department of Health, and the Misuse of Drugs Act, which is controlled by the Home Office.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The development and future growth of the smart textiles industry is something of a classic chicken-and-egg scenario, begging the question: which needs to come first – the demand or the technology?

When it comes to R&D around smart textiles, there is certainly no lack of innovation, with prototypes ranging from garments with incorporated heart monitors to t-shirts that change colours depending on the wearers’ mood.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission review has decided not to expand the official European Union (EU) certification of organic products to textiles and clothing. The decision comes after a detailed assessment of the EU regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products concluded that expanding the system to such non-food products "could pose a risk for the credibility of the term ‘organic’, as applied to foodstuffs."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Bank study has proved the tightening of intellectual property rights in India has depressed the manufacture of generic drugs and increased market shares for developers of particular active ingredients within patent protected medicines. The study ‘Pharmaceutical Patents and Prices: A Preliminary Empirical Assessment Using Data from India’ focused on central nervous system drugs (CNS).…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPE’S food producers have warned key commodity prices could become unstable should the European Union (EU) push ahead with plans to scrap policies promoting the production and use of key biofuels.

The European Commission has accepted scientific advice that palm-oil, soybean and rapeseed-derived biodiesel generate as many carbon emissions as fossil fuels because the cultivation of their feedstocks promotes the clearance of virgin land, including rain forest.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Germany’s metals association, the WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle (WVM), has linked the recent announcement of bankruptcy at Voerde Aluminium (see http://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3024029/Search/Voerde-Aluminium-declares-insolvency.html?PageId=196010) to the delay in implementing

European Union (EU) rules helping energy-intensive industries survive in Europe. Ulrich Grillo, WVM chairman, said non-ferrous metals companies were awaiting decisions from Brussels and Berlin on compensation for demonstrated CO2-related costs and for the shutdown regulation – both of which were still pending.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

The Canadian minister of the environment has established a three-member review panel to assess, for the second time, the environmental impact of a proposed project at one of Canada’s largest undeveloped gold-copper deposits.

Its probe will consider a proposed 20-year development of the New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project in British Columbia, located north of Vancouver about 125 km southwest of Williams Lake, by Vancouver -based mining company Taseko.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to release calls for research proposals commanding millions of Euros of European Union (EU) funding, offering opportunities for innovative liquid fuel and oil production. The initiative is the last batch of funding under the outgoing EU seventh framework programme on research, which ends next year.…

BY VILLEN ANGANAN, IN PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS

ACCA fellows can be found in many influential positions worldwide. And in Africa, they are often the backbone of financial and management best practice. That is certainly the case on the Indian Ocean state of Mauritius, where environment and sustainable development minister and ACCA member Devanand Virahsawmy, 62, belongs to the inner circle of prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, who secured a second mandate in May 2010 elections.…