Eni to put $4bn into Venezuela oil project
Eni, the Italian oil and gas group, plans to invest $4bn in Venezuela, the biggest commitment to the country by a western oil company since President Hugo Ch
Financial Times
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Novartis stepping up vaccine call to pre-empt pandemic
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical group, is stepping up the case for use of its experimental pandemic flu vaccine even ahead of a new virus mutation that could trigger a future lethal outbreak in humans. Jorg Reinhardt, head of vaccines and diagnostics, said the company would publish scientific data showing that its H5 vaccine stimulates rapid protection with a second booster jab against pandemic flu strains for at least seven years. Many specialists believe two flu injections may be necessary to provide significant protection from a pandemic, but there is far less current global capacity than supply. Reinhardt said a single flu vaccine shot would normally only offer protection after four to six weeks, but an initial jab would allow a subsequent booster to become effective within two to three days. His remarks come at a time of fierce competition between vaccine companies, which have invested significantly in pandemic flu and are attempting to recover their costs as international concern wanes. Companies including Baxter, Sanofi-Aventis and Solvay are all making arguments for the advantages of their own products, and GlaxoSmithKline raised the profile of its H5N1 vaccine last year when it agreed to donate to a "solidarity' stockpile for poor countries. World Health Organisation officials caution against labelling such products "pre-pandemic' vaccines, because they will only be effective if it is a mutation of the current H5N1 bird flu strain that triggers a pandemic. Others remain cautious about any preventative vaccination because of the cost and strain on public health systems, and concern that widespread use could trigger side effects. Reinhardt stressed it was up to the governments to decide whether or not to buy and use his vaccine. "We will share the data with everyone who is willing to listen and make the scientific argument that it provides protection,' he said. His comments came as Novartis unveiled a new Institute for Global Health at its vaccines research office in Siena, which will attempt to develop non-profit vaccines to protect against three salmonella-based infections that cause diarrhoea, one of the leading causes of disease and death in young children around the world. He said the institute, mirroring its work in Singapore to find medicines to treat illnesses for which there is no commercial market, would employ 50 scientists within three years and seek support from funds such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Institute by the end of this year.
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Solar cells get clean bill of health
Solar cells generate electricity from sunlight without producing' pollution, but some environmentalists have been concerned about the potential negative impact of this photovoltaic technology. This is because the manufacture of solar cells involves toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium and produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. However, the first comprehensive study of the pollutants produced during the manufacture of solar cells gives them a reassuringly clean bill of health. Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York report that photovoltaic cells produce far fewer air pollutants than conventional fossil fuel technologies when manufacturing is fully accounted for. The study will appear next month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Vasilis Fthenakis and colleagues gathered data from 13 solar cell " manufacturers in Europe and the US over three years. The cells included four major commercial types: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon and thin-film cadmium telluride The study concluded that generating electricity from solar cells reduced air pollutants by about 90 per cent compared with using electricity generated in conventional power stations
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Tokyo Electron joins Sharp in solar project
Tokyo Electron, a leading maker of semiconductor equipment, is set to develop solar cell manufacturing equipment through a joint venture with Sharp in an effort to capitalise on demand for clean energy. The two Japanese companies plan to develop production equipment for thin-film solar cells. Tokyo Electron will produce and sell the equipment, starting next year. Thin-film solar cells use just 1 per cent of the silicon needed in conventional solar cells. The technology is attractive because, as a result of scarcity, the price of silicon has rocketed to as much as $350 a kilogramme. Japanese companies are at the forefront of thin-film solar cell technology, with Sharp, Kaneka and Sanyo the three big manufacturers. Sharp, the world's leading maker of solar cells, is set to boost output capacity for thin-film solar cells more than tenfold this year, by investing Y22bn ($203m). In western Japan, Sharp, which also makes LCD televisions, is constructing the world's biggest solar cell plant. It will be dedicated primarily to thin-film solar cells and is expected to start operations by March 2010. The joint venture will be capitalised at Y50m, with 51 per cent held by Tokyo Electron and the remainder by Sharp. For Tokyo Electron, it is an attempt to diversify and capitalise on a sector with a growing demand. Thin-film solar cells are more versatile than conventional crystalline solar cells because they are transparent and so can be used as walls that allow light to shine through. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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People breathing city air are likened to fish in an oil spill
Alarming evidence for the way air pollution damages the cardiovascular system emerged on Monday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. Although "clean air' legislation has cleaned up the most visible smog-like pollution in industrialised countries, Lung Chi Chen of the medical school at New York University said microscopic soot particles from vehicle exhausts killed an estimated 30,000-40,000 people a year in the US. Breathing the air in New York City was similar to living with a smoker in terms of risk from heart disease, he said. Several scientists said exposure to ultra-fine particles at levels found in city centres triggered heart disease in laboratory animals. Even the most modern diesel and petrol engines with efficient filters generated the most dangerous particles (less than 2.5 microns in diameter), Dr Chen said. In addition, chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pose a serious threat to human health according to John Incardona, researcher with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dr Incardona said PAHs, which affected fish exposed to oil spills, were also "prime suspects for cardiovascular impacts related to air pollution'. Even in "safe' levels, particulate air pollution added to the cardiovascular health burden. "Estimates of toxicity based solely on measurements of particles are likely to dramatically underestimate the net health impact of complex emissions,' said Matt Campen of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in New Mexico. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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EU sees progress on gas pipeline
Turkey and the European Union appeared ready on Friday for greater co-operation in the construction of the Nabucco natural gas pipeline aimed at enhancing Europe's energy security and reducing its dependence on Russian gas supplies. The EU had become worried about Turkey's apparent lack of commitment to the $5bn project. But Jozias van Aartsen, EU co-ordinator for natural gas projects in southern Europe, said after meeting Turkish officials on Friday that the project was nearer to realisation than before his visit.
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'Scaled' solar system found
Astronomers have discovered a "scaled-down solar system' orbiting a star 5,000 light years away. Using a worldwide network of 11 telescopes, they detected a pair of planets slightly smaller than Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the mass of our sun
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WTO backs US in banana dispute
The World Trade Organisation has ruled in favour of a US complaint against EU banana imports, a US trade official said. The EU has given a group of former colonies a small quota of duty-free exports to Europe, while taxing all Latin American bananas -many grown by US-based companies. The banana dispute is the WTO's longest-running, and the current EU import regime replaces one deemed in breach of WTO rules in 2001 after a complaint by several American nations. Thomson, Geneva
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Venezuela plays down Exxon's assets freezes
Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's energy minister, on Friday rejected concerns that PDVSA, the state oil company, would be affected by attempts by ExxonMobil to freeze assets worth $12bn. Exxon won court orders on Thursday in the UK, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles to freeze PDVSA's global assets in an attempt to secure compensation for operations lost to President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation drive last year.