Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has renewed anti-dumping duties imposed upon imports into the EU of steel ropes and cables from India (30.8%), China (60.4%) including those routed through Morocco, Ukraine (51.8%) including Moldova-routed products and South Africa (38.6%).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST phase of an Africa Stockpiles Programme has been approved by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) – the initiative aims to eliminate in the continent stockpiles of obsolete pesticides, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs).…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AN ENVIRONMENTAL organisation has blamed American businesses for dodging safe, but costly recycling methods for their used computer equipment by shipping them to developing countries in an insincere show of philanthropy, which actually causes severe environmental damage.

A report called ‘The Digital Dump: Exporting Reuse and Abuse to Africa,’ written by the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, says the bulk of used computer equipment sent from the United States to developing countries for use in homes, schools and businesses is often neither usable nor repairable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is considering an application for the creation of three new civil aviation routes linking the Russian far east and South Korea, crossing North Korean air space over the Sea of Japan. An ICAO meeting concluded that the “extreme high cost of fuel has elevated this to an urgent request”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SATELLITE images from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have shown how evaporation and water abstraction are shrinking many lakes in Africa. Without such sustainable management, “we face increasing tensions and instability as rising populations compete for life’s most precious of precious resources,” it said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRESH from the European Commission’s brokering of an energy accord for south-eastern Europe, its energy Commissioner is now turning to the Baltic as a region where cooperation can be intensified. Latvian Andris Piebalgs supported strengthening the work carried out by the 11-country BASREC (Baltic Sea Region Energy Co-operation), at a ministerial conference of the group, in Reykjavik, Iceland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
REGULATORS from 15 west African nations have agreed to a common regulatory framework for their national information technology and communications markets. Brokered by the International Telecommunication Union, the deal helps west African efforts to create a single market based on the European Union model.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST-EVER multilateral treaty covering the Balkans has been signed in Athens, creating a European Energy Community, linking the gas (and electricity) policies of south-eastern Europe with those of the European Union (EU). Indeed, under the treaty, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Kosovo must apply EU energy legislation, including related environmental and competition laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LITTER collection and refuse disposal can pose environmental health hazards, so surely cities and towns would be cleaner if waste was sucked underground by a futuristic sucking mechanism. Sounds like the 22nd century, but actually, Swedish firm Envac Centralsug is already offering such a service.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SATELLITE images of the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia have long horrified environmentalists, but now similar creeping disasters are threatening the many fresh water and brackish lakes of Africa. These are illustrated by disturbing satellite images within an atlas produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).…