EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU lawmakers have voted to give a break to industries that use large amounts of energy to make their products by letting them receive most of their carbon emissions permits for free, instead of having to purchase them like other sectors of the European economy. MEPs took the step during a marathon session in the European Parliament's environment committee - a day dubbed "Green Super Tuesday" by environmental groups - ploughing through discussion of three major laws that make up part of the EU's overall climate package aimed at tackling global warming. MEPs want ETS money ring-fenced for climate-related purposes Out of fear that energy-intensive industries such as cement, paper, steel and chemicals would no longer be competitive against companies producing the same items outside the EU emissions trading scheme - the so called "carbon leakage" effect - the environment committee voted to back a phase-in of auctions for pollution permits.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU lawmakers have voted to give a break to industries that use large amounts of energy to make their products by letting them receive most of their carbon emissions permits for free, instead of having to purchase them like other sectors of the European economy.
MEPs took the step during a marathon session in the European Parliament's environment committee - a day dubbed "Green Super Tuesday" by environmental groups - ploughing through discussion of three major laws that make up part of the EU's overall climate package aimed at tackling global warming.
MEPs want ETS money ring-fenced for climate-related purposes
Out of fear that energy-intensive industries such as cement, paper, steel and chemicals would no longer be competitive against companies producing the same items outside the EU emissions trading scheme - the so called "carbon leakage" effect - the environment committee voted to back a phase-in of auctions for pollution permits.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The building of new coal-fired power stations in the European Union would soon be outlawed under legislation approved by the European Parliament's environment committee on Tuesday (7 October), unless firms attach technology said to scrub coal clean of carbon emissions. The committee yesterday voted to back an emissions limit of 500 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour on all new coal plants built after 2015. Because most coal plants cannot meat such a standard, the move would in effect prevent traditional power stations from being built. Coal - will it be killed off, or get a new lease on life? The days of coal in Europe are very far from being numbered, however. Indeed, the legislation gives coal a new lease on life by pushing the adoption of a controversial and unproven technology known as "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), which captures the carbon from emissions and stores it in geological formations underground or under the ocean. "[The vote] will force utilities to invest in CO2 capture and storage if they want to build new coal-fired power plants," said Eivind Hoff of Bellona Europa, a Norway-based environmental group that has been the experimental technology's biggest champion.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The building of new coal-fired power stations in the European Union would soon be outlawed under legislation approved by the European Parliament's environment committee on Tuesday (7 October), unless firms attach technology said to scrub coal clean of carbon emissions.
The committee yesterday voted to back an emissions limit of 500 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour on all new coal plants built after 2015. Because most coal plants cannot meat such a standard, the move would in effect prevent traditional power stations from being built.
Coal - will it be killed off, or get a new lease on life?
The days of coal in Europe are very far from being numbered, however. Indeed, the legislation gives coal a new lease on life by pushing the adoption of a controversial and unproven technology known as "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), which captures the carbon from emissions and stores it in geological formations underground or under the ocean.
"[The vote] will force utilities to invest in CO2 capture and storage if they want to build new coal-fired power plants," said Eivind Hoff of Bellona Europa, a Norway-based environmental group that has been the experimental technology's biggest champion.
And with that single simple decision, human induced climate change ceases to be a problem or responsibility for Europe. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
It would have been weird if they had legislated that option away. But then again, business as usual scenarios are never worth much. Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
Portugal on Tuesday (7 October) afternoon announced its official recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, becoming the 22nd EU country to make the move. "It is in the interests of the Portuguese state to proceed today to the formal recognition of Kosovo," the country's foreign minister Luis Amado told the national assembly's foreign affairs committee, AFP reports. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February "We are convinced that the independence of Kosovo has become irreversible," he added. An autonomous Serbian province within the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo fell under UN governance in 1999 when NATO troops intervened to stop a crackdown by the then president of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic's forces on the majority ethnic-Albanian population.
Portugal on Tuesday (7 October) afternoon announced its official recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, becoming the 22nd EU country to make the move.
"It is in the interests of the Portuguese state to proceed today to the formal recognition of Kosovo," the country's foreign minister Luis Amado told the national assembly's foreign affairs committee, AFP reports.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February
"We are convinced that the independence of Kosovo has become irreversible," he added.
An autonomous Serbian province within the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo fell under UN governance in 1999 when NATO troops intervened to stop a crackdown by the then president of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic's forces on the majority ethnic-Albanian population.
Collapsing demand for new cars across Europe is to cost skilled workers at General Motors and Ford hundreds of shifts as the car giants try to reduce supply. General Motors plans to cut production by 40,000 vehicles across Europe as a whole by the end of the year. It is closing its factories in Luton and Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, temporarily this month to try to avert flooding the market with unsold cars. The Ellesmere Port factory, which makes Vauxhall Astra vans and Vauxhall Astra five-door cars, is halting production for 14 days to cut the number of cars it makes by 9,000. It normally makes about 120,000 vehicles a year, about 46 per cent of which are exported to Spain, Italy and Germany. The company, which has its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, will also close its Luton plant for ten days this month, making 4,000 fewer vehicles. It normally makes 90,000 a year. That factory, which makes the mid-sized Vivaro van, exports about 62 per cent of its cars to the Continent.
Collapsing demand for new cars across Europe is to cost skilled workers at General Motors and Ford hundreds of shifts as the car giants try to reduce supply.
General Motors plans to cut production by 40,000 vehicles across Europe as a whole by the end of the year. It is closing its factories in Luton and Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, temporarily this month to try to avert flooding the market with unsold cars.
The Ellesmere Port factory, which makes Vauxhall Astra vans and Vauxhall Astra five-door cars, is halting production for 14 days to cut the number of cars it makes by 9,000. It normally makes about 120,000 vehicles a year, about 46 per cent of which are exported to Spain, Italy and Germany.
The company, which has its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, will also close its Luton plant for ten days this month, making 4,000 fewer vehicles. It normally makes 90,000 a year. That factory, which makes the mid-sized Vivaro van, exports about 62 per cent of its cars to the Continent.
Such a program will make it technologically easier for far greater penetrations of windpower in the grid, though i don't know the details (or have a cite.) If i got it right, a Danish utility, DONG, together with IBM and Siemens are developing the program.
There is a future for automakers, but it ain't just the old assembly line. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
A US judge has ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslim detainees from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in what has been seen as a rebuke to the Bush administration. US district judge Ricardo Urbina said there was no evidence the men were a security risk and that the US constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause. Local Uighur residents and human rights activists cheered as he told a Washington courtroom the men, who have been in custody for almost seven years, should be freed. The ruling is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the facility opened in 2002.
A US judge has ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslim detainees from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in what has been seen as a rebuke to the Bush administration.
US district judge Ricardo Urbina said there was no evidence the men were a security risk and that the US constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause.
Local Uighur residents and human rights activists cheered as he told a Washington courtroom the men, who have been in custody for almost seven years, should be freed.
The ruling is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the facility opened in 2002.
Germany has moved a step closer to ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, which would reshape the European Union, with German President Horst Koehler saying through a spokesman Wednesday he has approved the document. Berlin and other major EU members have pushed ahead with their own ratification work, despite the treaty's ratification being stalled by Ireland, where a referendum last summer rejected it. Ireland's rejection of the treaty, which is designed to make the EU more efficient and comprehensible to voters, meant the treaty could not come into effect, even though the parliaments in 18 member states had already voted to ratify it. The Irish result sparked debate across Europe on how the 27-member bloc would proceed, with European heavyweights such as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy urging the remaining member states who had not yet ratified it to do so.
Berlin and other major EU members have pushed ahead with their own ratification work, despite the treaty's ratification being stalled by Ireland, where a referendum last summer rejected it.
Ireland's rejection of the treaty, which is designed to make the EU more efficient and comprehensible to voters, meant the treaty could not come into effect, even though the parliaments in 18 member states had already voted to ratify it.
The Irish result sparked debate across Europe on how the 27-member bloc would proceed, with European heavyweights such as Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy urging the remaining member states who had not yet ratified it to do so.
BERLIN: The investigation into the suspicious death of a whistle-blower in Albania appears to be nearing its conclusion, but with little hope of quelling the doubts and speculation surrounding the case. Kosta Trebicka uncovered evidence of public corruption in the export of ammunition from the Communist era. His accusations were followed by arrests in Albania and charges against the employees of an arms-dealing company in the United States, but only after the deadly explosion at a munitions facility in the town of Gerdec that claimed the lives of 26 people, including small children. Trebicka, 48, a witness in the ensuing investigation, was found dead last month near his car on a rural roadside in the province of Korce. The inquiry into his death has been anything but routine, causing thousands to rally in the streets as part of an opposition-party demonstration for a fair investigation and turning a car-accident expert from the Virginia State Police, Kevin Teter, into a household name in Albania.
BERLIN: The investigation into the suspicious death of a whistle-blower in Albania appears to be nearing its conclusion, but with little hope of quelling the doubts and speculation surrounding the case.
Kosta Trebicka uncovered evidence of public corruption in the export of ammunition from the Communist era. His accusations were followed by arrests in Albania and charges against the employees of an arms-dealing company in the United States, but only after the deadly explosion at a munitions facility in the town of Gerdec that claimed the lives of 26 people, including small children.
Trebicka, 48, a witness in the ensuing investigation, was found dead last month near his car on a rural roadside in the province of Korce. The inquiry into his death has been anything but routine, causing thousands to rally in the streets as part of an opposition-party demonstration for a fair investigation and turning a car-accident expert from the Virginia State Police, Kevin Teter, into a household name in Albania.
ROME: Italy is greatly overshooting fishing quotas for bluefin tuna, flouting international agreements and further threatening the endangered species, the World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday. A report commissioned by WWF says Italian fishermen overran their quota in 2008 and 2007, are using a banned method to track tuna, and are underreporting the size of their fleets. The Agriculture Ministry, which is responsible for fisheries, said Italy respects the rules designed to protect the overfished species and insisted the country had not met its quota this year. But Rome has been feuding with the European Union since June, when Brussels shut down the fishing season two weeks early because by its own count the year's quotas had been met. Bluefin tuna is under particular strain in the Mediterranean, where it is hunted for its fatty meat, which fetches top prices on the Japanese market as an ingredient for sushi and sashimi.
ROME: Italy is greatly overshooting fishing quotas for bluefin tuna, flouting international agreements and further threatening the endangered species, the World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday.
A report commissioned by WWF says Italian fishermen overran their quota in 2008 and 2007, are using a banned method to track tuna, and are underreporting the size of their fleets.
The Agriculture Ministry, which is responsible for fisheries, said Italy respects the rules designed to protect the overfished species and insisted the country had not met its quota this year. But Rome has been feuding with the European Union since June, when Brussels shut down the fishing season two weeks early because by its own count the year's quotas had been met.
Bluefin tuna is under particular strain in the Mediterranean, where it is hunted for its fatty meat, which fetches top prices on the Japanese market as an ingredient for sushi and sashimi.
KIEV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved Parliament Wednesday and called a snap election, dashing hopes for the revival of a pro-Western coalition and throwing this politically volatile ex-Soviet nation into further turmoil. The vote will be the third parliamentary election in less than three years and deal a severe blow to an economy already battered by the global financial crisis. The date of the election has not yet been announced. Speaking in a televised address to the nation aired late Wednesday, Yushchenko accused his Orange Revolution partner Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of ignoring national interests for the sake of acquiring power. "I am deeply convinced that the democratic coalition was ruined by one thing -- the ambition of one person, the hunger for power ... and the dominance of personal interests over national ones," Yushchenko said.
KIEV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved Parliament Wednesday and called a snap election, dashing hopes for the revival of a pro-Western coalition and throwing this politically volatile ex-Soviet nation into further turmoil.
The vote will be the third parliamentary election in less than three years and deal a severe blow to an economy already battered by the global financial crisis. The date of the election has not yet been announced.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation aired late Wednesday, Yushchenko accused his Orange Revolution partner Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of ignoring national interests for the sake of acquiring power.
"I am deeply convinced that the democratic coalition was ruined by one thing -- the ambition of one person, the hunger for power ... and the dominance of personal interests over national ones," Yushchenko said.
The European Union and Russia formally got their relations back on track Wednesday when French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, met for talks on a common future. At an international conference in the south-eastern French resort of Evian, Sarkozy called for a total reconstruction of the European security structure. Sarkozy also proposed a summit meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to be held at the end of 2009 "to discuss (Russian) proposals and those of the European Union for new concepts of a pan-European defence." For his part, Medvedev urged the convening of a "special forum" at which "the leaders of all European states and the leaders of key organisations in the Euro-Atlantic area could take part."
At an international conference in the south-eastern French resort of Evian, Sarkozy called for a total reconstruction of the European security structure.
Sarkozy also proposed a summit meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to be held at the end of 2009 "to discuss (Russian) proposals and those of the European Union for new concepts of a pan-European defence."
For his part, Medvedev urged the convening of a "special forum" at which "the leaders of all European states and the leaders of key organisations in the Euro-Atlantic area could take part."
America's self-styled role as the world's dominant power is undermining global security, the Russian President has claimed. "A desire by the United States to consolidate its global domination led to it missing a historical chance... to build a truly democratic world order," Dmitry Medvedev said of US actions since the attacks of 11 September 2001. Mr Medvedev also suggested that US economic dominance had added to turmoil on financial markets around the world. Russia's war with Georgia in August showed the security mechanism in Europe, based around Nato and the US, needed a major overhaul, he added. He proposed a new security pact to ban the use of force or the threat of its use, and would make clear that no single country, including Russia, would have a monopoly on providing security for the continent. In an unusually emotional speech, Mr Medvedev said Washington passed up a historic chance for a new partnership after the 9/11 attacks, when Moscow offered to join Washington in fighting terrorism. The invasion of Iraq and Washington's plans to station elements of a missile defence shield in eastern Europe scotched that partnership.
America's self-styled role as the world's dominant power is undermining global security, the Russian President has claimed.
"A desire by the United States to consolidate its global domination led to it missing a historical chance... to build a truly democratic world order," Dmitry Medvedev said of US actions since the attacks of 11 September 2001.
Mr Medvedev also suggested that US economic dominance had added to turmoil on financial markets around the world. Russia's war with Georgia in August showed the security mechanism in Europe, based around Nato and the US, needed a major overhaul, he added. He proposed a new security pact to ban the use of force or the threat of its use, and would make clear that no single country, including Russia, would have a monopoly on providing security for the continent.
In an unusually emotional speech, Mr Medvedev said Washington passed up a historic chance for a new partnership after the 9/11 attacks, when Moscow offered to join Washington in fighting terrorism. The invasion of Iraq and Washington's plans to station elements of a missile defence shield in eastern Europe scotched that partnership.
Do not let Russia `Finlandise' western Europe When I first published The New Cold War last February, many contested my title. But what once seemed eccentric now looks mainstream. Relations between the west and Russia have entered a period of extraordinary mistrust and mutual disdain. Indeed, after the conflict in Georgia, the description "cold war" risks looking like an understatement. Russia has shown that it is prepared to use military force against another country; the west has shown that it will not fight and will merely respond with a token protest. Some in the European Union, such as Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, may see the Kremlin-dictated truce that stopped the fighting (though not the ethnic cleansing, which continues apace) as a triumph. From Russia's point of view, the lesson of the Georgian adventure is simple: we got away with it.
When I first published The New Cold War last February, many contested my title. But what once seemed eccentric now looks mainstream. Relations between the west and Russia have entered a period of extraordinary mistrust and mutual disdain. Indeed, after the conflict in Georgia, the description "cold war" risks looking like an understatement. Russia has shown that it is prepared to use military force against another country; the west has shown that it will not fight and will merely respond with a token protest. Some in the European Union, such as Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, may see the Kremlin-dictated truce that stopped the fighting (though not the ethnic cleansing, which continues apace) as a triumph. From Russia's point of view, the lesson of the Georgian adventure is simple: we got away with it.
Interestingly enough, his conclusions make sense (if you just ignore that he only wants to apply them to Russian bankers...
The same goes for bankers. If they conceal the beneficial ownership of these phoney companies they are an accomplice to theft. Perhaps one of the benefits of the credit crunch will be a more sceptical response to financiers who maintain that their critics are Luddites. The west has done well to impede the crudest kind of money-laundering. It is no longer possible to turn up at an Austrian bank with a suitcase full of cash, open an account, and make some transfers. We should apply the same principle to asset-laundering: using western capital markets to sell shares and bonds in phoney companies. (...) We need to hurry. It will not be too long before financial centres such as Dubai, Shanghai and Mumbai are competing so effectively with London that clients that we find too dodgy will go elsewhere. What our financial centres sell, above all, is respectability. We have priced it too cheaply in the past few years. It is time to be choosier, while we still have some left in stock.
(...)
We need to hurry. It will not be too long before financial centres such as Dubai, Shanghai and Mumbai are competing so effectively with London that clients that we find too dodgy will go elsewhere. What our financial centres sell, above all, is respectability. We have priced it too cheaply in the past few years. It is time to be choosier, while we still have some left in stock.
It will not be too long before financial centres such as Dubai, Shanghai and Mumbai are competing so effectively with London that clients that we find too dodgy will go elsewhere. What our financial centres sell, above all, is respectability.
Interesting. I heard that London's costs were higher than NYC's because our reputation for dealing in dodgy money and stock made the back office securities and insurance rates more expensive. So people preferred to trade in NYC if they had clean stuff cos it was cheaper, but traded in London if it was a bit "spotty".
So Dubain etc will be expensive if they trade in bad stuff.
Leastways that's what I understood. keep to the Fen Causeway
