Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BROAD political agreement on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has been achieved in Bonn, Germany by 186 participating nations, but without the participation of the US.

Original targets were scaled down to ensure the participation of Japan, Canada and Australia in the deal, who secured concessions on so-called carbon sinks; they can now gain credits to emit more gases through re-vegetation and effective management of forests and farmland.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A CONSORTIUM of key European Union players in the solar energy market has launched an ambitious scheme to install 15 million square meters of solar collectors in Europe by 2004, a project for which it hopes to get support from the European Commission.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE KYOTO protocol on climate change was adopted by 186 nations in Bonn, but without the participation of the US, which is responsible for 25 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

President Bush is now likely to come under intense international pressure to produce an American plan to tackle climate change.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there come a day when a genuine European market in health care takes its place among the other landmark achievements of the European Union?

In terms of economic efficiency and the functioning of the internal market, does it make much sense for a million patients in Britain, say, to have to wait sometimes for a year or more for important operations while people in France or Luxembourg can book them for the next day and some German hospitals have barely half their beds filled?…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ALCOHOL supplies at the next Winter Olympics, in Salt Lake City, Utah, will be guaranteed and maybe even more liberal than the two previous games, despite the fact that about 70 per cent of the state is inhabited by teetotal Mormons, according to the Utah Travel Council.…

Keith Nuthall
A REARGUARD action is being fought by the European Commission to save its ambitious proposals to impose a deadline of 2005 on the complete liberalisation of the EU electricity market. Following pressure from the French government, EU governments have agreed to rule the idea out, preferring a looser deadline, although this has yet to be formally agreed at the Council of Ministers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed tougher control of EU airline slots to reduce airport congestion, including sanctions against abusive practices and incentives for airlines to use slot portfolios efficiently through slot exchanges and re-timing. At the same time it announced a fundamental review of the slot allocation system comprising an in-depth study in the coming months, followed by a broad consultation with the 15 EU Member States and the aviation industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TOP level EU delegation will fly to Tokyo next week, (July 9), in a desperate bid to salvage the Kyoto Protocol from being wrecked by the intransigence of the Bush administration in Washington. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, and ministers from Belgium and Sweden, (representing the current and next EU presidencies), planned their mission after reports emerged from a summit meeting between Bush and Japan’s PM Junichiro Koizumi, that Tokyo would abandon the global warming treaty, if the US refused to sign.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPROMISE deal has been struck in Brussels over a transitional regime for the European Union sugar industry, which will last until July 2006, when a comprehensive review is expected to have taken place.

The European Commission had been pressing to deep cuts in market supports, but these have been resisted by some Member States, who are represented on the EU Council of Ministers, which approved the final agreement.…

KEITH NUTHALL
FISH farming companies and organisations have until September 30 to submit papers to the European Commission, if they want them to be considered as part of an ongoing review of the Common Fisheries Policy, that could create root-and-branch reforms to the way that Brussels impacts on the industry.…