Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2008 Environmental Outlook report claims that the global economy need only shed 1% of GDP to cut key air pollutants by about 33% and limit greenhouse gas emissions growth to 12%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament wants reforms to European Union (EU) regulations to promote the production of biogas, but only from organic sources, such as biomass, food waste and agricultural debris. A report approved by MEPs called on the European Commission to change rules on EU regional and rural development funds to ensure biogas plant investment was covered.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POSSIBLE retreat from the European Union’s (EU) target of raising the biofuel share of transport fuels to 10% by 2020 has been sounded by the Slovenian prime minister, whose country now holds the EU presidency. Janez Jansa said: "We’re not excluding the possibility that we’ll have to amend or revise our goals," following growing environmental criticism of biofuels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

EUROPEAN Commission industry officials are "working on a solution" to head off a threat to the expected lifting of a ban on US poultry imports into the European Union (EU).

Ton van Lierop, the Commission’s industry spokesman, said officials are crafting a response to a forthcoming report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the risks of anti-microbial agents to the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has backed European Commission proposals to increase the current European Union (EU) minimum excise tax rate on diesel to match that for unleaded petrol. However, MEPs have proposed phasing the increase from diesel’s current Euro 302/1,000 litres rate to unleaded petrol’s Euro 359/1,000 by 2015, with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania having until 2016, but Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Greece acting immediately.…

By Alan Osborn

Environment ministers of the 27 EU countries met in Brussels last week and gave broad public backing to the European Commission’s plans for tackling climate change and energy supply though privately some delegations were reported to be unhappy with important details.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

NO doubt most of us would like to depend exclusively on energy that’s clean, cheap and – most important of all – endlessly renewable, but is that actually going to happen any time in the forseeable future? A growing consensus of energy experts within Europe is not only answering ‘no’, they are adding that although renewable energies could form a significant part of total energy use internationally within a decade, even stretching that to 20 or 30 years ahead doesn’t suggest they’ll top 50%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL commitments for European Union (EU) member states to consider the impact of water and energy policies on neighbouring countries are likely to be written into EU law. The European Commission has proposed that the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment to UN Espoo Convention is formally adopted by the EU.…

By Mark Godfrey in Beijing

No country has added nuclear power like energy-hungry China. Neighbouring North Korea had more nuclear power capacity than China in 2000 (as did Taiwan). But by 2010, according to the US government-affiliated Energy Information Administration, China will have bypassed both countries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The world can (in italics) move towards a low carbon, greener and more sustainable future by the restructuring of economies and the costs "are affordable" says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), representing the world’s 30 leading industrialised countries, in its 2008 Environmental Outlook.…