Search Results for: Climate change

BY MARK GODFREY

THE HEADLINES said it all. Chinese newspapers have recently been heavy with editorials and op-ed pieces largely favourable to nuclear power: among them ‘This Is Not the End of Nuke Power’ a half-page op-ed in the China Daily, the preferred conduit of China’s official thinking to foreign diplomats and executives.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

NEARLY two months after northern Japan was shaken by a magnitude-9 earthquake and then inundated by a tsunami that in places reached a height of 38 metres and devastated the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the final toll has not been calculated.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, KEITH NUTHALL and RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

THE INTRODUCTION of new global accounting standards through the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which began some five years ago and will take 10 or more years to achieve is a massive undertaking which will revolutionise corporate bookkeeping and lead to an international standard matrix of values allowing for much greater transparency and facilitating country-by-country financial comparisons.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POP science reports have been raving about how towels, clothes and sheets impregnated with tiny nanoparticles can kill germs and wipe out body odour. A good example is nano-socks, containing nano-silver, which apparently stop feet smelling, no matter how sweaty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PLANNED attempt this year by the European Commission to table a nanotechnology regulation that gives legal controls to this emerging science will be a tough task, a senior official has admitted to a Brussels conference. Henrik Laursen, from the Commission’s environment directorate general told the fourth annual European Union (EU) ‘Nano’ conference there was no emerging consensus on framing a legal definition of nanoparticles and nanotechnology, which is increasingly used in the paints and coatings sector.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FORMAL negotiations for a linkage between the European Union (EU) and Swiss carbon emissions trading systems (ETS) began in March after some three years of exploratory discussions. Both sides could gain significantly from a successful outcome. The Swiss would win access to a considerably larger and more liquid European emissions market than they can use at present, bringing greater flexibility in helping them to meet their emissions targets.…

BY NEIL CALLANAN

THE CHOICE of The Shelbourne Hotel on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green for Ireland’s first major post-recession property auction could not have been better. The grand dame of Irish hotels in many ways serves as a microcosm of the boom and the bust of the Irish property market over the last decade.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

IN the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in living memory, with the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami on Japan’s economy being assessed closely, its government is conducting a rapid rethink of its energy priorities – and that could be good news for the biofuels sector.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

THE INDIAN government appears to be reassessing its nuclear energy policy following the Fukushima disaster and violent protests in India against a proposed nuclear plant with six 1,650 MW reactors at Jaitapur, Maharashtra.

Today (April 26) the government announced it would propose a new nuclear safety law to create an autonomous nuclear regulatory body in the country and it would invite the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) operational safety review team (OSART) to help with India nuclear industry safety reviews and audits.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

ON first impressions Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s two largest metropolises, seem a far cry from the fashion capitals of the world. Their wide boulevards overflow with heavy traffic and are mostly lined with small family-owned stores and restaurants, rather than well-known brands.…