INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT.

The article discusses the charges brought against Petrofac executives for bribery in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the UAE. The company was fined £70 million and ordered to pay £7 million in legal costs. The investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is ongoing. The article also mentions the adoption of a new directive by the European Parliament to strengthen protection of the environment through criminal law, with a focus on environmental crimes and related sanctions. Europol and EnviCrimeNet define environmental crime as any illegal action that negatively impacts the environment. The directive aims to improve definitions, expand the scope of environmental crimes, and establish uniform sanction levels across EU member states. Belgium's Federal Parliament has also approved a Penal Code that recognizes ecocide as a crime. In the United States, a man in San Diego has been arrested and charged with smuggling greenhouse gases from Mexico in violation of regulations aimed at curbing climate change. [Extracted from the article]