Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SERIES of detailed and striking data-based images has been released by the European Environment Agency (EEA) starkly portraying western Europe’s density of development, and hence its exposure to environmental health problems. These make up the ‘Corine Land Cover 2000’ database, which offers information on land cover and land cover changes over the past decade in 32 European countries, using photo-interpretation of satellite images.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLDWIDE plan to promote the recycling of electronic waste could emerge from the oncoming and eighth meeting of the conference of the parties to the Basel Convention, in Kenya – its first session in Africa – from November 27 to December 1.…

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES, in Brussels

EUROPEAN Union (EU) research commissioner Janez Poto?nik has contested university claims that the proposed new European Institute of Technology (EIT) will mean less money for research projects in other institutions. Speaking in Brussels to the Times Higher Education Supplement, he said the EIT would generate additional research investment, especially from private sources: "There have been many concerns that we are pulling financial resources from other areas, but the whole idea is to create new financial resources.…

BY MARK ROWE, in Bristol, England

A NEW generation of biofuels is set to radically overhaul the non-fossil fuel market, providing opportunities and challenges for the automotive manufacturing industry, with many innovations emerging from Europe. Until recently, the question of biofuels has been limited, mainly, to biodiesel and bioethanol made from crops such as cereals, soybean and palm oil.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain

TIME-WAS that food production in the Caribbean was dominated by commodities, with sugar and bananas being king and queen of island economies. Protected from the rigours of world markets by age-old ties to current or former colonial markets, these cash crop supplies remained largely unchanged for centuries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Office International des Épizooties (OIE), the world animal health organisation, have warned bird flu has mutated, with a new variant – called Fujian virus – becoming the dominant strain in Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) VAT laws can be mightily complex, and offer plenty of opportunities for fraudsters revelling in regulations lacking in clarity and simplicity. Add high technology to the mix and carousel fraud was born. It’s a problem that has sparked tough police action and regulatory reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has finally released its long-awaited detailed action plan on energy conservation, which contains more than 75 specific actions over the next six years. These have been honed after pressure from industry, but the plan will spark a flurry of activity in Brussels in a priority policy area for energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has prevailed in negotiations with the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers in its aim of strengthening the proposed EU groundwater directive. MEPs in a special conciliation committee persuaded EU member states they should not only protect groundwater against pollution, but against "deterioration", forcing regulators to monitor groundwater quality, as well as potential contamination sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

DRAFT legislation on carbon capture and storage (CCS) now being drawn up for release by the European Commission in 2007 may allow national governments in the European Union (EU) to assume responsibility for storage sites after the injection period, given the possibility of leakage and geological degradation.…