UK news archive

23.08.2004 The Marine Conservation Society has launched the www.fishonline.org website to inform consumers how to select the most environmentally sustainable types and sources of seafood. Building on their Good Fish Guide, the marine environmental charity aims to promote fish from healthy, sustainable stocks caught using methods which minimise bycatch and habitat damage.

20.08.2004 European winters will disappear by 2080 and extreme weather will become more common unless global warming across the continent is slowed, warns a major new study from the European Environment Agency, as NewScientist.com reports. Europe is warming more quickly than the rest of the world, with potentially devastating consequences, including more frequent heatwaves, flooding, rising sea levels and melting glaciers, says the document.

19.08.2004 Campaign groups that successfully fought a second Forth road bridge proposal 10 years ago have reformed to fight plans for a new crossing. Groups include the Cockburn Association, Friends of the Earth Scotland and TRANSform Scotland. The reassembled ForthRight Alliance proposes that the Forth Estuary Transport Authority should pursue sustainable transport alternatives instead of an additional road crossing.

18.08.2004 Environmental campaigners have issued a weather warning as heavy rain caused flooding in southwest England and thundery rain threatened the rest of the country. This summer's unpredictable conditions could be a warning of things to come as the UK's climate becomes more unstable as a result of climate change, the environmentalists said.

17.08.2004 Human-made flame-retardant chemicals are contaminating our food supply, according to a recent study. The study looked at contaminant levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) in salmon. Of particular concern is the finding that Scottish farmed salmon had the second highest level in the study. The EU is currently considering introducing a new law to bring tighter regulation of such chemicals.

16.08.2004 The UK government has criticised the World Bank for not going far enough to implement recommendations of a review of its lending for oil, mining and gas projects. The World Bank Group is partially financed by UK taxpayers, and campaigners are pushing the government - a major shareholder in the Bank - to ensure full implementation of the review.

13.08.2004 Peter Mandelson has been named the EU’s next Trade Commissioner, giving him the perfect opportunity to live up to his past support to the Trade Justice campaign. Campaigners want him to use his position in Brussels to push for changes in the EU’s trade policy by cutting damaging farm subsidies and opening Europe's market to poor countries.

13.08.2004 Greenpeace took action yesterday to defend the proposed Dogger Bank marine reserve from destructive fishing. Activists dropped buoys to prevent a Dutch beam trawler from setting its nets, having called on the trawler's captain to leave the area. Campaigners want the responsible governments to agree a number of North Sea marine reserves before the sea’s ecosystem is “damaged beyond repair”.

12.08.2004 The government is failing to tackle the growing threat of climate change, a new report from the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs reveals. The report says the government needs a more imaginative and radical strategy for tackling transport emissions and domestic energy efficiency, including increasing fuel duty, and the Treasury must take a lead on investment in alternative fuels.

12.08.2004 The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeals of 10 foreign nationals interned without charge or trial under anti-terrorism legislation, including their appeal against the ruling that torture "evidence" is admissible if obtained at the hands of agents of states other than the UK. Campaigners have said they are appalled by the outcome.

11.08.2004 New research shows the UK power sector could do nine times more to reduce its CO2 emissions, thereby significantly reducing the UK's contribution to climate change. Campaigners are criticising the government for bowing to pressure from the power sector rather than getting tough and forcing the industry to slash its emissions at a relatively low cost.

10.08.2004 Doctors in the UK are rebelling over plans that would lead to thousands of refugees being refused life-saving treatment for HIV on the National Health Service. Specialists on a key health committee have refused to help draw up rules that would determine whether asylum seekers or other immigrants with the virus get antiretroviral drugs.

10.08.2004 Public confidence in charities has soared since the mid-1990s, a survey by thinktank nfpSynergy has shown. Based on a poll of 1,000 adults, the research shows that 58 per cent of the public have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in charities, a rise of 25 percent since 1996.

09.08.2004 In an authoritative legal opinion, Rabinder Singh QC and Professor Christine Chinkin have concluded that the renewal of the US/UK Mutual Defence Agreement - key to the UK's nuclear subservience to the US - is in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The agreement is up for renewal this year.

09.08.2004 If everyone in the world lived the lifestyle typical of people in the south-east of England, we would need three and a half planets to provide us with food, energy and resources (see Taking Stock). But the south-east's new regional framework will lead the way in tackling over-consumption and cutting pollution. Campaigners have welcomed the new framework.

06.08.2004 The UK government must tighten up proposed regulations for business, campaign groups and charities said today, as the consultation period closes on controversial draft regulations for business. In a written submission, members of the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) called on the government to require company directors to publish details of their social and environmental impacts, as well as financial performance.

05.08.2004 With the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) this week announcing a 12.5 percent profits rise to £3.85 billion, campaigners have challenged the bank on its ethical investment policies following its continued financing of BP's controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline [OWUK world news 28.7.04].

04.08.2004 Thirteen children from southern Belarus have spent time at the Centre for Alternative Technology as part of a four-week trip to Wales. The children come from a town only 40km from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, site of the 1987 disaster, and are exposed daily to background radiation in water, food and air. Their stay in Wales will reduce radiation levels in their bodies, helping them resist diseases such as leukaemias, cancers and heart defects.

04.08.2004 Campaigners are welcoming government plans to get more organic food into schools and hospitals and to encourage local organic food sales. In a bullish review of the UK organics market, which is expected to grow at around 9% in the next few years, the government has announced that three-quarters of UK households buy some organic food.

03.08.2004 Amnesty International has announced receipt of a donation of £1m from Dame Anita Roddick and Gordon Roddick for the organisation’s new human rights action centre. The centre, in New Inn Yard, Shoreditch, London EC2, will open in spring/summer 2005, providing facilities to develop campaigns and support activists across the country.