Environment Law Bulletin - Institute of Environmental Management ...

listing regimes in the UK with those abroadand concludes that the UK is behind otherstock exchanges in taking into accountsocial and environmental risks. Friends ofthe Earth point out that many companiesalready address risks from social and environmentalfactors on their value. The reportcites the case of a mining companyXSTRATA whose share price fell 12% over 2days following the release of news thatthere was a possibility of a Japanese coaltax, resulting from the country’s commitmentsunder the Kyoto Protocol. Thecompany had failed to disclose risks in thisarea. At present the Financial ServicesAuthority is reviewing UK listing rules and aconsultation paper is expected in summer2003. This could lead to a policy change byDecember 2004. There are also moves atEU level to bring in new legislation relatingto listing requirements.(Friends of the Earth, March 2003)Mineral workingThe Office of the Deputy Prime Minister isconsulting on a revised draft of MineralsPolicy Statement (MPS) on controlling andmitigating the environmental effects ofmineral working. The issues concernedwere formerly consulted upon as an extensionto MPG11 in 2000, and takes intoaccount the responses received to thisconsultation. The ODPM is now eager tobring in the revised guidance as soon aspossible. The major issues on which viewsare being sought are: the detail included inthe revised MPS and specific effects coveredin the annexes; the clarity of the explanationof requirements for PM10 and whetherthe requirements are reasonable; and thelimits on noise emissions proposed. Theconsultation brings together in one MPSand its accompanying annexes, guidancepreviously dispersed among a number ofdifferent MPGs and in research reports ongood practice. All views should have beensubmitted by 11 April 2003.(ODPM, 14 February 2003)AggregatesThe Aggregates Levy (General)(Amendment) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003No 466), which came into force on 1 April2003 amend the list of industrial and agriculturalprocesses prescribed for thepurpose of Section 30 of the Finance Act2001. These are laid down in the scheduleto the Aggregates Levy (General)“Poor access to finance, long investment cycles, theneed for more targeted research, poor disseminationof new technologies, organisational barriers slowingentry into the market and a lack of awareness andskills are all highlighted as important issues.”Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No 761). Thenew Regulations will affect Code 004 as faras water is concerned to drinking waterand adds in oil filtration and purification.They will also add in the production andprocessing of drink to Code 012 and theproduction of growing media for sportspitches and other leisure facilities to Code020. The manufacture of agricultural lime isclarified as falling within Code 039 as areagricultural and horticultural uses ofgrowing media which fall within Code 044.European UnionEnvironment technologies(SO, 3 March 2003)The European Commission has publishedfor consultation the Communication‘Developing an action plan for environmentaltechnology’, which sets out itspreliminary views on identifying and tacklingthe barriers to the development ofenvironment technologies. Environmenttechnologies defined by the Commission as‘all technologies whose use is less environmentallyharmful than relevant alternatives’,includes both low and high-tech applicationsand knowledge. The focus of theCommunication is on four specific areas -climate change, soil protection, sustainableproduction and consumption, and water -although this scope is likely to be broaderin the Action Plan, scheduled for publicationby the end of 2003. Poor access tofinance, long investment cycles, the needfor more targeted research, poor disseminationof new technologies, organisationalbarriers slowing entry into the market and43Environment Law BulletinApril 2003