Search Results for: United Nations

BY JULIAN RYALL, KARRYN MILLER and ALAN OSBORN

WITH the ongoing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano has grounded airlines and stranded passengers across the world for nearly a week, airports have been scrambling to accommodate the millions of people blocked by an enormous plume of ash filling prime airspace.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

LAST year, the former executive chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, summed up why he thought the west African country’s efforts to curb corruption and money laundering has faltered in recent years. "When you fight corruption, it fights back," said Mr Ribadu in June, as he addressed the United States government’s House of Representatives committee on financial services on capital loss and corruption in Nigeria, as well as in Africa.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

The carbonated soft drink segment has suffered recently in the United States and Europe, as consumers have become more health conscious and switched to less sugary alternatives, but in Latin America carbonated beverages have continued to perform well.…

BY ALISON MOODIE

SUB-SAHARAN Africa is still struggling to make its way in the global textile and clothing industry – but companies are convinced that without the USA’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) the outlook would be bleaker. One decade ago this May, this tariff preference programme was launched by the US: it gives qualifying African countries zero tariff exports for the huge US market – and statistics show that the sub-Saharan textile and clothing industry has benefited.…

BY GEORGE STONE

THE KYOTO Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has made slow progress in Africa, but schemes are slowly getting off the ground, led by programmes in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

Under the United Nations-backed CDM process, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to sustainable development can earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

THE BALTIC States and their eastern neighbours have long been viewed as a cheap supply of labour and goods to the rich countries within the European Union (EU), but now local companies and governments are looking to expand biofuel production to satisfy both growing domestic and export demand.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE UNITED States has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to establish a dispute settlement panel to consider the excise taxes applied by the Philippines on excised products, including scents and perfumes. Washington claims goods usually not made in the Philippines attract higher duty than those which are manufactured domestically, discriminating against imported products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEXT climate change summit, in Cancún, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10 will not yield an international treaty, the outgoing executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has predicted. Yvo de Boer said Cancún could "agree an operational architecture", leaving a need for "many more rounds of climate-change negotiations".…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

The most important markets for bottled water have traditionally been developed economies like Western Europe and the United States. However, growth in these markets has recently flattened out, exacerbated by the global economic crisis and growing environmental concerns over the product.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPANESE industries in general have had a tough past couple of years and the cosmetics sector is no exception. That said, manufacturers here have largely stressed the positive and developed a range of innovative new products that meet the needs of ever-more demanding consumers and opened up new product areas.…