Russia handed official ratification papers to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Nairobi on Thursday.

Russia’s accession gives Kyoto support from countries that emit at least 55% of the world’s greenhouse gases.

The protocol commits 55 industrialised nations to making significant cuts in the emission of gases such as carbon dioxide by the year 2012.

Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Andrei Denisov, handed Russia’s accession papers to Mr Annan in Nairobi, where the Security Council is holding a special session.

Mr Annan described Russia’s accession to the Kyoto Protocol as a "historic step forward in the world’s efforts to combat a truly global threat".

The formal ratification of the protocol ended years of uncertainty over the future of the agreement, Mr Annan added.

<b>International disagreement</b>

The US, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, withdrew from the protocol in 2001, saying it would gravely damage the US economy.

The Bush administration also criticised the protocol for not forcing developing nations including India and China to cut emissions immediately.

Australia, which has a large coal industry, has also refused to ratify Kyoto.

The protocol was first agreed in 1997, but required the agreement of countries responsible for at least 55% of global emissions measured in 1990.

After the US pulled out, the protocol could not be ratified without Russia, responsible for 17% of emissions.

Industrialised countries will have until 2012 to cut their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases to 5.2% below the 1990 level.

But some experts have claimed that a drastic cut of around 60% is needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

Alaturi de Stanca mai sint cercetati, in acelasi dosar, fostul director general Mircea Dobre
si fostul director de productie Ionel Lazar, au precizat sursele citate. Potrivit acelorasi
surse, in acest dosar va fi audiat si omul de afaceri Frank Timis, presedintele executiv al
societatii mixte Rosia Montana-Gold Corporation SA, rezultata in urma contractului dintre cele
doua societati. Statul roman – reprezentat prin Minvest Deva – s-a asociat cu compania
canadiana Gabriel Resources in urma cu cinci ani si a format societatea mixta Rosia
Montana-Gold Corporation SA (RMGC), care are ca scop exploatarea rezervelor de aur si argint
din zona Rosia Montana in Muntii Apuseni.

Actionar majoritar este Gabriel Resources, care detine 80% din capital, in timp ce
participatia Minvest Deva este de 19% din actiuni. Gabriel Resources a concesionat, in 1997,
terenul pe care urmeaza sa amplaseze viitoarea exploatare contra sumei de trei milioane de
dolari.

Echipa formata din 33 de persoane a urcat pana la altitudinea de opt mii de metri pentru a curata cel mai inalt varf muntos din lume. S-au strans 400 de saci cu sticle de plastic goale, rezervoare de oxigen folosite, corturi si chiar mucuri de tigari.

It says the EU should manage emission cuts slightly larger than those which the Kyoto Protocol requires it to make.

This depends on states living up to all their promises, and on some countries making bigger cuts than they agreed.

Even so, the EEA says, some individual countries will still overshoot their Kyoto targets, some by a large amount.

Stiff requirement

It says the EU will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by slightly more than required under the Kyoto Protocol, the global climate change treaty, on one condition.

This is that member states implement all the policies, measures and third-country projects they are planning, and that several cut emissions by more than they have to.

The EEA’s latest projections show the 15 pre-2004 EU members (the EU-15) should cut their total emissions to 7.7% below 1990 levels by 2010.

The projections are on the basis of existing domestic policies and measures already being implemented, and additional policies and measures currently planned.

Country targets slipping

<img src="%%dir[1]%%_40649993_cloud_ap_203.jpg" border="0" alt="image" name="image" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="left" width="203" height="152" /> The agency says plans by six EU-15 states to use credits from emissions-saving projects in third countries through the Kyoto Protocol’s "flexible mechanisms" would contribute a further reduction of around 1.1%, taking the total to 8.8%.

The flexible mechanisms allow the industrialised countries required by Kyoto to cut their emissions to offset against their totals the savings they help developing countries to make.

This extra reduction is more than the 8% decrease from 1990 levels that the EU-15 are committed to achieving by 2008-2012 under the protocol.

But each EU-15 country also has an agreed, legally binding target for limiting or cutting its own emissions to ensure the overall 8% reduction is met.

The EEA’s projections show that at present Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Spain are on course for above-target emissions, some by a wide margin, even with use of the Kyoto mechanisms and additional mea?ures planned.

Portugal is projected to be emitting 53.1% more by 2010 than it did in 1990, and Spain 48.3% more. Greece (38.6%) and Ireland (29.4%) are not far behind.

Germany is in danger of slightly exceeding its emission limit on the basis of existing policies and measures.

Failure possible

The agency says: "This means the EU-15 may reach its 8% reduction target only if the projected failure of these member states to respect their targets is compensated by others making bigger emission cuts than required.

"This ‘over-delivery’ cannot be taken for granted. Without it, the EU-15 would achieve a total reduction, including use of the Kyoto mechanisms, of only 6.5%."

It says the EU’s emissions trading scheme, starting on 1 January 2005, should help the bloc to achieve greater reductions.

Plans by nine member states to store carbon in deep underground or undersea caverns could make further reductions possible.

By 2002, the latest year for which data are available, the EU-15 had cut their overall emissions of the six gases specified in the protocol by just 2.9% below 1990 levels.

The latest projections are published in the EEA report Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends And Projections In Europe 2004.

Datorita ploilor abundente un produs petrolier dintr-un separator al rafinariei Rompetrol Vega s-a deversat in rau. A fost construit un baraj astfel incat apa potabila nu a fost afectata. Rafinaria a fost amendata cu 225 de milioane de lei pentru neglijenta.

De patru ori mai mult decat norma permisa, informeaza Ministerul Mediului. in urma controlului efectuat, s-a constatat ca sursa de poluare este societatea "Romplumb".

WWF, Greenpeace, and the Forests and the European Union Resource Network (FERN) drew up the model legislation as a response to the European Commission?s Action Plan to combat illegal logging and its related trade (FLEGT), whose first package of measures will be discussed by EU Agriculture Ministers on 21 December 2004.

?Our draft Regulation is intended to press the EU to take swift action to stop the ongoing tragedy of forest destruction, which lays waste to vast areas of forest and destroys the livelihoods of millions who depend on them. The EU is clearly implicated in the trade,? said S?bastien Risso of Greenpeace.

The NGO-drafted Regulation recognizes illegal logging and its related trade as an environmental crime, and allows for sanctions in the event of abuse of documents certifying the wood?s legality (eg, no import notification, false declaration, forged documents). It also proposes that sustainability criteria be developed in cooperation with timber-producing countries and progressively integrated into laws to reassure the consumer that timber is both legal and from a sustainably managed forest.

This builds on the Commission?s current proposal, presented in July 2004, which aims to implement a credible chain of custody to ensure the legality of timber imports from those countries that choose to sign partnership agreements with the EU. The European Commission and European Parliament have each recognized that illegal timber imports from countries without partnership agreements will remain a problem, as will crimes associated with the trade, but these concerns have not been addressed to date.

?The timber industry faces an uncertain ?uture if it fails to address the problem of illegal logging and unsustainable wood imports," said Beatrix Richards, WWF’s Forest Policy Officer for Europe. "Europe needs to remove this wood from the market to ensure a level playing field for legal traders and the survival of the world?s forests.?

The statement signed by NGOs calls for civil society to be fully involved in the development of partnership agreements to propose solutions and to promote responsible forest management. It also requests measures in the areas of customs cooperation, investment, and public-purchasing policies.

WWF, Greenpeace, and FERN emphasize that in addition to their draft regulation, the EU will need to deal with the crimes associated with the illegal timber trade, such as bribery and money-laundering.

Notes:

? More than 1.2 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods, according to the World Bank?s Sustaining Forests report

? 50 per cent of tropical timber imports into the EU are estimated to come from illegal sources (European League Table of Imports of Illegal Timber, Friends of the Earth), and up to 25 per cent of imports from north-west Russia (Illegal logging in north- western Russia and export of Russian forest products to Sweden, WWF, April 2003).

? The European Commission acknowledged in its Action Plan that for a variety of reasons, some important wood-producing countries may choose not to enter into FLEGT partnership agreements with the EU, despite the advantages outlined.

Conform studiului – elaborat de Fundatia RAC din Londra – unele mirosuri "mai grele", cum ar fi cele de mancare, cresc riscul producerii accidentelor, in timp ce alte arome, precum cea de menta, imbunatatesc concentrarea. "Mai mult decat orice alt simt, simtul olfactiv se afla in stransa legatura cu partea logica a creierului. De aceea, parfumul poate transforma barbatii in niste idioti repeziti si tot din acelasi motiv mirosul unei paini calde poate distruge cele mai bune intentii ale unui om care tine regim", a declarat unul din autorii studiului, psihologul Conrad King. Potrivit specialistului, cele mai bune miresme pentru interiorul unei masini sunt cele de menta, scortisoara, lamaie si cafea. De asemenea, briza marii are un efect pozitiv asupra soferilor, ajutandu-i sa scape de stres. De partea cealalta, mirosul invelisurilor de fast-food sau cel al unei paini calde il poate irita pe sofer, care va avea tendinta de a mari viteza, intrucat acesta se va simti infometat si se va grabi sa-si satisfaca apetitul. Printre mirosurile periculoase se mai numara cele de musetel, iasomie si levantica, intrucat acestea il pot suprarelaxa pe sofer, care poate adormi la volan. Aceste plante sunt folosite in general pentru tratarea insomniei. in acelasi timp, studiile efectuate pe astronauti au scos la iveala faptul ca un mediu in care mirosul lipseste cu desavarsire creeaza iritabilitate si chiar halucinatii olfactive. Conform oamenilor de stiinta, in viitor, masinile ar putea fi dotate din fabricatie cu sisteme care sa detecteze starea psihica a soferului si sa actioneze in conformitate schimband pozitia scaunului, a intensitatii luminii si chiar mirosul din masina pentru a-i crea acestuia o stare de bine.

De obicei, oficialul european care intocmeste un astfel de document se multumeste sa faca recomandari. Platvoet foloseste insa, in raportul sau, un verb mult mai dur in contextul limbajului diplomatic: Ucraina este somata sa inceteze lucrarile la Canalul Bistroe. In plus, raportul dezminte fatis afirmatiile autoritatilor ucrainene, care au sustinut sus si tare ca acest canal nu va afecta ecosistemul Deltei. Platvoet isi exprima neincrederea fata de studiile stiintifice elaborate de partea ucraineana si cere o evaluare a impactului ecologic al canalului, efectuata in prezenta si cu aportul unui grup cu o componenta internationala. Ucrainei i se reaminteste si ca prin constructia Bistroe incalca sapte tratate internationale.

[b]Lucrari oprite din lipsa de bani[/b]
Potrivit afirmatiei lui Paul Conunov, guvernatorul Rezervatiei Biosfera Delta Dunarii, lucrarile la Bistroe s-ar fi oprit pentru ca ucrainenii nu ar fi platit suma ceruta de constructor. In momentul de fata, canalul abandonat se colmateaza. Mai mult, se pare ca beneficiile economice estimate de ucraineni nu justifica efortul financiar pe care l-au facut cu aceasta investitie. Raportul prezentat de oficialul european e rezultatul unor deplasari efectuate in Romania si in Ucraina. Anul trecut, ecologistul olandez s-a intilnit la Tulcea cu reprezentantii societatii civile, in speta cu Liviu Mihaiu si Dragos Bucurenci, de la Asociatia "Salvati Dunarea si Delta – Academia Catavencu".

Ivan Zavadsky, the head of a U.N. project aiming to clean the river, said that EU subsidies to Eastern European economies could lead to intensified farming, putting the river’s wildlife at risk.

"At the moment we have the first signs of recovery of the ecosystems but the trend and the processes are not irreversible yet. It’s still a very fragile equilibrium," Zavadasky said in an interview earlier this week.

Fertilizers used by farmers leak into the Danube, boosting the growth of alg?e that reduce the amount of oxygen available to other organisms, he said.

The United Nations Development Program in 2001 launched the Danube Regional Project to help countries along the river protect its water and that of the Black Sea. The project, set to end in 2006, has reached it’s halfway point, and so far, experts have helped the 13 Danube countries develop policies and legal tools to protect the river, Zavadsky said.

The project also aims to educate the 80 million residents in the Danube River basin _ an area that stretches from Germany in the west to the Black Sea in the east, and from Poland in the north to Albania in the south _ about how their actions affect the Danube and the Black Sea.

"The fisherman in the Danube Delta is very sensitive; there is no other job for him other than to be a fisherman. If the pollution is reaching his point, and the diversity of the fish stock in the Danube Delta is shrinking, then he’s out of business," Zavadasky said.

Project officials aim to reduce the level of nutrients in the river to the level that was measured in the early 1960s, a time when scientists say wildlife in the Black Sea appeared to be doing fine, Zavadsky said.

Zavadsky’s office will now finance dozens of smaller, non-governmental organization projects ranging from ecological education in primary schools in Bosnia to promotion of organic farming in Moldova and Serbia-Montenegro. Successful projects will be replicated elsewhere.

"The solution is … not repeat the mistakes that Western Europe did in the 1970s," Zavadsky said. "The solution is to use appropriate agriculture practices, to focus on more environmentally sound agriculture practices."