Search Results for: Environmental health

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided to come out fighting in its row with Member States over the liberalisation of energy markets. Calling on EU Ministers and the European Parliament to “rapidly adopt” its March 2001 proposals to completely liberalise gas and electricity markets by 2005, the Commission threatened to use exceptional powers granted to it under EU treaties to pass directives and decisions on market fairness, bypassing opposition from national governments and MEPs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TIMING of concessions that can be achieved at the World Trade Organisation’s agricultural round, sweeping away the high tariffs, import quotas, production subsidies and export credits that make the working lives of every agricultural exporter more of a struggle, are likely to be set in the next three months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRACTICAL advice on how local authorities can cope with the growing threats posed by floods and droughts have been included in a new report from the European Environment Agency, which claims that flooding is “the most common and most costly type of natural disaster in Europe.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBERS of European national parliaments and the European Parliament itself have called on the EU and its Member States to subsidise renewable energy producers, so that they can become competitive in the EU energy market.

Meeting at an inter-parliamentary meeting in Gotland, Sweden, organised by the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, (EUFORES), and the Swedish Bioenergy Association, (SVEBIO), the parliamentarians agreed that renewable energies “can and should provide a significant share of the total energy supply in Europe, but their potential is far from being realised.”…

BY KATE REW
ENVIRONMENTAL group Friends of the Earth has criticised legislation being considered last week before the US House of Representatives, claiming that they would authorise more than US$33 billion over ten years in new and expanded subsidies for the oil, coal, gas and nuclear power industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced that it is to make a Euro 60 million loan to the municipality of Belgrade, which will pay for the upgrade of city water supplies and improve the efficiency and quality of district heating services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD food standards body, Codex Alimentarius, has revised its guidelines for sugars, cocoa and dairy products, sitting in its 24th session in Geneva, Switzerland.

Attended by 365 delegates, alternates and advisors from 87 Member countries, this meeting of Codex commission adopted 41 new or revised standards, guidelines and related texts, all of which are voluntary, although having influence by the fact they have been agreed internationally and that they promote trade.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SHIPPING companies working throughout the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and its navigation seaways are being forced to carry less cargo because of very low water levels, worse than those recorded in 1999 and 2000, when there was also a water shortage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has published guidelines that encourage local and national public authorities to use EU legislation on public procurement to promote the purchase of environmentally friendly goods and services. Brussels’ “interpretive communication” on the subject does not advise local and national governments adapt procurement practices so that environmental good practice automatically becomes a sales condition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has drawn up plans to lend US $5 million to Bulgarian gold and copper mine Navan Chelopech A.D., to improve productivity and efficiency, “by bringing the mine up to international operating and environmental standards.”…