Alarmed over the steep increase in obesity-related ailments in India, the Centre is planning norms for trans-fatty acid content in vanaspati oil by limiting it to 10 per cent and bring it down to five per cent in the next two years.

Along with this, the government also plans to introduce mandatory labelling providing information on saturated fat and trans fatty acids content on packs of vanaspati oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, edible oil and other products containing TFA.

European Union lawmakers backed a proposal on Tuesday to allow the EU Commission to prop up record low carbon prices by withholding 1.4 billion permits from the third phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, sending prices 20 percent higher.

The majority of the members of the European Parliament's cross-party environment committee backed changes to an energy efficiency bill that could give the EU Commission the power to intervene in the carbon market it set up, after it misjudged the amount of permits EU industry needed to cover their emissions.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for formulating a legally binding agreement on specific greenhouse gas emission cuts in the Durban summit on climate change. The prime minister made the appeal when the visiting Chair of the standing committee on environmental affairs of Danish parliament Steen Gade paid a courtesy call on her at her official residence Gono Bhaban yesterday. The premier's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed newsmen after the meeting.

European Union carbon permits and U.N.-backed credits collapsed to record lows on Thursday, extending this week's sharp price slide as fears of a slowing economy sapped demand in the markets that are heavily supplied with emissions units.

It was also a signal that market participants are losing confidence in the flagging EU carbon market, the world's biggest cap-trade scheme, traders and analysts said.

Denmark's new center-left government adopted a target on Monday to reduce Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels and boost renewable energy to cover half of Denmark's electricity need.

The energy and climate policy targets were set in the program of the new three-party coalition government of Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt who won an election two weeks ago.

The U.N. nuclear agency endorsed an action plan on Thursday to help strengthen global nuclear safety in the wake of Japan's Fukushima accident six months ago, despite criticism from some countries that it does not go far enough.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 151 member states, at their annual general conference in Vienna, approved by consensus the plan prepared by the office of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.

It is "both a rallying point and a blueprint for strengthening nuclear safety worldwide," Amano said.

A Dutch engineering company is trying to make safer the dangerous job of dismantling old ships contaminated with chemicals - by building the world's first "green dock wharf" in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has long been a final destination for decommissioned ships from around the world. Their scrap metal is valuable, but little effort is made to dispose of hazardous waste, such as lead paint, arsenic and asbestos-packed sealants, posing severe health risks for thousands working in the multimillion-dollar industry.

The European Union (EU) has contributed 8.5 million pounds to Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) to help face climate change multiple impacts.

The government and the EU signed an agreement to this end recently, said an EU statement.

The fund aims to support until 2015 climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction measures.

Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) is the heart of the BCCRF.