EU: Emissions drop slightly
BRUSSELS, 17 May 2013: EU greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for global warming, dropped slightly last year, but the much-vaunted system for cutting such pollution ran into even more trouble, the European Commission said on Thursday.
It said that total carbon dioxide output from industrial installations covered by the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) was down 2.0% in 2012, reflecting the economic slowdown.
At the same time, a massive surplus of ETS pollution credits was building up, depressing prices.
Global tourism earnings grow 4%
May 16, 2013 by e-NewsWire
Filed under Europe, News
MADRID, SPAIN, 16 May 2013: Receipts from international tourism worldwide grew by 4% in 2012 reaching US$1,075 billion, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometre released Wednesday.
The revenue growth is equal to a 4% increase in international tourist arrivals which reached 1,035 million trips in 2012.
An additional US$219 billion was recorded in receipts from international passenger transport, bringing the export value generated by international tourism in 2012 to US$1.3 trillion.
Staying safe with car rentals
May 16, 2013 by PRnewswire
Filed under Europe, News
LONDON, 16 May 2013: Hiring a car is a popular way to tour a country, but how many of us check out the regulations in the country we are about to travel through on a self-drive holiday?
A UK-based online car rental firm, eRentals, outlined what you need to know to stay on the right side of the law when you embark on a self-drive holiday in Europe.
Travellers will discover the majority of European countries require cars to carry a warning triangle and should you breakdown, you are supposed to place it on the road a specific number of metres from your car depending on whether you are on a motorway or not. Some popular holiday destinations where this is compulsory include Spain, France, Italy and Denmark, but not the UK.
Finnair freshens inflight image
May 16, 2013 by e-NewsWire
Filed under Aviation, Europe, News
SINGAPORE, 16 May 2013: Finnair has unveiled a second aircraft in a special Marimekko livery and is now flying a fleet fitted out with textiles and tableware from the iconic design and fashion house.
The design collaboration between Finnair and Marimekko expanded to include textiles and tableware on board flights effective 15 May.
Earlier in the month, a Finnair Airbus 330 was unveiled with a blue-forest livery based on the Marimekko print Metsänväki (“forest dwellers”).
Alcohol curbs debated in Turkey
ANKARA, 16 May 2013: A Turkish parliamentary committee debated Wednesday a proposal by the Islamic-rooted government to introduce new curbs on the consumption and advertising of alcohol, a parliamentary source said.
The supporters of the measure say the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) bill seeks to protect society, particularly children, from the harmful effects of alcohol.
Critics say the move is the latest in a campaign led by the AKP to Islamise Turkish society by stealth and constitutes an intrusion into private life.
LH loses passengers
FRANKFURT, 14 May 2013: Lufthansa, Germany’s number one airline, said on Monday that its passenger numbers were down in April.
Lufthansa said in a statement it carried 8.586 million passengers in April, 2.0% fewer than during the same month last year.
At the same time, capacity edged up fractionally by 0.2% so that the so-called critical seat-load factor, which measures the number of seats filled on flights, slipped by 0.2 percentage points to 78.3%, the statement said.
Virgin space flights clean
SINGAPORE, 14 May 2013: British billionaire Richard Branson said Monday that rocket-powered space tourism flights by his firm Virgin Galactic would have only a minor impact on climate change.
More than 500 people have already reserved seats — and paid deposits on the US$200,000 ticket price — for a minutes-long suborbital flight on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) set to fly by the end of this year.
“We have reduced the (carbon emission) cost of somebody going into space from something like two weeks of New York’s electricity supply… to less than the cost of an economy round-trip from Singapore to London,” Branson told reporters in Singapore.
Turkish scores in sponsorship tussle
ISTANBUL, 13 May 2013: Turkish Airlines has added German highflier Borussia Dortmund to its sponsorship roster, taking fierce competition with Gulf carriers from the skies to the world’s premier football stadiums.
After Barcelona FC and Manchester United, Dortmund is the third football giant to be sponsored by THY, which is vying to dominate the airways with just-as ambitious Gulf carriers, such as Emirates and Qatar Airways.
The deal, estimated in the tens of millions of euros, is well timed, coming just as Dortmund secured its place in an all-German Champions League final against Bayern Munich on 25 May, in what sports analysts said was a Bundesliga resurgence.
Greek PM visits China
ATHENS, 13 May 2013: Greece’s Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, hopes his four-day trip to China this week will help his country’s ailing economy by attracting investment and promoting the export of Greek products.
Upon the invitation of the head of the Chinese government Li Keqiang, Samaras will visit Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou from Wednesday to Sunday, and will meet several Chinese officials.
He will thus become the second EU leader, after French President Francois Hollande, to visit the Asian country since the new Chinese leadership came to power.
Rome river rubbish ruins boat rides
ROME, 10 May 2013: Tourist cruises along Rome’s Tiber River have been suspended indefinitely for the first time since they began a decade ago because the waterway is judged too dirty.
“Tourists and Rome residents were expecting navigation for the year to resume at Easter. But we didn’t open out of respect for them,” said Mauro Pica Villa from “Rome Boats”, the company in charge of all cruises on the river.
“We’re ashamed of the Tiber’s state of abandonment,” he told AFP on Thursday.
