Search Results for: Climate change

BY MARK ROWE
PRODUCTION of vodka and other hard liquors dropped in Russia last year, as the country’s bourgeoning middle class continued to choose more upmarket drinks. Analysts believe the trend may reflect the improvement of the Russian economy and the greater disposable incomes of white-collar workers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOVES are afoot in Brussels to pass a law requiring all companies handling food to be inspected annually, then publicly ‘named and shamed’ should they be found breaking health and hygiene rules. The idea has been tabled by the European Parliament’s environment committee as an amendment to an umbrella food safety regulation proposed earlier this year covering food quality, animal feed, safety, labelling and inspections, providing for criminal penalties for serious breaches of its rules.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled long-awaited proposals on boosting the security of energy supplies within the European Union (EU), and although the its package of measures falls short of tabling binding targets on infrastructure, the plan has been criticised by environmentalists.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE LARGEST museum in the world and – arguably – the grandest of them all, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is returning to its roots. In the middle of a long and painstaking modernisation process, the Russian museum is striving, in addition to the urgent physical restoration required to bring the museum into the 21st century, to recapture the ambience of its Imperial origins, when its vast palaces were the residence of the Tsars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPULSORY pollution insurance could be introduced for companies at risk of breaking the proposed European Union (EU) environmental liability directive, under amendments approved to the legislation this week by the European Parliament.

The change tells the European Commission to check in five years’ time whether the directive has sparked private insurance and security instruments allowing polluters to cover themselves for their potential liabilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TECHNOLOGY being developed by a European Commission funded research project should allow curators to effectively monitor environmental pollution that can damage ancient treasures in museums and galleries. The MIMIC (microclimate indoor monitoring in cultural heritage preservation) project is using a range of sophisticated devices to deduce the effect of changes in humidity, temperature, light and pollutant levels (nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous acid and ozone).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPULSORY pollution insurance could be introduced for companies at risk of breaking the proposed European Union (EU) environmental liability directive, under amendments approved to the legislation this week by the European Parliament.

The change tells the European Commission to check in five years’ time whether the directive has sparked private insurance and security instruments allowing polluters to cover themselves for potential liabilities.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
HOW can insurers and governments effectively manage “risk”? The usual way is to base policy on scientific evidence of the probability of an outcome. But this is no longer adequate – it is the perception (last word in italics?)…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) competition Commissioner Mario Monti has called for reforms to the EU’s common market organisation for sugar, claiming that the existing regime stifles change in the sector. He said that usually his officials usually challenge market sharing agreements and price fixing.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there be no end to the European Commission’s financial mismanagement before somebody is made to take the blame? We ask this in the light of the latest annual report by the European Court of Auditors which, for the ninth year running, has refused to sign off the accounts.…