The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since …
After keeping it in the storehouse for 22 years, Pakistan's North West Frontier Province government is shipping 50 tonnes of obsolete pesticide to the United Kingdom for incineration. The countries have agreed to do so under the guardianship of the German programme, GTZ, and the Provincial Environmental Protection Agency. The …
the German government is trying to suspend commercial cultivation of genetically modified (gm) crops. It has started negotiating a temporary suspension with the country's biotech industry, which has shown readiness to co-operate. The time period would be used for extensive research into environmental consequences of growing gm crops. A deal …
in a late disclosure that triggered the wrath of environmentalists across Europe, the seed company Advanta issued a statement that farmers in Britain, France, Germany and Sweden were unwittingly growing genetically modified ( gm ) rapeseed crops. The seeds had apparently been contaminated by its gm variety in Canada from …
Wind power is constantly emerging as a preferred source of energy the world over. Fast forward by another couple of decades and wind power is predicted to meet 10 per cent of the world's electricity requirements even if consumption increases by double the current rate. Pollution free and never likely …
The recently-concluded meeting held in the German capital of Bonn has failed to address the issue of persistent organic pollutants ( pop ), deadly chemical pollutants that can enter the foodchain and play havoc with life forms. It has also failed to address the issue of setting up a mechanism …
whether it is designing a new drug or synthesising an industrial chemical, chemists are mostly trying out a hit and trial method of adding an atom here and removing it from there. This process is, obviously, very tedious as well as uncertain. After all, manipulating atoms precisely in a substance …
Employment through ecological innovation: The guidelines of this programme involves sustainability, social justice, democracy, citizen rights and equal rights for women. In the centre is a package of measures to combat mass unemployment by creating new jobs through ecological innovation over the next four years. A policy of reduced working …
the German capital of Berlin is today showing what the future of energy may look like. When the German government moved from Bonn to Berlin in 1991, it was proposed that solar power should be featured in the form of photovolataic ( pv ) facades in the governmental quarter. One …
three Dutch environmental groups will appeal against a German court's decision lifting restrictions on building a dam on the river Eems that flows near the border between the two countries. A German court in Oldenburg lifted a 1998 temporary ban imposed on plans to build a flood control dam on …
as the east coast of India was battered by the worst cyclone in years, and Cambodia and Vietnam faced the worst flooding in decades, governments from across the world were at a meeting in Bonn, carefully negotiating ways to wriggle out of commitments to control climate change. The two-way street …
George W Bush(Republican, governor of Texas ) Efforts to improve our environment must be based on sound science, not social fads. Scientific data shows average temperatures have increased slightly during this century, but both the causes and the impact of this slight warming are uncertain. Changes in the earth's atmosphere …
on the eve of the World Trade Organisation's (wto) meet in Seattle, Western environmentalists geared up to make their voices heard. They are urging the participating countries to go ahead with only those regulations that are environment-friendly. Western environmentalists believe that wto regulations do not conform to green standards and …
In a bid to cut down pollution and improve fuel consumption, Germany has urged the European Union (EU) to introduce sulphur-free diesel and petrol from 2007. Germany said measures agreed to by the EU in its 1998 "Auto-Oil' programme, which include reducing the sulphur content of vehicle fuels to 50 …
It has always been exciting to anticipate what the future scenario with regard to energy will be. There are already some indications of what is to come in the solar roofs of Japan and Germany, in the wind farms of Spain. Most importantly, it is reflected in the widely varying …
the Green Party in France has threatened to pull out of the government coalition if prime minister Lionel Jospin approved a new generation of nuclear power stations to replace the old ones. The nuclear energy issue has always been a point for debate among coalition partners. France has 57 nuclear …
despite incremental progress on a few technical issues, delegates left the bulk of the unresolved political questions open to debate at future meetings during the latest climate change meeting at Bonn, Germany. The 10th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies to the Framework Convention on Climate Change ( fccc ), held …
Scientists at the Max-Plank Institute in Mainz, Germany, have identified another culprit in ozone destruction. Removal of active nitrogen from the gas phase through aerosol-particle sedimentation (denitrification) can substantially increase ozone losses. A Waibel and his team have shown that this loss is particularly significant in the Arctic, where future …
