Search Results for: Climate change

Keith Nuthall
ACCOUNTANTS should help develop standardised accounting methods to operate greenhouse gas trading systems created because of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, says a new United Nations report, co-authored by finance industry heavy hitters, such as the Dresdner Bank Prudential and Swiss Re.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BELGIUM has been told by the European Commission to change its “discriminatory” laws covering inheritance and registration taxes or face legal action. Belgian law says that non-profit associations, mutual societies, trade unions and international scientific associations must be established in Belgium to qualify for tax relief on gifts or legacies.…

BY PHILIP FINE

HEINZ did something this year that its rival large USA-based food producers seem to be shying away from. They put their own name on an organic product.

One would think other US companies would have, by now, employed the same strategy as Heinz: use organic-friendly Europe as a test-market for an eventual US launch of an organic product, but the idea seems to be slow in catching on.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURELECTRIC has welcomed the long-awaited final agreement reached over a proposed European Union directive on the energy efficiency of new and renovated houses, saying that it will push electricity producers into adopting a more profitable strategy of value-added service provision.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMENDENTS to the latest proposed guidelines for European Union (EU) trans-European energy network grant applications would force the European Commission to consider the effect of subsidised projects on competition amongst EU utilities.

The European Parliament has amended the criteria governing the award of grants to make sure that public subsidies to one electricity or gas operator do not negatively impact on a rival or lock out potential new competitors.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE FINANCIAL framework of state regulated air traffic management is often perceived by the more commercially orientated air transport industry as inflexible and driven by supply rather than demand. This perception remains despite the widespread corporatisation of ANSPs, (air navigation service providers), which has pulled them away from the firm embrace of government.…

BY MARK ROWE
ENVIRONMENTAL organisations and an American local authority have issued a lawsuit against the US government for its contribution to global warming, a move that may have important repercussions for the insurance industry.

A lawsuit filed in the US District Court in San Francisco claims that two American export credit agencies illegally provided US$32billion in financing for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming.…

BY MARK ROWE
ENVIRONMENTAL organisations together with a local authority have issued a lawsuit against the American government for its alleged contribution to global warming. The suit filed in the US District Court in San Francisco claims that two American export credit agencies illegally provided US$32 billion in financing for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN may face an action in the European Court of Justice over its tough customs policy over the import of excised drinks from other EU Member States, the European Commission said today (Wednesday). The Commission said it was “concerned” that the controls currently being applied at UK ports, and the sanctions imposed when UK excise duty laws were broken, ” may breach the EU rules which give travellers the right to shop abroad.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRUSSELS is set to crack down on Britain’s handling of tobacco excise duty cases where travellers from other EU Member States are accused and sanctioned for allegedly violating the “personal consumption” limit. The European Commission says it has questions about “a presumption that the goods are being imported for commercial use and concerning the vehicle seizure policy being applied by customs officers.”…