Australian emissions trading vote delay

The Australian government's carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) hangs on a package of 11 bills, which face defeat or delay in parliament's upper house Senate. A finalised vote on carbon trading was expected to give certainty for business planning and strengthen international negotiations.
22 June Reuters article
23 June The Australian article
25 June The Australian article

Senator seeks climate clarity?

Sceptical senator Steve Fielding, yet to be convinced rising carbon emissions are responsible for global warming, met with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong. The government is facing an upper house blockade of its emissions trading scheme.
20 June The Australian article
18 June Canberra Times article
17 June Brisbane Times article
10 June Canberra Times article

Australian senate reports released

An Australian Senate economics committee has issued the report from its inquiry into the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 and related bills and a climate committee has issued the report from its inquiry into climate policy.
16 June Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Report
Climate Policy Report

America and Australia not so far apart

U. S. and Australian proposed carbon trading policies have been compared in a briefing paper on the US Waxman–Markey climate change bill. The bill’s centrepiece is an emissions trading scheme (ETS) and also includes complementary and reinforcing initiatives on clean energy and energy efficiency.
15 June Wotnews article
Report

Misleading in the worst case

The Australian Conservation Foundation has called for the investigation of 14 statements made by Rio Tinto, Woodside, Xstrata, Boral, Caltex and Blue Scope Steel about the possible impact of the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, saying the companies may have misled investors and the public to maintain share price.
15 June ABC article

Australia rallies for carbon

National Climate Emergency Rallies have called on Australia to take the lead at the UN environment summit in December in Copenhagen. Amid warnings that Australia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of a shifting climate, calls were made to end Australia's dependence on cheap and plentiful coal.
13 June BBC article
14 June SMH article

Abrupt solar switch

Federal Environment Minister announced an abrupt end to applications for a household rebate to put solar panels on their roofs, taking some in the solar industry by surprise. The $8,000 solar rebate is being scrapped in favour of a market-driven system of solar credits to begin in 2010.
9 June News.com article
4 June SMH article

ETS net positive

The Victorian government is investing in new, renewable forms of energy, looking to make the proposed national carbon Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) have a net positive impact for the state, seeing more jobs not less. This would not apply uniformly and losses are expected in the coal-reliant Latrobe Valley.
3 June ABC article
4 June The Age article
Victorian Climate Change Green Paper

Wind power building

Australia's biggest wind farm, to be built near Broken Hill in New South Wales, has planning permission for the first phase of development. One of the world's largest onshore wind farms, it will eventually cover more than 32,000 hectares with almost 600 turbines to generate enough electricity for more than 400,000 homes.
3 June The Australian article
9 June BBC article

Geothermal growth reported
The Australian geothermal industry has experienced significant growth in the number of companies that have joined the search for "Hot-Rock Energy," fuelled by the rapidly increasing demand for renewable energy. In the nine months since the launch of the world's first Geothermal Reporting Code, six companies have reported large geothermal energy reserves.
2 June Energy Current article

Don't get your coal wet

CSIRO are working on a project partly funded through the Victorian Government’s Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS) to change from wet to dried coal with the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions although it represents a challenge for existing combustion systems.
2 June ScienceAlert article

Australia carbon aim is 450 parts per million

The Australian government emission target and timeline for achieving it has been questioned before a senate committee. Minister Wong affirmed that 450 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere is still the goal but said that including a timeline to get to this by mid century was a mistake.
29 May ABC article

Historic emissions trading scheme bills tabled

The Labour Federal Government has introduced Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme bills to parliament and is trying to convince the Opposition and the crossbench senators to support its emissions trading legislation. Neither the Nationals party nor the Greens have given support.
13 May Sydney Morning Herald article
14 May ABC article

Finding funding for new power processes
Despite the ravages of the financial crisis and the massive deficit, the Australian Government found $3.5 billion in its new budget for projects to prove the viability of carbon capture and storage and large-scale solar energy generation, introducing new legislation to get the necessary funding.
12 May Wall Street Journal article
13 May The Australian article

Climate impacts will force Indigenous Australians to leave land

Human Rights Commission’s 2008 Social Justice and Native Title reports warn that climate change will further marginalise Australia’s Aboriginal communities, forcing them out of their traditional lands, destroying their culture and significantly affecting their access to water resources.
8 May IPS News article
Reports

Government seeks compromise on emissions trading

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced substantial changes to Australia's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (emissions trading system), including delaying the introduction of the scheme by one year to 1 July 2011, for the first year an unlimited number of permits will be available at a cost of $10 per tonne, and the price will then be fully floating, with a new "global recession buffer" for emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries.
Transcript of PM's media conference
4 May The Australian article
4 May Sydney Morning Herald article
9 May Sydney Morning Herald article

Bargain renewable energy?

Australian and New Zealand wind farm development assets were purchased by Infigen for less than $20million, just days before the extension of the 20 per cent renewable energy target to 2030 and an increase in fines paid by utilities not meeting renewable energy obligations.
4 May The Australian article

Emissions targets to be tougher, later

Australia's government still aims to push the emissions trading laws through parliament this year but announced a one-year delay to the start of its carbon emissions trading scheme, While promising more support to big industry they are opening the door to a tougher 2020 target in a bid to win approval.
4 May Reuters article
4 May BBC article
4 May The Age article

Australian carbon plans under pressure

Australia's leading climate scientists and representatives of heavy polluting industries have squared off over the future direction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as industry and workers asked  more than $9 billion for heavy polluting industries while CSIRO scientists warned of worsening threats from carbon emissions.
20 April The Age article
26 April The Age article

China slams Australia on climate

A senior Chinese delegate told a joint Australia-China climate conference in Canberra that Australia's 2020 emissions target was "insufficient". He argued that developed countries needed to take the lead in tackling climate change.
15 April News.com article
16 April The Australian article

Current targets won't protect planet

Senior Australian scientists have made calls in a submission to a Senate select committee into climate change, urging deep cuts to coal-fired electricity and tougher carbon reduction targets. They say climate protection targets must be at minimum 5-10 per cent by 2020 and 70-80 per cent by 2050 on 2000 levels.
12 April The Age article
16 April Sydney Morning Herald article

Australia the image of climate change

The world looks to Australia as an early cautionary tale for the rest of the world, showing examples of the things that climate change models are predicting for other countries. They cite the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia Drought, fires, killer heat waves, wildlife extinction and mosquito-borne illness.
9 April Los Angeles Times article

Australian Water Summit

The UN's senior adviser on water issues said that Australia is investing with "cult-like faith" in flawed technology to avert the national water crisis and the price for this lack of vision was being paid by ordinary Australians and farmers. She accused federal and state governments of having "no overall plan" to save Australia's water heritage.
2 April The Australian article

Emissions trading scheme 'too costly' during economic crisis

Big business groups are claiming the Rudd Government's plans for an emissions trading scheme will cost too much, and say the Fair Pay Commission should avoid delivering a significant increase to workers' minimum pay. The Australian Industry Group -- which has split from employers advocating a total pay freeze but wants only a small increase in the minimum wage of $8 a week -- claims the carbon pollution reduction scheme will add $8 billion to business costs in 2010-11.
31 March The Australian article

Wong warns US on tariffs

The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has warned the United States against introducing "carbon tariffs" to protect American industry, an idea floated earlier this month by the US Energy Secretary, Steven Chu. Ms Wong said Australia had a "consistent position on trade policy and that is, as a small and open economy, we support open trade".
31 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

NSW Govt trials electric car

The New South Wales Government will trial an electric car in a plan to make its fleet emissions free. The car will be available at the Department of Environment and Climate Change for staff to provide feedback.
30 March ABC News online article

Reports of white lemuroid ringtail possum's extinction premature

A rare possum said to be the first Australian species wiped out by global warming appears to be clinging to survival, if still vulnerable, in north Queensland's tropical rainforest. Last year, the white lemuroid ringtail possum was reported to have vanished from high-altitude rainforests in north Queensland. It was the first Australian mammal extinction attributed to climate change.
28 March The Australian article

Kevin Rudd gives pessimistic analysis of climate outlook

Kevin Rudd has given his most pessimistic forecast yet of getting the world to agree to climate change policies while economies collapse. “The degrees of difficulty have got greater,” he said. The Prime Minister said pushing an agreement through concerns about the global recession would be difficult, although Australia still believed it had to be done.
27 March The Herald Sun article

Rudd gives emissions trading advice in US

As the United States debates an emissions trading scheme, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has talked to America's Senate leaders about Australia's experience. Australia is further along the road in developing an emissions trading scheme than the Obama administration, and Mr Rudd has discussed with the US Senate leadership the complexity involved in designing such a scheme.
26 March ABC News online article

US to work with the world

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has expressed relief that under President Barack Obama, the United States will work with all the world's governments to solve the environmental and economic challenges of climate change.
24 March Environment News Service article

Bushfire pollution deaths to rise

Bushfires worsening in south-eastern Australia due to climate change will cause more deaths and illness through air pollution, a CSIRO study has shown. Mick Myers and a team from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research examined air quality data from monitoring stations in Melbourne during the 2006 bushfires and found a big jump in air pollution.
26 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

ETS may shrink regional growth

Secret NSW Government modelling shows regional economies could shrink by more than 20 per cent over the next 40 years under the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme, although nationwide economic effect of the ETS would be modest.
26 March The Australian article
26 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Climate plan 'waste of money'

The Federal Government's emissions trading scheme will have too many permits and will not reduce carbon emissions, a think tank says. The scheme has been criticised by the head of the Australia Institute before a Senate committee considering the Government's draft legislation for its carbon pollution reduction scheme.
26 March The Canberra Times article

Climate change could be harmful to your health

A combination of climate-change-induced temperature rises and increasing levels of air pollution could exacerbate the harmful effects of heat stress experienced by people living in Sydney, according to new research by CSIRO scientist, Dr Martin Cope.
25 March CSIRO media release
25 March Reuters article

Australia's climate reputation 'damaged'

Australia will be a minor player in international climate change talks unless it lifts its own carbon reduction targets, a parliamentary inquiry has been told. Professor Clive Hamilton, from the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, says the government's planned emissions trading scheme has damaged Australia's reputation on climate change.
25 March ninemsn article

Delaying ETS 'would create market uncertainty'

Delaying an emissions trading scheme would create uncertainty for the financial markets, a Senate committee has heard. The financial sector also wants the Federal Government to ensure the scheme is enshrined in law to ensure market confidence.
25 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Change starts at the top

A range of government programs are designed to make us more energy efficient, writes Owen Thomson.
24 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Climate deal failure could cause tariff war: Garnaut

The head of the Federal Government's climate change review, Ross Garnaut, warned that Australia was likely to face a world tariff war driven by Europe and the US over greenhouse gas emissions unless there was a strong global agreement to prevent climate change.
24 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Ditch compo in ETS: Garnaut

The compensation proposed for polluting industries under Australia's emissions trading scheme will contribute to the dangerous global rise of green protectionism, Ross Garnaut has warned. The Rudd Government's climate change adviser said the Australian climate change debate had been captured by "private interest, the ignorant, the myopic and the excessive". Professor Garnaut argued the Government should agree to ditch its hard-negotiated compensation regime if international rules could be set to prevent countries that moved early in setting a carbon price from being disadvantaged.
24 March The Australian article

Plan to curb savanna wildfire carbon emissions

The Federal Government is providing $10 million for research into how Indigenous communities can reduce carbon emissions by controlling fires on savannas in northern Australia.
23 March ABC News online article

Beautiful one year, flooded the next

The top government scientist advising on how to adapt the nation to climate change warns that Australia will be forced to abandon some coastal communities in a "planned retreat" because of rising sea levels caused by global warming.
23 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Govt to spend $20m on climate research

A $20 million science program will help Australia's neighbours understand the impacts of climate change on the region, Minister Penny Wong says. She opened a national greenhouse conference in Perth announcing the Pacific Climate Change Science Program.
23 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Green trade war a threat to Australia

Fears are rising of a global green trade war if Copenhagen climate change talks fail, after US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu suggested the Obama administration would consider "carbon tariffs" against countries that had not put a cost on pollution when the US introduced its emissions trading regime. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said protectionist carbon tariffs could be "very costly for a small, open economy like Australia" and would in any event be very difficult to administer.
20 March The Australian article

New supercomputers to track climate change

A deal has been signed to create two new supercomputers in Australia to forecast weather and track climate change. The Australian National University and the Bureau of Meteorology will build the new computers at the ANU campus in Canberra and in Melbourne.
19 March ABC News online article

Exodus fears for Murray towns

Northern Victorians are in danger of becoming Australia's first climate change refugees, according to a top Brumby Government water official. Speaking at a water conference in Melbourne, Department of Sustainability and Environment executive director Campbell Fitzpatrick said the human aspect of climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin must not be forgotten amid the heated debate over water reform.
18 March The Age article

Green energy firm pledges 1200 jobs

Renewable energy company Pacific Hydro has challenged claims the Government's climate change policies will cost jobs, saying it will create at least 1200 new positions at Hydro over the next five years if they are implemented. Pacific Hydro chief executive Rob Grant said any potential job losses in coal mining would be offset by the construction and operation of four wind farms once legislation for an emissions trading scheme and a 20 per cent renewable energy target were passed. Two of the wind farms would be in Victoria, creating 600 jobs.
18 March The Age article

'Act on climate or kill future generations'

One of the country's top scientists has told politicians to act quickly on climate change or devastate the lives of unborn generations. Penny Sackett, the Government's Chief Scientist, delivered her blunt message to politicians at a dinner at Parliament House. Professor Sackett warned the actions of this generation "may deny the next generation the prosperity that we have enjoyed and endanger the lives of millions".
17 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Labor heartland turns on ETS as modelling shows greater regional impact

The mayors of three of the nation's biggest mining cities have demanded Kevin Rudd delay introducing carbon emissions trading, warning it will smash jobs and seriously damage key regional areas. The managing director of Frontier Economics, Danny Price, who conducted still-secret modelling for the NSW Treasury on the Rudd Government's plan, said the impact of the scheme across industrial regions, including central Queensland, the Hunter and Illawarra in NSW and Victoria's Gippsland, would be "very high" and "very severe".
17 March The Australian article
17 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Emissions trading linked to jobs

Malcolm Turnbull has linked emissions trading to thousands of feared job losses in Queensland, claiming three Townsville metal smelters will close, the state's coal industry will face a "carbon bill" of $2.4 billion over five years and even green jobs will be threatened by the Rudd Government's scheme.
18 March The Australian article

Carbon output falls as car use drops

Australia's greenhouse gas emissions fell over summer, apparently because fewer people relied on cars to get around. But the fall was slight because the drop in car use was mostly cancelled out by the increasing amount of carbon released by coal-fired power stations.
16 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Nick Xenophon declares emissions trading scheme doomed in Senate

Key crossbench Senator Nick Xenophon has called on the Government to accept that its proposed emissions trading scheme is doomed in the Senate. The South Australian independent has hardened his rhetoric on the ETS after Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull toughened his line. "It should be pretty clear to the Government now that in its current form this legislation won't pass the Senate," Senator Xenophon said.
16 March The Australian article
16 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Greens want ETS changes as carbon scheme start looks doomed

Kevin Rudd's pledge to start an emissions trading scheme next year looks doomed after the Greens vowed to oppose the scheme unless the Prime Minister makes fundamental changes. Chances of Senate approval for the proposal plunged after Malcolm Turnbull declared the Coalition would not support the scheme's present form and timetable. The Opposition Leader's move has pushed the Rudd Government into the arms of the Greens and independents, whose support is needed to push the scheme through the Senate.
16 March The Australian article

Opposition grows to Australia's CO2 trade scheme

Major political opponents to Australia's carbon trading plans have hardened their stance, adding pressure on the government to make radical changes to get the scheme passed by parliament. The ruling Labor party needs either the support of two independent and five Greens senators or the main opposition Liberal party to pass the emissions trading laws in the Senate.
15 March Reuters article

Marsupials at risk if temperatures rise

Polar bears and penguins are not the only animals at risk of climate change: much of Australia's fauna, including several species of kangaroos and wallabies, may be threatened, a new report says. Climate change and species, by Tammie Matson, highlights just how vulnerable many animals are to even small changes in global temperatures and rainfall.
14 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Economists fiddle while climate burns

According to a growing band of economists, we'd be better off using a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not the emissions trading scheme the Rudd Government introduced to Parliament this week. My opinion? Don't believe it. It may be a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. Whichever way the Government had jumped there'd be a bunch of economists arguing that the other way would have been better.
14 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Coalition calls for economic modelling on emissions trading

The Coalition has challenged the Rudd Government to model the short-term economic and job consequences of its emissions trading scheme, and of alternative schemes, before the Senate is required to vote on the issue. It is understood the Pearce Review -- an independent study commissioned by the Coalition to help it finalise its climate-change position and expected to be released imminently -- highlights the absence of data on which to base critical decisions.
14 March The Australian article

Call for carbon tax gets lukewarm response

Claims by a top climate scientist that a carbon tax is the only way to rapidly cut greenhouse emissions have met a mixed response from Australian experts. Speaking from a major International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Dr James Hansen told the press that a global emissions trading system would take too long to negotiate.
13 March ABC Science analysis

Climate change to hit Kakadu

Climate change will threaten Kakadu's key attractions with "devastating" implications for tourism in the world-heritage listed national park, new research warns.
12 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Fielding urges delay on emissions trading

The Government's chances of getting its emissions trading system through the Senate by the middle of the year took another hit when the Family First senator Steve Fielding confirmed that he believed the scheme should be delayed.
12 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Emissions trading scheme hits turbulence

Three separate parliamentary investigations will be held into the Federal Government's emissions trading system, including one that threatens to derail the timetable for the legislation's passage. The draft legislation setting up the scheme includes the commitment to reduce Australia's emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent by 2020.
11 March The Sydney Morning Herald article

Australia affirms carbon emissions target amid growth concerns

Australia’s government maintained its targets for reducing carbon emissions, resisting calls to delay plans that will detract from growth as the economy heads for a possible recession. Draft legislation to introduce carbon trading aims to cut emissions by between five and 15 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said. This would help Australia meet its goal of a 60 percent reduction by the middle of this century, she said.
10 March Bloomberg article

Climate change still on the radar: survey

A study says Australians still consider climate change a major concern and believe it should be dealt with alongside the country's other major concern, the global economic crisis. The Climate Institute commissioned an online survey of 1,400 people to get their opinions on climate change.
9 March ABC News online article

Environment Business Australia calls for strong action on climate change

Build new markets, new industries, new jobs - that's the way to tackle climate change. And now is the time to invest in creating hundreds of thousands of high quality 'carbon-light' jobs says Environment Business Australia. Imagine Australia being a regional 'hub' for minerals processing and manufacturing and having 100% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030. We can do that with 'mega clean energy parks' run on solar thermal, geothermal, marine and wind energy.
5 March Environment Business Australia media release

Climate protectionist?

While the American President praised the energy bill passed by the House late last week as an “extraordinary first step,” he opposed a provision that would impose trade penalties on countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution. He wants to modernize the American economy by shifting to cleaner and more efficient forms of energy.
29 June NY Times article
30 June ABC article

Climate refugees a policy issue

The debate on providing protection to possibly several million "climate refugees" displaced by the vagaries of nature is heating up. A new initiative, the Climate Refugee Policy Forum, will act as a web-based clearinghouse on climate refugees and climate-related migration, aiming to support science and inform policy.
25 June Reuters article
Forum

American cap-and-trade legislation advances

President Obama has intensified his lobbying effort ahead of an expected vote Friday on an energy proposal designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply by 2050. The climate change bill would establish a complex cap-and-trade system and aims to spark an American clean energy transformation.
24 June Washington Post article
25 June LA Times article
25 June NY Times article

Scotland the brave

The Scottish parliament voted to cut the nation's CO₂ emissions by 42% by 2020. All political parties agreed to fix the target as part of a bill which also requires the Scottish government to set legally binding annual cuts in emissions from 2012. Scotland has committed to an 80% reduction on 1990 levels by 2050.
24 June The Guardian article

Pushing the limit

The United States has been resisting European calls for industrialised nations to target an upper limit for global warming of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). The limit is widely seen as the threshold beyond which climate change will reach danger levels, with rising seas and more heatwaves, floods and droughts.
23 June The Guardian article
23 June Reuters article

UNprecedented UN climate change summit

UN Secretary-General invites heads of State and government to attend an “unprecedented” global summit. The high-level meeting will be held at UN Headquarters on 22 September, just over two months before the start of the pivotal world climate change conference in Copenhagen.
23 June UN News article

Major polluters meet in Mexico

Environment ministers from the world's largest polluters, including the United States and China, met for two days in Mexico. The so-called Major Economies Forum (MEF) aims to help form a new agreement to curb greenhouse gases to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
22 June AFP article
22 June COP15 article

Greenhouse count up

A 21 meter sign near Penn Station in New York is now showing the increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere as it happens. Launched by the Deutsche Bank, the Carbon Counter displays the running total amount of long-lived greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, measured in metric tons. At current rates, the counter's figures are expected to rise by 2 billion tonnes a month.
18 June The Guardian article
19 June SolveClimate article
Carbon count update

Risk getting lost in politics

Even as Congress belatedly tackles legislation that would cut U.S. carbon emissions and international negotiators bickered over a global climate deal in Bonn, Germany, a new report by several federal agencies underscores the truths that too often risk getting lost in politics.
17 June Time article
4 June Time article
Report

Baby steps in a marathon

The EU and the US took a backseat at the negotiating table during June's global climate talks in Bonn, and Japan shocked developing countries by announcing a "shameful" emissions reduction target. While the negotiating text had swelled to hundreds of pages, there was no movement towards agreement on financing for climate mitigation and adaptation.
15 June EurActive article

Commitments don't add up

An analysis of wealthy nations' carbon reduction goals do not add up to enough to avoid dangerous climate impacts according to a number of sources including scientists from the Potsdam Institute and UN officials. Tough negotiations are expected to continue between the largest emitters, the U. S. and China.
13 June The Age article
12 June Times Online article
12 June UPI article

Smoother driving reduces emissions

Road transport emissions can be reduced by developing a smoother driving style with less acceleration and breaking according to a Monash University study of cement trucks. Other benefits are less wear and tear on the vehicles without increasing transit time.
9 June Science Alert article

China and US seek greenhouse truce

A climate truce between the United States and China, by far the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is the only chance for forging a meaningful international treaty in Copenhagen later this year to restrict emissions. The current standoff has gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions replacing megatons of nuclear might as a looming risk for people across the globe.
8 June NY Times article

Urgency in Bonn for climate treaty

Poor nations suffering from drought, floods and erratic cyclones brought on by rising temperatures appealed to 174 countries on Monday to move faster on an agreement to fight global warming. The latest round of United Nations climate change talks assembled 4,000 participants to discuss negotiating texts to form the basis of the new global climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
2 June Business Mirror article
3 June Xinhuanet article
8 June Grist article
6 June Ottawa Citizen article

Japanese business supports aggressive emission cuts

A Japanese business lobby says Japan would be able to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The Prime Minister is set to finalise a target for midterm emissions cuts in the world's fifth-biggest emitter, from six target options proposed for Japan.
3 June Reuters article

U.S.-China collaboration essential

The U.S. climate envoy said America must meet China halfway and develop a “genuine, collaborative partnership” on climate change and clean energy to help move forward international negotiations to stem global warming.
3 June Bloomberg article
3 June AP article

New world climate summit called

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, will call the world's heads of government to New York in September to "galvanise political will" about what he describes as "the defining issue of our time". And there are plans for another G20 summit to discuss the issue in the autumn.
31 May The Independant article

African climate accord

The Nairobi Declaration was adopted at the Special Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) where over 30 African ministers agreed to mainstream climate change adaptation measures into national and regional development plans, policies and strategies to ensure adequate adaptation to climate change
29 May UN News article

Transport emissions European goal

Europe's next big move to confront climate change should be to tackle rapidly growing emissions from transport, with more road tolls and greener cars, trains and trucks. A top EU environment official said."We've been very successful in reducing the emissions of the power sector and manufacturing by around 15 to 20 percent since 1990, but we've been neutralizing that with an increase in emissions from transport,"
28 May Reuters article

Cities want more representation in climate solutions

Leaders of the world's biggest cities at a summit looking at how to actually reduce CO₂ emissions called for a bigger say in upcoming UN climate change talks. Half the world's population lives in cities which represent 80 percent of emissions.
20 May CNN article
21 May AFP article
21 May Toronto Star article

US climate bill passes first hurdle

A committee in the American House of Representatives passed a climate bill, the first step toward having a law that controls greenhouse gases. Based on a cap-and-trade mix of government mandate and free-market economy the bill still needs to pass both the full House and then the Senate to become law.
22 May NPR article
22 May GreenTech article
22 May The Guardian article

China presses for stronger cuts

A statement by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which oversees China's climate policy, says rich nations should give between 0.5% and 1% of their annual economic worth to aid climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries and should cut emissions 40% below their 1990 levels by 2020.
22 May EurActive article

Writing the plan for Copenhagen

For the first time real negotiating texts are on the table as a basis to start drafting a Copenhagen agreement. Three negotiating texts for a post-2012 climate change treaty have been published offering a new level of detail on mechanisms to meet emission targets.
20 May CarbonFinance article

Options on the table for new climate deal

The United Nations took a step toward a new climate treaty by publishing the first draft negotiating texts to help bridge a "great gulf" between options for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They laid out choices on controversial issues such as nuclear power, emissions trading, forests, shipping and aviation.
15 May Reuters article

Megatrucks may cause significant damage

Proponents of freight megatrucks say they would pull emissions down by reducing traffic on the roads. But research commissioned by railway industry association CER shows longer and heavier trucks would replace up to 30% of container transport on rail, increasing emissions by two million tonnes of CO₂ per year.
14 May EurActive article

New climate deal lacking ambition

Most nations have submitted less-than-ambitious proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Taking account of the new Australian offer, plans outlined by developed nations add up to average cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of between 9 and 16 percent below 1990 levels by 2020,
11 May Reuters article
11 May ClimateArk article

Polar bear habitat not protected

Declining to extend environmental protection to polar bear habitat, the US government said that while habitat melting and an iconic species threatened is a tragedy of the modern age, "the endangered species act is not the best mechanism for cutting down on climate change."
8 May Guardian article
9 May San Francisco Chronicle article

Cool compromise

The Australian government improved their political position on climate mitigation by giving business a delay in starting emissions trading to help get through the recession, and more compensation for affected industries while pleasing the Southern Cross Climate Coalition by promising increased targets to 25 per cent by 2020.
9 May The Age article
8 May ABC article

Waiting for America

According to India's special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, because there is still too much of a 'wait and see' attitude towards the US, diplomats involved in climate negotiations are not making enough progress, despite the need to come up with a global deal by the end of the year in Copenhagen.
6 May EurActiv article
21 April WorldWatch article

2-degree-C climate balloon

As climate negotiations look for consensus on a target , 2 new studies show that if CO₂ emissions are halved by 2050 compared to 1990, global warming might be stabilised below two degrees Celsius. One hundred countries have adopted this “2°C target”.
4 May Science Daily article
4 May IPS article
30 April Times article

Wanted - A Truly Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) established under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change will only have a real befit to the atmosphere when their projects are "additional". A German expert says to be of any use, the net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has to be greater than cuts that would occur anyway without the initiative.
4 May IPS article

US massage of hope to G8+ negotiations

Momentum is building in global climate negotiations while distrust between north and south nations continues and the lack of commonly agreed goals hamper a clear path forward. Talks in Italy moved the agenda forward but produced no clear and measurable commitment.
24 April AFP article
25 April Tehran Times article

Emissions still climbing despite recession

Despite the global economic downturn researchers measured an additional 16.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning and 12.2 million tons of methane in the atmosphere at the end of December 2008. They point out that our emission increases still exceed the small decreases caused by the recession.
24 April Science Daily article

Tribal climate conference

Indigenous peoples from 80 countries met at a summit in Alaska to forge a common position on climate change, seeking an official voice alongside national governments in upcoming negotiations to agree a successor to the Kyoto protocol. They fear being trampled by rich countries trying to cut greenhouse emissions by managing indigenous lands.
21 April New Scientist article

U.S. to regulate greenhouse emissions
Formal findings by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that carbon dioxide and several other greenhouse gases "endanger" public health and welfare are a landmark step toward slowing global warming potential by regulating American emissions and influencing international policy.
17 April IPS News article
17 April The Independent article
17 April US EPA article

Bonn talks made slow progress on climate

At the Bonn climate negotiations developing countries like Mexico, Argentina and South Africa shouldered more responsibilities in global climate negotiations. Special sessions suggested that financing through carbon markets would be needed to compensate developing countries for protecting forests.
8 April NY Times article
9 April EurActiv article

US urged to meet EU standards

Chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has urged the United States to agree to at least the same level of emission caps as the European Union did this year. He said that US leadership in combating rising greenhouse gas emissions will depend on making a significant contribution to reductions.
1 April EurActiv article

Major negotiations for new UN climate change pact kick off in Germany

The first round of United Nations-backed negotiations designed to culminate in an ambitious new international climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December are taking place in Bonn, Germany.
29 March UN News Centre article

New approach for US in global climate change talks

At its first negotiations on climate change, the Obama administration is trying to convince other countries that the US does care about global warming and wants to shape an international accord.
28 March AP through Yahoo News article
28 March AFP article
27 March The Wall Street Journal article

The Obama administration enters the complex world of global climate talks in Bonn amid a furious domestic debate about whether the US should be placing limits on the pollutants that cause global warming.
28 March Deutsche Welle article

White House announces international meetings to address energy and climate issues

The Obama administration has announced that it has organized a series of meetings among representatives of 16 countries and the European Union to discuss energy and climate issues. The meetings, to be held in Washington in April and in La Maddalena, Italy, in July, will seek to resolve longstanding issues that have blocked the development of an international climate treaty.
28 March The New York Times article
28 March Reuters through Yahoo News article
28 March AFP through Yahoo News article

US President Barack Obama plans to take a leadership role at the crucial UN climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year by calling meetings of major polluting nations, including Australia, for April and July. The President's involvement raises hopes a deal may be brokered despite the ravages of the global economic crisis.
30 March The Australian article

Sweden committed to climate change reforms

Cliamte change “will be an absolute focus” of Sweden’s presidency of the European Union from July 1st when it takes over from the crisis-stricken Czech Republic, according to Swedish environment minister Andreas Carlgren.
27 March The Irish Times article

Kyoto goal a breeze as 2008 British emissions fall

Britain's greenhouse gas emissions fell two percent in 2008, firmly putting the country on course to meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the government's environment agency said. Provisional statistics published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed total greenhouse gas emissions dropped to 623.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, down from 636.6 million tonnes in 2007.
26 March Reuters article

US Congress told 'climate change is not real'

The United States Congress has been told to ignore President Barack Obama's plan to place limits on carbon emissions because climate change does not exist. "The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing," said British aristocrat Lord Christopher Walter Monckton, a leading proponent of the 'climate change is myth' movement.
26 March ABC News online article
26 March France 24 article

Economic crisis has limited impact on climate change talks

The current global economic crisis will only have a limited impact on global efforts to clinch a climate deal in Copenhagen, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC).
25 March China View article

Obama cools on climate change

Bowing to stiff opposition on Capitol Hill, President Obama has backed away from his call to deal with climate change as part of the budget, saying he never expected to get everything he asked by demanding that Congress use its major spending blueprint to act on health care, education, alternative energy and deficit reduction.
25 March The Washington Times article
25 March The Guardian article

Climate lobbyists look beyond cap and trade

Climate lobbyists are flooding Capitol Hill, and they're not showing up in all the likely places. As uncertainty hovers over passage of an economywide cap on greenhouse gases, advocates are pushing for climate provisions in less obvious spots, like legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration.
24 March The New York Times article

Japan election may bring tougher climate policies

Japan will adopt greener climate policies if the opposition, ahead in voter polls, wins an election this year and sticks to promises for greater use of renewable energy and bold cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
24 March Reuters article

Greenpeace: China should attend UN climate talks

Greenpeace China is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend December's climate change conference in Copenhagen. As the world's most populous developing nation and, by some estimates, its biggest producer of greenhouse gasses, China is obliged to take a major role in the talks, said climate change specialist Li Yan of Greenpeace's Chinese branch.
24 March AP article

EPA presses Obama to regulate warming under clean air act

The Environmental Protection Agency's new leadership, in a step toward confronting global warming, submitted a finding that will force the White House to decide whether to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the nearly 40-year-old Clean Air Act.
24 March The Washington Post article
23 March AP through Yahoo News article
24 March Reuters through Planet Ark article
23 March The New York Times analysis
25 March The Australian article

Climate pact needs flexible deadline - Agency Chief

The deadline for a new global accord on climate change should be extended if Washington is not ready to make commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by December, the head of a major environmental funding agency said. Monique Barbut, chief executive officer of the Global Environment Facility, told Reuters the administration of US President Barack Obama wanted to tackle global warming but might not have time to pass legislation on carbon trading in time to sign an international pact by December.
24 March Reuters through Planet Ark article

World wants tough 2050 climate cuts, split on path

Governments broadly support tough 2050 goals for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions but are split on how to share out the reductions, according to a new guide to negotiators of a new UN climate pact. A document to be presented to UN climate talks in Bonn from March 29-April 8 narrows down a list of ideas for fighting global warming in a new treaty due to be agreed in December to about 30 pages from 120 in a text late last year.
23 March Reuters article

Unions press G20 to take new tack

Union leaders from the UK and overseas have put forward a global five-point plan they want G20 leaders to adopt as a way of tackling the economic crisis. The plan includes job creation, some bank nationalisation, tackling wage deflation, and climate change action.
23 March BBC News online article

Obama's climate challenge: Winning the carbon game

When it comes to perhaps the largest and most complex policy challenge facing the Obama administration—finally slowing the pace of global warming before dangerous changes become unstoppable—the new president stares down a Dickensian paradox.
March Scientific American opinion

Brazil wants developing country climate targets

Work on a new UN deal on global warming is threatened by a "climate apartheid" between rich and poor countries, and emerging economies must do their part by setting emissions targets, Brazil's environment minister said. Carlos Minc told Reuters developing countries such as Brazil, India and China should adopt targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions but that rich countries need to honor their pledges on existing climate targets and the transfer of technology and finance to poor countries.
19 March Reuters through Forex Pros article

China says US could hold up climate deal

China has pressed for the US Congress to pass legislation to fight global warming, warning that inaction could hold up a new treaty slated for Copenhagen in December.
19 March AFP article

Americans support action on global warming despite economic crisis

Even in the midst of a growing economic crisis last fall, over 90 percent of Americans said that the United States should act to reduce global warming, according to a national survey released by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities. The results included 34 percent who said the United States should make a large-scale effort, even if it has large economic costs.
18 March ScienceDaily article

Leading climate scientist: 'democratic process isn't working'

Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said. James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said.
18 March The Guardian article

Carbon emissions from new coal-fired power stations could contribute to mass extinctions, a leading climate scientist has warned.
19 March BBC News online article

Is Obama's environmental agenda losing out?

Ask an Administration official what to expect legislatively this year and the answer will probably fall along these lines: reregulation of the financial markets, followed by the budget, health care and then green jobs. It is a massive agenda for President Barack Obama's first year in office, and already some in the environmental community are worried that their agenda will be sacrificed.
18 March Time article

Did climate conference just confuse the politicians?

Have scientists muddied the waters over what needs to be done to stave off dangerous climate change? Have they caused confusion instead of telling politicians how to save the world? That's what many are asking in the wake of a major meeting intended to inform politicians before vitally important negotiations later this year.
18 March New Scientist article

Science and politics make uncomfortable bedfellows. Rarely is this more true than in the case of climate change, where it is now time for emergency counselling. One point repeatedly made the climate change congress in Copenhagen was that formulating an action plan to curb climate change is not the job of scientists.
18 March New Scientist editorial opinion

Complex path for climate bills in Congress

US Congress is expected to tackle climate change this year with bills aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging cleaner alternative energy and more efficient delivery of electricity. Climate change legislation is complicated and so is the path it could take in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Here is a rundown of key committees that would have a say in shaping the bills.
18 March Reuters article

In search of the climate's tipping point

When asked to quantify the impact of climate change, scientists come up with a lot of interesting answers, no two of them quite the same. For the lay person, then, perhaps the simplest way to understand it is to imagine a distant asteroid, somewhere out in space, on a collision course with Earth. It's not clear when or where the asteroid will hit, or exactly how severe the consequences will be. But it is clear that when it happens, the consequences will be far worse — and last far longer — than any natural disaster humanity has ever known.
17 March Time article

Author: Eat green, cut global warming

Most people assume that getting rid of a gas-guzzling car is the best way to help the environment. But Kate Geagan, a Park City dietitian and author of the new book Go Green, Get Lean, believes people can make a bigger impact on global warming simply by changing what they eat for dinner. In the book, Geagan explains how America's food choices are a major player in the global-warming crisis.
17 March The Salt Lake Tribune article

UK climate change targets 'not tough enough'

Tough UK targets to cut greenhouse gases are too weak to help prevent the temperature rises which could lead to dangerous climate change, scientists have warned.
17 March The Telegraph article

The UK is going ahead with a plan to make energy-intensive businesses, including banks, hotels and schools, cut their energy use and carbon emissions.
13 March EurActiv article

India hits out at developed nations on climate change issue

India strongly hit out at developed nations for putting “conditions” and “adding dimensions” such as carbon tariff and trade competitiveness for action on climate change. “Action on climate change cannot be based on conditions. Once we start going in that direction, it means we start going for protectionism under green label and it is harmful to India’s interest-seeking sustainable development,” Shyam Saran, India’s special envoy on climate change said.
17 March Business Standard article

Singapore firm aims to make vessel emissions ship-shape

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the shipping industry is neither lean nor green. Ships carry about 90 percent of global trade, and until recently, such has been the demand for coal, cars and electronics, that there has been little concerted effort to rein in the growth of polluting emissions from ships.
17 March Reuters article

Copenhagen aims to be first carbon neutral capital

The capital of Denmark has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world's first carbon-neutral capital by 2025 by bringing its net carbon dioxide emissions down to zero.
17 March New Kerala article

Ireland's carbon emissions reduced as result of downturn

Ireland is being encouraged to take advantage of the economic downturn and press ahead with efforts to cut carbon emissions in order to meet the criteria set out in the Kyoto Treaty for 2012. The country looks set to avoid having to fork out for the 3.6m tonnes of carbon credits per year it was initially thought to need.
16 March edie article

Eight US Democrats oppose quick debate on global warming bill

Eight Senate Democrats are opposing speedy action on President Barack Obama's bill to combat global warming, complicating prospects for the legislation and creating problems for their party's leaders. The eight Democrats disapprove of using the annual budget debate to pass Obama's "cap and trade" bill to fight greenhouse gas emissions, a measure that divides lawmakers, environmentalists and businesses.
16 March Associated Press through Yahoo News article

UN climate chief hustles on global warming deal

Big gaps remain in a new UN deal on global warming meant to be agreed in December and time is running worryingly short with just 265 days left, the UN climate chief said. Yvo de Boer criticised a recent meetin