Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HARMONISED authorisation procedure for using enzymes in food products, covering all 27 countries of the European Union (EU), is to be introduced, following agreement at the EU Council of Ministers. In future, authorisation will be granted following a scientific assessment carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).…

BY ERIC LYMAN, in Rome

THE ITALIAN tobacco industry is currently in a holding pattern, mid-way between two milestones: the 2005 ban on indoor smoking that had a dramatic impact sales that the industry has yet to recover from, and a change in European Union (EU) subsidy rules scheduled for 2010 that could have a far greater effect on total production from Europe’s largest tobacco producer.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

New US legislation to improve vehicle fuel efficiency is "more aggressive" than that proposed for the European Union countries and the EU should take a "bolder approach" if it is serious about tackling climate change, the US ambassador to the EU has warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and CHRIS JONES, in Brussels

INTENSE well-informed debates are likely to follow the release in January of a comprehensive package of legislation by the European Commission on fighting climate change through emissions trading, renewable energy, pollution caps, biofuels and environmental state aid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITISH emergency planners will be amongst local authority environmental specialists receiving special training and investment funding from the European Commission over the next two years. Brussels has announced Euro 4.07 million of grants, with "helping municipalities prepare for climate change and any resulting floods," being a key issue.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY decade or so comes a technology that is so new, comprehensive, interesting, and damned useful, that it changes the way that we learn, have fun and do business. Think commercial air travel, the mobile phone and the Internet…..these…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee wants European Union (EU) rules to insist that biofuel production is environmentally sustainable. The call was made in amendments tabled to proposed reforms from the European Commission to the EU’s fuel quality directive, which insists on certain standards for petrol and diesel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPACE maybe called the final frontier on TV, but for mining industry and environmentalists, bragging rights must surely go to the ocean deeps – the most inaccessible and unexplored regions on Earth. Speculation has been continuing for decades about the potential mineral riches on ocean floors, however there have always been four obvious problems about extracting them: noone really knows what is down there; the expense of prospecting for such minerals could be prohibitive; there is yet no comprehensive internationally agreed legal regime covering potential work in international waters; and there are risks it could cause irreparable damage to ecosystems that are barely understood.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

THE PRODUCTION of fake car parts is experiencing a "period of significant growth" in China, according to an umbrella group of foreign auto makers in China. In a report, 88% of members of the Automotive Working Group of the Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC), a coalition of multinational companies battling intellectual property infringement in China, have estimated losses to counterfeiting or piracy of auto parts, amounting to 15% of their overall sales.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

PUBLIC place smoking bans are spreading like wildlife these days, with one country after another drawing up rules preventing tobacco use where it could expose non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

In the European Union (EU), this year, public place smoking bans have been introduced in England, Estonia and Finland, for instance.…