Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

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 SIGRÚN DAVÍDSDOTTIR
AN HEP plant designed to power a new aluminium smelter, the first constructed by Alcoa Inc. in twenty years, is under preparation in eastern Iceland. The plant would produce 285,000 tonnes of aluminium a year. At the same time Alcoa is closing down two plants in the US and reducing production in a third.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL Agenda for Action has been drawn up at a UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) workshop on boosting “Clean Coal Combustion in Small and Medium Sized Boilers in Central and Eastern Europe.” The plan has been approved by experts from the region, along with those from western Europe, the USA, the World Coal Institute, the World Energy Council, IEA Coal Research and UNECE.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has taken an important step towards giving EU water legislation more teeth, by moving against Belgium’s system of “tacit approvals” of pollution. Belgian law allows companies to assume that they have a right to pollute if they make an application to regulators and then receive no reply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMAN insurance group Gerling is providing financial and managerial support to a ground-breaking environmental initiative in the hope that it will be copied and that the company will be asked to underwrite similar initiatives because of its expertise.…

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.…

Keith Nuthall
INSURANCE companies will be able to reduce their exposure to natural and technological disasters within the European Union and eastern Europe in the future, assuming EU ministers agree plans to establish a central contingency emergency aid fund commanding between Euro 500,000 and Euro 1 billion; it would be raided by Member States and eastern European countries wanting to join the EU that fall victim to such disasters.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUND-breaking environmental initiative is being developed in Greece involving a desalination plant being powered wholly by the heat of the earth’s upper crust.

The plant’s electricity turbines will be driven by geothermal fluids pumped from deep underground fissures under the island, whose temperatures can reach 100°C.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the creation of a central European Union aid fund commanding between Euro 500,000 and Euro 1 billion, which could be raided by Member States and eastern European countries wanting to join the EU that fall victim to natural disasters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Environment Agency has released an assessment of the performance of European governments and EU institutions regarding the reduction of air pollution. Its report reacts positively to the way that the EU has reached targets to cut emissions of acidifying substances and also pollutants that create ground-level ozone.…