UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he would discuss how to balance climate change and food security in the development of biofuels when he visits Brazil next week. Speaking before leaving on a trip that takes him first to Argentina, Antarctica and Punto Arenas in Chile, Ban said he wanted to see for himself the impact of global warming.
UNCTAD said its “Developing Countries in International Trade 2007 – Trade and Development Index (TDI)” showed that seven emerging nations – Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and South Korea – were snapping on the heels of the EU's new member states. It said the performance of the seven and several other developing economies in recent years were “remarkable.” Among the other major developing nations, South Korea was 21st, Chile was 37th and South Africa and Mexico were jointly in 47th place, while Brazil leapfrogged six places to 54th. India was up two places in 86th.
Emissions from ocean-going ships are responsible for about 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to research published on Nov. 7 that calls for tougher fuel standards. Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, three of the world's five busiest ports, were likely to suffer disproportionate impacts from ship-related emissions, said the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
(Reuters)
