Sir, Regarding ‘Brussels outlines vision for ‘fairer’ EU farm policy‘: The European Commission’s Communication on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy sets separate objectives of social cohesion, economic health and environmental sustainability. Our association fully shares these objectives. Together with the 19 participants from 14 member states and highly diverse backgrounds who attended our [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Chinese pledge raises hopes of climate compromise‘: The UN has already lowered expectations of COP 16 negotiations to rock bottom, and while only the most optimistic would expect a deal to emerge from Cancún, the fundamental imperatives underlying the urgency to adopt more sustainable economies have not gone away, nor can we afford [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU’s new transport strategy to put price on pollution‘: The most important external effect of (urban) traffic is congestion. In cities larger than about one million inhabitants, the cost of congestion far outweighs the combined costs of pollution, traffic accidents, noise and climate change. Transporting people one by one in a tonne of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Bio-economy poses new competitiveness challenges for Europe‘: Innovation Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has highlighted an area where the EU is missing out compared to other countries – particularly the USA. It need not do so, for it actually needs to address it through a different emphasis. Firstly, the EU should seriously consider removing the [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Barroso drops financial taxes from draft G20 wish-list‘: It is shocking to see the European Commission backtracking from pushing for financial taxes to be on the agenda at the forthcoming G20 summit in Seoul in November. A global bank tax to help poor people survive the economic and climate crisis must be urgently [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Finland eyes world’s first ‘green highway’‘: It is indeed encouraging to read your news item on Finland’s ambition to create the first green highway in the world. However, Sweden and Norway are already almost there with a similar project, ‘Green Highway’, aka the E14, which stretches from the Atlantic to the Baltic, connecting [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU to overhaul GM crop approval system‘: The European Coordination Via Campesina is dismayed at the proposal of the European Commission to restructure decision-making processes between the EU and member states, which will result in more GM crops being grown and used in Europe. The Commission’s proposal to allow countries to implement strict [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU eyes increased role for organic farming‘: I have been involved with improving the quality of water that is used for the production of food for over a decade. Once the quality has been improved, pathogenic diseases tend to be much less without the use of chemicals – just by using oxygen. Clive [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU biofuels target borderline sustainable, report finds‘: Biofuels have been a hotly contested issue for a number of years. They are at the top of the European Union’s agenda at the moment after the European Commission was sued by four environmental NGOs for muffling evidence on biofuels’ sustainability last month. Some leaked documents [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Controversy mounts over EU biofuels fall-out‘: The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats), worried that the increase of biofuel cropping systems may lead to cultivation escapes of invasive taxa with subsequent negative effects on native biological diversity, adopted advice [...]