Search Results for: Climate change

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; and KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL conference took place this month in Hong Kong (May 11-15) and adopted a new International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention on globally applicable ship recycling regulations for international shipping, including oil and gas tankers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MONICA DOBIE

A SIMPLE surgical checklist to be introduced by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) for major operations in the UK from February 2010 has been welcomed by Diane Gilmour, president of the Association for Perioperative Practice (AFPP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 100,000 European food Safety Authority (EFSA) grant has been awarded to a consortium of European Union (EU) science consortia to investigate the impact of the so-called bee ‘colony collapse disorder’ on honey production.

Since 2003, there have been reports of serious losses of bees from beehives in Europe, with the cause being unknown, although possible factors include starvation, viruses, mites, pesticide exposure and climate change.…

BY ERIC LYMAN

THE OIL and gas industry worldwide will closely follow a technical debate to be staged throughout 2009 over whether or not to include carbon capture and storage technologies in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The issue was tabled at December’s 14th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-14) in Poznan, Poland, and may not be resolved until January 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it wants Euro 3.5 billion of the general European Union (EU) economic recovery plan it announced in November spent on energy investment. It has proposed spending Euro 1.75 billion on gas and electricity interconnection projects; Euro 500 million on offshore wind power; and Euro 1.25 billion on carbon capture and storage.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSH to tap the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Sea has seen governments, the European Union (EU) and producers shuttling back and forth between the major players in the region, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.…

By Russell Berman, in Washington DC

USA president-elect Barack Obama has promised a robustly multilateralist foreign policy for America having assumed office on January 20, but one of the more complicated relationships he will have to navigate will be with the United Nations. Facing constant criticism for a unilateral, go-it-alone attitude toward diplomacy and world opinion, the Bush administration has had a largely adversarial relationship with the UN.

Mr Bush famously launched the Iraq war without authorisation from the UN, and he later nominated as ambassador to the world body John Bolton, a man known for his harsh criticism of the institution. Mr Obama, by contrast, has sent a key early signal that he plans to re-engage with the UN as part of a broader strategy to bolster American diplomacy and improve its image throughout the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONTROLLED opening of Arctic fisheries made more accessible because of the steady retreat of polar ice through climate change has been called for in a European Commission policy paper.

It wants "a regulatory framework for [those] Arctic high seas not yet covered by an international conservation and management regime before new fishing opportunities arise," saying no fisheries should be opened for any country until such controls are established.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S tobacco market, the eighth largest in the world and valued this month at GBPounds 6 billion in consumer price turnover by British American Tobacco (BAT) has contracted by 5% over the past year following the imposition of a nationwide smoking ban.…

By Alan Osborn

FEW things say more about the growing enthusiasm for nuclear power than the rush of young students eager to make a career in the industry. It is happening mainly in America but other countries are now beginning to see the same development.…