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Sat, 31 May 08
Could US scientist's 'CO2 catcher' help to slow warming?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/carbonemissions.climatech ange
Guardian: It has long been the holy grail for those who believe that technology can save us from catastrophic climate change: a device that can "suck" carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, reducing the warming effect of the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas produced each year. Now a group of US scientists say they have made a breakthrough towards creating such a machine. Led by Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York, they plan to build and demonstrate a ...

Sat, 31 May 08
United Kingdom: Thousands expected at 'carnival' to fight Heathrow expansion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/31/travelandtransport.commun ities
Guardian: Ten thousand people are expected to rally today for a "carnival-style" protest at Heathrow against the proposed expansion of the world's busiest airport. Climate change, increasing noise pollution and congestion have united middle class Londoners, environmental groups, local communities and more than 20 councils against the government-backed BAA plan for a third runway and a sixth terminal. The demonstrators are expected to walk around the airport perimeter fence to ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Japan: Shirakami forests 'could vanish by 2100'
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080531TDY03103.htm
Yomiuri Shimbun: Vast beech forests in the Shirakami Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed natural site that straddles Akita and Aomori prefectures, could vanish by the end of this century due to global warming, according to researchers. Their report on the future impact of climate change on the nation also warned that if greenhouse gas emissions remain at the current level, global warming will increase the damage caused by storm surges and cause torrential rain to fall more often. The ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Ecosystem destruction costing hundreds of billions a year
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/30/biodiversity.conservation
Guardian: The steeply accelerating decline of the natural world is already costing hundreds of billions of pounds a year, say leading economists, in a review of the costs and benefits of forests, rivers and marine life. The losses will increase dramatically over the next generation unless urgent remedial action is taken, they say. An interim report presented to world leaders meeting in Bonn yesterday warns of the "severe consequences" to all economies if forests continue to be ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Australia: Gunns mill 'may never be built'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/30/2260382.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A timber industry analyst says he is not sure Gunns' $2 billion pulp mill will ever be built because of delays in securing finance. The ANZ announced yesterday it would not fund the mill, and analyst Robert Eastment believes financial reasons are behind the bank's decision to walk away from the project. Gunns says the bank's decision does not mean the end of the project, as there is strong interest from international banks. Mr Eastment says the business case for the ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Large methane release could cause abrupt climate change as happened 635 million years ago
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-11 1171.html
Innovations Report: An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, about 635 million years ago from ice sheets that then extended to Earth's low latitudes caused a dramatic shift in climate, triggering a series of events that resulted in global warming and effectively ended the last "snowball" ice age, a UC Riverside-led study reports. The researchers posit that the methane was released gradually at first and then in abundance from clathrates – methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Sea warming threat to fish stocks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7427496.stm
BBC: Global warming could pose a serious threat to fish stocks around Scotland's coast, according to a new study. Researchers at Loch Lomond Aquarium, near Balloch, studied the breeding of rays at different water temperatures. They found that in warmer water, the rays' eggs hatched earlier and their offspring were less capable of producing healthy young of their own. The 15-month study examined the effects of three different temperatures on 400 ray eggs. The eggs, ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Should all Arctic species be red-listed?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14029-should-all-arctic-species-be-re dlisted.html
New Scientist: Just two weeks after the US decided to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the threat of climate change, conservationists have launched a campaign to afford its diet Arctic seals the same protection. The same scientists say tens of thousands more Arctic species may soon be listed as "endangered" because of a threat several decades down the line. Some conservationists argue that all Arctic species be listed. The Center for Biological Conservation ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Canada: Activity light in debut of Montreal carbon market
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN3027327720080530
Reuters: Just three contracts changed hands during the debut of Canada's new carbon emissions market on Friday, but the operator said it sees strong potential for growth in a country that is among the world's biggest polluters. Montreal Exchange, Canada's main derivatives market -- which was bought this month by Toronto Stock Exchange operator TSX Group -- launched the market so that polluters, speculators and investors have a platform on which to buy and sell carbon credits. With ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Baird Says Canada May Link Carbon Trading With US, Europe
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aN0tyXAIdkgc&re fer=canada
Bloomberg: Canadian Environment Minister John Baird said he would support a move to link a new domestic carbon market with the U.S. and eventually Europe as trading increases. Montreal Exchange Inc., a unit of Toronto-based TSX Group Inc., opened a carbon market today, Canada's first. Canadian emissions rose the fastest in the Group of Eight industrialized nations from 1990 to 2004 as the population and economy expanded, according to Statistics Canada. ``We are keen and eager to work ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Big US Carbon Footprints Lie East Of Mississippi
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48565/story.htm
Reuters: Nine of the 10 US urban areas that release the most greenhouse gases per person lie east of the Mississippi River, a study showed on Thursday. "A north-south divide is also apparent," said the report issued by two think tanks, the New York-based Regional Plan Association and the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Seven of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are in the south, including two cities each in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, it said. Carbon ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Chances dim for climate-change legislation
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/30/news/economy/gunther_legislation.fortune/?p ostversion=2008053018
Fortune Magazine: An influential coalition of Fortune 500 companies and environmental groups that was formed to support climate-change legislation has splintered over the Lieberman-Warner bill that is headed next week to the Senate floor. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership formed last year won't take a position on the bill, although nine of its members - including General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) and four utility companies - signed a letter to senators backing the ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Cheap solar power now within reach, says study
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/cheap-solar-power-now-within -reach-says-study_10054588.html
Indo-Asian News Service: It has been called the holy grail of the modern era - cheap solar energy. And scientists say it may be within our grasp soon. A Queensland University team has grown the world's first titanium oxide nano crystals that are likely to revolutionise the way solar energy is harvested and used. Creating these highly efficient miniature crystals with large reactive surfaces was thought of as impossible by most scientists. Max Lu, who led the study, sounded upbeat that they were a step ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Canada: Deal to replace Kyoto accord must be realistic, Harper says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080530.HARPERCLIMATE30/T PStory/National
Globe and Mail: Stephen Harper warned yesterday that countries concerned about climate change must seek a realistic international deal that balances the environment and the economy, or face the possibility of no deal at all. The Prime Minister, speaking in Britain, which supports significantly deeper cuts to greenhouse gases than Canada does, said that a new deal to replace the Kyoto accord must strike such an equilibrium, or even the noblest efforts will be ineffective. "We will never ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Food Prices To Stay High, "Grain Drain" Fuel Blamed
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48574/story.htm
Reuters: Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records, meaning millions more risk further hardship or hunger, the OECD and the UN's FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday. Beyond stating the immediate need for humanitarian aid, the international bodies suggested wider deployment of genetically modified crops and a rethink of biofuel programmes that guzzle grain which could otherwise feed people and livestock. The report, ...

Sat, 31 May 08
German solar cuts less than feared, stocks rally
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL3012006720080530
Reuters: Germany's ruling parties have reached a deal to reduce support for the solar energy sector by 8 percent in 2009 and 2010, far less than the booming industry had feared. Shares in German solar power companies rallied, topping the leader board of Frankfurt's technology index after the deal came in lower than the 30 percent decrease in 2009 some German conservatives had pushed for. German law requires utilities to pay solar energy producers higher prices for solar power they put ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Germany Looks to Boost Biking as Europe Pedals Past
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3371344,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Germany wants to double its bicycle traffic by 2012. While breaking Germany's car addiction has proved a major challenge, other European cities have shown it's possible to make the switch. In most German city centers, biking beats out driving as the fastest way to get around. During the morning rush hour, it's not uncommon to see cars creeping forward while cyclists zip past. The incentives for Germans to bike have never been better, with a medium-sized car sucking away at ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Global Biofuel Output To Soar In Next Decade-Report
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48562/story.htm
Reuters: Global production of biofuels will rise rapidly over the next decade, helped by high government blending targets and subsidies, the OECD and the UN's FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday. These rises will boost already soaring world agricultural commodities prices and reduce their availability for food and feed, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organisation said in co-drafted report. "With a biofuel output that should more ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Solar Stocks Rally as Concerns Ease Over Subsidy Cuts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a1QSx3gBtl5Y&re fer=germany
Bloomberg: European solar stocks, including Q-Cells AG and Renewable Energy Corp. ASA, rallied after Germany's ruling coalition government agreed to implement smaller-than-expected subsidy cuts. Q-Cells, Germany's largest solar-power company, surged as much as 8.8 percent, the biggest one-day gain in two months, and traded at 75.90 euros as of 12:03 p.m. in Frankfurt. Renewable Energy, the largest maker of polysilicon used in solar panels, climbed as much as 6.8 percent in Oslo. The ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Solar Stocks Rally as German Subsidy Concerns Ease
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a0Bnvbnp57uI&re fer=europe
Bloomberg: Solar stocks, including Q-Cells AG and Renewable Energy Corp. ASA, rallied after Germany's ruling coalition government agreed to implement smaller-than-expected subsidy cuts. Q-Cells, Germany's largest solar-power company, surged 9.8 percent, the biggest one-day gain in two months, to close at 78.15 euros on the Frankfurt exchange. Renewable Energy Corp. ASA, the largest maker of polysilicon used in solar panels, climbed 6.1 percent to close at 151.5 kroner in Oslo. The ...

Sat, 31 May 08
United Kingdom: Thousands expected for Heathrow expansion protest
http://www.24dash.com/news/Environment/2008-05-30-Thousands-expected-for-He athrow-expansion-protest
24dash: Organisers are forecasting that thousands of people will take part in a march and rally tomorrow to protest against expansion at the UK's biggest airport. Demonstrators from all over the country are expected to descend on Heathrow Airport in west London for the protest. They will walk from Hatton Cross to Sipson, the village that will be lost if plans for a third runway at Heathrow go ahead. At Sipson, the protesters will gather in a field to form a huge "NO" ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Toyota denies decision on Prius in US
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jk3byrcaFDti8chX7PJUs-J0-T1AD90VSDQG4
Associated Press: Toyota said Friday that nothing had been decided yet on using its California joint venture plant with General Motors to produce its Prius hybrid – a move that would mark the first North American plant for the hit "green" car. Major daily Tokyo Shimbun reported Friday that Toyota Motor Corp. was in talks with General Motors Corp. about producing the Prius, now made in only Japan and China, at a joint venture plant in Fremont, California. The newspaper, which did not ...

Sat, 31 May 08
White House report backs climate change warnings
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-warming30-2008may30,0, 4571589.story
LA Times: President Bush's top science advisors issued a comprehensive report Thursday that for the first time endorses what most scientific experts have long asserted: that greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion "are very likely the single largest cause" of Earth's warming. The 271-page report could undercut opposition to the more aggressive provisions of climate legislation, which is to be debated in the Senate next week. The Bush administration had long resisted a ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Brazil Gathers 50 Countries to Discuss Sustainable Energy
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/9359/1/
Brazzil Magazine: Held in Brazil the Global Renewable Energy Forum after four days of debate on alternatives for energy production, ended with the conclusion that it is possible to find ways for countries to develop without compromising the planet's sustainability. More than 1,000 people from 50 different countries were in the southern Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu to discuss production of biofuels, solar and wind energy, hydroelectric plants and biomass. The Brazilian of Itaipu Binacional, Jorge ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Environment minister recommends Turkey joining Kyoto protocol
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0FIltWdWcH_3sAsOjMrGUDc6gPg
Agence France-Presse: Turkey's environment minister said Friday he has recommended that the government sign the Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming, the Anatolia news agency reported. "I sent the foreign ministry a letter saying that joining the Kyoto Protocol will be appropriate," Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu was quoted as saying. "This decision will go to the government, the prime minister will evaluate it and then submit it to parliament" for ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Global warming, or climate change?
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080530/BLOG12/317486604
Herald Tribune: As you are planning the next green improvement to your home, you might want to think about why you are doing it. Is it to save money? Provide a more healthful environment for your family? Or reduce your contribution to global warming? Think again about the latter. The science and design communities are starting to shy away from the phrase "global warming." It is somewhat confusing. " 'Climate change' is preferrable to 'global warming,' " said Sarasota ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Australia: Govt plans greenhouse emissions registry
http://news.theage.com.au/national/govt-plans-greenhouse-emissions-registry -20080530-2juh.html
AAP: The federal government is setting up a registry of greenhouse gas emissions as part of preparations for an emissions trading scheme. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has released a request for tenders to manage the registry, which will monitor emissions and is required by the Kyoto Protocol. The government late last year ratified the treaty, which sets limits on how much some countries can pollute. "The national registry will also underpin Australia's emissions ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Canada: Harper Sees `Big Shift' in Europe for Climate Treaty
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ai83x3Ox6OLI&re fer=canada
Bloomberg: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said European leaders may compromise on a global climate treaty by scaling back demands for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to win backing from major polluters such as the U.S. and China. ``They will gravitate to realistic targets,'' Harper, 49, said in an interview in London yesterday. ``There will be a lot more discussion on not just what targets are, but how targets can actually be achieved.'' Harper made the comment after a ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Japan advocates a "cool earth" strategy
http://upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/05/27/japan_advocates_a_cool_earth_s trategy/6411/
United Press International: Japanese environment officials are suggesting that their foreign counterparts make a symbolic gesture on July 7, when the G8 Summit begins in Hokkaido, by turning their lights off after dark. "Let us look up at the constellation-filled skies together" while unnecessary lights are all off, said Ichiro Kamoshita, Japan's environment minister at a recent press meeting. In Japan, July 7 falls on the annual Star Festival, when two stars in the Milky Way make a legendary ...

Sat, 31 May 08
United Kingdom: March Against Third Heathrow Runway
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1317685,00.html
Sky News: Thousands of protesters are set to mount a huge demonstration against expansion at the UK's biggest airport. Anger over third runway planIn what organisers hope will be the biggest-ever protest of its kind, the demonstration will be held at Heathrow airport in west London. Support for the event - being called Make A Noise Carnival - is expected from all over the UK. The demonstrators will walk from Hatton Cross to Sipson, the village that will be lost if plans for a ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Canada: Montreal carbon gases exchange up and running
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSMi1pBJIfi7GmM-Ks99sXkgu5SA
Agence France-Presse: Montreal's stock exchange on Friday officially launched the Montreal Climate Exchange, the country's first carbon trading forum aimed at helping to cut greenhouse gases. The trading mechanism seeks to get companies which produce more emissions of greenhouse gases to buy what amounts to the rights of others that are less polluting as part of broader efforts to tackle global warming. Canada had agreed under the international Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Pressure leads to release of climate report
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080530/NEWS/805300407/-1/newssitemap
New York Times: The Bush administration, bowing to a court order, has released a fresh summary of federal and independent research pointing to large, and mainly harmful, impacts in the United States from human-caused global warming. The report, released Thursday, is online at climatescience.gov. Most of the findings are not new. But the report included new projections of how the poor, elderly and communities with lagging public-health and public-works systems will face outsized health risks ...

Sat, 31 May 08
Act on climate change, top scientists warn US
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/30/climatechange.scienceofcl imatechange1
Guardian: A group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the US government yesterday to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the "unprecedented and unanticipated" effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prizewinners, presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions. The statement came as the Senate prepares to debate a bill next week that would impose economy-wide limits on greenhouse emissions to avert what it describes as ...

Fri, 30 May 08
US climate report fuels fears of drought
http://news.theage.com.au/world/us-climate-report-fuels-fears-of-drought-20 080530-2jr3.html
Reuters: The Bush administration has released a climate change assessment - four years late and pushed forward by a court order - that says human-induced global warming will likely lead to problems like droughts in the US West and stronger hurricanes. President George W Bush's stance on the issue has evolved from denying climate science to acknowledging that global warming is happening. In March, watchdog groups said Bush's decision to intervene in setting air pollution standards was ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Burning food: why oil is the real villain in the food crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/30/biofuels.food
Guardian: The rising cost of foods is widely being blamed on the use of grains for biofuels, and the case for the prosecution is simply made. About 100m tonnes of maize from this year's US crop will be diverted into ethanol refineries, an increase of a third on 2007's figure. This means one in 20 of all cereal grains produced in the world this year will end up in the petrol tank of US cars, the country that is most aggressively increasing the use of food for fuel. As we are all increasingly ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Climate Enters Debate Over Nuclear Power
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100769
New York Times: After part of a cooling tower collapsed last August at Vermont's only nuclear power plant, the company that runs it blamed rotting wooden timbers that it had failed to inspect properly. The uproar that followed rekindled environmental groups' hopes of shutting down the aging plant. The proposed closing, albeit a long shot, has gained some support this year among Vermont politicians. The discussion is bringing into sharp relief a conflict between two objectives long held by ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Report Sees Decade of High Food Prices
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100768
New York Times: Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week. Mr. Schafer took the offensive at a press conference on Thursday that discussed the food summit, planned for Rome. He said an analysis by the Agriculture Department had determined that biofuel production was responsible for only 2 to 3 percent of the increase in global food prices, while ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Britain announces help for fuel poor as prices boom
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL29837811
Reuters: The British government set out on Friday extra measures to help the poor and boost energy efficiency in the face of rocketing fuel prices. Booming oil and energy prices are adding to the headaches for Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose future is under threat due to a faltering economy, a mess-up on tax changes and his Labour Party's mauling in recent elections. From energy suppliers sharing data to more help for home insulation and microgeneration and an information campaign the ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Arctic methane may trigger abrupt climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/arctic-methane-may-trigger-abr upt-climate-change_10054078.html
Indo-Asian News Service: An abrupt release of methane from ice sheets 635 million years ago triggered a spell of global warming, says a study that contends something similar is just waiting to happen. Researchers believe the greenhouse gas was released gradually and then abruptly from clathrates - methane ice that forms beneath polar ice sheets. The release had resulted in a series of cataclysmic events and ended the last Ice Age. These same methane clathrates are present today in the Arctic permafrost as ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Brazil To Set Up Amazon Protection Fund
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48550/story.htm
Reuters: Brazil's state-run development bank will set up an international donations fund for the preservation of the Amazon, its chief said on Wednesday, as the country fends off criticism for not doing enough to preserve its rain forest. Luciano Coutinho, president of the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), told reporters the first contribution was already being negotiated with the Norwegian government and could be up to $200 million. "This fund is being ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Deep climate cuts urged; food price a wake-up call
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL29450128
Reuters: Governments will have to cut greenhouse gases far more deeply than planned to control global warming and high food prices linked to droughts are a wake-up call, four leading scientists said on Thursday. "We have lost 10 years talking about climate change but not acting on it," the experts, led by Britain's Martin Parry who is a co-chair of a U.N. Climate Panel group on the impacts of climate change, wrote in the journal Nature. They said there was "false ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Ecosystem damage costs trillions per year: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iP0O-eBA2yTtlYeC1aQ-jrdMLDzw
Agence France-Presse: Environmental damage and species loss costs between 1.35 and 3.1 trillion euros (2.1 to 4.8 trillion dollars) every year, according to a report released Thursday at a major UN conference on biodiversity. The study, commissioned by the European Union (EU) and the German government, is the biggest assessment ever made of the economic impact of ecological damage, and supporters compared it to the famous "Stern Report" on the cost of climate change. It was issued at a ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Scientists, economists urge US pollution cuts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6_bAyzz1zL6-gOyRvhhSwTobNBg
Agence France-Presse: Scientists and economists Thursday urged US policymakers to pass laws to cut greenhouse gases as Senate prepares to debate a sweeping climate change bill that is opposed by the White House. Highlighting the United States' failure to enact federal laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a statement signed by 1,700 experts calling for "swift and deep cuts." "The longer we wait, the harder and more costly it will be to limit ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Under Fire, White House Releases Report About Global Warming
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4959856&page=1
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Today, the White House finally released an overdue report on the comprehensive impact of global warming on the United States. It is the first such report from the Bush administration since it took office more than seven years ago. Starting to catch up with the understanding long agreed on by the world's climate scientists, the report says, "It is likely that there has been a substantial human contribution to surface temperature increases in North America." With ...

Fri, 30 May 08
US issues climate assessment forced by court order
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN29281888
Reuters: The Bush administration released a climate change assessment on Thursday -- four years late and pushed forward by a court order -- that said human-induced global warming will likely lead to problems like droughts in the U.S. West and stronger hurricanes. President George W. Bush's stance on the issue has evolved from denying climate science to acknowledging that global warming is happening. In March, watchdog groups said Bush's decision to intervene in setting air pollution standards ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Abu Dhabi to invest $2 bln in thin-film technology
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINL2981567320080529
Reuters: Abu Dhabi says it will invest $2 billion in cutting edge solar technology, building thin-film module production plants in Germany and Abu Dhabi, as it strives to compete with industry leaders such as First Solar (FSLR.O: Quote, Profile, Research). Masdar PV is part of Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion initiative set up by the Abu Dhabi government to develop sustainable energy and other clean technologies. "We are making a very large investment in what will eventually become ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Amnesty Condemns Forced Cane Labour In Brazil
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48548/story.htm
Reuters: Amnesty International criticized poor working conditions and forced labour in Brazil's fast-growing sugar cane sector on Wednesday, as the government tries to promote the cane-based ethanol industry as a way to reduce poverty. The human rights group said Brazil's government has taken steps to improve working conditions in rural areas, but it has confirmed cases of forced labour throughout the country. "Forced labour and exploitative working conditions were reported in ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Arctic power struggle looms
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=28b85448-692d-4a63 -bd33-28267b876546
Montreal Gazette: An Arctic Ocean summit aimed at easing territorial tensions among the five nations bordering the northern sea appeared to evolve yesterday into something more substantial: a kind of Arctic G5 with ambitious plans to oversee polar oil and mineral exploration, maritime security, transportation and environmental regulation. "The Arctic Ocean stands at the threshold of significant changes," the countries' Ilulissat Declaration stated. "Climate change and the melting ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Cities' carbon footprints fall below US average
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20080529_Cities__carbon _footprints_fall_below_U_S__average.html
Associated Press: While cities are hot spots for global warming, people living in them turn out to be greener than their country cousins. Each resident of the 100 largest metropolitan areas is responsible on average for 2.47 tons of carbon dioxide in energy consumption each year, 14 percent below the 2.87 ton U.S. average, researchers at the Brookings Institution say in a report being released today. Those 100 cities still account for 56 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide pollution. But ...

Fri, 30 May 08
City residents produce less carbon
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilnVSjW7eBQv4-nQNaPLjMmUMEjwD90V2TGG1
Associated Press: While cities are hot spots for global warming, people living in them turn out to be greener than their country cousins. Each resident of the largest 100 largest metropolitans areas is responsible on average for 2.47 tons of carbon dioxide in energy consumption each year, 14 percent below the 2.87 ton U.S. average, researchers at the Brookings Institution say in a report being released Thursday. Those 100 cities still account for 56 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Environmental damage costs $4.8 trillion annually
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0529-biodiversity.html
Mongabay: Environmental damage and biodiversity loss in forest ecosystems costs 2.1 to 4.8 trillion dollars per year, according to a report released Thursday at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Bonn, Germany. The report, entitled "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity" and commissioned by the European Union and the German government, attaches a monetary value to services provided by species and ecosystems. The report says these services are often ...

Fri, 30 May 08
EU wind power push to drive up costs: report
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINL2981349520080529
Reuters: Over-reliance on offshore wind farms to meet European renewable energy targets will lead to supply problems and drive up costs for investors, according to a new report by the Cambridge Energy Research Associates. The European Union wants to generate a fifth of its energy from renewable resources by 2020 but the majority of that will likely have to come from wind turbines and the industry may not be able to cope with the demand. "Big things are expected of offshore wind but ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Geoengineering could slow down the global water cycle
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-11 1142.html
Innovations Report: However, a new study from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, led by atmospheric scientist Govindasamy Bala, shows that this intentional manipulation of solar radiation also could lead to a less intense global water cycle. Decreasing surface temperatures through "geoengineering" also could mean less rainfall. The reduction in sunlight can be accomplished by geoengineering schemes. There are two classes: the so-called "sunshade" geoengineering scheme, which would mitigate climate ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Global Warming: Heck of a scare
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/364915_oceansed.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: It was a Paul Revere kind of day on global warming. In separate settings Tuesday, a federally commissioned report and a congressional hearing warned that climate change is indeed coming: One by land, and two by sea. Talk about a double whammy. The quality of the nation's future is at stake. A report for the Department of Agriculture from top scientists suggested the rise in food prices is something Americans will have to get used to. That's because a changing climate already is ...

Fri, 30 May 08
In Economic Terms, Recycling Almost Pays
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100744
New York Times: It still costs more to recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass in New York City than to simply chuck everything into the trash. But the cost difference has narrowed, and if the trend continues, recycling could end up being cheaper than trash disposal within five years, according to an analysis released on Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Recycling costs the city $284 a ton, while curbside trash disposal comes to $267 a ton, according to the ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Report warns of threats to Great Lakes
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=756152
Journal Sentinel: A coalition of conservation organizations is hoping that the threats posed to the Great Lakes by global warming will prod federal lawmakers into adopting a $26 billion ecosystem restoration plan that has languished in Congress for more than two years. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition issued a report Wednesday that offered no new science but did go into frightening detail of what previous studies showed could happen to the five big lakes if the Earth continues to ...

Fri, 30 May 08
RPT-States Sue EPA Over Ozone Pollution Standards
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48547/story.htm
Reuters: New York and 13 other states are suing US Environmental Protection Agency claiming it violated the Clean Air Act in revising ozone pollution standards in March, the New York attorney general said on Wednesday. "The EPA is charged with protecting the environment, yet the Bush administration has repeatedly used it as a tool for facilitating pollution instead of combating it," New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a release. In March, the EPA revised standards ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Russian wins new greenhouse gas emissions rights
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINL2325303220080529
Reuters: Russia has won rights to emit or sell licences for extra greenhouse gases equivalent to France's total annual output, after revisions to Soviet-era data underpinning a U.N. climate pact, official documents show. A 2007 review raised Russia's emissions ceiling under the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol for combating climate change by 107 million tonnes a year to 3.32 billion tonnes -- or 535 million tonnes extra under the pact's five years from 2008-12. Russia is the world's ...

Fri, 30 May 08
US climate change detailed
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/05/29/us_climate_change_detailed/ 2525/
United Press International: A federal report maintains climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources and biodiversity. The report, led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was written by 38 authors from universities, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations and federal agencies, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program said Wednesday in a news release. The report said alterations to U.S. ecosystems and services are expected to accelerate in the ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Canada House Gives Green Light To Biofuel Bill
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48540/story.htm
Reuters: Government legislation that will require all gasoline sold in Canada to contain 5 percent ethanol by 2010 passed the House of Commons on Wednesday. The bill, which also calls for diesel to contain 2 percent renewable fuels by 2012, won the support of the main opposition Liberal Party but was opposed by two smaller parties that had voiced concern about food-crop production being diverted to fuel. However, the governing Conservatives and the Liberals have both backed the idea, ...

Fri, 30 May 08
EU to back Norway aid for carbon sequestration
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINL2981442620080529
Reuters: The European Commission is likely to approve Norway's use of state aid to subsidise the development of carbon capture and storage to fight greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the EU's energy chief said. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), which works by burying carbon dioxide (CO2) deep underground, is seen by industry and some lawmakers as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change as it could curb emissions from coal plants. But it has never been ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Heatwave Hits Balkans, Dozens In Hospital
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48543/story.htm
Reuters: Temperatures hit record highs across the Balkans on Wednesday, killing one person and sending dozens to hospitals around the region with heatstroke. Bosnia's meteorology institute said temperatures may hit a 100-year record, reaching over 35 degrees Celsius in central parts of the country and 38 degrees in the south. Temperatures had jumped by 15 degrees since Monday, it added. The Sarajevo University medical centre said it had seen over 200 patients with heat-induced ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Is Oil Windfall A Curse For Poor Countries?
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48554/story.htm
Reuters: Red-hot oil prices are a blessing for big energy companies but often prove a curse for poor oil-producing countries. Exxon Mobil Corp and other energy giants traditionally use good times as an occasion to make prudent investments with their cash. But oil-rich countries that are poor -- and often poorly run -- tend to squander their windfall profits on dubious projects or have them stolen by corrupt officials. So when the inevitable price bust occurs, developing countries are ...

Fri, 30 May 08
Italy greens say no to nuclear to push renewable energy
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINL2949152020080529
Reuters: Italy should keep its ban on nuclear power and should boost solar and wind energy instead to resolve its energy supply problems, Italian environmentalists said on Thursday as nuclear revival debate heated up. Italy banned nuclear power in a 1987 referendum after the Chernobyl disaster. But calls for a nuclear renaissance have intensified this month under the new government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as oil prices stormed record highs. "We say 'No' to nuclear... to ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Protected forests in Brazil could cut CO2 drastically: study
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Tech+%2526+Science/STIStory_242150. html
Agence France-Presse: AN AMBITIOUS plan to put more than 10 per cent of Brazil's Amazon forest beyond the grasp of loggers and agribusiness could slash carbon emissions by 1.1 billion tonnes by mid-century, according to a study released on Wednesday. Deforestation in the tropics accounts for 20 per cent of global emissions of CO2, making it the second largest driver of global warming after the burning of fossil fuels. Amazonia alone accounts for nearly half of those emissions, and 65 per cent of ...

Thu, 29 May 08
The Big Chill on Carbon Offsets
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0529/p08s01-comv.html
Christian Science Monitor: Before Congress attacks global warming with a cap on greenhouse gases – and then allows firms to pollute if they buy "carbon offsets" elsewhere – lawmakers should consult the UN's abysmal record in this slippery type of trading. The UN set up its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to help companies in industrialized countries invest in projects in poorer nations that cut greenhouse-gas emissions as part of their countries' commitment under the Kyoto Protocol or the European ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Pricey petrol does a world of good
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/pricey-petrol-does-a-world-of-good/2008/ 05/28/1211654120229.html
Sydney Morning Herald: There was a time when supermarket dockets were but fiddly bits of paper that were carelessly crumpled and thrown away. But a strange thing is happening at checkouts across the country. People are receiving their dockets gratefully, folding them carefully, and saving them to claim a four-cents-a-litre discount on petrol. Soaring fuel prices have transformed the humble supermarket docket into hallowed relief from record oil prices. The high price of oil is changing consumer behaviour ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Australia: Solar industry to tackle government
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23776359-12377,00.html
Australian: A SOLAR industry delegation is due in Canberra today to tackle the Federal Government over its decision to slash rebates for solar panels. A government decision to means test the $8000 rebate has angered environmental groups and sparked panic in the solar panel industry. Households earning more than $100,000 a year will no longer be eligible for the rebate. Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt says solar panel companies around Australia are facing ruin ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Germany pledges millions to save forests
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINL2873254120080528
Reuters: Germany has pledged 500 million euros ($786.2 million) by 2012 to help protect the world's forests, a move activists said could give impetus to U.N. talks on preserving the earth's biodiversity. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who won praise from environmentalists last year for her part in pushing through EU and G8 deals to fight climate change, made the commitment at a U.N. conference as it entered its decisive phase. "We need a turning point on the issue of biodiversity," ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Global warming to deplete Great Lakes even more
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2832126520080528
Reuters: Global warming will likely drain more water from the Great Lakes and pose added pollution threats to the region's vulnerable ecosystem, environmental groups said in a report issued on Wednesday. Climate change could further reduce scant ice cover observed in recent winters, increasing evaporation rates and dropping water levels in the five lakes that collectively make up 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water. Last year, Lake Superior water levels receded to their lowest ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Melting of methane ice triggered long-ago warming surge: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3U0vEk53bVXHIcGUqqO64rvDAUg
Agence France-Presse: Melting of methane ice unleashed runaway global warming some 635 million years ago, according to a study released Wednesday that has implications for today's climate-change crisis. Release of the potent greenhouse-gas, at first in small amounts and then in massive volumes, brought a sudden end to the planet's longest Ice Age, its authors believe. During the "Snowball Earth" era, Earth froze over completely, with glaciers that crept down into the tropics and possibly ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Ministers line up to protect world's forests at UN meet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080528/sc_afp/environmentbiodiversityunforest swwf_080528183438
Agence France-Presse: Ministers from nearly 60 nations pledged Wednesday on the sidelines of a UN biodiversity conference to support a global effort to halt deforestation by 2020. Top environment officials from every continent literally lined up to make the pledge, organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a highly influential environmental protection group. "Wildly successful" is how WWF International's director general James Leape described the event, even as more ministers straggled ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Report: Warming could worsen Great Lakes problems
http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/05/report_warming_could_worsen _gr.html
Associated Press: Climate change could worsen a litany of problems plaguing the Great Lakes, pushing water levels even lower, depleting fish populations and causing more storms that result in sewer overflows, advocates said Thursday. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which represents more than 100 groups, released a report that paints a dire picture as the U.S. Senate prepares for debate next week on proposed global warming legislation. The bill could represent a new source of ...

Thu, 29 May 08
'Eye-opening' US report on climate impacts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24856497/
MSNBC: Climate change is increasing the risk of U.S. crop failures, depleting the nation's water resources and contributing to outbreaks of invasive species and insects, according to a federal report released Tuesday. Those and other problems for the U.S. livestock and forestry industries will persist for at least the next 25 years, said the report compiled by 38 scientists for use by water and land managers. "I think what's really eye-opening is the depth and breadth of the ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Ancient "Snowball Earth" Melted Fast Due to Methane
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080528-snowball-earth.html
National Geographic: A massive release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, may have triggered rapid melting of the last "snowball Earth" about 635 million years ago, a new study suggests. According to the snowball theory, ancient Earth experienced periods of global glaciation when ice sheets extended all the way to the Equator. Methane ice forms and stabilizes beneath glaciers under certain temperatures and pressures, noted lead study author Martin Kennedy, a geologist at the University ...

Thu, 29 May 08
China's Ambitious Plan for More Nuclear Power Domestic Expansion Dominates Capacity
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1405477/chinas_ambitious_plan_for_mor e_nuclear_power_domestic_expansion_dominates/
Reuters: Nuclear power companies in China aim to join automobile and electronics makers as export powerhouses, but big domestic expansion plans may not leave them the capacity to make an overseas push for more than a decade, analysts say. A $1 billion deal signed last week with Russia to build and supply a uranium enrichment plant in China was another step toward civilian nuclear independence, less than two decades after China's first nuclear generator came on line. The country sealed ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Climate change hits the West
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_9397195?source=commented-news
Denver Post: Some of the most dramatic – and negative – effects from climate change will take place in the American West, according to a new federal study. While the East will become wetter and Midwest grain crops may benefit from longer growing seasons, the West will be drier and rangeland livestock production could decline because of stress from hotter summers. The study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – a survey and synthesis of existing research – paints a picture of sweeping changes in ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Cut CO2 to India's level, top scientist urges
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL28290944
Reuters: Rich nations need to cut per-capita greenhouse gas emissions to India's current levels by mid-century to avoid devastating climate change, Britain's former chief scientific adviser said on Wednesday. Global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from burning fossil fuels were already rising quickly and rich nations needed to quickly figure out how to maintain economic growth while committing to deep cuts in emissions, said David King. "If you (don't want) run-away climate change, you ...

Thu, 29 May 08
United Kingdom: Defra launches invasive species strategy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/05/28/easpecies 128.xml
Telegraph: Rising global temperatures are fuelling the growth of invasive foreign plants and animals in Britain and putting hundreds of native species at risk, the Government has warned. The spread of these non indigenous species is considered the second biggest threat to British wildlife - after habitat loss - and costs the economy between £2 and £6 billion a year. Iconic native plants and animals, such as bluebells, red squirrels and water voles, are all under threat. The problem ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Exxon to cut funding to climate change denial groups
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.fossilfuels
Guardian: The oil giant ExxonMobil has admitted that its support for lobby groups that question the science of climate change may have hindered action to tackle global warming. In its corporate citizenship report, released last week, ExxonMobil says it intends to cut funds to several groups that "divert attention" from the need to find new sources of clean energy. The move comes ahead of the firm's annual meeting today in Dallas, at which prominent shareholders including the ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Forest carbon credits could help development in Congo
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0529-interview_laporte.html
Mongabay: An initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by offering carbon credits to countries that reduce deforestation may be one of the best mechanisms for promoting sustainable development in Central Africa says a remote sensing expert from the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC). Dr. Nadine Laporte, an associate scientist with WHRC who uses remote sensing to analyze land use change in Africa, says that REDD could protect forests, safeguard biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods in ...

Thu, 29 May 08
GE, Schlumberger agree CO2 alliance
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL2893206120080528
Reuters: General Electric Co. (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and oilfield services company Schlumberger Ltd (SLB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have agreed to work together on carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration technology and storage, an executive said on Monday. The accord is the first global pact on C02 linking an energy technology provider and an oil industry company, Diarmaid Mulholland, regional general manager for GE's energy services in Europe, told Reuters. "It's more of a ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Germany Pledges Funds for Protection of Tropical Forests
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,555977,00.html
Spiegel: Stopping global warming means putting a halt to deforestation. At the UN biodiversity conference in Bonn on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged billions of euros to support that effort. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday that her government would increase its budget for the protection of tropical forests by billions of euros. Appearing at the opening of the meeting of international government ministers at the UN's biodiversity conference in ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Japan: How the ice breaks too early in the land of the rising sun
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.conservatio n
Guardian: The open deck of the Aurora fills as soon as its captain, Keiichi Hori, announces he has spotted ice. Cameras primed, groups of elderly tourists jostle for position as the telltale white line in the distance slowly morphs into a carpet of sea ice. As the bow of the ship meets the ice, they struggle to hide their disappointment. Viewed from the deck, the frozen layers below appear wafer thin and barely raise a crackle as the Aurora slips through, emerging into clear water only minutes ...

Thu, 29 May 08
United States: Markey unveils sweeping global warming bill
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/05/markey_unveils.html
Boston Globe: Representative Edward J. Markey, the chairman of the special House committee on global warming, today unveiled sweeping legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise billions of dollars to create alternative sources of energy. The bill - the culmination of more than 40 hearings by Markey's committee - marks the starting point for a new legislative battle against global warming, a centerpiece of congressional Democrats' agenda for the immediate future. Markey, a Malden ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Report: Congress must pay to counteract global warming's effect on Great Lakes
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080528/NEWS06/80528093
Detroit Free Press: The Great Lakes are likely to face serious threats from global warming and Congress needs to pay for restoring the lakes now so they'll have a better chance of being resilient once temperatures rise and lake levels drop as predicted. Warming over the next century could lower lakes and expose toxic sediment that has been buried, reduce wetlands that help filter pollution and cause heavy rains that lead to more sewer overflows, threatening water quality, a new report by the Healing Our ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Shell quits UK windfarm
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL2870551520080528
Reuters: Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) was disappointed to pull out of a big UK windfarm project after rising costs, and its Canadian oil sands projects were "not a good thing" for the climate, the chairman of Shell UK said. James Smith, speaking at a climate change workshop hosted by Thomson Reuters on Wednesday, said Shell had decided to sell its share of the London Array windfarm project after capital costs increased significantly in the past ...

Thu, 29 May 08
US south-west warned of dire climate challenges
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/28/usa.climatechange
Guardian: The US south-west, a region that is experiencing one of the fastest rates of population growth, faces dramatic challenges in the next 50 years from drought, wildfires and changing ecosystems caused by global warming, a report from the Bush administration warns. The paper, commissioned by the US department of agriculture, looks at the likely impact of rising temperatures caused by higher emissions of CO2 during the next 25 to 50 years on America's agriculture, land and water resources ...

Thu, 29 May 08
US struggling to respond to climate shift
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn13998-us-struggling-to- respond-to-climate-shift.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
New Scientist: Climate change is leaving its mark on US ecosystems sooner and more emphatically than biologists had expected. And because the US is not adequately prepared to measure those changes as they occur, land managers may have a harder time mounting an effective response to climate change. These unsettling conclusions come from a report released yesterday by the US Climate Change Science Program, a government body set up to coordinate climate change research. The program assembled 38 ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Warming Climate Changing U.S. Fields and Forests
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2008/2008-05-28-091.asp
Environment News Service: Forests in the interior western United States, the southwest, and Alaska are already being affected by climate change with increases in the size and frequency of forest fires, insect outbreaks and tree mortality. These changes are expected to continue, according to a new report issued Thursday by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The Climate Change Science Program integrates the federal research efforts of 13 agencies on global change change. The U.S. Department of ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Airlines protest at cost of EU emissions vote
http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSL2849428920080528
Reuters: The aviation industry could be hit with billions of euros of extra costs from new proposals aimed at curbing carbon dioxide after 2013 and will struggle to cope, airlines said on Wednesday. Under proposals being drawn up in Brussels to fight climate change, all airlines using airports in the 27-nation European Union would be included in the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2012, with a cap on their emissions of greenhouse gases. The European Parliament's environment committee ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Climate change in Greece will fuel forest fires: Nobel scientist
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/208438,climate-change-in-greece-wil l-fuel-forest-fires-nobel-scientist.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Global warming will curb rainfall and fuel forest fires throughout Greece, Christos Zerefos, one of two Greek scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to combat climate change said Wednesday. "From 2031 until 2060, Greece will see its rainfall dwindle by 25 per cent and its sea level rise up to 20 centimetres and the period of risk for forest fires will increase by up to three weeks," he was quoted by the Greek daily Kathimerini. Zerefos is also the ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Coke pledges push to cut global warming impact
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/shared/money/stories/2008/05/COKE _GREEN28_COX_F5811.html
Cox Newspapers: The Coca-Cola Co. pledged Tuesday to reduce its carbon footprint by buying 100,000 beverage coolers fitted with new environment friendly technologies. Speaking at a lecture in Beijing organized by the environmental group Greenpeace, Neville Isdell, chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based beverage giant, said the company would "purchase and deploy" by 2010 refrigerators and vending machines cooled by compressed carbon dioxide rather than hydrofluorocarbons. Better ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Global warming could worsen Great Lakes problems, study says
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdAkEp8fp0x6R9ur6aIfGzVtdBkA
Canadian Press: A new report says climate change could worsen a litany of problems plaguing the Great Lakes, from low water levels to depleted fish populations. The report comes from the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, which represents more than 100 advocacy groups. The U.S. Senate is preparing to debate global warming legislation next week. Coalition leaders say that could generate funding for Great Lakes cleanup efforts. But even if it passes, advocates say the lakes will ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Mass. governor signs ocean resource bill
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5igy9JTnP1aa_70f7Y6J5oB001IkQD90UOV701
Associated Press: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a landmark bill that aims to better protect and manage the state's ocean resources. Patrick signed the landmark Oceans Act of 2008 on Wednesday at the New England Aquarium in Boston. The law comes as the state deals with numerous offshore projects, including proposed liquefied natural gas facilities. It aims to ensure that decisions and permits about development in state-controlled waters conform to a single, science-based ...

Thu, 29 May 08
Q&A: "Climate Change Is Like Tossing a Pebble in a Calm Pond"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42553
Inter Press Service: In his new book "The Great Warming, Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilisations", author and archaeologist Dr. Brian Fagan peers into the past to offer a prologue to the growing climate crisis. His book gives a detailed and methodical account of the era between the 10th and 15th centuries known as the Great Warming Period among earth scientists. Apparently, we have a lot learn from the ordinary lives of European yeoman and Mongolian horsemen in regards to ...

Wed, 28 May 08
New Climate Report Foresees Big Changes
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100588
New York Times: The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new federal report says. The changes are unfolding in ways that are likely to produce an uneven national map of harms and benefits, according to the report, released Tuesday and posted online at climatescience.gov. The authors ...

Wed, 28 May 08
China: Plastic Not Fantastic? - Bag Bans Around The World
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48527/story.htm
Reuters: China will become the latest country to outlaw ultra-thin plastic bags, when a ban takes effect on Sunday, in a bid to cut pollution and save resources. The ban, announced by the State Council in January, halts the production of bags that are thinner than 0.025 mm and forbids their use in supermarkets and shops. It also requires retailers to charge customers for thicker plastic bags not covered by the ban. Environmentalists say plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to ...

Wed, 28 May 08
United Kingdom: Renewables revolution as first tidal-power turbine comes on stream for National Grid
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Renewables-revolution-as-first-tidalpower. 4124862.jp
Scotsman: SCOTLAND'S drive to develop new sources of renewable energy took a leap forward yesterday as the first tidal-power-driven electricity was connected to the National Grid. The milestone was achieved by OpenHydro, an Irish-based renewable-energy company, whose tidal turbine device was installed at the European Marine Energy Centre's (Emec) test site off the island of Eday in Orkney two years ago. The single 250kW turbine can generate enough electricity to power only 100 homes, but ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Americans Save Energy, But No Relief At Pump Seen
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48535/story.htm
Reuters: Battered by record high gasoline prices, Americans are finally parking their SUVs and embracing energy conservation, but any impact on world markets could be slow in coming. As the US summer driving season kicked off with the Memorial Day holiday weekend, evidence mounted that Americans are cutting back on their driving and looking for alternative means of getting around. Detrie Zacharias, 49, said high gas prices have forced him and his wife to change their driving habits. ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Are you an eco-angel or a carbon criminal?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/property/are-you-an- ecoangel-or-a-carbon-criminal-834935.html
Independent: Do your efforts to live a green life consist of installing a low-energy light bulb on the landing and putting out the odd empty wine bottle for recycling? Then it's time to take a long, hard look at your home and your lifestyle. The Dobbins family from Durham decided to do just that when they won the eco-audit at this year's Independent charity auction. The family of three has shared the audit's findings to help others benefit from what they learnt. An essential first step in ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Heavy Pollution Warning Issued In Beijing
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48528/story.htm
Reuters: Pollution levels rose sharply in Beijing on Tuesday, just 2- months before the Olympic Games in the city, prompting authorities to warn residents with respiratory problems to stay inside. Air quality in the capital was rated as "heavily polluted" due to a sandstorm from Mongolia, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said. The bureau advised people susceptible to particles in the air to avoid outdoor activities. Such sandstorms usually hit the city in ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Australia: Enough oil to last 'for at least another 30 years'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23770306-5013871,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA'S rural economic forecaster has challenged predictions the world is about to run out of oil, saying ithas enough to last for at least another 30 years. ABARE chief Phillip Glyde told a Senate estimates committee yesterday that the peak-oil school of thought, which holds that reserves are near depletion, was wrong. "The rough level of reserves to production remains the same, so we are confident there is not a physical limit to supply over the next 30 years, which is the ...

Wed, 28 May 08
EU backs early start for airline carbon trading
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/28/travelandtransport.greenp olitics
Guardian: MEPs threw down the gauntlet to struggling airlines yesterday by voting overwhelmingly to include aviation in Europe's emissions trading scheme (ETS) a year earlier than planned. The European parliament's environment committee said airlines should be covered by the ETS from 2011 rather than 2012 as proposed by the European commission and the 27 national governments. The MEPs pressed the EU to force airlines to bid for at least 25% of pollution permits and to set the cap on CO2 ...

Wed, 28 May 08
EU proposes early start to aircraft emissions scheme
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/eu-proposes-early-start-to- aircraft-emissions-scheme-835216.html
Independent: The European Parliament has proposed accelerating the inclusion of the aviation industry in the Emissions Trading Scheme, the carbon credit system which is the centrepiece of the bloc's efforts to curb climate change. Last night, the Parliament's environment committee voted that any airline touching down in the EU from 2011 would have to adhere to pollution targets set out by the scheme – a year earlier than previously suggested. The MEPs also proposed increasing the amount ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Climate Change Casts Marine Science Adrift
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42535
Inter Press Service: Climate change is altering the world's oceans in so many ways scientists cannot keep pace, and as a result there is no comprehensive vision of its present and future impacts, say experts. Rising sea levels, changes in hurricane intensity and seasonality, declines in fisheries and coral reefs are among the many phenomena attributed to climate change. In an attempt to put some order to their disconcerting findings, more than 450 scientists from some 60 countries gathered last ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Pioneers Show Americans How To Live "Off-Grid"
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48512/story.htm
Reuters: With energy prices going through the roof, an alternative lifestyle powered by solar panels and wind turbines has suddenly become more appealing to some. For architect Todd Bogatay, it has been reality for years. When he bought this breezy patch of scrub-covered mountaintop with views to Mexico more than two decades ago, he was one of only a few Americans with an interest in wind- and solar-powered homes. Now, Bogatay is surrounded by 15 neighbors who, like him, live off ...

Wed, 28 May 08
US on track to break record for tornadoes
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQ136qs2wqxKUKaqMXS9lwgzj-agD90UB8H80
Associated Press: Another week, another rumbling train of tornadoes that obliterates entire city blocks, smashing homes to their foundations and killing people even as they cower in their basements. With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year, according to the National Weather Service. Also, this year's storms seem to be unusually powerful. But like ...

Wed, 28 May 08
US Senate Set To Take Up Climate Change Debate
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48511/story.htm
Reuters: The international fight to control climate change heads to a new arena in June when the Senate is to debate a bill that could cut total US global warming emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Environmentalists are supportive but want more in the legislation, the business community questions the economic impact, and the politicians who have shepherded it seem gratified that it has managed to get this far -- even though it is unlikely to become law this year. "I look upon this ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Wind Parks Off Norway Seen New Energy Export
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48507/story.htm
Reuters: Sea-based wind parks off Norway could generate large amounts of energy for export to the European Union with investments totalling up to $44 billion by 2025, a report indicated on Monday. "Norway has a very large potential to produce wind power offshore," according to a 30-page report by the country's Energy Council, comprising officials and business leaders. It said that green exports from Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, could help the European Union ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Brazil gets new environment minister
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFZIWGYLkmkogrULTnCWQDhhbEJQD90U8Q4G0
Associated Press: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva swore in Brazil's new environment minister on Tuesday, delivering a speech that accused rich nations of hypocrisy over the Amazon and global warming. Carlos Minc, the former environment secretary for Rio de Janeiro state and a founder of Brazil's Green Party, replaces rain forest defender Marina Silva as environment minister. Marina Silva resigned on May 13, citing stagnation in promoting the federal environmental agenda. President Silva – ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Brazil's Lula hits out at foreign Amazon critics
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Flora__Fauna/Brazils_Lula_hits_out_at_fo reign_Amazon_critics_/articleshow/3076424.cms
Reuters: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hit out at foreign critics of his stewardship of the environment on Monday, saying the world needed to understand that the Amazon belonged to Brazilians. He told a forum in Rio de Janeiro it was "amusing" that countries who were among the world's worst polluters wanted to talk about preserving the rain forest. "The world needs to understand that the Amazon has an owner, and that is the Brazilian people," Lula said. ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Britain Needs Personal Carbon Trading Scheme-MPs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48513/story.htm
Reuters: Britain should consider giving individuals a personal carbon emissions allowance in order to help the country meet its CO2 emissions target, a report by a committee of lawmakers said on Monday. Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee said the government had to reduce carbon emissions from individuals and households, as well as businesses and industry, if it was to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050 as planned. Introducing a personal carbon allowance -- ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Canada's Irving To Study Bay Of Fundy Tidal Power
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48501/story.htm
Reuters: Irving Oil Ltd, which is planning a second major refinery in New Brunswick, will study the potential for a tidal power development in the Bay of Fundy, site of the world's highest tides, the privately held company said Monday. Irving has teamed up with the non-profit Huntsman Marine Science Centre to conduct two years of research on 11 prospective generating sites near the north shore of the bay, which lies between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The partners aim to examine ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Climate change could trim corn yields: USDA
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2738319220080527
Reuters: Warmer temperatures brought on by climate change could trim output of some U.S. crops like corn in coming decades, but increase yields from other crops like soybeans, government scientists said on Tuesday. U.S. corn output dips and rises from year-to-year but has risen overall as farmers use new seeds and fertilizers to maximize growth. But output of the corn crops grown today could fall as much as much as 5 percent in coming decades as expected higher temperatures brought on ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Climate Destruction Will Produce Millions of 'Envirogees'
http://www.alternet.org/environment/86285/
AlterNet: Chew on this word, jargon lovers. Envirogee. It carries more 21st century buzz than its semi-official designation climate refugee, which is a displaced individual who has been forced to migrate because of environmental devastation. Maybe the buzzword will catch on faster and shed some much-needed light on what will become a serious problem, probably by the end of this or the next decade. That light is crucial, because so far envirogees haven't been fully recognized by those who ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Conservative group starting campaign to foil climate bill
http://www.kxmc.com/News/242182.asp
Associated Press: Montana Democrats Max Baucus and Jon Tester are among six senators from both parties, who are targets of radio and TV ads aimed at killing a climate change bill. A conservative, free-market advocacy group called The Club for Growth will air the ads beginning this week in North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Ads aimed at Tester and Baucus will air in Montana next week. The climate bill would cap carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, transportation, and ...

Wed, 28 May 08
McCain climate views clash with GOP
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/27/mccain_climate_views_clash _with_gop/8917/
United Press International: Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain's clash with his own party over global warming will be on full display next week in the U.S. Senate. McCain's support for climate change measures like a cap-and-trade system differs with a more conservative, hands-off approach backed by President Bush and other Republican leaders, the Politico reported Tuesday. The expected Senate debate may well divide the party publicly, with Democrats not expected to offer any bipartisan compromise ...

Wed, 28 May 08
On eve of Exxon vote, a look at other Big Oil alt energy investments
http://www.reuters.com/article/dealAtoms/idUSCH11502008301632520080527
Reuters: Should ExxonMobil separate its chairman and CEO positions and invest more in alternative energy projects? These questions will come to a vote at the company's shareholder meeting tomorrow. Members of the Rockefeller family, plus nineteen institutional investors -- including some of ExxonMobil's largest shareowners, with more than $740 billion in combined assets under management-- will vote yes on some or all of the relevant resolutions. Exxon Mobil's critics cite the billions of ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Sweden pushes biogas as gasoline substitute
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/business/greencol28.php
International Herald Tribune: Taking a road trip? Remember to visit the toilet first. This city is among dozens of municipalities in Sweden with facilities that transform sewage waste into enough biogas to run thousands of cars and buses. Cars using biogas created a stir when they began to be rolled out on a large scale at the start of the decade. The tailpipe emissions are virtually odorless, the fuel is cheaper than gasoline and diesel, and the idea of recovering energy from toilet waste appealed to green-minded ...

Wed, 28 May 08
USDA report says climate change affecting crops, livestock
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-climatechange-cropfa,0,3711650.st ory
Associated Press: Climate change is increasing the risk of U.S. crop failures, depleting the nation's water resources and contributing to outbreaks of invasive species and insects, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report released Tuesday. Those and other problems for the U.S. livestock and forestry industries will persist for at least the next 25 years, said the report compiled by 38 scientists for use by water and land managers. "I think what's really eye-opening is the depth ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Canada: BC industry lines up against carbon tax
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=5e7547ab-0554-4f89-86e3-698 e6df5f12b
Canwest News Service: Facing a half-billion-dollar hit from British Columbia's looming new carbon tax, the province's major industrial players are banding together in hopes of convincing the government to return more of the revenue-neutral tax to corporations. Representatives from the mining, cement, forestry and smelting industries will travel Friday to Victoria for the latest in a series of meetings with the province's climate-change secretariat. Their goal is to impress upon government the damage they ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Brazilian ethanol industry feels winds of change
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/business/ethanol.php
International Herald Tribune: At the start of the cane harvest this year at the São Francisco ethanol mill, workers gathered to ask God for protection and a good crop. It was a traditional Roman Catholic Mass, celebrated inside the mill's main building, infused with the sweet smell of sugar cane. Around 150 employees and their relatives surrounded an imposing altar. The offerings included a bottle filled with ethanol, a wooden toy truck and a cane cutter's machete. "It's a long tradition. Our ...

Wed, 28 May 08
EU target for biofuels scrutinized as prices rise
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D90U33KG0.htm
Associated Press: Faced with rising food prices and new issues around carbon dioxide emissions, EU legislators are proposing to scale back an ambitious target to use more biofuels in vehicles to fight climate change. Last year, the 27-nation EU endorsed a plan calling for a 10-percent share of biofuels for cars and trucks by 2020. It is part of a broader commitment to provide 20 percent of all energy in the EU from renewable sources, up from 8.5 percent now. The European Commission, the EU's ...

Wed, 28 May 08
France Calls for European Union to Ease Gas Taxes
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-27-voa32.cfm
Voice of America: The French government has called for the European Union to suspend certain gas taxes and for OPEC to increase production as part of a series of measures to ease the high cost of oil - which has topped $130 a barrel. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris European fishermen and British truckers are protesting soaring diesel prices. During an early morning radio interview, French President Nicolas Sarkozy outlined plans for domestic energy subsidies and heating fuel rebates for poorer ...

Wed, 28 May 08
G8 Environment Ministers Agree on 2050 Climate Goal
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2008/2008-05-27-04.asp
Environment News Service: Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations concluded a three-day meeting in Kobe Monday with an agreement on the long-term goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. But the ministers failed to support specific emissions reduction targets for 2020, as recommended last year by an international body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. Still, the G8 environment ministers said there is "strong ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Group asks Canada to halt sale of Arctic gas and oil rights
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDp0OK5zRYUDqdThsAmH8fyFob0g
Agence France-Presse: The World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday urged Canada to postpone the sale of oil and gas rights in the Beaufort Sea, worried the drilling areas would overlap with key Arctic habitat for polar bears and whales. "This sale is premature due to the absence of a completed Beaufort Sea management plan that would protect sensitive habitats, which polar bears, beluga and bowhead whales need for their survival," Peter Ewins, director of species conservation at WWF-Canada, said in a ...

Wed, 28 May 08
United States: Seattle hearing on rising acidity in Pacific Ocean
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_acid_seawater.html
Associated Press: Puget Sound faces an uncertain future due to the increasing acidity of seawater, a panel of marine scientists said Tuesday. The changes are coming more rapidly than expected, and could disrupt food chains and threaten Washington's shellfish industry. The acidic seawater is moving closer to shallow waters containing the bulk of marine life, according to an article this month in the journal Science. The increasingly corrosive water threatens the survival of many organisms, from ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Tidal power fuels Britain's National Grid
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/05/27/eatidal12 7.xml
Telegraph: Tidal power has been harnessed to generate electricity for Britain's National Grid for the first time, it has been announced. The move has been hailed as a milestone in the development of marine energy, which could provide up to a fifth of Britain's electricity needs. It came when a single turbine on the Atlantic seabed off Orkney was connected to the National Grid on Monday morning. The area off the north of Scotland is regarded as potentially one of the best in the world ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Canada: Western premiers can't agree on best way to fight global warming
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=5c80aec0-d7b9-4c87 -b1cc-02d95b91856d
Canwest News Service: Canada's western premiers are headed into three days of meetings hoping to bolster a growing economic partnership - but they're fiercely divided over how best to tackle environmental consequences such as climate change. Leaders from the four western provinces and three territories will gather in Prince Albert, Sask., until Friday for a round of annual talks dedicated this year to sustaining growth in the West. While Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and Saskatchewan's Brad Wall are ...

Wed, 28 May 08
Wind Power Could Make Norway "Europe's Battery"
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48504/story.htm
Reuters: Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro or wave power. "Norway could be Europe's battery," Oil and Energy ...

Tue, 27 May 08
Australia: Clean coal needed in 2-3 years: Flannery
http://news.smh.com.au/national/clean-coal-needed-in-23-years-flannery-2008 0526-2i87.html
AAP: Climate expert Tim Flannery says the coal industry should be penalised if it does not develop clean technologies within the next two to three years. Professor Flannery was speaking at a local government managers' conference on the Gold Coast when talk turned to the viability of coal as an energy source. The 2007 Australian of the Year criticised the coal industry for its reluctance to embrace "greener" technologies, despite being one of the biggest contributors to ...

Tue, 27 May 08
EPOCA: Ocean Acidification and its Consequences on Ecosystems
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-1 10757.html
Innovations Report: Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) through human activities have a well-known impact on the Earth's climate. Its other, less well-known, impact is "ocean acidification", with uncertain consequences on marine organisms and ecosystems. Anzeige The European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) will be launched on 10 June 2008. Its goal is to document ocean acidification, investigate its impact on biological processes, predict its consequences over the next 100 years, and ...

Tue, 27 May 08
G8 environment ministers: halve emissions by 2050
http://in.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idINT33193820080526
Reuters: Environment ministers from the G8 rich nations on Monday urged their leaders to set a global target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a small but vital step in the fight against climate change. But they stopped short of suggesting specific interim targets ahead of 2050, a key demand of developing countries in tough U.N.-led talks to forge a new treaty on global warming by the end of next year. Germany's secretary of state for the environment, Matthias Machnig, said the ...

Tue, 27 May 08
G8 ministers endorse greenhouse gas cuts
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gtgl4mxaG1vkmqxaxgaZ30-dGwcAD90T4IFG0
Associated Press: Environment chiefs from the world's top industrial countries pledged "strong political will" Monday toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming. The statement by ministers from the Group of Eight nations, however, stopped short of pledging firm commitments for mid-century or a midterm goal for 2020, which many countries argue are crucial to saving the planet from environmental ...

Tue, 27 May 08
G8 ministers pledge 'strong will' on climate amid doubts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGE4TuTNkmtKhW8C_mSFweycXOJA
Agence France-Presse: Environment ministers from the world's top industrial powers called Monday for more effort to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but little headway was seen in setting more immediate goals. Ministers from the Group of Eight held three days of talks here in a bid to set the tone for a summit involving the G8 leaders, which opens July 7 in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako and is expected to focus on climate change. The ministers in a statement said they hoped the ...

Tue, 27 May 08
Southern UK May Become Too Hot for Winemaking, Professor Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=avMNBzRQ.mUo&re fer=uk
Bloomberg: Winemaking in the U.K. is being affected by global warming, and some of the nation's southern regions may become too hot to grow wine grapes by 2080 if the phenomenon continues unabated, said Richard Selley, a retired professor of geology at London's Imperial College. Selley used scenarios for climate change devised by the government-funded U.K. Climate Impacts Programme to predict possible trends for future winemaking. The 4.5 to 5 degrees Celsius (8.1 to 9 Fahrenheit) warming ...

Tue, 27 May 08
Indonesia: Climate makes coastlines a credit risk
http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20080526.H02&ir ec=1
Jakarta Post: Local banks are set to tighten debt lending, particularly for real estate and property in low-lying coastal areas, an official said recently, due to fears of sea-level rise triggered by climate change. Incentive and environmental funds officer Laksmi Dhewanthi (an assistant to the deputy environment minister) told a seminar recently that many local banks were planning to reassess prices of collateral assets in coastal areas. "Banks are actively seeking details on the ...

Tue, 27 May 08
G8 call to cut emissions by 2050
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwCx0hFUPmjYA8t3zF4JQPQzHSRQ
Press Association: Environment chiefs from top industrial countries have called for an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming. The statement by ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) nations, aimed at preparing for action on climate change at the G8 summit in Toyako, Japan in July, also acknowledged calls for midterm emissions reduction targets for 2020, though it did not specify any ...

Tue, 27 May 08
G8 environment ministers endorse greenhouse gas cuts by 2050
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYRLHP_NFnfBi3eCR1i2GXTEtwCw
Canadian Press: The G8 environment ministers are calling for an agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring developed countries should take the lead in battling global warming. Their statement Monday after three days of meetings in Kobe, Japan also acknowledges calls for midterm emissions reduction targets for 2020, but does not specify any goals. The ministers from Japan, the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Russia tried to set the stage for ...

Tue, 27 May 08
Norway seen as "Europe's battery" if develops wind
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2636460820080526
Reuters: Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge offshore wind parks backed by existing hydro-power reservoirs, Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga said on Monday. She said that Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and government officials, would issue a report later on Monday outlining ways to build wind parks off the coast in a shift to greener energy for the world's NO. 5 oil exporter. "The report points to the enormous potential in ...

Tue, 27 May 08
Old members lead the charge as the EU's emissions rise
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/87092.php
New Europe: Despite ambitious plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions, their levels are rising in the European Union, mostly because the bloc' older and wealthiest countries are continuing to spew them, the European Commission said. But officials insisted that since the increase in emissions was slower than the pace of EU economic growth, that proved plans to reduce them are still working. According to the Commission, the more than 11,000 factories, power plants and smelters in the EU emitted 2.05 ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Australia gives $4.5m for foreign forests
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23758272-1702,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIA will commit $4.5 million towards helping neighbouring countries reduce deforestation. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said today that up to $3 million would go to the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research. The other $1.5 million would help non-government organisations work with developing countries on large-scale pilot projects designed to reduce deforestation. "Globally, there is a shortage of research on how to reduce ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Billions wasted on UN climate programme
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/26/climatechange.greenpoliti cs
Guardian: John Vidal, environment editor The Guardian, Monday May 26 2008 Article historyBillions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN's carbon offsetting programme. Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN's main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. ...

Mon, 26 May 08
G8 environment ministers endorse greenhouse gas cuts by 2050, fail to agree on 2020 target
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/26/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-G8-Environment. php
Associated PRess: Environment ministers from the world's top industrial countries say they have the "political will" to move toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. The Monday announcement by ministers meeting in Japan, however, stopped short of setting a more contentious goal of slashing emissions by 2020. The G8 statement, aimed at setting the stage for the Group of Eight summit in Japan in July, also said that rich nations have the responsibility to take the lead in ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Ads target meat-eaters on greenhouse
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23757869-5005961,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIANS tucking into a juicy steak in front of the tele are being asked to consider how their meal impacts on climate change. Meat-eaters are the focus of a $400,000 television, print and billboard advertising campaign launched today linking methane emissions from cows to global warming. The Supreme Master Ching Hai Association - which describes itself as a non-profit spiritual and humanitarian organisation - is funding the campaign through hundreds of individual ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Australian firm wants to catch West Coast waves for energy project
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10512420
New Zealand Herald: As anyone with an ear on the marine forecast knows, it's seldom flat on the West Coast. The reliable surf, originating from weather systems deep in the Southern Ocean, has got an Australian company interested in our western coastline. Perth-based Carnegie Corporation wants to harness the power of West Coast waves to produce energy using new technology. The company has lawyers studying legislation covering New Zealand's coastal seabed and water columns above it to see if ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Brussels trade war with US looms over biofuel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/26/biofuels.energy
Guardian: Peter Mandelson, the European commissioner, has fired the first salvo in a potential transatlantic trade war by agreeing to challenge the US over its biofuel subsidies, which are chasing British and continental firms out of business. Confidential documents seen by the Guardian show that Mandelson and the European commission have put their signatures to anti-dumping complaints lodged by the European Biodiesel Board. Washington will be asked this week to answer allegations that ...

Mon, 26 May 08
United Kingdom: Labour plans green revolution to slash energy prices and win back lost voters
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-plans-green-revolution -to-slash-energy-prices-and-win-back-lost-voters-834303.html
Independent: Gordon Brown is planning to use a massive expansion of green energy to win back voters angry at spiralling fuel prices. They will be offered guaranteed prices for generating their own power that could fund loan schemes to pay for energy-saving technology under plans being finalised by ministers. The plans are expected to be contained in a major offensive to promote domestic solar and wind power, as well as promoting energy conservation, that will be launched by the Prime ...

Mon, 26 May 08
G-8 Pledge to Halve Global Carbon Emissions by 2050
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aj78929sNnnM&re fer=japan
Bloomberg: Environment ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized nations pledged to cut emissions of gases blamed for global warming by half by 2050 and called on rich countries to lead the way. ``In order to halve global emissions, developed countries should take the lead in achieving a significant reduction,'' the ministers said in a joint statement at the end of a 3-day meeting in Kobe, Japan. The statement didn't specify by how much the countries should cut emissions or whether ...

Mon, 26 May 08
G8 summit emission cut target likely "aspirational"
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33761320080525
Reuters: The Group of Eight rich nations will likely agree to an "aspirational" target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but shun mid-term goals at a July summit, the top U.N. climate official said on Sunday. Ministers and representatives from the G8 and major emerging countries gathered this weekend in Japan to try to build momentum for U.N.-led climate change talks, but remained at odds over who should do what when, and how much. "Given the stage that we are ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Nations urge deep emission cuts by US, Japan
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gtgl4mxaG1vkmqxaxgaZ30-dGwcAD90SHJ6G0
Associated Press: European and developing countries urged the United States and Japan on Sunday to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 – a step they say is needed to defuse a coming ecological disaster caused by global warming. The calls at a meeting of environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan coincided with rising concern that momentum is draining from U.N.-led efforts to force a new climate change agreement by a December 2009 ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Obama says fuel prices will change car habits
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2430015120080525
Reuters: Barack Obama said on Saturday Americans would start changing the kinds of cars they drive if gasoline prices continue to climb and said he owned a hybrid vehicle, though he doesn't drive it much. Obama, an Illinois senator and the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination, has made fighting climate change a key issue of his campaign, and as fuel prices soar, he has repeatedly called on car makers to increase fuel efficiency standards. Without specifically telling ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Sony says develops cost-efficient solar cells
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUST15201920080525
Reuters: Japanese electronics conglomerate Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Sunday it has developed dye-sensitized solar cells with an energy conversion efficiency of 10 percent, a level seen necessary for commercial use. Dye-sensitized solar cells, which use photosensitive dye and do not require costly and large-scale production equipment, are seen as a promising next-generation solar cell variety and potential threat to silicon-based solar cells. Germany's Q-Cells ...

Mon, 26 May 08
World Bank to Raise $5.5 Billion for Climate Funds
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aufska1ueDVw&re fer=home
Bloomberg: The World Bank will raise at least $5.5 billion with the U.S., U.K. and Japan this year for climate change funds that will help poor nations use clean technology and tackle global warming, its vice president said. The bank will agree to set up the funds at its July board meeting and raise the money by autumn, Katherine Sierra said in an interview in the Japanese city of Kobe today where she is attending a meeting of the Group of Eight environment ministers. ``We are hoping ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Canada: BC mayor quashes carbon-tax protest plan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080525.wbccarbon26/BNS tory/National/home
Globe and Mail: A "blunt" telephone conversation with B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor has cooled plans by a northern B.C. mayor to launch a revolt over the groundbreaking carbon tax. Scott Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, was planning to urge his council to back a motion this week that would have seen the municipality refuse to pay the carbon tax on its municipal fuel bills in order to highlight concerns that the tax is unfair to northerners, and not revenue-neutral for ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Burying CO2 to fight global warming a step closer to reality
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/burying-co2-to-fight-global- warming-a-step-closer-to-reality_10052481.html
Asia News International: Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and burying it away underground, which has on paper been described as one of the most effective in cutting down on greenhouse gases, is moving closer to reality. According to a report in Discovery News, the process, known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), has already been given the green signal by the US Department of Energy (DOE), with a funding of 126 million dollars for two large-scale carbon storage projects in California and the Midwest. ...

Mon, 26 May 08
United Kingdom: Call to adopt 'carbon credits' plan
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i44aznf4NLXBBSjY44A_69glUsRA
Press Association: The Government should push ahead with a "radical" system of personal "carbon credits" if it wants to meet emissions targets, a committee of MPs has said. They said people would be able to engage with the scheme, which would see everybody given an annual carbon limit which they then 'spent' on items such as fuel and energy bills. Anyone who wanted to spend more than their limit would then be able to buy extra credits from low carbon emitters. The ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Carbon tax gaining support across Canada: poll
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=c28d5cd4-5404-4ade-a748-035 2268d392c
Canwest News Service: Canadians are warming up to the prospect of paying an environmental tax on activities that cause climate change, but they don't necessarily expect to get the money back in the form of income tax cuts, a new poll has revealed. The McAllister Opinion Research survey, commissioned for the Pembina Institute - an environmental research group - and obtained by Canwest News Service, revealed that Canadians would be supportive of a federal carbon tax and would like to see its new revenues ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Don't want to release your CO2? Bury it
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iT5UtXKt1Cyu5Nm0kJhkA9BiVpjw
Agence France-Presse: With planet Earth engaged in a heated race against global warming, "carbon capture and storage" has brought a ray of hope, and a Norwegian gas platform is leading the way. The Sleipner platform in the North Sea, a mammoth steel and cement structure, has successfully buried millions of tonnes of CO2 under the seabed for the past 12 years in a pioneering project. Using a simple metallic tube measuring 50 centimetres (20 inches) in diameter, the platform operator, ...

Mon, 26 May 08
G8 Environment Ministers Push for Post-Kyoto Agreement
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3358684,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Environment ministers from the seven largest industrial nations and Russia continued talks Sunday, May 25 in Kobe, Japan, on pushing for a post-Kyoto protocol agreement on climate change. Environmental groups on the meeting's sidelines were urging the Japanese hosts to show "substantial movement" in reaching an agreement to replace the Kyoto accord that is set to expire in 2012. The Group of Eight (G8) ministers were to release a plan at the end of their discussions ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Ohio requires 25% renewable or advanced energy by 2025
http://www.stockhouse.com/News/FinancialNewsDetailFeeds.aspx?n=10839245
Stockhouse: Ohio Governor Ted Strickland recently approved a bill that will require the state's utilities to draw on renewable or advanced energy for 25% of their electricity supply by 2025, according to a report from the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). requires renewable energy to meet at least half of that requirement, which starts at 0.5% by the end of 2009 and gradually ratchets up to 25% by the end of 2024. So the actual renewable energy requirement starts at 0.25% at ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Top off Exxon Mobil's greed
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5799589.html
Houston Chronicle: No doubt the Exxon Mobil annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday will open with great fanfare celebrating last year's $40 billion in profits, and all the company is doing to make the world a better place. But not all shareholders are so thrilled about Exxon Mobil's performance. My family members and I are shareholders in Exxon Mobil, and many of us are very concerned about the devastating effect the largest privately held oil company in the world is having on the health of people ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Warm winds comfort climate change models: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZWxTxZyCvRSo4uPvh6LDgaMxvXQ
Agence France-Presse: Climate change models predicting a dangerous warming of the world's atmosphere got a confirming boost Sunday from a study showing parallel trends at altitudes nearly twice as high as Mount Everest. The new research, published in Nature Geoscience, will help remove one of the remaining scientific uncertainties about the general thrust of global warming, the authors and commentators say. Over the last two decades, temperature readings from the upper troposphere -- 12 to 16 ...

Mon, 26 May 08
G-8 ministers move toward emissions goal
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/25/business/climate.php
Associated Press: Environment chiefs from several top industrial countries neared agreement Sunday on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by midcentury, but fell short of the more difficult task of setting a midterm goal for 2020, delegates said. The government ministers from the Group of 8 nations and observer countries held a second day of talks here aimed at setting the stage for decisive action against climate change during the G-8 summit in northern Japan in July. They were expected to ...

Mon, 26 May 08
Japan pushes its 'sectoral' approach in climate talks
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmOpHGXRIapXspAB12hEUCIelrfQ
Agence France-Presse: Japan's environment minister on Sunday urged wider support for a "sectoral" approach on the second day of climate talks amid calls for rich nations to set clear emission cut goals by 2020. Home to the landmark Kyoto Protocol, Japan hopes to use the three-day talks in Kobe to shape the course of negotiations on a new climate treaty on curbing global warming, eyeing a breakthrough when it hosts the G8 summit in July. Japan wants support for its "sectoral" ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Guyana: 40 Million Acres of Rain Forest for the Greenest Bidder
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100412
New York Times: The other day I went to a meeting to hear Harrison Ford talk about saving the rain forests and ended up listening to a man who has a rain forest to save: Guyana's president, Bharrat Jagdeo. The occasion was the announcement of a new campaign to protect the world's rain forests, Guyana's included, organized by the environmental group Conservation International. (Mr. Ford, a board member, was in New York to promote his new movie and somehow got his schedule wrong.) That left ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Brazil Rainforest Analysis Sets Off Political Debate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=100397
New York Times: Gilberto Câmara, a scientist who leads Brazil's national space agency, is more at ease poring over satellite data of the Amazon than being thrust into the spotlight. But since January, Dr. Câmara has been at the center of a political tug-of-war between scientists and Brazil's powerful business interests. It started when he and his fellow engineers released a report showing that deforestation of Brazil's portion of the rainforest seemed to have shot up again after two years of ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Europe, and especially Germany, are banking on coal
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-coal25-2008may25,0,2967 27.story
LA Times: Much of Europe may be moving toward renewable energy, but here in the Rhine Valley, where coal has always been king, this little town has become more roadkill on the fossil fuels autobahn. Three power plants fueled by lignite coal, the granddaddy of the greenhouse gas emitters, belch more than 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere, the highest concentration in Europe. But they will be dwarfed by a massive power plant under construction that will be one of the ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Japan urges bold G8 targets for emission cuts
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2343063320080525
Reuters: Japan urged rich countries on Sunday to take the lead in the fight against global warming by setting bold national targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by well over 50 percent by 2050. Ministers and representatives from the Group of Eight advanced nations and major emerging countries gathered in Kobe, western Japan, are trying to build momentum for U.N.-led climate change talks, an issue to be taken up at a July leaders' summit. But wide gaps exist both within the G8 and ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6GXwx2chQltK3liINhxHz_uEGSwD90S5MLG0
Associated Press: A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings. That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear. Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 ...

Sun, 25 May 08
In Colorado River Delta, waters -- and prospects -- are drying up
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-me-newcolorado25-2008may25 ,0,1536281.story
LA Times: Fighting a fierce north wind and cresting waves, a dozen Cucapa Indian fishermen were in trouble before they were halfway home, their small boats and balky outboard motors overmatched by the roiling estuary of the Colorado River Delta. "Malo viento," muttered Julio Figueroa, as he nosed his boat slowly through the wind-whipped waves, his feet submerged in 10 inches of standing water. Boats have capsized and men have drowned in these waters, where river and sea collide. Many ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Leaders told battle to stem global warming slowing
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g1JSga_CNGr6cpuIGcVrNxOuOBOAD90S3HQG0
Associated Press: The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming, the U.N. climate chief warned on Saturday, urging environmental ministers from wealthy nations to revive the effort by setting clear targets for reducing greenhouse gases. The ministers gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day meeting as evidence mounted that rising world temperatures have been taking a toll on the earth at a faster rate than previously forecast. The officials from the Group ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Arctic ice shelf barely hanging together
http://www.australiannews.net/story/363058
Australian News: Evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has shocked research scientists on a Canadian military expedition. Scientists, in the group with expedition forces, have discovered major new fractures on the giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. As an indicator of serious climate change, a network of cracks stretches for more than 16 kilometres on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf. Scientists say they were astonished to see the cracks which are only just holding ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Emerging nations seek G8 help for clean technology
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-33749820080524
Reuters: Big emerging economies called on rich countries to help finance clean energy technologies on Saturday as a meeting of environment ministers sought to add momentum to the fight against climate change. Ministers and their representatives said on Saturday that action was urgently needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, but advanced and developing countries are split on how to share the burden. The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly ...

Sun, 25 May 08
G8, emerging economies try to bridge gaps over climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iX007gulLvulQEVMLEdsgsOvbgyA
Agence France-Presse: Environment ministers from the world's richest nations and a clutch of fast-growing economies began talks here Saturday to try to bridge their differences on how to tackle global warming. Japan, home to the landmark Kyoto Protocol, hopes to use the three days of meetings to shape the course of negotiations on a new climate treaty on curbing global warming, eyeing a breakthrough when it hosts the July 7-9 G8 summit. "This G8 environment meeting is not a place to ...

Sun, 25 May 08
U.S. government to file for license for nuclear waste dump
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2252107320080522
Reuters: The U.S. Energy Department will file an application in early June with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to operate a long-delayed nuclear waste dump in Nevada, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Thursday. The Yucca Mountain storage site, located about 90 miles from Las Vegas, is still at least a decade away from being finished due to bureaucratic delays and scientific foul-ups. But the government still needs a license to operate the fuel dump whenever it is ready. The ...

Sun, 25 May 08
German Climate Protection Package at Risk
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,555187,00.html
Spiegel: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has managed to develop quite a reputation on the international stage for her efforts to combat climate change. Back home in Germany, however, important pieces of her climate protection package threaten to fall through. On Friday, with just days to go before the cabinet planned approve a second package of environmental laws, the item was suddenly removed from the Tuesday agenda. It now won't be considered by the Merkel government until the middle of ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Going Nuclear Despite Warnings
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42495
Inter Press Service: The EU seems to be backing nuclear energy as the response to global warming and gas dependency, but civic groups warn that safety and waste processing should be preconditions for the industry's growth. These issues were debated in Prague May 22-23 at the second European Nuclear Energy Forum, an EU (European Union) initiative to discuss opportunities and risks of nuclear energy. Civic groups criticised their extremely low representation at the event, seen by them as a gathering ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Japan, US to Urge G-8 Nations to Join Climate Change Fund
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a6xk1q9U4.Zs&re fer=japan
Bloomberg: Japan and the U.S. will call on Group of Eight industrialized nations to join in forming a global fund to develop clean technologies at this weekend's environmental summit, a Japanese government official said. Japan's Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita agreed to urge other nations to raise money for the so-called ``Clean Technology Plan'' when he met U.S. Environment Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, an Environmental Ministry official told reporters today under ...

Sun, 25 May 08
Germany: Merkel says car tax reform plan still alive
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL24384174 20080524
Reuters: Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to douse speculation on Saturday that a key part of her government's efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions had been abandoned after a plan to change car tax rules was postponed. Merkel said in a speech on Saturday in the eastern town of Zwickau that the controversial plans to change rules on car tax from 2009 to take exhaust emissions into account had only been delayed on Friday and not abandoned. "The government will obviously continue ...

Sun, 25 May 08
EU industry CO2 emissions up 0.7 pct in 07
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2383160120080523
Reuters: Carbon dioxide emissions from businesses included in the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme rose 0.68 percent in 2007 compared with 2006, the European Commission said on Friday. This confirms an i