Search Results for: Climate change

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE the launch of satellites for Europe’s very own, EUR20 billion global navigation satellite system on October 21 may not have been diaried by European fleet managers and operators, experts say the new, highly accurate global positioning service will eventually change the operating landscape for fleets.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OUT of all traded commodities, fossil-based oil is arguably the most disputed: governments tailor their security policies to maintain an affordable security of supply. That is why in recent years, ministries of defence and their armed forces, especially in net importers of fossil fuels, have progressively been moving towards integrating domestically-produced biofuels into their operations, reducing their dependence on unreliable and maybe scarce strategic imports.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

HEALTH increasingly means wealth for food processing companies in India. Management consulting firm Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG) in its March 2010 report pegged the health and wellness foods market in India, currently worth Indian Rupees INR101.5 million (US dollars USD2.3 million) to potentially rise at a compounded annual growth rate of 23% to INR550 million (USD12.4 million) by 2015.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE DAYS of malaria could finally be numbered, thanks to scientists who have genetically modified a mosquito making it less able to host the parasite causing the disease.

More than one million people die from malaria globally each year, with efforts to fight the disease with pesticides and medicines progressively weakened because mosquitoes evolve and become immune to various chemicals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GREEN energy projects will be a priority for infrastructure spending from a Euro EUR68.7 billion European Union (EU) fund managed from 2014 to 2020, say detailed proposals released by the European Commission. These focus on the next phase of the European Union’s (EU) ‘Cohesion Fund’, which helps countries with 90% or less of the EU average income – the 12 eastern and southern European countries becoming member states since 2004, plus Spain, Portugal and Greece.…

BY MARK GODFREY

SUSTAINED economic growth and soaring passenger numbers are both reasons why Beijing is building a long-mooted second airport for commercial and cargo use. Digging into a US dollar USD$400 billion national fund for infrastructure, the Chinese capital is opening a new airport to cope with expected overcrowding at the city’s Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA), which added its celebrated dragon-styled Terminal Three only two years ago.…

BY ANDREW MCEWEN

CASHMERE experts have attacked claims that their industry is unsustainable and responsible for desertification in Inner Mongolia and independent Mongolia. Speaking at the fourth annual Cashmere World trade show in Beijing, Dr Carol Kerven, director of the UK-based Odessa Centre, and a Central Asia cashmere researcher said desertification is almost certainly not driven by cashmere goats, but more likely by a combination of factors, most notably annual changes in rainfall and – if overgrazing must be blamed – then cattle would make better scapegoats.…

BY PAUL RIGG

THE SPANISH book trade is preparing for unexpectedly fast growth in digital sales, LIBER, the international book fair for the Spanish speaking world has been told. Iría Álvarez, trade manager at Santillana, one of Spain’s largest publishers, told delegates at the show in Madrid yesterday (Thursday), "With ebooks expected to take 14% of the US and 7% of the UK market in 2012, the transition is a going to be lot more rapid than we thought."…

BY JULIAN RYALL

BEFORE September 8, few people anywhere had heard of Zhan Qixiong or his battered fishing boat. However, since the Chinese fisherman and his 14-strong crew were taken into custody by the Japan Coast Guard on September 8, Zhan has found himself at the centre of an escalating geopolitical row that has already put planned discussions over gas and oil deposits between Beijing and Tokyo on hold and is ratcheting up broader tensions in the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINNERS

PHILIPS-VAN HEUSEN

This was a Champagne year for Philips-Van Heusen, owner of Calvin Klein, Arrow, Bass and, since May, Tommy Hilfiger. Its acquisition of Netherlands-based Tommy Hilfiger helped it more than double sales for the third quarter – to $1.5bn, (although profits slipped year-on-year to $80.7m from $86.6m the previous year).…