Search Results for: Climate change

BY MARK ROWE
A VERMONT maple syrup producer has joined forces with environmental groups to sue the American government for recklessly contributing to global warming, claiming it has damaged his business.

A lawsuit filed by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace in San Francisco claims that two American export credit agencies illegally provided US$32billion in financing for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming, as required by national law.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANZ Fischler has given himself a tough job; trying to persuade dairy farmers it is time to expose themselves to unfettered world markets when prices are at rock bottom, while facing hostility to further CAP reform from some European Union governments, notably France.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND PHILIP FINE

IN the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy, the shocking images of two planes slamming into two of the most famous buildings in the world fuelled a strong desire tighten up security systems around the world, especially in civil aviation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has significantly watered down its proposed

directive on prospectuses following intense lobbying by the financial services industry, the European Parliament and some Member States including Britain. The main change announced today (Friday) is to exempt small and medium-sized companies from the obligation to publish a draft prospectus if their public offering is Euro 2.5 million (Pounds 1.55 million) or less.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The more new buildings that go up, the more demand there is for sand and gravel for use as aggregate. In theory there’s an almost inexhaustible supply of it on the sea-bed. But each ton taken away leaves a hole under the sea that fills with water.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE ROMANO Prodi-led European Commission has received a mid-term report from senior environmental groups within the European Union and it contains a mixture of bouquets and brickbats. It written by the Green 8, a coalition that includes the European Environmental Bureau, the European Federation for Transport and Environment and Friends of the Earth Europe.…

By ALAN OSBORN
Farmers can’t complain that they lack information about long-term trends in agriculture. The European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the various United Nations food agencies, specialised agricultural research institutes and of course national governments all seem driven to make regular projections about crops, prices and markets several years into the future.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE know that irresponsible sea-sand dredging can led to coastal erosion, threatening beaches and ecological balance and even the livelihoods of whole sea-side or fishing communities. Yet there is today an unprecedented demand for sand as a building material.…

BY MARK ROWE
MONEY launderers looking to process their criminal gains look favourably upon south-east Asia. Authorities in the region are under-funded and overworked, while cash-transactions are a cultural norm, making it easy to ensure that money you would prefer not to be traced can simply disappear, with little likelihood that anyone will have the time to investigate the transaction.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, MONICA DOBIE AND PHILIP FINE

IF there is one striking characteristic about Washington’s Bush Administration, it must be its almost unprecedented ability to infuriate the entire world with its unilateralism, especially its self-serving trade policies.

For years, the US government has actually played Mary Poppins on food production subsidies, claiming that its handouts do not encourage farmers to overproduce when prices are low.…