Search Results for: United Nations

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

WITH the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom, the paint sector is flourishing with contracts of up to half a million dollars underway, 200% growth in fire-resistance paints, and over 16% growth predicted for the sector as a whole this year.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BEIRUT: The month long war waged by Israel against Hizbullah has caused considerable damage to Lebanon’s environment.

The coastline is marred by an oil spill, the air has been polluted by burning fuel oil, destroyed factories, forest fires and dust kicked up from bombings, and there is the possibility that depleted uranium (DU) and phosphorous bombs were used by the Israeli military.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SPORT is providing a welcome fillip to greening public transport services in developing countries, with Olympics-enthused China overseeing the rollout of hydrogen fuel-cell buses in polluted Beijing. The emissions laden smog that athletes will suck into their lungs in summer 2008 is already causing some concern, but a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) coordinated project will make a small dent in air pollution.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it came to accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the Baltic States were something of a special case. Though unable to compete on the same scale as their neighbours in Poland, or further south, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, the economies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia quickly gained a reputation for being micro economic powerhouses – and the same has applied to their paint industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TNE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for African local authorities and governments to unite with fuel and automobile companies to fight the growing blight of urban smog in the continent’s cities. Air pollution is becoming a serious problem in these booming urban areas and has been discussed at an August conference ‘Better Air Quality for African Cities’, held at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ASSOCIATION of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has committed its 10 member countries to coordinate the development of coal mining in the region, including the adoption of new clean coal technologies. The formal commitment, made by a meeting of ASEAN’s energy ministers, was sparked by high oil prices and fears the region could face energy supply problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HIGH oil and gas prices have provoked the Association of South East Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) 10 member countries to commit themselves to coordinating their development of renewable energies and solid fuel production, including the adoption of new clean coal technologies.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

INTRODUCTION

JAPAN’S whaling fleet returned to port in August with around 2,000 tons of whale meat. Japan describes it as "scientific whaling" that helps monitor numbers and breeding patterns; environmentalists and other governments say it is commercial whaling.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OIL and gas companies working in the Caspian Sea will have to comply with a new environmental treaty from August 12, the first legally binding agreement signed by all five coastal states. Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan and companies working within them will henceforth have to follow the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

ONE month into the Israel-Hizbullah conflict, multinational food companies operating in Lebanon have ground to a halt, with the country facing a near total economic blockade and fuel supplies running out.

Since July 12, around 85% of all factories have been forced to close, 35 have been destroyed and distribution is increasingly difficult with over 60 bridges out of action, roads pock-marked with craters and over 450 trucks having been targeted by Israeli warplanes.…