UNICEF Innocenti's Report Card 17 explores how 43 OECD/EU countries are faring in providing healthy environments for children. Beyond children’s immediate environments, over-consumption in some of the world’s richest countries is destroying children’s environments globally. This threatens both children worldwide and future generations. To provide all children with safe and …
This IEA Bioenergy report provides an overview of the current status of biomass cofiring. The report shows that the firing and co-firing of biomass as a replacement for coal in large pulverised coal boilers can be a very attractive option for the utilisation of biomass materials for power production, and …
Algeria and Belgium has signed on Monday in Algiers two agreements on the integrated management of wastes in three provinces of the country and on the training of executives for a better protection of the environment. The agreements were signed by General Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources and Environment, …
BRUSSELS – Belgian power utility Electrabel restarted an aging nuclear reactor Tuesday after a near two-year shutdown, angering neighboring Germany, which fears the danger of a Fukushima-style meltdown. Electrabel said it put the Tihange 2 reactor back on line “in complete safety,” despite opposition from officials in adjacent North Rhine-Westphalia, …
The union cabinet on Thursday approved an agreement between India and Belgium on new and renewable energy at the federal and regional level. "The objective of this Memorandum of Understanding is to establish the basis for a cooperative institutional relationship to encourage and promote technical bilateral cooperation on new and …
hagas disease is a parasitic infection due to Trypanosoma cruzi that is endemic in Latin America, where Triatominae vectors are present. The parasite, multiplying inside various cell types, disseminates into its vertebrate host as blood trypomastigotes, and can be transmitted through blood transfusion as well as by organ transplantation or …
Wind turbines are under construction everywhere. In the coming months they will be unmissable along Flemish roads, as an unprecedented building boom breaks out, a survey by De Standaard and green power companies reveals. The result of the boom has been a sharp increase in wind power capacity in Flanders. …
Prevalence of walking and cycling for transport is low, varying greatly across countries. Few studies have examined neighborhood perceptions related to walking and cycling for transport in different countries. Therefore it is challenging to prioritize appropriate built environment interventions. The aim of this study was to examine the strength and …
EU regulators are referring Belgium and Bulgaria to the bloc's top court over the quality of their air, which poses a major risk to health, the European Commission said on Thursday. It has also issued a final warning to Sweden that it needs to take action. Commission data shows about …
European countries must not allow industry experts in their national delegations to lobby for weaker coal standards, the European commission’s top environment official has said. The move follows revelations by the Guardian that big energy lobbyists included in British delegations to Brussels mounted a sustained and aggressive drive for weaker …
German insurers are likely to face damage claims of around 750 million euros ($808 million) from windstorm "Niklas", which struck the country on March 31, insurance trade body GDV said on Monday. That would make Niklas, which entailed wind speeds of up to 192 kilometers (119 miles) per hour, one …
Developmental processes in the placenta and the fetal brain are shaped by the same biological signals. Recent evidence suggests that adaptive responses of the placenta to the maternal environment may influence central nervous system development. The researchers studied the association between in utero exposure to fine particle air pollution with …
Lead concentrations and isotope ratios from two speleothems from the Han-sur-Lesse cave in southern Belgium were measured in order to study the ability of speleothems to act as archives of atmospheric pollution. To address this aim we analyzed trace elemental Al and Pb compositions by LA-ICP-MS and ICP-MS as well …
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has announced the launch of the Offshore Wind Policy and Market Assessment Outlook. This report is a crucial link to facilitating the development of a roadmap for offshore wind power in India. The report was developed as a part of the FOWIND (Facilitating Offshore …
PARIS/MONTREAL – The year 2014 broke a series of heat records in France, Britain, Germany and Belgium, weather agencies reported Monday. In France, “2014 was the hottest year since 1900,” the Meteo-France weather agency said in a statement. The country’s average annual temperature in 2014 was 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 …
The amount of energy that big screen TVs can use will be capped under an EU energy efficiency drive which the European commission expects will cut consumers' energy bills by around €8bn a year. After similar energy-saving rules for vacuum cleaners provoked a storm of criticism from UK newspapers last …
Smoking reduction remains a pivotal issue in public health policy, but quit rates obtained with traditional quit-smoking therapies remain disappointingly low. Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR), aiming at less harmful ways of consuming nicotine, may provide a more effective alternative. One promising candidate for THR are electronic cigarettes (e-cigs). The aim …
Two Belgian nuclear reactors owned by GDF-Suez unit Electrabel may remain offline until spring and may need to be halted permanently, Belgian state broadcaster VRT reported on Tuesday. The Belgian nuclear regulator ordered production to be stopped at the 1,008 megawatt Tihange 2 reactor and the 1,006 megawatt Doel 3 …
Bathers in search of Europe’s cleanest waters for a swim may want to consider landlocked Luxembourg, sandwiched between Belgium, Germany and France. The grand duchy’s 11 bathing sites, which include rivers and lakes as well as beaches, have all been deemed to have “excellent” water quality in 2013, making the …
Environmental health effects vary considerably with regard to their severity, type of disease, and duration. Integrated measures of population health, such as environmental burden of disease (EBD), are useful for setting priorities in environmental health policies and research. This review is a summary of the full Environmental Burden of Disease …
For two years running, Brussels has been named the most congested city in North America and western Europe, a mark of shame for the capital that guides Europe's environment and transport policies. The disgrace has, however, had the effect of uniting Belgium's environmentalist Green Party, center-right rivals N-VA and business …
