Search Results for: Climate change

BY KARRYN MILLER

AS one of the world’s leading economic powers, Japan will be in a unique position if it adopts, as planned, international financial reporting standards (IFRS). If successful, on one hand, it could give the US the final push it needs to dovetail its financial reporting with global accounting standards; on the other, if things don’t work out, America may retreat back towards US GAAP.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

THE GREEKS – the heaviest smokers in the European Union (EU) and by some counts the world – may start to reduce tobacco consumption significantly, with taxation rising steeply as a result of the country’s ongoing financial crisis.…

BY WACHIRA KIGOTHO

EAST Africa is developing as an important source of biofuels and biofuel feedstock, with governments keen to attract foreign direct investment for this potentially strategic rural development option.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan, and Tanzania are countries where foreign companies are competing to acquire land for biofuel projects.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

IF there is one region where high standards in fighting money laundering and terrorist finance are expected, it is surely the five Nordic states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at Iceland’s financial regulators during the credit crunch, all five countries have admirable traditions of public openness, government efficiency and international cooperation, especially amongst themselves.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

BRITAIN has always been a trailblazer for the development of own-label, or private-label food brands. And two of its dominant supermarket chains Tesco and Sainsbury have been particularly innovative. Tesco’s private label food range holds the largest share of the UK’s private label market, with Sainsbury coming in at second place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN a month highlighting that many European Union (EU) countries are living beyond their financial means, it was timely perhaps for the European Commission to note that member states also have unsustainable water policies.

In short, many EU governments are failing to prevent the abstraction of fresh water at rates exceeding nature’s ability to replenish supplies.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

After the disappointment of the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009, global warming campaigners have hoped UN climate change talks at Cancun, Mexico in December will thrash out a viable successor to the Kyoto agreement, which ends in 2012.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

A PACKAGING system is only as strong as its conveyors, and they can come in all shapes, sizes and specifications. Indeed, countless types of conveyors exist to support every kind of application, yet in the last year – facing challenging economics – companies have been adding even more to the line-up, improving on old ideas and creating completely new ones to add innovative new conveyor options to the market for manufacturers across Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is unlikely to intervene to prevent the proposed takeover of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom. Displaying his relatively relaxed attitude to closer energy links with Moscow, new German EU energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger told a press conference: "The decision has to come between Kiev and Moscow and not in Brussels."…

BY BILL CORCORAN

LAST year, the former executive chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, summed up why he thought the west African country’s efforts to curb corruption and money laundering has faltered in recent years. "When you fight corruption, it fights back," said Mr Ribadu in June, as he addressed the United States government’s House of Representatives committee on financial services on capital loss and corruption in Nigeria, as well as in Africa.…