Search Results for: Climate change

BY RACHEL JONES, in Caracas

SINCE biotech oil crops were first commercialised over a decade ago, their use has experienced yearly double-digit growth worldwide, with Latin America being something of a nursery for this growth. Globally, the area of biotech crops grew by 13%, or by 12 million hectares, in 2006, to reach 102 million hectares, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).…

BY PETER MCCREADY, in the Peruvian Andes

THE ANDEAN bear is the only living species of bear in South America. The ‘spectacled’ bear – known because of eye markings – lives in the tropical Andes. There are an estimated 30,000 left, but numbers are decreasing and the bear faces the risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term.…

BY CHRIS JONES, in Paris

SETTING a new pollution tax on all road vehicles that varies according to the way they were driven, and mandating clearer targets for reducing emissions, would lead to more efficient climate change policies: that was the view of experts from the US and Europe meeting at the International Transport Forum in Paris last month (NOTE: JANUARY) for a round-table debate on transport’s role in tackling climate change.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

CUBA has always been crucial in the cigar industry, but with the prospect of political change being almost tangible, the island is now the key focus of this premium tobacco sector. For the first time in many years there’s a sense that events could be moving towards a thaw in the 45-year long freeze in relations between the USA and Cuba and an end to the embargo on sales of Cuban cigars into America.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

AFTER 30 years of international sanctions, limited uranium reserves and stiff political opposition to the recent Indo-US nuclear deal, Indian scientists are still pushing ahead with nuclear research – following the country’s long established Three Stage Nuclear power programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has advised on which foodstuffs should carry nutritional or health claim information in future, to help the European Commission draft an approved claim list by 2010. EFSA’s scientific panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies has concluded that the Commission’s main concern should be "the potential of a food to adversely affect overall dietary balance" given accepted nutrient intake recommendations.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Hong Kong and Beijing

HONG Kong’s proximity and constitutional links to mainland China has ensured boon times for the local financial services industry, while also creating problems for local money laundering watchdogs.

The special administrative region’s central banking regulator the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in February announced that it would ensure a "major supervisory focus" on money laundering and terrorist financing during 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) finance ministers have indicated they may push for more trading of certified green energy when amending the European Commission’s recently proposed green energy and emissions trading legislative package.

In its first formal pronouncement, the EU Council of (finance) Ministers stressed that "well functioning energy markets" could "improve price signals and reduce the costs of policies used to reach energy and climate changes objectives…" As a result, "more efforts are needed to achieve a truly competitive, interconnected and single Europe-wide internal market for electricity and gas."…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

ARE meat and dairy products from cloned animals safe to eat? The answer to the

question will determine whether this new technology will actually produce a new food

market. So far, food regulators have at least agreed in principle to allow this new food

production segment to develop, but meanwhile the debate on its safety still rages on.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut, and HELENA FLUSFELDER, in Jerusalem

THE DRINKS market in the Middle East continues to increase on the back of population growth, economic development, improvements in distribution and retail, and more aggressive advertising campaigns.

But like much of the rest of the world, younger and better educated market segments within the region are shifting away from carbonated soft drinks (CSD) towards fruit juices and bottled water as people become increasingly health conscious according to independent industry analysts and the drinks sector.…