Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has concluded that 50% of global electricity supplies must come from renewable sources by 2050 to avert the most serious effects of climate change. In a new report, the Paris-based agency said the most effective renewable energy policies involve Germany, Spain, Denmark and Portugal developing onshore windpower and China cost effective solar heating.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN prime minister Sergei Stanishev has dug the first sod to launch the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant at Belene. The aim is to see the Euro 4 billion 2,000 MW plant operational by 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SOME of Europe’s largest companies – including fuel majors – have been fined heavily for participating in a paraffin wax cartel, raising the cost of this key input for tyre and car component manufacturers. Sasol, Total, ExxonMobil and six others have been fined a total of Euro 676 million for participating in what has been branded the "paraffin wax mafia".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

ONE of the more colourful (and thankfully less deadly) aspects of Russia’s mini-war with Georgia in August was the simultaneous attach by hackers on Georgian Internet sites, especially those of its government.,

Ones of these were crashed by ‘denial of service’ attacks, where masses of data are sent to particular sites until they cannot handle the megabytes and closedown.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE VULNERABILITY of world food markets to the often fragile health of bees has been underlined by new European Union (EU)-funded research. It concluded pollination services provided by insects are worth Euro 153 billion-a-year. This figure – said a Franco-German scientific team coordinated by Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research equals 9.5% of world agricultural food production value.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PILOT project using satellites to monitor the movement of sensitive nuclear materials and make sure they are not diverted to military or terrorist uses has been launched. It involves the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) working with the European Space Agency (ESA) to use satellite capacity leased from Paris-based commercial operator Eutelsat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has frozen its partnership and cooperation negotiations with Russia over the Georgia conflict, just three months after the talks were launched following long delays. An emergency meeting of the EU Council of Ministers has ordered no meetings will take place with Moscow on the agreement until its "troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", prior to its short war with Georgia.…

BY PATRICIA KELLY

INDOOR air pollution is a major source of allergies and respiratory diseases, according to scientists and researchers investigating the impact of indoor air quality on public health. While some progress has been made in limiting tobacco smoke, toxic chemicals – from consumer goods to construction products – remain a problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN prime minister Sergei Stanishev has dug the first sod to launch the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant at Belene. The aim is to see the Euro 4 billion 2,000 MW plant operational by 2014.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON and KEITH NUTHALL

AUTOMAKERS at the European Union (EU) will be closely monitoring debates this autumn discussing the strictness of a planned cap on the CO2 emissions from automobiles running on EU roads, given they are busy developing low carbon technologies.…