LONDON (Reuters) – Pricing systems that encourage households to use energy more efficiently are the best way to help consumers to protect the environment, a senior General Electric Co executive said on Tuesday.

Bob Gilligan, GE’s vice president of transmission and distribution, said the development of appliances that adjust their own energy use in response to signals from utility companies would be a key step in achieving this.

“As consumers … we speak from our heart, we express concern about the environment but we respond from our wallet,” he told a conference on the future of cities at Chatham House, the London think-tank.

“If we really want to drive consumer behavior we have to have pricing mechanisms that encourage us to change.”

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Pricing systems that encourage households to use energy more efficiently are the best way to help consumers to protect the environment, a senior General Electric Co <GE.N> executive said on Tuesday.

Bob Gilligan, GE’s vice president of transmission and distribution, said the development of appliances that adjust their own energy use in response to signals from utility companies would be a key step in achieving this.

“As consumers … we speak from our heart, we express concern about the environment but we respond from our wallet,” he told a conference on the future of cities at Chatham House, the London think-tank.

“If we really want to drive consumer behaviour we have to have pricing mechanisms that encourage us to change.”

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Rapid and chaotic urbanisation is threatening sustainable development in Africa, the head of the U.N. housing agency said on Monday, but taking steps to mitigate climate change could help tackle some of the problems of cities. The populations of large, fast-expanding cities in Africa, such as Lagos in Nigeria, are set to continue growing at annual rates of around 4 percent according to the United Nations, putting pressure on the provision of housing and basic services."We are an urban species now … but I’m afraid what we have on the ground is rather chaotic and unsustainable," Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN-HABITAT, said at a conference on the future of cities at Chatham House in London. "After HIV and Aids, the biggest threat to sustainable development in Africa is rapid and chaotic urbanisation, because it is a recipe for disaster for increased tensions and pressure." Tibaijuka said more investment was needed in making urban growth more sustainable, for instance by improving infrastructure and technology. Decentralising governance from a national to city level would also enable urban problems to be tackled more effectively, she said, acknowledging steps taken by Kenya towards amending its constitution to devolve government to regional counties. [ID:nLDE60R2WM] The impact of climate change has exacerbated existing social and economic problems, forcing many farmers away from their villages to become "environmental refugees" in big cities, Tibaijuka said. But while cities have been part of the problem of climate change, they could also be part of the solution. "There is a unique opportunity to bridge our global efforts in emissions control with local efforts to improve the quality of life and the productivity of our cities," she said. "We need to take immediate actions to make our cities more sustainable … what better measures can we take than to reduce traffic congestion, improve air and water quality, and reduce our ecological footprint."

LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Britain was not ready militarily to launch the Iraq war in 2003 and its soldiers went in without adequate equipment, the country’s defence chief said on Monday. Jock Stirrup, who was deputy chief of staff in charge of equipment at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, told an Iraq war inquiry that the government had been warned of the risk that its troops would not be fully equipped in time. "We simply didn’t have enough time, as it turned out, to do everything we needed to before the operation started," he told the inquiry set up to learn lessons from the conflict. There were particular shortages of desert clothing, boots and body armour, Stirrup said, and in many cases the equipment that was delivered on time did not end up in the right place. The death of Sergeant Steven Roberts early in the war caused a public outcry in Britain because it emerged that he was not wearing protective plates in his body armour. He had been ordered to give them to another soldier because of shortages. Retired officers and soldiers’ relatives have complained that British troops were sent into war with inadequate equipment, putting their lives at risk, but on Friday Tony Blair, who was prime minister at the time, denied to the same inquiry that this had been the case. Stirrup said an extra two months would have made a significant difference to the level of equipment available. "That is 50 percent additional time," he said. "We were finding that in a number of cases we were getting 100 percent delivery about a month or two after the operation started." The inquiry already has heard evidence that planning for the invasion was hindered by worries that public military preparations might damage ongoing diplomatic negotiations. "We made it absolutely clear to ministers that if we were not allowed to engage with industry, and that was the critical element … there was a serious risk that they would not all be delivered by the assumed start of the operation," Stirrup said. "The issue was it was all being done so rapidly at the last minute no one was quite sure who had what," he added. (Editing by Michael Roddy)

LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Hermes Private Equity launched a 125 million pound ($201.7 million) environmentally focused fund-of-funds on Tuesday, as part of a British government scheme to invest in technology-based firms with high growth potential.

The Environmental Investment Fund, which is seeking to raise 200 million pounds by the end of the year, raised 75 million pounds of private investment to add to 50 million pounds of government funding at its first close.

The private investment was entirely provided by the UK’s largest pension scheme, the BT Pension Scheme <BT.L>, which owns Hermes Private Equity’s parent company Hermes Fund Managers.

The new fund is part of the UK Innovation Investment Fund, launched by the British government in June last year to raise up to 1 billion pounds over the next decade for small companies in the digital, life science, clean technology and advanced manufacturing sectors. [ID:nLT253888]

LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Cutting the public deficit too quickly would jeopardise Britain’s recovery, finance minister Alistair Darling said on Tuesday, adding that a stronger than expected rebound could allow a faster pace of debt reduction.

Spelling out differences with the opposition Conservatives, who have pledged to take tougher action to reduce borrowing if they win an election due by June, Darling said measures to support growth could themselves help the process of deficit reduction.

“It is imperative we get our borrowing down in a way that supports growth because growth itself will help us reduce our borrowing and to reduce debt,” Darling told parliament.

Darling said the government’s “Fiscal Responsibility Bill,” which enshrines in law a commitment to halve Britain’s deficit over the next four years, represented a strengthening of the country’s fiscal framework.

LONDON (Reuters) – Two guardians of Britain’s historic Tower of London have been suspended after a female colleague, the first woman warden in their 524-year history, accused them of harassment.

The Tower’s 34 Yeoman Warders, commonly known as Beefeaters — whose ceremonial dress is a distinctive scarlet and gold tunic, white ruff, red stockings and black patent shoes — appointed Moira Cameron to their ranks in 2007.

Cameron, 44, who beat five men to secure the coveted position, has had her uniform defaced and nasty notes left in her locker, newspapers reported, while one suspect has been cautioned by police for defacing Cameron’s entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

“We can confirm that three Yeoman Warders are under investigation in response to allegations of harassment; two have been suspended,” the Tower of London said in a statement.

LONDON (Reuters) – Two guardians of Britain’s historic Tower of London have been suspended after a female colleague, the first woman warden in their 524-year history, accused them of harassment.

The Tower’s 34 Yeoman Warders, commonly known as Beefeaters — whose ceremonial dress is a distinctive scarlet and gold tunic, white ruff, red stockings and black patent shoes — appointed Moira Cameron to their ranks in 2007.

Cameron, 44, who beat five men to secure the coveted position, has had her uniform defaced and nasty notes left in her locker, newspapers reported, while one suspect has been cautioned by police for defacing Cameron’s entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

“We can confirm that three Yeoman Warders are under investigation in response to allegations of harassment; two have been suspended,” the Tower of London said in a statement.

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) – British government cost cuts played a major role in a fatal 2006 military plane crash, an inquiry found on Wednesday — a further blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown who is already accused of failing the troops. The independent inquiry into the crash also said a safety review led by the aircraft’s manufacturer, BAE Systems <BAES.L>, failed to properly assess fatal hazards, accusing it of "incompetence, complacency and cynicism". The crash in Afghanistan, in which a Nimrod MR2 reconnaissance plane caught fire and exploded minutes after mid-air refuelling, killed all 14 military personnel on board in the worst single incident for British forces since the Falklands War. "There was a shift in culture and priorities in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) towards business and financial targets, at the expense of functional values such as safety and airworthiness," said aviation lawyer Charles Haddon-Cave, who conducted the 20-month review. Haddon-Cave said his report had identified "manifold shortcomings in the UK military airworthiness and in-service support regime". The crash had been avoidable, he concluded. The report hands additional ammunition to critics of Prime Minister Brown, who faces a tough re-election battle by June. "The Government as a whole must bear responsibility for the way in which the MoD has been treated under the pressure of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts," said Liam Fox, defence spokesman for the opposition Conservatives. "Cutting corners costs lives. War cannot be fought on a peacetime budget." EFFICIENCIES VS SAFETY Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth admitted "efficiencies within the system" had overtaken airworthiness as a priority, but said measures had since been taken to improve safety. "Lives have been lost as a result of our failure," he said. "As an organisation the MoD has changed its culture and approach to put safety first." The crash was the fifth involving the MR2, prompting the review of the arrangements for ensuring their airworthiness. Last year the coroner looking into the deaths said the entire Royal Air Force Nimrod fleet should be grounded because they were not airworthy, but Ainsworth said he had been assured they remained safe to fly. Haddon-Cave’s report found that a safety review of Nimrod aircraft carried out before the crash by BAE Systems and an MoD team had failed to identify potentially catastrophic hazards. "The Nimrod safety case (review) was a lamentable job from start to finish," Haddon-Cave said. "It was riddled with errors. It missed the key dangers. Its production is a story of incompetence, complacency and cynicism." The report criticised 10 individuals — from the Ministry of Defence, BAE Systems, and independent advisor QinetiQ <QQ.L> — for their roles in the safety review. A spokesman for BAE said: "The company will consider and assess how best to support the Ministry of Defence in implementing the recommendations for improving processes to further enhance the operational safety of aircraft in military use." The report also criticised QinetiQ as "lax" for failing to read BAE Systems’ reports or check their work properly. A spokesman for QinetiQ said the company wanted to take time to digest the report fully before making a detailed response but would seek to learn from its criticisms. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy) (kylie.maclellan@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 0401))

LONDON (Reuters) – Three British tabloid newspapers discussed buying confidential medical information about actor Hugh Grant, director Guy Ritchie and other celebrities in a hoax set up by a documentary film maker.

As part of the documentary “Starsuckers”, which premieres at the London Film Festival later this month, the filmmakers also planted several fake reports with British tabloids to expose inaccurate celebrity reporting.

“We wanted to do a test to see how they would react,” director Chris Atkins told Reuters. “It is just showing the public what goes on behind the stories that they pay for every day.”

The “Starsuckers” team posed as members of the public to offer the papers fabricated stories about well known-figures to test whether the journalists would check the facts.