United States government proposes distracted-driving guidelines to automakers
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed voluntary guidelines for manufacturers, including a recommendation that they design dashboards so that distracting devices are automatically disabled unless the vehicle is stopped and the transmission is in park. Manufacturers have been loading up higher-end vehicles with an array of built-in gadgets. But the technological advances have raised concerns that drivers’ attention is being diverted too much from the road.
Environment Bank and Mission Markets launch online conservation credit platform
The Environment Bank launches the first online ‘conservation credit’ trading platform. The online Conservation Credits Exchange will allow conservation groups, farmers and landowners to register their wildlife sites so as to provide ‘conservation credits’. These credits will then be available to developers for purchase to offset their impacts on biodiversity – putting a transferable value on biodiversity loss and establishing private sector funding for the long-term management of conservation sites.
David Cameron in France to sign nuclear power deal
Britain and France are to sign a landmark agreement to co-operate on civil nuclear energy, paving the way for the construction of a new generation of power plants in the UK. Deals between British and French companies, worth more than £500 million, will allow work to start on new facilities, creating more than 1,500 jobs. The prime minister, David Cameron, who is in Paris to meet the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to seal the deal, said the agreements were “just the beginning” of investment the government says could be worth £60 billion and create 30,000 jobs.
Forest Footprint Disclosure annual review shames BP, Shell and ExxonMobil
Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) has criticised leading oil and gas companies including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Valero Energy for their lack of disclosure regarding their forest use. The companies all failed to disclose information of their forest use in 2011 for the third year, and Petrobas failed to disclose for the second, according to FFD’s Annual Review 2011. However, Greenergy International Ltd, which led the oil and gas sector in the review, was also one of the most improved companies overall in terms of the depth of their disclosure.
Olympic Games organisers face protests over BP sponsorship deal
Olympics organisers have come under attack from environmentalists, artists, indigenous people’s leaders and development groups over the position of BP as an official partner in the games.
In an open letter to the IOC, the London organising committee (Locog) and the Commission for a Sustainable London, 34 signatories say the organisers have failed to consider the broader ethical and environmental impacts of potential sponsors. The oil company, say the signatories, is unsuitable to be a Games sponsor because of its involvement in extracting Canadian tar sands, and its development of giant oil fields in the vulnerable Russian Arctic.
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