⌠We can confirm to you the sale of part of our investment in the BTC project,■ the bank said in a statement in response to questions from the FT. ⌠We are, in addition, negotiating with several parties the complete sale of our position.

The bank, Italy▓s largest in terms of assets, declined to name the buyer due to confidentiality reasons.

The FT also wrote ⌠Banca Intesa had expressed concerns about the pipeline sealant. Executives from the bank sought a meeting with Derek Mortimer, the whistleblower who highlighted potential problems with the sealant in an independent report for BP.■

Onc? the BTC is put into operation, a group of banks, which would have included Banca Intesa, was to take over financing of the project. The remaining syndicate members are ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Credit Agricole, HVB, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale and WestLB.

Dear all,

The World Bank is proposing to use national regulations rather than the Bank’s own social and environmental safeguard policies in a series of pilot projects. The Bank plans to widely expand this approach after a two-year test phase. Already now Bank projects have to comply with national regulations. As the letter below explains, no longer using World Bank standards will seriously weaken the standards used in Bank projects, and the Bank’s accountability for its own projects.

The World Bank is currently carrying out consultations on this proposal. They have posted the proposal on the web (see [url=http://www.worldbank.org/countrysystems]www.worldbank.org/countrysystems[/url] , and are conducting a series of consultation meetings. Meetings will take place, or have already taken place, in Dar es Salaam (November 11), Manila (December 1), Tokyo (December 3), London (December 8), Delhi (December 14), Brasilia (January 12), and Washington DC (January 14, date tbc). As often, the format of these meetings seems to be totally inadequate.

The NGO sign-on letter (please see [url=http://www.cenn.org/info/Please]http://www.cenn.org/info/Please[/url] endorse NGO sign.doc) protests against the weakening of World Bank standards. It is based on inputs from NGOs in the North and South, and follows an earlier letter that was signed by 186 groups from 60 countries, including many of you. The letter states what NGOs support (so that we don’t simply respond to the Bank’s agenda). It criticizes the Bank’s proposal generally, summarizes how the proposal will weaken the existing standards, and puts forward several requested changes.

Please endorse this NGO letter. Please send your endorsement (name, name of your organization, country) to [email]peter@irn.org[/email] The deadline is Saturday, December 18, 2004.

Many thanks for your support.

Please view chart at [url=http://www.cenn.org/info/Atomstopp]http://www.cenn.org/info/Atomstopp[/url] Calculations 0712.doc for the exact amount of required signatures per country (thanks to NOAH Denmark for the original workout of the chart!).

Dear friends,

More than 100.000 signatures have been recorded on the website of the European Petition by now. From phone calls and emails we know that there are another ten thousands of signatures still at organizations all over Europe or by now already on its way to Linz.

More than 100.000 signatures are collected by now, which is great! But one tenth is not enough – unfortunately.

To reach our goal of 1 million signatures it is necessary to bring all our efforts together and focus on the European Petition to accelerate the progress. In some countries the campaign is not that successful and it is important to do a lot of campaigning in order to catch up.

In Austria we were already able to collect more than fifty percent of the required signatures!!

As supporters of the European Petition we ask you urgently to
o Have eye-catching links to (http://www.atomstopp.at/1million/ at your website
o To promote the European Petition among other much visited websites and ask for linking to those
o Send information on the European Petition out to all your available email-addresses, friends and people you know and ask for signatures and for further distribution of the information
o Publish the European Petition and signature lists in your organisations newspaper or ask other organizations in your country if they could publish it
o Collect signatures on places with high frequency of people coming by (or at demonstrations, trade fairs, events,…)
o If you have contact-addresses to other Europeans available, please also forward link and information on European Petition and ask for circulation
o Email us good ideas on how to further promote the European Petition in order to reach our goal

According to the motto "together we are strong" and in order to reach our goal it is very necessary that we all combine our efforts and work actively for the success of the European Petition.

This way it will be possible to reach our common goal – The European Exit from nuclear energy!

Thanks to all who already have worked actively on promoting the European Petition!

Ideally, you will have proven leadership qualities and the ability to create concerted action among groups with disparate views and objectives. With five years’ management experience, you must be able to demonstrate involvement in advocacy at the highest levels, possess well-honed diplomatic skills, a track record of running public campaigns and preferably have knowledge of the politics of climate science.

Apply to: For further information and an application pack please email: [email]jobs@foe.co.uk[/email]

The sweltering temperatures of August 2003 left many people, particularly the elderly, struggling to cope. The heat wave caused many thousands of extra deaths, while forest fires ravaged large areas of land, causing $1.6 billion worth of damage in Portugal, for example.

 A model climate

With information collected from ice cores and tree rings, scientists had already worked out that the summer of 2003 was probably the hottest in Europe for 500 years. Some saw this as evidence for man-made climate change, but until now no one had attempted a rigorous attribution of its causes. Continue reading →

Bush’s top energy priority _ opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling _ is shaping up as an early test of GOP gains in Congress. “This is going to be a definitional battle, and we’re ready,” said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters. Though the election didn’t emphasize such issues, administration officials believe the results validated their belief that many environmental decisions are better made by the marketplace, landowners and state and local governments. Continue reading →

But Britain was adamant its proposed Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA) would not contravene EU rules, and said it would ensure the agency had the funds needed to dismantle power stations and clean up the country’s nuclear liabilities.

Greenpeace said it expected the EU executive Commission to open a formal investigation on Wednesday into the agency, which will from next April assume all the assets and liabilities of state-owned nuclear firm British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Continue reading →

"It is most likely that they have come from Norway. They have the brown rat there," said Kiruna environmental chief Mats Lahti.

Kiruna’s harsh Arctic climate normally keeps rats away, but they apparently love the warm piles of garbage at its recycling plant, which handles 25,000 tonn?s of Norwegian waste a year.

Local officials have called in exterminators to deal with the four-legged invaders. "We’re not used to this kind of thing in Kiruna, and we don’t want to get used to it," said Lahti.

Kiruna’s misfortune may be a source of mirth in next-door Norway, where poking fun at their fellow Scandinavians is a national pastime.

A new ?environmental democracy? clearing house was announced in July by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The instrument aims to highlight and promote awareness of issues covered by the Aarhus Convention. The site showcases good practices in the area of citizens? environmental rights and is expected to make implementation of the Convention more effective. Continue reading →