div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/93814?ns=guardianpageName=EU+backing+for+bluefish+tuna+trade+ban+sparks+Japan+protests%3AArticle%3A1370786ch=World+newsc3=GU.co.ukc4=Japan+%28News%29%2CEuropean+Union+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CFishing+%28Environment%29%2CEnvironmentc6=Adam+Gabbatt+%28contributor%29c7=10-Mar-11c8=1370786c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=World+newsc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FJapan" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Governments indicate support for complete international ban to allow species to recover from years of over-fishingbr //ppJapanese tuna brokers protested today after the EU decided to support a worldwide trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna. EU governments indicated that they would back a complete international ban on the species to allow the bluefin to recover from years of over-fishing./ppThe protest came just days ahead of a meeting this weekend of Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, in Doha, which will see 175 member states vote on whether to add the fish to a list of animals threatened with extinction, banning its trade./ppRaw tuna is a key ingredient in sushi and sashimi in Japan, the world's main purchaser of bluefin. Although the ban would not prevent the fish from being caught, it would end the trade between European fishing fleets and Japan, where about 80% of captured bluefin ends up./pp"This is like telling the US to stop eating beef," said Kimio Amano, a 36-year-old broker at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo who joined about 100 other dealers – many clad in work boots and shiny waterproof overalls – to chant slogans calling for better use of the ocean's resources./ppThe brokers argue that an Atlantic ban would be unnecessary if existing tuna stocks were better managed. The Japanese tuna industry also contends that the implementation of the ban could lead to broader restrictions./pp"Our biggest hope is that this doesn't spread to the Pacific," said Tadao Ban, head of the Tokyo co-operative for large fish dealers. For this reason we are promoting strict resource management. We are even supporting putting a tag on each and every tuna caught."/ppGlobal stocks of bluefin tuna – which can reach 14ft (4.3 metres) in length and weigh more than 1,000lb (450kg) (450kg) – have been decimated over the last decade, particularly in the Atlantic./ppIt is estimated that some 1m bluefins were caught last year, while the total population is thought to be about 3.75m. The WWF says stocks of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic have dropped by 80% since 1978./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/japan"Japan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eu"European Union/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/fishing"Fishing/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/adam-gabbatt"Adam Gabbatt/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/69858?ns=guardianpageName=Industries+hoarding+greenhouse+gas+emission+permits%3AArticle%3A1370818ch=Environmentc3=Guardianc4=Emissions+trading+%28Environment%29%2CCarbon+emissions+%28Environment%29%2CEuropean+Union+%28News%29%2CPollution+%28Environment%29%2CManufacturing+sector+%28Business+sector%29%2CClimate+change+%28Environment%29%2CBusiness%2CEnvironment%2CWorld+newsc6=Juliette+Jowit%2CTim+Webbc7=10-Mar-11c8=1370818c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=Environmentc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FEmissions+trading" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut emissions without reducing pollution/ppCompanies across Europe are hoarding permits to produce greenhouse gas emissions worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal./ppThe surplus credits have been amassed from over-allocation of permits to pollute from the European emissions trading scheme, and by buying cheap credits from carbon-cutting projects in developing countries and holding on to their more expensive official EU allowances./ppThe saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming and climate change without actually reducing pollution, or sold for a profit in the future./ppCampaigners for tougher emissions reductions said the saved-up allowances discredited the argument of some industries that much deeper cuts in future would be "fatal" because they could no longer afford to compete against rivals outside the EU./ppHowever, companies involved said the banked credits would help them pay to develop new emission-cutting technology, and to meet emissions targets until that became widely available./ppIndustry also warned it faced "death by a thousand cuts" as a result of the next phase of the scheme, from 2013 and 2020, and other costly environmental legislation planned by government. Business leaders accused the government of being prepared to sacrifice industry to enable other sectors such as aviation to keep polluting and meet the UK's carbon budgets./ppOne steelmaker told the Guardian: "Officials see us as acceptable collateral in the fight against climate change. If we don't make anything in this country any more, it means people could still fly to Tenerife once a year and the UK will keep within the carbon budget."/ppHe said meeting targets would require vast amounts of steel to build windfarms, nuclear reactors and electric cars. This would have to be imported from more-polluting steelmakers outside Europe if the industry disappeared in the UK./ppThe Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the centrepiece of the EU's pledge to cut greenhouse gases, has already been criticised for giving many companies allowances to emit more emissions than they need, leaving little incentive to reduce pollution, and for lax regulation./ppThe latest concern about "banking" credits involves companies also buying cheap allowances from "offset" schemes which reduce emissions in other countries, often China and India, and using these to cover their emissions while keeping their official allowances – which are worth more because projects in other countries could in future be banned./ppAnalysis for the Guardian by campaign group Sandbag of the figures for 2008, the most recent available, looked at the extra allowances accrued by four big sectors: iron and steel, coke ovens, metal ore processing, and cement, which together have 800 installations covered by the trading scheme, and include big names like ArcelorMittal, Thyssenkrupp, Corus, Holcim and Cemex./ppSandbag calculated the four sectors received permits to emit 66m tonnes more carbon dioxide than they needed in 2008, partly because predicted growth did not happen and partly because of the recession towards the end of the year. In addition they bought cheap offsets for a further 18m tonnes plus, which would then free up more EU allowances. In total the surplus allowances would have been worth nearly €1.2bn (£1.1bn) in 2008, or just over €1.1bn at today's closing price of €12.99. Based on the forecast average price of €30 a tonne for the third phase of the ETS from 2013-2016 by analysts Point Carbon they would be worth more than double that in future./ppIf the companies stockpiled over-allocated surpluses for the whole of this phase of the ETS, from 2008-2012 they could be worth as much as €3.2bn at today's prices, said Sandbag. Any more credits released by buying offsets would be on top of that./pp"If they [companies] want cashflow, which in the current climate they may, then they'll cash in the allowances," said Bryony Worthington, Sandbag's founder and director. "But if they are thinking long-term then they'll be thinking 'I should probably hold on to them and insulate myself for the future'."/ppArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steel producer, has pledged to use profits to invest in future energy savings to reduce pollution, but there were no guarantees they or any other company would have to do this, said Worthington. "How do we police it, they could be using it for dividends or anything," she added./ppIan Rodgers, director of UK Steel, said: "The climate change agenda won't affect the amount of steel consumed, but it will determine where it's produced."/ppAccording to industry estimates, the third phase could cost heavy industry – including steelmakers such as Corus, the chemicals industry and the ceramics industry – €1bn a year./ppSandbag will tomorrow publish in-depth analysis for 2008, including the biggest buyers of offsets from developing countries, and a map linking every offset scheme with their European customers./pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/emissionstrading"Emissions trading/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/carbon-emissions"Carbon emissions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eu"European Union/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/pollution"Pollution/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/manufacturing-sector"Manufacturing sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-change"Climate change/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/juliettejowit"Juliette Jowit/a/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/timwebb"Tim Webb/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

div class="track"img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.20.3/6724?ns=guardianpageName=One+very+bad+egg%3A+fraudster+who+conned+supermarkets+with+free+range+scam%3AArticle%3A1370815ch=UK+newsc3=Guardianc4=Crime+-+UK+%28News%29%2CConsumer+affairs+%28Money%29%2CSupermarkets+%28business%29%2CFood+and+drink+industry+%28Business+sector%29%2COrganics+%28Environment%29%2CFood+%28Environment%29%2CMoney%2CUK+news%2CEnvironment%2CBusinessc6=Helen+Piddc7=10-Mar-11c8=1370815c9=Articlec10=Newsc11=UK+newsc13=c25=c30=contenth2=GU%2FUK+news%2FCrime" width="1" height="1" //divp class="standfirst"Sainsbury's and Tesco among stores caught out by wholesaler who passed off battery produce as organic/ppFor those who made the conscious decision to spend more on free range or organic eggs, it was worth paying a premium to know the hens that laid them had been kept in ethical conditions./ppBut those people who ended up paying over the odds for Keith Owen's eggs may feel a little less warm inside after it emerged the 44-year-old egg wholesaler had scammed all the major supermarkets and numerous small shops by passing off about 100m battery farmed eggs as free range or organic./ppOwen, a married father-of-two from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, was jailed for three years today and forced to surrender the £3m profit he had made by "dishonestly and systematically" mis-describing eggs over a two-year period. The fraud abused "well-intentioned public trust" by scamming innocent customers who had paid extra to ensure better animal welfare, Worcester crown court heard./ppDefra, which brought the prosecution, said it was the biggest case of its kind it had ever investigated./ppOwen ran Heart of England Eggs Unlimited, an egg-packing business that supplied bigger packing companies, which, in turn, provided the vast majority of eggs to the well-known supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Tesco, as well as smaller retailers./ppLast week he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraudulent accounting which involved him altering records to disguise the fact he was buying eggs laid by caged hens and selling them for a vast profit after "mis-describing" them in paperwork./ppHis barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, suggested his client was not alone in creating what he described as "mischief" in the egg industry./pp"It's not the case that all those to whom Mr Owen supplied eggs were concerned to ensure the provenance of the eggs was as described," said Kelsey-Fry, adding it would be "inappropriate" to elaborate./ppPassing sentence, the judge said Owen had made very substantial profits at the expense of "real-life victims" who believed they were buying premium eggs./ppDescribing Owen as the firm's guiding mind, the judge told the managing director: "Imprisonment there must be, because the offences are plainly so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice. This was all a carefully planned and executed fraud by false accounting. By greed, you have corrupted and destroyed the once-legitimate business which you have known all your life."/ppAt the time of the fraud, between 2004 and 2006, farmers could expect a price of about 90p for a dozen organic eggs, 70p for free range and 35p for cage eggs. As a "middle man" wholesaler, Owen would normally make a few pence profit per dozen. But by passing off cage eggs as free range, he could make an extra 35p for every 12 eggs he sold. In a market where demand outstripped supply, he seized the opportunity to make a lot of money./ppRichard Jones, a Defra official who investigated the case, said today that Owen was such a significant player in the free range egg market that after he closed down his business two years ago, a number of supermarkets, including Somerfield, had to start sourcing free range eggs from abroad./ppThe court heard that Owen did not only buy in cheap battery hen eggs in order to dupe customers further down the line, he also bought in huge quantities of so-called "industrial eggs". These do not meet the quality requirements for sale to the public; instead they can be used only in processed foods once liquefied./ppMurmurings began circulating in the egg industry in 2004 that there were vastly more British free range and organic eggs being sold in shops than could ever possibly be laid in UK farms./ppAt the same time, investigators from the Egg Marketing Inspectorate (EMI) noticed during routine checks that eggs coming from Heart of England were not at all they were purported to be. Because all eggs look the same to the naked eye, the law requires that each egg is stamped with a unique number indicating where, and in what conditions, it was laid. Paperwork indicating origin and type must accompany the eggs all along the supply chain./ppBut when inspectors checked a selection of Owen's allegedly free range eggs using a strong ultraviolet light, the shells bore wire marks – a tell-tale sign that they had been laid not on a bed of straw, or even artificial turf, as farming regulations stipulate, but in a metal cage./ppThere were also complaints from lorry drivers who arrived at Owen's farms to drop off consignments of caged eggs and then pick up free range or organic eggs. A number of drivers reported to their trade union that they were made to wait hours to pick up their deliveries and suspected the eggs they delivered were being relabelled and sold back to them that day./ppAll of Owen's major contracts were to supply British eggs, bearing the British Lion hallmark. But investigators from Defra discovered that he was regularly buying eggs from the continent and passing them off as homegrown./ppHe used another of his companies, Owens Eggs, to disguise the accounting fraud. Owens Eggs was a legitimate business selling organic eggs laid in a barn on the same site as the Heart of England business. He laundered money by selling organic eggs from Owens Eggs to Heart of England at a hugely inflated price – £10-£40 a dozen at a time when others were selling a dozen for no more than £1./ppInvestigators found Owen had not only falsified records with real suppliers but also invented firms that had supposedly provided him with premium eggs. He was banned from being a company director for seven years./ppA Sainsbury's spokesman said: "We have the highest standards of quality for all our products, and the eggs we sell are either Woodland eggs or Lion Mark eggs from non-caged flocks. So we were naturally very angry and concerned to learn that we and other retailers were the victims of this fraud./pp"We purchased the eggs from a long-term supplier in good faith and it is important to note that at no point did we have any contact with Mr Owen or Heart of England Unlimited."/ppThe British Free Range Egg Producers Association said: "As a result of this case, the British Egg Industry Council with the 'Lion', have introduced a raft of measures, one of which is the stamping of all eggs since January 2010. Consumers can therefore now be reassured that eggs cannot be tampered with as in this case."/pdiv class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukcrime"Crime/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs"Consumer affairs/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/supermarkets"Supermarkets/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/fooddrinks"Food drink industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/organics"Organics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/food"Food/a/li/ul/divdiv class="author"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenpidd"Helen Pidd/a/divbr/div class="terms"a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds"More Feeds/a/divp style="clear:both" /

Guardian: More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals. Natural England, the government's agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen in the last two centuries. The losses recorded compare with a natural rate of about one extinction every 20 years before humans ...

Associated Press: A judge ruled Thursday that Chevron can proceed with an international arbitration claim against Ecuador related to a 17-year-old court battle over rain forest contamination in that South American nation. U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan rejected an attempt by Ecuador to block the arbitration but also said his decision was limited in scope and left the arbitration panel to decide what, if anything, it will hear and when. His ruling does not directly affect the ...

Guardian: Companies across Europe are hoarding permits to produce greenhouse gas emissions worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal. The surplus credits have been amassed from over-allocation of permits to pollute from the European emissions trading scheme, and by buying cheap credits from carbon-cutting projects in developing countries and holding on to their more expensive official EU allowances. The saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut the ...

Mongabay: Birds may see pleasanter skies in the US soon, if Congressman Mike Quigley has his way. Quigley, a democrat from Illinois, has introduced legislation that would require all federal buildings to become bird-friendly, potentially saving the lives of millions of birds every year. quot;Building collisions are arguably the single greatest man-made killer of birds. From three hundred million to one billion birds or more die each year from collisions with glass on buildings--from skyscrapers to ...

Associated Press: Wildlife officials lauded Washington's quot;holistic approachquot; to conservation in Hawaii after the Obama administration declared 48 species as endangered and announced plans to set aside more than 40 square miles on Kauai as critical habitat to allow the plants and animals to flourish. Two Honeycreeper birds, a fly and 45 ferns, trees and shrubs found only on the island of Kauai were among the species named Wednesday, boosting the number of such classifications by the Obama administration ...

Reuters: Big business is now free to blitz the airwaves to attack politicians who support action against climate change, which could smother messages from environmentalists. But it is not yet clear whether corporations have the will or the budgets to use the advertising weapon the climate change wars that emerged in January when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the same right as individuals to free political speech, including spending on advertising. The decision ...

Associated Press: The Cove Production year: 2009 Country: USA Cert (UK): 12A Runtime: 90 mins Directors: Louie Psihoyos More on this film Federal prosecutors filed charges yesterday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant following allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat. Typhoon Restaurant Inc, which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered ...

Business Green: The two steps forward, one step back nature of international climate change negotiations was again underlined yesterday after it emerged that China and India's support for the Copenhagen Accord remains highly conditional. The two countries this week wrote to the UN confirming they could be quot;listed quot; in the agreement, which they helped to broker at the Copenhagen climate change summit last year. All large emitters barring Russia have now signalled formal support for the ...

Inter Press Service: Battling the pain from a boil on his left thigh, 45-year-old Inggit Tukino pulled his two-wheeled cart through the overcrowded alleys of a slum in Rawabebek, Penjaringan hamlet in here North Jakarta. quot;Garbage, garbage!quot; he shouted, announcing his arrival at every house. Upon hearing his voice, the residents, mostly women and children, rushed out and placed solid household waste into Tukino's wooden cart. He also collected garbage bags hanging outside a number of other ...

Guardian: For those who made the conscious decision to spend more on free range or organic eggs, it was worth paying a premium to know the hens that laid them had been kept in ethical conditions. But those people who ended up paying over the odds for Keith Owen's eggs may feel a little less warm inside after it emerged the 44-year-old egg wholesaler had scammed all the major supermarkets and numerous small shops by passing off about 100m battery farmed eggs as free range or ...

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Sydney Morning Herald: TAXPAYERS will pay up to $100 million to remove foil insulation or install electrical safety switches in 50,000 homes in a bid to fix the government's suspended insulation scheme. The Assistant Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said yesterday removing insulation or installing the switches were now the only ways to ensure safety in homes fitted with foil insulation under the rebate scheme. The government had promised safety checks for the 50,000 homes to test for ceilings ...

New York Times: Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a year, and it often seems as if environmentalists outnumber rattlesnakes in many parts of the sprawling city. It would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here. But that has never been the case, and experts cite cost as the main reason. Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the United States, is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on ...

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Virginian-Pilot: Oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses another threat in Virginia to oysters, clams and crabs as well as to water quality and coastal ecosystems, a panel of scientists and environmentalists warned Wednesday. The experts, including researchers from Old Dominion University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, spoke after a special screening of the documentary film quot;Acid Testquot; at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk. More than 100 attended the free event, intended to ...

ScienceDaily: Specialists from various Earth system science disciplines recently gathered to address a major question: what will our environment look like in the future? Of course, possible answers to this question raise even more questions. For instance, if changing climatic conditions were to alter local vegetation, how would this new landscape react to future climatic trends? Answering these questions with certainty would allow us to manage better our natural resources by defining appropriate ...

Agence France-Presse: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki thanked Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito Thursday for his country's support in programmes to combat climate change, the government said. The prince arrived in Nairobi late Wednesday for a three-day trip that follows a visit to Ghana. Kibaki hailed Japan's quot;continued financial and technical supportquot; notably in programmes to combat climate change, a statement from his office said. After meeting with Kibaki, the prince visited a Japanese school in ...