Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
HORIZON – Mapping where a country’s carbon stocks overlap with areas that are rich in wildlife and important for local peoples’ livelihoods is underway in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The aim is to support international efforts to conserve forests in order to combat climate change. But in a way that delivers other benefits including conservation of
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
UK PARLIAMENT – At the opening session of oral evidence for the inquiry into the Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies MPs are likely to ask questions about the impact of this change on new housebuilding; the Government’s proposals to incentivise local communities to accept new housing development; and how well local planning authorities will be able
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
DEUTSCHE WELLE – Hamburg has scooped the title European Green Capital of 2011, beating the competition by showing how a booming industrial metropolis can reconcile economic efficiency with environmental protection. It’s set itself some ambitious targets, including massively reducing carbon emissions. Read More
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
BLOOMBERG – Governments in the U.S., the U.K. and Spain could reduce their energy consumption by as much as 20 percent by encouraging investors to refit buildings to make them more efficient, said Peter Sweatman, chief executive officer of the Madrid-based consulting firm Climate Strategy SL. Officials could use investment opportunities worth as much as
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
TECHYUM – An interesting article on Strategy Page covers some of the history of the Soviet/Russian GLONASS system, designed to provide the same sort of global satellite-based navigation that GPS provides. The upshot, according to Strategy page, is that while GLONASS is partially offline, Russian sailors are using GPS — and the newest Russian military
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
ALL AFRICA – Southern African nations need to agree on a common operational system to manage energy in the region, environmental experts advise. If they don’t, the region could experience power shortages and resulting economic deficits. The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which was formed in 1995 as part of an inter-governmental agreement between the twelve mainland
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
DUTCH NEWS – The Netherlands faces a severe shortage of well-educated workers, in particular IT specialists and technicians, the Telegraaf reports on Monday, quoting a number of experts. The experts, including the personnel chiefs at IBM, Siemens and Xerox in the Netherlands, have written to the government and MPs calling for action. The shortage will
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
SWEDEN GOV -he Government yesterday adopted a new cooperation strategy for Swedish regional development cooperation in Africa for 2010-2015. Support will also be given for research cooperation. The aim of the strategy is to increase capacity and political consensus among countries and intergovernmental organisations in Africa to tackle cross-border challenges concerning stability, trade and economic
Monday, October 18th, 2010
THE NATIONAL – Wind towers, long abandoned for the pleasures of air conditioning could again become a Middle Eastern architectural fixture, says a Dubai scientist who is integrating the traditional structure with a zero-energy cooling system. Ben Hughes, a researcher at Heriot-Watt University’s Dubai campus, recently received a grant worth US$1million (Dh3.67 million) from the Qatar National
Monday, October 18th, 2010
ESA – The Gulf of Mexico oil spill couldn’t have occurred at a worse time for bluefin tuna: they had come to the area – a major spawning ground – to produce offspring. Satellites are helping assess the damage from the disaster on the fish’s spawning habitat. Read More
