EA chairman, Lord Smith has called for a European alliance to tackle the toxic trade in electrical waste into Africa.

In a speech to INTERPOL he argued for better cooperation and exchange of intelligence across national borders to stop a crime that poses a "growing and persistent risk to human health and the environment".

Smith said that the EA for England and Wales currently provides criminal intelligence on illegal waste exports to 46 countries but has so far received intelligence from only ten countries in return. The EA already has an intelligence sharing agreement with countries outside Europe.

The EA is to change the way it audits permitted materials recovery facilities (MRFs), as an increasing amount of waste is sent to them and a more effective way of monitoring the movement of wastes and assessing compliance is required.

This change has seen an increasing amount of waste, including poor quality or badly-sorted materials. For example, paper may be contaminated with food wastes. As a result, these materials are difficult to process and the outputs may not be suitable for reprocessing. The EA has, therefore, developed a 'waste stream approach' which involves improving the auditing process.

Energy regulator Ofgem has published information on the amount (in ROCs) of the Renewables Obligation (RO) for the 2009-10 obligation period, which finished in March this year.

The RO places an obligation on electricity suppliers to source an increasing portion of the electricity they supply from renewable sources. The obligation levels for 2009-10 are 9.7 ROCs per 100 MWh of electricity supplied to customers in England & Wales and Scotland, and 3.5 ROCs per 100 MWh of electricity supplied to customers in Northern Ireland. Using these ratios, combined with data from suppliers regarding the amount of electricity supplied in the period, Ofgem has determined that the total Renewables Obligation on electricity supplied to customers across the UK for 2009-10 is 30,155,477 ROCs. On electricity supplied in England & Wales it is 26,994,117 ROCs. On electricity supplied in Scotland it is 2,868,011 ROCs, and on electricity supplied in Northern Ireland it is 293,349 ROCs