The UK is in danger of building too many waste treatment plants and could reach over-capacity by 2015, new research warns.

A study from Eunomia Research & Consulting claims that if all of the facilities which have been granted planning consent are built and if waste arisings remain flat, then the country will have 5m tonnes more capacity than it requires.

The situation will be exacerbated if any plants which are currently in planning or unannounced are also built, or if waste arisings continue to fall, as they have for the past five years.

No parking on arterial roads, but only at designated spots

Soon, parking vehicles on the arterial roads of the City’s central business district (CBD) may be a costly affair. By restricting the parking to designated locations and fixing fees for the same, the government proposes to decongest the major thoroughfares, thereby eliminating traffic bottlenecks. The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) is preparing a parking action plan for the CBD in association with BBMP. To begin with, parking will be banned on the arterial roads of the City.

Bangladesh on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Netherlands to prepare the "Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100" in order to build up a 50-100 years water management system.
Under the deal, Bangladesh will conduct about 20 studies of different types at the main rivers and adjoining areas with the Dutch help. Planning Minister AK Khandker and Dutch Minister for Development Dr Ben Knapen signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides at the Prime Minister's Office. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina witnessed the signing of the deal.

The green image of the Dutch is at odds with the reality .
ON A cold morning, when the mist rises over the canals that criss-cross the countryside, spreading over the woods and flatlands, the Netherlands does not feel like a sink-hole of pollution. But the ice-encrusted water is brimming with nitrates and phosphates, and the air is clogged with particulate matter.

Proposed EU law requiring fuel suppliers to report the carbon intensity of their product, and which also rank oil from tar sands as particularly polluting, would only cost vehicle drivers around one euro cent per oil barrel, a report said on Thursday.

EU member countries are already required to report extensive fuel data, meaning the proposed laws would not require much extra effort, the report by consultancies CE Delft, Carbon Matters and Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands found.

Britain's energy plans call for tapping Iceland's geothermal resources in a move that could rekindle talk of creating a "supergrid" for electricity linking the continent, UK, North Africa and Iceland.

But experts say the project is too expensive and technically challenging to be feasible in the foreseeable future.

"Interconnectors in North West Europe will lead to electricity flows following the rules of supply and demand. So it will flow where it is needed, which is good for our security of supply," the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.

BASF said on Thursday it will undertake trial cultivation of potatoes containing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) this year on less than one hectare on sites in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

The German chemicals group said in January it will transfer its main research into GMOs crops from Germany to the United States because of continued resistance to the crops in Europe.

But BASF said it would continue trials of crops still undergoing the lengthy European Union approvals process.

European Union ambassadors were due to meet on Wednesday in an effort to settle a dispute over the allocation of seats to member states on the United Nations' Green Climate Fund (GCF) board, sources close to the matter said.

U.N. climate talks in Durban last year agreed on the design of the fund, which is aimed at channeling up to $100 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change.