Search Results for: Russia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to raise fuel prices, so as to improve their environmental performance and promote investment in energy efficient industries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENVIRONMENTAL crimes are in many ways the most damaging of offences, given that they can harm millions of people, whether through damaging the ozone layer, increasing pollution levels or damaging biodiversity. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, (UNICRI), has published a study on this modern scourge.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is about to complete its own recommendations on safety improvements in long road tunnels. Its proposals include roadside checks on lorries to detect overheating and also rules on the amount of fuel carried through tunnels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of the Montreal Protocol controlling ozone-depleting chemicals has reviewed data on the use of CFC’s by developing countries, concluding that while most are in compliance, 25 of 136 had increased their consumption in 1999.

Participants from more than 100 countries took part in the meeting, in Sri Lanka, the latest in a regular schedule which makes THE protocol a dynamic and constantly-changing system of global regulation, rather than a static treaty that could become outdated.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
DESPITE its rejection by America, the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has now been agreed and is set to move towards ratification and implementation within two years. Ministers from 180 countries reached a compromise deal over the treaty after lengthy negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco at the week-end (finished on Saturday 10th).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNOPS, the United Nations’ major provider of project management services, has signed a partnership agreement with YUKOS, the second largest oil company in Russia in terms of oil and gas production and reserves. The agreement aims at establishing the terms for future cooperation between YUKOS and other UN organisations in Russia and neighbouring countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THREAT of thefts of nuclear material in eastern Europe is declining, despite the recent upsurge in Islamic terrorism, the Milan-based United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, (UNICRI), has claimed, in a study on environmental crime.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
DESPITE its rejection by America, the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has now been agreed and is set to move towards ratification and implementation within two years. Ministers from 180 countries reached a compromise deal over the treaty after lengthy negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco at the week-end (finished on Saturday 10th).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union countries will have to ensure that at least two per cent of their transport fuel supplies are in the form of bio-fuels – made from sugar beet, cereals, maize and rape-seed – by 2005, under a European Commission directive to be proposed very shortly, said Franz Fischler, agriculture Commissioner.…

KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH hauliers may not in future find themselves at such a competitive disadvantage with eastern European competitors regarding the commercial transport of animals, because of a planned updating to a Council of Europe welfare convention.

Its commitments apply to countries both outside and within the European Union, where hauliers already have to comply with expensive rules on trailer standards, journey times, rest periods and the watering and feeding of livestock.…