Barroso trade threat on climate

The president of the European Commmission has threatened to impose carbon tariffs on imports unless the US agrees to a global climate change deal. Jose Manuel Barroso wants to protect energy-intensive sectors such as aluminium, steel and cement. He says there is no point in cutting emissions in Europe if they lose business to countries with more lax rules on carbon emissions. Mr Barroso made the comments in a speech to business leaders in London. He said foreign firms should be forced to purchase the same EU carbon allowances European firms would have to buy, thereby levelling the industrial playing field. The threat of trade measures is the nuclear bomb of climate negotiations - and the commission president said he very much hoped it would not be used. He said his preferred option was for a comprehensive global treaty on emissions. His fall-back was a global sectoral agreement imposing uniform standards on energy-intensive export industries. If these failed, he would either protect Europe's industries by giving them all their carbon allowances in the European Trading System (ETS) free of charge, or charge importers at the same rate for the allowances.”I think we should be ready to continue to give the energy-intensive industries their ETS allowances free of charge - or to require importers to obtain allowances alongside European competitors, as long as this system is compatible with WTO (World Trade Organization) requirements."

Kite to pull ship across Atlantic

The world's first commercial cargo ship partially powered by a giant kite is setting sail from Germany to Venezuela. They hope the state-of-the-art kite will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as it tugs the ship. Fuel burnt by ships accounts for 4% of global CO2 emissions - twice as much as the aviation industry produces. The MS Beluga's maiden transatlantic voyage is from the port of Bremerhaven to Venezuela. During the next few months the owners hope they will finally be able to prove that their technology works in practice and significantly reduces fuel consumption and emissions.

France's oldest WWI veteran dies

One of the last two surviving French veterans of World War I has died at the age of 110.Louis de Cazenave, who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, died in his sleep at his home in Brioude, central France.Mr de Cazenave's son said he died as he would have wanted - peacefully in his sleep at home, surrounded by family. President Nicolas Sarkozy sent condolences to Mr de Cazenave's family and paid tribute to all those killed in the war. Adding his tribute, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said:"De Cazenave departed with the discretion and simplicity that he had cultivated as a remedy against the fracas and horror of combat."

Gene 'may transform pain relief'

US scientists have developed a gene therapy treatment which they hope could revolutionise pain relief. Pain vanished for at least three months in rats who were injected in the spine with a gene that triggers endorphins, the body's natural pain killer.The therapy did not affect the rest of the nervous system, including the brain, potentially preventing the main side-effects of current pain relief.Studies suggest drugs do not relieve cancer pain in as many as 66% of cases.Although this research is at a very early stage, the concept of using gene therapy to deliver pain relief is interesting because it could potentially have fewer side effects than conventional pain relief, said Josephine Querido of Cancer Research UK.

French fish quota remarks flop with EU partners

A proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to make the European fishing quota system more flexible has met a cool reception from EU partners. Recently, M. Sarkozy told a crowd of several hundred in the northern French port of Boulogne that France's control of the European Union presidency in the second half of this year would be: "an opportunity to put quotas behind us".In Brussels, Sarkozy's fisheries and agriculture minister Michel Barnier modified this slightly on arriving for talks with EU partners:"Rather than pursuing the somewhat archaic all-night haggling... I'll give you cod in return for bluefish... I need herring... Give me sole... based on common policy proposals from the Commission, let us work serenely - over two meetings of the fisheries council. Let us try to set these quotas every three years instead of every year." Sarkozy said he wanted "a very detailed quota discussion with the Commission as early as the end of January.

EU battles the consequences of the sub-prime crisis and the rising oil price

Joaquin Almunia is the European Union's Monetary Affairs Commissioner. He supervises the monetary policies of Euro-zone members. He is the man who would approve sanctions against countries which breach the financial guidelines of the EU. At the moment, Mr Almunia is most concerned about European inflation, and a possible recession in the United States, which could threaten economic recovery in the Euro-zone.