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Maurice Strong, Secretary-General of the Earth Summit, urged governments to adopt new measures to protect the environment. Strong cited the use of carbon taxes and tradeable emission permits as possible sources of funds to finance environment and development objectives. As a result, environment minister David Maclean said the UK government will influence EC members to immediately ratify and implement the provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The UK chemical industry is encountering a number of bureaucratic problems in its effort to adopt a Commission of the European Communities directive for integrated pollution prevention and control. The move to consider part one of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act has catapulted the UK to the top position in EC integrated permitting. Despite this, chemical industry officials fear that efforts at following the environmental policy to the letter will result in the industry's loss of competitiveness over other EC chemical industries.

LAST WEEK'S meeting of the Commission's Environment Council saw continued backing for the compromise proposal put together by the UK in its role as EU President. Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas [...]

The UK and India have signed a declaration in which the two countries will work together to find 'fresh approaches' to global environmental, economic and social challenges. The agreement is [...]

THE COMPROMISE proposals on Reach put forward by the UK in its role as president of the EU could see a 'risk based' prioritisation for chemicals in the 1-10 tonne [...]

ACCORDING TO Willy Bach, UK government minister with responsibility for chemicals, Reach is fast becoming a model for future legislation and an example of a better regulation agenda. His comments [...]

THE UK government has said that it remains committed to ensuring that the UK meets its climate change goals. At a recent climate change conference in London, environment minister Elliot [...]

The UK government's approach to waste management has been slammed by manufacturer's organisation EEF. In a report called Improving strategy and delivery of waste policy in the UK, the EEF [...]

A coalition of NGOs, trade unions and academic institutions, known as Core, claims business opposition to red tape and regulations is damaging both society and the wider environment. The claims [...]

The UK Environment Agency plans to augment its standard procedure for measuring and cleaning up complex wastes from huge manufacturing plants by a very different method. The agency will utilize Direct Toxicity Assessment (DTA) which requires the measurement of the toxicity of the whole effluent and its effect on the specific environment in which it is being placed. Companies whose wastes have been determined by DTA as toxic are responsible for solving their waste problems.

The Irish chemical industry is evaluating the impact of a new UK bill on waste management that is expected in late spring of 1994. The bill combines new domestic legislation and current EC directives on waste management. It will place the responsibility of waste minimization and disposal on chemical manufacturers. However, the industry believes that the new legislation will not solve the issue of resources for local authorities and will only compound Ireland's problem on waste management.

The UK government has made a decision to classify hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) into the same group as greenhouse gases. This was included as part of a national programme for global warming. Other provisions included the maintainance of HFC emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. Imperial Chemical Industries PLC was a signatory to a US plan which served as the template for the UK program. Company officials criticized the UK decision for its failure to consider the warming impact of equipment.

Twenty-eight UK companies have come together to propose a plan to recycle 50% of packaging wastes by 2000. This is in line with EC directives to recover wastes from packaging materials. The consortium is composed of retailers, consumer product companies and materials producers and is collectively called the Producer Responsibility Group. Plans include the setting up of material organizations for each packaging sector.

A survey of inspectors' audit reports found that the UK's integrated pollution control permitting system is incapable of monitoring and checking companies' environmental performance. The study claims that this failure results from weak government enforcement, industrial opposition and the absence of vital environmental performance documents from public registers.

The Norwegian and UK governments have intiated separate national plastics reclamation programs. Under the Norwegian program, Staoil A/S and Norsk Hydro A/S will build a mixed plastics recycling plant while the government will construct a low-density polyethylene film recycling facility. The UK's initiatives, however, suffered a setback when British Polyethylene Industries PLC threatened to halt polyethylene collection and recycling unless it receives financial aid from the government.

The UK's hosting of the technology partnership conference participated in by industrialists from developing economies launched the nation's program of enhancing links between businessmen from the North and the South. The initiative will give more emphasis to technological cooperation rather than tehcnology transfer and involves the creation of a guide to UK technology and services, a Technology Partnership Network, a Technology Partnership Secretariat and a Hands-on Training Scheme.

The British Plastics Federation asked the government to establish a national recycling scheme to help the industry comply with EC packaging and packaging waste requirements. Contrary to expectations that it would seek a ban on German plastics waste imports, the industry called for a packaging reclamation scheme modeled after the French system, which would help promote trade within the EC and allow the industry to eventually meet recycling targets. The scheme would give more responsibility to fillers and producers, rather than to retailers, would provide financial aid to local authorities, allow incineration and give no preference for reuse.

The UK government is considering requiring the chemical industry to submit annual chemical release inventories similar to the Toxics Release Inventory of the US. However, the UK version of the release inventories will be adapted to its existing Intergrated Pollution Control system. The EC is considering a similar chemical release monitoring system to supplement the proposed EC Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control system. Meanwhile, Imperial Chemical Industries PLC commented that the UK government's proposal will prove meaningless. It suggested the use of individual site-by-site reporting to benefit communities living near chemical plants.