While on the face of it, China, a rapidly developing but still relatively poor country, appears to trump by a considerable margin the offer of the US, a fully industrialised nation, details in the Chinese target give pause for thought. Washington has proposed its reduction based on its absolute level of emissions, while Beijing's target is a reduction of 40-45 percent "per unit of GDP." The reduction therefore depends on by how much the Chinese economy grows. Assuming an eight percent growth rate, China's average economic expansion in recent years, this will mean an increase in absolute emissions and not a reduction.
While on the face of it, China, a rapidly developing but still relatively poor country, appears to trump by a considerable margin the offer of the US, a fully industrialised nation, details in the Chinese target give pause for thought.
Washington has proposed its reduction based on its absolute level of emissions, while Beijing's target is a reduction of 40-45 percent "per unit of GDP."
The reduction therefore depends on by how much the Chinese economy grows. Assuming an eight percent growth rate, China's average economic expansion in recent years, this will mean an increase in absolute emissions and not a reduction.
Representatives from eight nations straddling the Amazon basin, plus French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on behalf of French Guiana, have met in Brazil ahead of world climate talks in Copenhagen in December to urge leaders to preserve the rainforests.
Wagons brimming with logs accumulate in the Siberian railway station of Dalnerechensk, more than 8,000km (4,971 miles) east of Moscow. They are waiting to cross the nearby Chinese border.Once in China, they will be processed and used for construction or turned into garden furniture and other products to be sold in European and US shops. More than a third of all Russian logs are smuggled by mafias, a practice that doubled between 2005 and 2007, according to official figures.
Wagons brimming with logs accumulate in the Siberian railway station of Dalnerechensk, more than 8,000km (4,971 miles) east of Moscow. They are waiting to cross the nearby Chinese border.
Once in China, they will be processed and used for construction or turned into garden furniture and other products to be sold in European and US shops.
More than a third of all Russian logs are smuggled by mafias, a practice that doubled between 2005 and 2007, according to official figures.
Last autumn, the Norwegian coast guard documented in a video the dumping of over-quota fish catches, one of the biggest and most controversial challenges of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). While discarding fish has been illegal in Iceland, Norway and the Faeroe Islands since the 1990s, boats in the European Union are obliged to discard their fish if they catch the wrong fish or if the fish do not measure up size. European Union quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that ships can bring back to port, but there is no restriction on the amount of fish they can catch. Last year, the EU estimated that between 40 and 60 percent of all fish caught by trawlers in the North Sea was discarded.
Last autumn, the Norwegian coast guard documented in a video the dumping of over-quota fish catches, one of the biggest and most controversial challenges of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
While discarding fish has been illegal in Iceland, Norway and the Faeroe Islands since the 1990s, boats in the European Union are obliged to discard their fish if they catch the wrong fish or if the fish do not measure up size.
European Union quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that ships can bring back to port, but there is no restriction on the amount of fish they can catch. Last year, the EU estimated that between 40 and 60 percent of all fish caught by trawlers in the North Sea was discarded.
AFP - Swine flu virus mutations are spreading in Europe, French health officials said Friday as the World Health Organisation reported a leap in deaths from the disease by more than 1,000 in a week. Two patients who were infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway have died in France, the government's Health Surveillance Institute (InVS) said in a statement. "This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue," said a statement from InVS. "For one of these patients, this mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to oseltamivir," it added, referring to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, under the brand name Tamiflu.
Two patients who were infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway have died in France, the government's Health Surveillance Institute (InVS) said in a statement.
"This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue," said a statement from InVS. "For one of these patients, this mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to oseltamivir," it added, referring to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, under the brand name Tamiflu.
Half of the fish eaten in Europe are dished up in restaurants, leading the food-loving nation's chefs to take a stand. Olivier Roellinger, celebrated for his fish and seaweed fare in western Brittany, took bluefin tuna - aka red tuna - off the menu five years ago. "We have a responsibility towards all those who are in charge of feeding others, cooks but also mothers and even fathers, and must show them the way," he said. "They must be made aware that the sea, this natural larder, is in danger," said Roellinger, who a year ago threw in the coveted three-star rating awarded him by the Michelin Guide, the French food bible, on grounds of fatigue. Environmentalists say that bluefin tuna faces the threat of extinction because of overfishing and want its trade banned by CITES, the UN body that rules on wildlife trade.
Olivier Roellinger, celebrated for his fish and seaweed fare in western Brittany, took bluefin tuna - aka red tuna - off the menu five years ago. "We have a responsibility towards all those who are in charge of feeding others, cooks but also mothers and even fathers, and must show them the way," he said.
"They must be made aware that the sea, this natural larder, is in danger," said Roellinger, who a year ago threw in the coveted three-star rating awarded him by the Michelin Guide, the French food bible, on grounds of fatigue.
Environmentalists say that bluefin tuna faces the threat of extinction because of overfishing and want its trade banned by CITES, the UN body that rules on wildlife trade.
