eCarbon News is a free monthly emailed digest of news from around the world relevant to climate change. It includes sections on Kyoto, emissions and policy; economics and business; energy; sequestration; climate and climate change; and trading and tax. It is emailed to subscribers at the end of each month.

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eCarbon News

July 2008

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Australian news

Australians strongly back carbon trade scheme: poll

Australians overwhelmingly back government plans to introduce one of the world's biggest carbon trading schemes, a poll found, despite a lack of detail about how much it will cost and how it will work.
30 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Climate change swayed voters, analysis

Global warming and other environmental concerns are exerting a powerful influence on the electorate, a study of voting at last year's election shows. While professionals are more likely than others to be moved by these issues, environmental policy affects all occupational groups in their voting choices. The study reinforces the point that the battle over emissions trading will be extremely important for both sides of politics in the run-up to the 2010 election.
28 July The Age article

Action on climate can't wait, voters say

Three-quarters of voters believe Australia should act on climate change even if the rest of the world does not, according to a new poll that will hearten the Rudd Government as it prepares to release its discussion paper on emissions trading. The Essential Media poll found 58 per cent of Coalition voters believe Australia should take action even if other countries do not, despite the fact that Brendan Nelson spent most of last week suggesting that acting before the world as a whole would be "economic suicide".
15 July The Australian article

Coalition closes ranks on emissions trading

Liberal MPs are denying that Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's job is under threat after his apparent backdown on emissions trading at a shadow cabinet meeting. Last week Dr Nelson foreshadowed he would push for a tougher policy on a carbon trading scheme, in direct opposition to leadership rival Malcolm Turnbull. However, the shadow cabinet meeting decided to go back to the policy the Coalition took to the last election, which is strongly supported by Mr Turnbull.
30 July ABC News online article

Nelson pushes for 'conditional' emissions scheme

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will urge the party room to only support an emissions trading scheme once the outcome of the international agreement on climate change next year becomes clear. Dr Nelson made the announcement after spending the day meeting with shadow cabinet in an attempt to reverse the split within ranks over Opposition policy.
29 July ABC News online article

Coalition signals climate policy shift

The federal coalition has foreshadowed a change in its climate change policy as MPs prepare to meet in Canberra to thrash out the issue. The current policy appears to be to forge ahead with emissions trading by 2012 - but Liberal treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has paved the way for a shift.
27 July The Sydney Morning Herald article
28 July Herald Sun article

Climate change proves more than a challenge to the Coalition

Everyone in the Opposition needs to take a deep breath. Things could get a little sticky in the next week. Brendan Nelson, apparently inured to political pain, wants to toughen the Coalition's policy on emissions trading.
25 July The Age opinion

Emissions trading legislation can't be rushed: Opposition

The Federal Opposition says it will not be bullied into supporting the Government's emissions trading scheme. The Government says the Opposition has a chance to prove it is economically responsible by backing the scheme in the Senate. But the Coalition's reaction to the Government's Green Paper was lukewarm at best, and the Government will most likely need to enlist the assistance of minor parties and independents in the Senate.
17 July ABC News online article

Catastrophe and fear winning on climate

When an issue becomes imbued with the sort of quasi religious fervour that climate change has, honest caution can be quite unpopular. For proof, look no further than Brendan Nelson, who today must face the fact he is the least popular choice for Opposition Leader pushing a climate change policy that is out of step with just about everyone in the community.
29 July The Australian opinion

Nelson denies ETS position change

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson denies he has changed his position on the introduction date on an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Earlier in the week Dr Nelson backed away from giving support to a 2012 start up date saying the rest of the world, especially countries that are major emitters, needed to commit to further action. However, Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the Coalition policy had not been "substantially modified", saying the leadership group had discussed it with Dr Nelson.
10 July ABC News online article

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has fallen into line with the coalition frontbench on emissions trading after a week of uncertainty over its climate change policy. Five days after confusing messages emerged about the policy, Dr Nelson clarified his position, moving back into step with senior Liberals, declaring his support for a cap and trade system and for a 2012 start date.
11 July Sydney Morning Herald article

Our shaky hold on greenhouse infamy

It is not a list you want to top, but the reality is set out in the Garnaut report: Australia is the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. However, the title is misleading. Australia does top the emissions table, excluding land-use change and forestry emissions. But include that measure and the Republic of the Congo is propelled right out in front, followed by Malaysia, Canada and then Australia.
29 July The Australian article

Wong's climate paper clouded with mistakes

Climate Minister Penny Wong published an astonishing green paper in response to what she perceives to be the threat of global warming. The first sentence of the opening section of her paper, entitled "Why we need to act", contains seven scientific errors — almost one error for every two words.
29 July The Age opinion

Softly start threatens to undercut our Kyoto promises

The big question left dangling in Penny Wong's green paper for a carbon pollution reduction scheme is just how much greenhouse gas will it cut? After months of intense lobbying by industry, the Iemma Government and her Labor colleagues spooked by rising petrol prices, Senator Wong's scheme now reflects more politics than climate science.
17 July Sydney Morning Herald article

Finally, a blueprint for fighting climate change

Labor's green paper on emissions will satisfy voters and industry, but it should be seen only as a starting point.
17 July The Age editorial opinion

Rudd says emissions scheme won't be 'pain-free'

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has shrugged off the growing corporate backlash to his emissions trading scheme, saying he never expected the introduction of the scheme to be easy.
18 July ABC News online article

Kevin Rudd has confessed the Government cannot yet predict when Australia's carbon pollution levels will start to reduce under his planned emissions trading scheme. And he has warned that middle-income families will bear some of the burden of adjusting to the introduction of carbon trading amid predictons some families could be $500 a year worse off if electricity and other prices rise.
17 July The Australian article

The Rudd Government has sought to soften the blow of its emissions trading scheme, promising every cent raised will be used to help households and businesses adjust and invest in clean energy options.
17 July The Australian article 

Greenhouse plans went off the rails

As a model for how not to tackle climate change, it seems hard to go past the Rudd Government's approach to transport. Rail is three to four times more energy-efficient than road, according to rail industry calculations here and overseas. A British study found that carbon dioxide emissions from train travel were a little more than half those of cars, when measured by kilometres per passenger. The industry says the comparison is substantially more favourable still for rail freight.
26 July The Australian article

Rudd assures coal power industry of emissions scheme support

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved to assure the coal-fired power generators that they will get help to cope with the changes caused by an emissions trading scheme. The electricity industry says the Federal Government should help major power suppliers make the transition to lower emissions technology.
25 July ABC News online article

Wong pledges compo for emissions trading scheme

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has signalled families, carers and older Australians will be the big winners from a compensation package to soften the impact of an emissions trading scheme.“We are very conscious of the impact on (them),” Senator Wong said as she confirmed that cabinet had signed off on the green paper outlining options for the scheme. The green paper is the Government's first formal response to the Garnaut report on climate change. “This is something we have to tackle for our current and our future prosperity,” she said.
15 July The Australian article

Climate change doesn't harm Rudd in poll

The prospect of even higher fuel and energy prices under the move to carbon emissions trading has failed to dent voter support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
15 July Sydney Morning Herald article

Treasurer says no delay in emissions trade

Australia's government said it would not delay the 2010 kick-off of an emissions trade scheme expected to reshape the A$1 trillion (US$971 billion) carbon-intensive economy, as farmers warned against "arbitrary" start dates. "The longer we wait to take action on climate change, the sharper the adjustment to the economy will be when we are forced to act. The Australian economy simply can't afford to wait," Treasurer Wayne Swan wrote in the Herald Sun newspaper.
15 July Reuters article through Planet Ark
14 July Herald Sun article by Wayne Swan

Give workers a voice in climate change solutions

Tens of thousands of Australians work in the resources and energy industries, which is why the Australian Workers' Union has been vocal in the debate triggered by the proposals put forward by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.
24 July The Age opinion by Paul Howes, AWU national secretary

Carbon reduction scheme ads are fluffy: Nelson

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has described the Government's climate change advertising as "fluffy". The Federal Government has started a mulit-million dollar advertising campaign on a carbon reduction scheme.
22 July ABC News online article
22 July Herald Sun article

Garrett says Liberals 'clouding waters' on carbon trade

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has blamed the Liberal Party for confusing people about an emissions trading scheme. A Neilsen poll found more than 60 per cent of people surveyed do not understand the concept of an emissions trading scheme, or only have a slight understanding.
22 July ABC News online article

Small steps can reduce climate damage 

Emissions trading fazes many, but there is much to be done at a local level. It may not have been the first sign, but last week brought one of the more obvious indications yet of an affliction we will see plenty of over coming years: climate-change fatigue.
28 July The Age opinion 

Climate change threatens Queensland's coasts 

The Queensland Government has admitted its strategy to protect coastal towns and suburbs from climate change is a failure. It has appealed for federal funding to help build sea walls and levees to hold back storm surges and rising sea levels.
26 July The Courier Mail article

Climate change warning on health

Tasmania's most senior health official has warned that climate change could have a bigger impact on the state's medical future than our ageing population. The State Government has pledged to reduce Tasmania's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, based on 1990 levels. The focus until now has been on the economic cost of reducing emissions.
26 July ABC News online article 

Climate change: feed it and weep or lead and reap - Sachs 

Australia will reap important benefits from the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Properly, the Government has left itself considerable flexibility on several points, which will depend heavily on what other countries do. But the value of the scheme lies not in the details but in three more basic considerations. Australia can now lead economically, technologically and diplomatically in the global effort that lies ahead.
25 July Sydney Morning Herald opinion by Jeffrey Sachs

Radical plans drafted to prepare Melbourne for climate change

Rooftop gardens, soil footpaths and mandatory parklands are among radical plans to prepare Melbourne for climate change. Key lobby group the Committee For Melbourne has drafted recommendations to retrofit city buildings and make the public transport system green, to prepare Melbourne for the threat of global warming.
24 July Herald Sun article

Australia to set example with carbon trading: BP

Australia's planned introduction of an emissions trading plan may encourage developing nations such as China and India to implement their own, BP Plc's chief economist Christof Ruehl said. "The only way to affect any change is to set an example, and find systems that allow for trading with those countries which can allow for transfers of technology and incentives to industries in those countries,'' said Ruehl, speaking after a presentation in Perth. "It won't solve climate change overnight, but it's a start.''
21 July Bloomberg article
21 July ABC News online article

Code red: climate skating on thin ice - book

Climate watchers warned that the Government's carbon pollution reduction plan had so many exemptions it was unlikely to lead to a cut in greenhouse emissions before 2020. A book launched in Melbourne, Climate Code Red, argues that the climate change challenge is far worse than officially acknowledged by the Government or modelling undertaken by Government adviser Professor Ross Garnaut.
18 July The Age article

No smoking hot spot: opinion

I devoted six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector. Since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming.
18 July The Australian opinion

Oz, NZ ready to work together on climate change

Australia and New Zealand are ready to work together to combat climate change -- with the two countries developing similar and compatible carbon reduction schemes, their finance ministers said. "Both schemes have a lot in common. It is desirable that we work together and link our schemes over time," Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said after a day of talks with New Zealand Finance Minister Michael Cullen.
17 July The Economic Times article

Energy bills to rise under carbon emissions scheme

Electricity bills would jump 16 per cent and gas bills 9 per cent under forecast increases to the family budget aimed at tackling climate change. While the Federal Government will spend billions shielding the low-paid and big business from price increases caused by its campaign against pollution, the protection won't last forever - the pledge to cut petrol excise to prevent even higher prices at the bowser will last just three years. And Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said help for industries would come to a halt because "all parts of the economy have to make some contribution over time" to emission decreases.
17 July news.com.au article

LPG tax may be scrapped under carbon compo deal

New taxes on alternative fuels including LPG could be delayed or scrapped by the Rudd Government under a compensation deal to balance the inflationary effect of a carbon trading scheme.
17 July The Australian article

Cost of living up 1pc under Government's climate plan

The Rudd Government has opted for a softly, softly approach to emissions trading which will likely lead to an increase in the cost of living of less than 1 per cent. The Government's options paper on emissions paper, released in Canberra, will see Australia ease into a relatively gentle scheme on July 1, 2010.
16 July news.com.au article

Emissions trading won't cost jobs, ACTU

A properly constructed emissions trading scheme (ETS) won't result in huge job losses and could see some industries expand, Australia's peak union body says. The ACTU endorsed the need for a trading scheme, with some conditions, when its executive met in Canberra.
16 July news.com.au article

Help to save the world, Pope tells Australia

Ten kilometres above the earth, the Pope delivered a message to the people of Sydney: the world is God's creation and humanity needs to safeguard it against the ravages of climate change. His message, unexpected and delivered in Italian, called for a spiritual response to the environmental crisis and asked Catholics - especially young people - to find "a way of living, a style of life that eases the problems caused to the environment".
14 July Sydney Morning Herald article

'Get real' on climate change

Professor Jeffrey Sachs says it is time to ''get real'' on climate change. The Columbia University economist arrived in Canberra with a tough message. He says America will have a recession, advocates nuclear power and calls the focus on emissions trading ''putting the cart before the horse''. Professor Sachs launched a book at the Australia National University, China Update 2008: Confronting Global Challenges conference.
14 July Canberra Times article

The Federal Government has dismissed warnings by a prominent American economist that a carbon trading scheme will be an administrative mess. Jeffrey Sachs says emissions trading is hard to implement and hard to monitor and carbon taxes would be far more effective.
15 July ABC News online article

Nation of climate sinners

Australia's growing addiction to flat-screen televisions and petrol-powered travel means we have slipped to the rear of the field in energy efficiency, performing poorly compared with most other wealthy nations, and being overtaken by many developing countries.
14 July Sydney Morning Herald article

Australia urged to help climate change refugees

Australia's immigration intake should include a quota for "climate change refugees", a new report recommends. At a ceremony in Melbourne, the Make Poverty History coalition launched a report calling for Australia to support and, as a last resort, accept victims of climate change.
13 July Herald Sun article

Demands for more emphasis on climate change education

The Federal Government is under pressure from the Australian Association for Environmental Education to lift its practices to educate people about climate change.
13 July ABC News online article

Garnaut speaks out

The solution to Australia's greenhouse gas-belching coal-fired power industry is a long way off, the author of the national Climate Change Review said. Economist Ross Garnaut told more than 1200 people at a Brisbane address it was yet to be proven whether the nation could find a way to make so-called "clean coal" technology a reality.
12 July The Canberra Times article

Big Australian power generators won't give up

Even with the smoke alarms blaring all around him, vocal apologist for the carbon-emitting electricity industry John Boshier kept talking on his mobile phone. As he moved around his office trying to find the spot where the sirens were least ear-piercing, the executive director of the National Generators Forum was not going to hang up on an opportunity to provide further oxygen to a burning question: should smokey coal-fired power station owners get free permits when emissions trading begins?
12 July Herald Sun article

Greens to lead on climate change: Brown

Greens leader Bob Brown says his party will lead the national parliamentary debate on climate change, pushing for tougher cuts in emissions and massive funding for public transport. Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Labor sets weak targets for emissions cuts or if it delayed implementation of an emissions trading scheme to 2012.
12 July The Age article

Seeking the middle

The Prime Minister has begun testing the water on his compromise approach to climate change. Kevin Rudd in the early months of his prime ministership hasn't always got his pitch right on the region. It's been patchy. Star turns in China, to be sure, but a wobble on Japan. But at the Group of Eight meeting in Hokkaido, Rudd was back on his game. He looked comfortable. While he maintained his usual breakneck speed, he kept his presentation simple, a departure from the confused messages of recent weeks, with the Opposition taking populist potshots on petrol prices and the tough political nut of emissions trading.
12 July The Age opinion

'Fuel for thought' on transport sector challenges

A report on how Australia can best respond to the environmental and economic challenges arising from its dependence on fossil fuels for transport has been released by CSIRO. The report: Fuel for thought – The future of transport fuels: challenges and opportunities addresses two serious issues – the need to dramatically reduce the transport sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and, how to deal with the economic risks associated with increasingly costly and scarce oil supplies.
11 July CSIRO media release

The price of petrol could soar to a crippling $8 a litre over the coming decade, CSIRO-sponsored research has warned. The nightmare scenario says the weekly family fuel bill for a medium-sized passenger vehicle could rise to $220 by 2018 -- taking $12,000 a year out of family budgets. Australians would be forced to radically change their lives and seek alternative forms of fuel and transport.
11 July Herald Sun article

No G8 climate breakthroughs, Rudd admits

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has acknowledged there have been no great breakthroughs on climate change at the G8 major economies meeting in Japan. Mr Rudd is adamant that while the meeting did not end up with bold action, it was an important step in ensuring world leaders take a lead during the climate change debate.
9 July ABC News online article

CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship launched

CSIRO launched a multi-million dollar research program which is designed to boost Australia’s ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The CSIRO Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship will have a particular focus on better understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change, which the draft Garnaut Report described as “locked-in” up to 2030.
9 July CSIRO media release

Brumby wants emissions trading eased in

The Victorian Premier John Brumby says local jobs will not be lost if there is a "soft start" to an Emissions Trading Scheme. Mr Brumby says he supports Professor Ross Garnaut's recommendation to the Federal Government of a transitional period, from 2010 until 2012, in any future emissions scheme.
9 July ABC News online article

'Put shoulder to wheel' on emissions, Rudd urges G8

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is holding one-on-one meetings with the leaders of five countries at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan in which he says he will appeal for more political momentum to achieve a successful global agreement on reducing emissions. Mr Rudd says the science on climate change makes it all the more important to achieve progress in international negotiations. "All nations must put their shoulder to the wheel in doing more to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions," he told reporters.
9 July ABC News online article

Nelson must support emissions scheme: former Liberal MP

A former Coalition MP has hit out over the Opposition Leader's declaration that Australia should not commit to an emissions trading scheme without support of the big emitting countries. Hope of a bi-partisan approach on developing an emissions trading scheme appeared to evaporate yesterday with Brendan Nelson's calls for Australia not to commit to a scheme until India, China and the United States all sign up to reduce their emissions.
8 July ABC News online article

Penny Wong discusses the Garnaut Draft Report, emissions trading and climate change in interviews

Minister for Climate Change and Water has discussed the Garnaut Draft Report, emissions trading, climate change, the Murray Darling and renewable energy in interviews.
6 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on Meet the Press
7 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on radio station 3AW
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of press conference
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water transcript of interview on Lateline

Experts warn of climate change health risks

A conference in Brisbane has heard global environment factors could put Australians at risk of serious health problems and even death. Tony McMichael from the Australian National University told the Population Health Congress the impacts of climate change could kill more than 15,000 people in Australia every year by the middle of the century.
7 July ABC News online article

Rudd needs to be 'human blowtorch' on climate change

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the Prime Minister needs to act as a "human blowtorch" when he meets Group of Eight leaders, to advance a global agreement on climate change.
7 July ABC News online article

PWC says business needs carbon pricing quickly

Business services firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) says the private sector wants a price placed on carbon emissions as soon as possible. The company says it has been approached in recent days and months by businesses wanting advice on how to respond to Professor Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change. Sustainability and climate change partner at PWC, Andrew Peterson, says businesses want to start to take action to comply with the Federal Government's measures to tackle climate change.
7 July ABC News online article

Climate change study like disaster novel

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has likened a scientific study into links between climate change and drought to the final chapters of a disaster novel. Mr Burke released a joint assessment by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, which found that what are now considered to be one in 25 year climate events could become as frequent as once every one to two years. In particular, the study found exceptionally high temperatures would occur almost yearly, while low rainfall would almost double in frequency from current figures.
6 July The Age article

Prime Minister discusses Garnaut Draft Report, climate change in interview

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, discussed climate change and the Murray Darling in an interview with Barrie Cassidy on the ABC's ABC Insiders program.
6 July Prime Minister of Australia transcript of interview

The GST shows the way

Measured in dollars and common sense, the task of implementing an emissions trading scheme as part of Australia's effort in addressing climate change is no different to the GST.
5 July The Australian article

Mixed reaction to Garnaut draft report

The Australian Government welcomes the draft report of the Climate Change Review conducted by Professor Ross Garnaut. Professor Garnaut’s report makes it absolutely clear that the time for playing short term political games is over. We must act on climate change.
4 July Dept of Climate Change and Water media release

Ross Garnaut's report on climate change is just one input that will help form the government's response to global warming, Kevin Rudd says.
"It will represent one of a number of inputs into the government's overall decision-making process on the best response by Australia to climate change," Mr Rudd told the Fairfax Radio Network.
4 July The Australian article

Environmental and industry groups have urged the Federal Government to act on climate change findings in a draft report presented by Professor Ross Garnaut.
4 July ABC News online article
4 July WWF media release

The response to economist Ross Garnaut's landmark report on climate change has been overwhelmingly positive, with the exception of the federal opposition and Greens. Prof Garnaut's highly anticipated draft report on climate change supports the federal government's 2010 start time for an emissions trading scheme (ETS).
4 July Sydney Morning Herald article

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it accepts the findings of the Garnaut report on the impact of climate change on the reef. The report found if carbon emissions are not reduced, the reef could die within decades.
5 July ABC News online article

The federal Opposition welcomes the release of the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review.
4 July Liberal Party media release
4 July Liberal Party transcript of interview

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has dismissed suggestions that not including petrol in a trading emissions scheme would send the wrong signal. Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has recommended that transport fuels be included in any emissions trading scheme that the Federal Government adopts. His draft report on climate change raises concerns about Opposition calls for the excise petrol to be cut, saying it sends the wrong message about the need to ultimately reduce consumption.
5 July ABC News online article

Brendan Nelson has dashed hopes of a bipartisan approach on an emissions trading scheme by 2010, warning there's no rush to implement the scheme if it will wreck jobs. "There's nothing magical about 2010,'' Dr Nelson told reporters in Sydney.
4 July The Australian article

The Greens say the Federal Government can not be worried about electoral popularity and must move quickly when it responds to economist Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change.
4 July ABC News online article

South Australian Premier Mike Rann says the Garnaut climate change report shows South Australia will be one of the states hit the hardest by future climate change.
4 July ABC News online article

The former head of the Prime Minister's Department, Peter Shergold, says any emissions compensation scheme adopted by the Federal Government must encourage people to use less energy.
4 July ABC News online article

Working Australians will be hit hard by inaction on climate change and urgent action is needed says the ACTU.
4 July ACTU media release

The Australian Coal Association welcomes the release of the draft report by the Garnaut Climate Change Review and the recognition that Australia has an important role to play in a major global effort to develop low emissions coal technologies – particularly related to Carbon Capture and Storage.
4 July Australian Coal Assoc media release

The Clean Energy Council refuted claims that emissions trading will lead to an economic downturn citing that emissions trading with complementary measures will unlock over $20 billion in clean energy investment.
4 July Clean Energy Council media release

The National Generators Forum (NGF) continues to be disappointed and perplexed by Professor Garnaut’s simplistic approach that shows little understanding of how Australia’s energy market works.
4 July National Generators Forum media release

The Minerals Council of Australia described the Garnaut Draft Report as containing sensible new ideas but stated that questions linger.
4 July Minerals Council of Australia media release

With the latest research indicating Australian uranium exports have the potential to avoid billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions globally, the Australian uranium industry welcomes the draft Garnaut report as an important step towards freeing the industry to reach its potential.
4 July Australian Uranium Association media release

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Australia’s largest and most representative business organisation, considers the release of the draft Garnaut Climate Change Review to be a significant further step in outlining important issues and options for the introduction of an Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).
4 July ACCI media release

Friends of the Earth Australia welcomes Professor Garnaut's recognition of the scale of the climate emergency and the need for urgent action, but warns the emission trading scheme will not solve the climate problem.
4 July Friends of the Earth media release

A3P, the peak national body for Australia’s plantation products and paper industry, has welcomed the Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report. A3P CEO Mr Neil Fisher said “A3P warmly welcomes the Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report. We particularly welcome the acknowledgement of the role that forests and wood products could play in an Australian Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) through offset measures."
4 July A3P media release

The Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report supports calls by the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI), the peak body representing Australia’s forest industry, for the inclusion of forestry under an emission trading scheme.
4 July National Assoc of Forest Industries media release

The Garnaut Review Draft Report is the long-waited signpost to practical and realistic climate change policy action and Australia’s gas industry is well-placed to play a key role, Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) Chief Executive Belinda Robinson said.
4 July APPEA media release

Garnaut review releases draft report

Australians are facing risks of damaging climate change. Without strong and early action by Australia and all major economies we are likely to face severe and costly impacts on Australia’s prosperity and enjoyment of life, according to the Garnaut Climate Change Review’s Draft Report, released by Professor Ross Garnaut, speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra.
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review media release
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review draft report
4 July Garnaut Climate Change Review transcript of National Press Club address

The much anticipated draft climate change report from economics professor Ross Garnaut calls for an emissions trading scheme for Australia without delay as the best of the possible options for cutting greenhouse gas output.
4 July ABC News online article

Professor Ross Garnaut has warned that without bipartisan political support, a strong emissions trading scheme would be compromised. Professor Garnaut's report on climate change says an emissions trading scheme should be introduced without delay.
4 July ABC News online article

Regions hardest hit by the new emissions trading regime would win government handouts and industries investing in clean power would be rewarded, but the landmark Garnaut report on climate change rules out compensating coal-fired power stations.
4 July The Australian article

Tax cuts and welfare reform should be offered to dampen the impact of a new emissions trading scheme, according to the landmark Garnaut climate change report.
4 July The Australian article

Ross Garnaut held a press conference on Easter Thursday to launch his first discussion paper on ideas for climate change policy. From the look of things, he started writing the 537-page draft report on how the nation should respond to global warming as soon as he returned to work the following week.
5 July The Australian opinion

Wayne Swan discusses climate change in speech

Treasurer Wayne Swan discussed climate change in a speech to the Australia-China Business Council in Melbourne.
4 July Treasurer of Australia text of speech

Let's go green without going on a tax binge

We are facing a moment of big history as two conflicting trends gather pace: global development on an unprecedented scale and the need to protect the global environment against the effects of this growth. The dream of bringing those in India, China, Indonesia and elsewhere out of poverty is the highest human ideal. Two billion people are reaching towards the basics of clean water, heating and refrigerated food supplies. The consequence of this ongoing world growth, however, is that while Australia's carbon dioxide emissions have barely changed since 1990, global growth in greenhouse emissions between 1990 and 2012 will be almost 40 per cent. We thus face a global climate challenge that is real and important but almost entirely not of our making, as Australia is the source of only 1.4 per cent of global emissions.
3 July The Australian opinion by Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water, Greg Hunt

Prime Minister Rudd's climate change credentials on the line in Victoria

The Victorian Labor Government's unqualified approval for the construction of a dirty brown coal fired power station in the Latrobe Valley is an act of total denial on climate change, and contempt for community wishes that governments take action to curb emissions, not increase them, Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne said.
3 July Senator Christine Milne media release

Time for action on climate is now

The launch of the Garnaut Climate Change report has business jumping at shadows for fear of what may come next but, most importantly, on concerns that the Government won't deliver a balanced policy. Ironically enough, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should take some comfort in the business fears because they are based on confidence he will deliver on his promise to deliver a carbon trading scheme.
3 July The Australian article

World  news

Emissions, Kyoto and policy 

US senators call for EPA chief to resign

Democratic senators have called for the resignation of Stephen Johnson, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, saying he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems. The three senators, all active in the climate change debate, also asked the US attorney general to investigate whether Johnson has made false or misleading statements in sworn testimony before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee.
29 July Reuters article

Democrats: White House must publish 'chilling' climate change document

The row over US inaction on carbon emissions reached new heights after the White House allowed Congress to look at last year's government proposal to officially deem climate change a threat to public health – a plan that aides to George Bush refused to acknowledge or read. The climate plan was finished in December by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a supreme court ruling that required the Bush administration to state whether carbon emissions should be regulated to protect public health.
25 July Guardian article
25 July courant.com article

EPA: Few volunteering to cut greenhouse gases

Voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have "limited potential" to reduce greenhouse gases, according to an internal government watchdog. The Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General's Office said industry's unwillingness to participate and unreliable data that casts doubt on claimed reductions are hindering efforts to control some of the most potent greenhouse gases from aluminum smelters, landfills, coal mines and large farms.
25 July Associated Press article 

US army works to cut its carbon "bootprint"

What if cutting greenhouse emissions could also save the lives of soldiers in Iraq, where fuel-laden convoys make them targets? The US Army says it is happening now in a push to reduce its carbon "bootprint." From forward areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to training ranges in the United States, the Army has been working to limit its use of fossil fuels and make its operations more environmentally sustainable.
28 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Schwarzenegger slams Bush administration on global warming

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Bush administration's decision to delay a decision on regulating greenhouse gases showed that it did not believe in global warming. Schwarzenegger, in an interview with ABC television, said it would have been insincere for the administration to take action on the harmful emissions with only six months left in George W. Bush's presidency.
13 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Posturing and abdication

The Bush administration made it clear that it will do virtually nothing to regulate the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. With no shame and no apology, it stuck a thumb in the eye of the Supreme Court, repudiated its own scientists and exposed the hollowness of Mr Bush’s claims to have seen the light on climate change. That is the import of an announcement by Stephen Johnson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, that the EPA will continue to delay a decision on whether global warming threatens human health and welfare and requires regulations to address it. Mr. Johnson said his agency would seek further public comment on the matter, a process that will almost certainly stretch beyond the end of Mr Bush’s term.
13 July New York Times editorial opinion

Bush Administration won't regulate greenhouse gases

The Bush administration, dismissing the recommendations of its top experts, rejected regulating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cripple the US economy. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health or welfare, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress.
12 July CNN.com article

The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.
11 July Washington Post article

Bush makes final push for global climate deal

In his final months in office, President Bush is mounting a last-ditch effort to forge a new global deal to limit greenhouse-gas emissions but finds himself once again at odds with much of the rest of the world on how to address climate change.
3 July The Washington Post article

Obama shifts stance on environmental issues

In May 1998, at the urging of the state's coal industry, Barack Obama supported an Illinois bill condemning the Kyoto global warming treaty and forbidding state efforts to regulate greenhouse gases. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee now calls climate change "one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation," and proposes cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2050. But as a state senator, from 1997 to 2004, he usually supported bills sought by coal interests, according to legislative records and interviews.
18 July USA Today article

Next US president likely to agree to CO2 cuts: UN

There is good chance the next US administration will agree to tight controls on its carbon emissions and help reach a deal by the end of 2009 to slow climate change, Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said.
3 July Reuters article

Report on global warming strategy for Wisconsin finalised 

Governor Jim Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming announced it has finalised its report on addressing global warming in Wisconsin. The 29-member Task Force, comprised of environmental, agricultural, industry, citizen, tribal and utility leaders will now forward the report on to Governor Doyle for consideration.
24 July WISBusiness.com article

Japan adopts action plan against global warming

Japan's cabinet has adopted a plan to slash carbon emissions up to 80 percent by 2050 by starting carbon trading and stepping up research on carbon-capture technologies. "Japan must continue showing leadership on the issue of environment," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told the cabinet meeting. "To lead the world, Japan must take the initiative by achieving a low-carbon society."
29 July AFP article through Yahoo! News

India's climate change action plan

India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), eagerly awaited by environmentalists, has been unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Let us look carefully at the three salient features of our NAPCC.
29 July The Economic Times editorial opinion

33% of China's carbon footprint blamed on exports

Finger-pointing, and "China bashing" in particular, is a favourite game when it comes to assigning responsibility for climate change. But things are not always as straightforward as they seem. Developed countries import many of the products that contribute to China's greenhouse gas emissions.
28 July New Scientist article

South Africa unveils plan to combat climate change

South Africa's government says it will move away from coal and promote use of wind and nuclear energy in an effort to fight global warming. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a news conference that options being considered include mandatory energy efficiency targets and a possible tax on carbon dioxide emissions.
28 July VOA News article
28 July Bloomberg article 

First-ever climate change vulnerability index 

The newly released Maplecroft Climate Change Risk Report includes the first-ever climate change vulnerability index and a set of best-to-worst rankings for more than 168 countries worldwide. It identifies the world's highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters as well as those countries most and least vulnerable to climate change. The report finds many of the world's biggest CO2 emitters are also the countries least vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
23 July Market Watch article

Clinton announces 2008 CGI Asia meeting

Former President Bill Clinton announced the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) will host its first meeting outside of the United States in Hong Kong on December 2-3, 2008. President Clinton will be joined by Asian heads of state, top CEOs, directors of nongovernmental organizations, philanthropists, scholars, and members of the media to address local and global challenges in the areas of education, energy and climate change, and public health.
21 July Yehey! News article

'100 months to save the planet'

A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues. According to the Green New Deal Group, humanity only has 100 months to prevent dangerous global warming. Its proposals include major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs.
21 July BBC News online article

New 'green' plans sprout globally

While the world's industrialised countries continue to hedge on carbon emission targets, a proposal from a coalition of environmental groups is gaining traction on how those targets should be calculated to break a rich-poor deadlock on who should cut more over the next decade. Known as the Greenhouse Development Right (GDR) framework, the scheme weighs a country's rate of emissions combined with its wealth to determine an equitable means of emission cuts.
21 July The Nation article

Wetlands could unleash 'carbon bomb'

The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said. Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.
20 July Reuters article 

Canada sued for ignoring its own Kyoto Protocol law 

Canada has become the first country ever to be brought to court for failing to comply with its legal commitments to combat global warming. Friends of the Earth Canada is suing the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for following a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases that fails to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The lawsuit is the first in the world to seek enforcement of the protocol, an international treaty ratified by 180 countries, including Canada.
18 July Environment News Service article

German leaders hit EU climate change plan

German leaders have criticised EU climate change efforts as harmful to its industries if other major greenhouse gas emitters don't also make reductions. "Any success achieved in Europe would be pointless," said a statement from the German Economy Ministry pointing to the need for commitments from other polluters such as China, India and the United States.
16 July UPI.com article

Kosciusko-Morizet: Climate deal key to 'EU's credibility'

Reaching agreement on the EU's energy and climate package before this year's UN conference in Poland is crucial if the bloc is to retain its position as the "motor" of international action on climate change, argues French State Secretary for Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet in an interview with EurActiv France.
7 July EurActiv.com article

Eastern EU states unite for overhaul of CO2 curbs

The European Union has geared up for deep cuts in greenhouse gases as eight ex-communist states sought help in overhauling their infrastructure for a low-carbon future. France, which has taken over the EU's rotating presidency, has made climate change its top priority and hosted a meeting on the outskirts of Paris to identify the main areas of disagreement.
7 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

MEPs suggest leniency on air pollution caps for trucks

The European Parliament's Environment Committee has voted in favour of slightly watering down limits on nitrogen oxide emissions from trucks and buses, saying too tough a target would simply make it harder for them to cut their CO2 emissions.
17 July EurActiv article

Climate change: EU ministers clear some hurdles on 2020 plan

European Union environment ministers cleared some ground as they debated how to achieve the vaunted dream of slashing the 27-nation bloc's carbon pollution by 2020. Ministers, staging an informal meeting in Paris, agreed to complete a deal by year's end and backed the principle of helping poorer EU countries worried by the cost of meeting the 2020 target, delegates said.
3 July AFP article

British MPs criticise government over CO2

The government has made "very poor progress" on reaching its own carbon emissions-cutting targets, MPs say. Ministers want departments and agencies to reduce emissions by 12.5% by 2010/11 compared with 1999/2000 levels - and to be carbon-neutral by 2012. But the influential environment audit committee said a cut of just 4% had been achieved by 2006/07.
14 July BBC News online article

East Europeans fear climate policy pinch

Many pensioners in the Bulgarian village of Gorno Osenovo, who go to bed with the sunset and wake up at sunrise, have never heard of carbon dioxide. They don't get electricity either. But a new plan by Brussels to make European Union energy companies pay for the carbon dioxide they emit from 2013 threatens to lift energy costs to the point where building grids to remote places like Gorno Osenovo would be impossible.
27 July Washington Post article

Human rights a 'compass' for climate change policies

Human rights can be a "compass" to guide research and policy development for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, according to a report. The International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) says climate change will threaten — directly or indirectly — almost all human rights, including the right to food, health and a livelihood. But they have received little attention on the policy stage so far.
17 July SciDev.net article

Ghana to host convention on climate change

Ghana has signed an agreement, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to host the international conference on climate change in August. The agreement was signed, in order to outline enabling and financial mechanisms that countries can turn to, as they strive to tackle the problems and dilemmas, which arise from the complex side-effects of climate change.
16 July The Ghanaian Chronicle article

Bridge the gap on climate change

Despite the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, there remain sharp political disagreements both here in the United States and around the world about how policymakers should respond. Nowhere is this gap more profound than between developed and developing countries.
14 July Washington Post opinion

Indonesia to host environmental ministers' meeting

Indonesia plans to invite 18 environmental ministers to a ministerial meeting ahead of a climate summit in Poland later this year, a senior official said. "(Indonesian) President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has taken the initiative to invite 18 environment ministers present at the just- concluded G-8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, to attend a ministerial meeting prior to the climate summit in Poland at the end of 2008," Antara news agency on Saturday quoted Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar as saying.
12 July Bernama article

Solar shades won't reverse global warming

A proposal to place mirrors in the sky to reflect sunlight away from earth won't give back the climate we had before, says a new study. Researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom applied global climate models to predict the effect of using reflective sunshades to reduce the amount of sunlight that enters the earth's atmosphere back.
14 July ABC Science article

This could be the war of human survival

The world now needs a new term to define the strange ideological battleground over climate change that looks likely to define our century. It's not a new Cold War, because it is about global warming. It is not a hot war, thank heavens. Maybe it should be called the warming war. But if most scientists are right, it could well be the war of human survival.
11 July Middle East Times editorial opinion

Ghana to host international conference on climate change

Ghana and the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed letters of exchange to enable Ghana to host a Conference on Climate Change in August. The conference slated for August 21-30 will be attended by about 2,000 delegates from 192 countries and will prepare the grounds for the roadmap to a major conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.
10 July Ghana Hope Page article

World must aim for 90 per cent emissions cut: climate lawyer

An Australian climate lawyer says the G8 nations' commitment to a 50 per cent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions would require a much bigger reduction target for industrialised nations. Countries agreed at the G8 summit to a "vision" of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
10 July ABC News online article

G8 summit ends with climate 'vision'

World leaders have proclaimed a "shared vision" on climate change, but failed to bridge differences between rich and emerging nations on curbing emissions. Concluding a summit in northern Japan, leaders from the G8 and developing countries said "deep cuts" in greenhouse gas emissions were needed. China and other emerging powers declined to endorse specific targets.
9 July BBC News online article

World leaders meeting in Japan have reached broad agreement on a long-term plan to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries have been meeting at Toyako on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. At last year's summit in Germany they agreed to seriously consider a plan to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 per cent by the middle of this century. Now they have agreed to that goal as a shared vision, and to press other nations to also adopt the target.
8 July ABC News online article

George W. Bush, US president, bowed to pressure from other world leaders on climate change and agreed for the first time to a long-term target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The decision at the Group of Eight meeting of industrialised nations in Japan to set a goal of halving emissions by 2050, in line with scientific advice, is likely to be the US leader's final contribution to the climate change debate.
9 July Financial Times article

The Group of Eight's climate-change strategy may fail to contain rising temperatures that threaten to cause more floods, droughts and storms. The world's richest countries, which are responsible for almost half of the world's emissions, pledged to reduce the production of heat-trapping pollution by at least 50 percent by 2050. They didn't specify how those cuts should be reached or provide intermediate targets.
9 July Bloomberg article

Group of Eight leaders meeting in Japan wrangled over the timeframe to fight global warming, but they have a set deadline when their pledges will be reviewed -- in 100 years. Their summit documents, along with current newspapers, will be buried in a time capsule at the luxury hotel where they met for three days in the mountain resort of Toyako in northern Japan.
9 July AFP article

China, India snub world on targets and urge G8 to do more

China, India and other major developing nations have rejected a push by the world's richest countries for them to commit to firm targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In a setback for international climate negotiations, the emerging giants of the world economy refused to endorse a statement by the Group of Eight wealthy nations in which they proclaimed a "shared vision" to at least halve emissions by 2050. The so-called "Group of Five" developing economies - China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa - say rich nations must take the lead on emissions cuts, as they were historically responsible for climate change.
10 July The Age article
9 July Reuters article

One day after a long-term target for combatting climate change was adopted by the Group of Eight, the world's main developing countries refused to sign on because they want wealthy countries to commit to taking on a heavier burden over the next decade.
9 July Globe and Mail article

A new global deal on climate change heralded by G8 leaders as a significant step forward yesterday ran into trouble within hours as developing nations including China and India rejected it because they believe the commitments are not strong enough.
9 July Guardian article

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged the world's major economies to play an exemplary role in meeting the needs of the UN convention and the Kyoto Protocol. "The world has to fight climate change together but the responsibilities of the developed and developing countries in this battle has to be different" the President said.
10 July China Daily article
9 July China View article

Five of the biggest emerging economies have urged leading industrial nations to do more to combat climate change. Mexico, Brazil, China, India and South Africa challenged the Group of Eight countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80% by 2050.
8 July BBC News online article

G8 nations fail to meet climate change promises: report

A new study says none of the leading industrialized nations have come close to meeting their promises to slash greenhouse gas emissions, with the US, Canada and Russia trailing especially far behind.
3 July Deutsche Welle article

No climate breakthrough on G8 horizon: UN climate chief

The top United Nations climate official called on rich nations to lead the fight against global warming, but said a breakthrough was unlikely the upcoming G8 summit in Japan. "At this moment it doesn't look very encouraging," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
3 July AFP article through Yahoo News

China warns of 'empty talk' before G8 climate change meet

China said it is open to general discussion of longer-term goals and industrial targets to combat global warming at the G8 summit, but fended off talk of any specific pledges, stressing rich nations should lead the way. Despite its growing economic and diplomatic clout, China is not a member of the Group of Eight industrialised countries whose leaders are preparing to meet in northern Japan.
3 July Reuters article 

No need to give up meat to save planet, says Blair

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has distanced himself from the idea that he should become a vegetarian as a way of highlighting the dangers of deforestation in his role as a climate change campaigner. Blair, who is backing a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gases by 2050, said deforestation was responsible for producing four times as many as emissions as the airline industry.
8 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Eight South Asian nations unite to combat climate change

As rising seas, melting glaciers, floods and cyclones are increasingly putting millions of people at risk in South Asia, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) met to find ways to mitigate the impacts of changing climate.
8 July IPS article

Don't count on long-term success in climate policy, study

Long-term climate change policy in the US and abroad is likely to change very slowly, warns a researcher who calls for stronger short-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, according to a new study. Lead author Prof. Mort Webster writes that climate policy decisions are normally made as sequential decisions over time under uncertainty – given the magnitude of uncertainty in both economic and scientific processes, the decades-to-centuries time scale of the phenomenon, and the ability to reduce uncertainty and revise decisions along the way.
6 July ScienceDaily article

UN Secretary calls for global action to save global growth

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, calls on the leaders of the G8 nations to set firm targets for combating climate change and the global food crisis when they meet in Hokkaido, Japan.
3 July The Washington Post article by Ban Ki-moon

Climate risk from flat-screen TVs

The rising demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist warned. Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes. As a driver of global warming, nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
3 July Guardian article

Governments must make people face up to climate change

The time has passed for subsidies and grants. The time has passed for our leaders to treat us like clients - advertising, cajoling, giving incentives and subsidies. It is time now for a leadership that does not attend to popularity ratings or re-election percentages. Climate change is happening. We, and the generations before us, have caused it. It should not matter whether we believe it or not.
3 July Guardian opinion

Climate change: Time for deeds not words to reach emissions target, PwC study warns

Severe adverse effects from climate change can be avoided at reasonable cost but only if politicians stop talking and start acting, a major report from PricewaterhouseCoopers says. Updating a study it conducted two years ago, it calls on leaders of the Group of Eight leading economies, particularly the United States - the world's largest per capita polluter - to commit themselves to firm timetables for emissions reductions at next week's summit in Tokyo.
3 July Guardian article

Thailand keen to pick up CDM tips

At a time when major developing and developed nations are finding it difficult to control carbon dioxide emissions, green house gas emissions and the environment pollution level, official records show that maximum number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects have been registered by Indian companies. CDM is one of the three major mechanisms for reducing carbon dioxide emission to 5.2 per cent lower than 1990 level, according to Kyoto Protocol standards.
3 July The Business Standard article

Which countries would you pick for your climate team?

Tackling climate change calls for global teamwork, but some countries have been less-than-perfect partners. In order to understand why some nations fall behind in their international climate duties, Michèle Bättig and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, created a Climate Cooperation Index.
2 July New Scientist article

Developed countries declarations on climate change make no sense

Industrialised countries should meet their own commitments in the fight against climate change rather than asking countries like India and China to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Indian prime minister's principal negotiator on climate change Shyam Saran said.
2 July China View article

World's top 16 emitters to create climate forum, Nikkei says

The world's 16 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are likely to create a forum to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, Nikkei English News said. An agreement on the forum is expected on July 9 on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Japan, the newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
2 July Bloomberg article

UN's Ban presses China on climate change

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told China to accept its global responsibilities on climate change, as he began a three-day visit to the world's most populous nation. "It is important that we have China on board for this common effort to address climate change," Ban told reporters just before leaving Tokyo for the Chinese capital.
1 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Agriculture and Natural Resource Management

Australian carbon costs to hurt food exports - farmers

Australian food production and exports could be cut when carbon trading starts from mid-2010, Australia's biggest farmers' group said, with the price of carbon to add to already hefty price rises for fuel. The farmers' disquiet follows fears expressed by big business this month that Australian firms, particularly large energy companies, could lose out to global competitors or be forced to shelve projects due to the country's cap-and-trade carbon plan.
30 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Australian Govt launches farmer climate change training program

The Federal Government has launched a $26 million scheme to give farmers access to training programs to deal with the impacts of climate change. Under the scheme, primary producers will receive grants to attend courses to help them understand the implications of climate change and train them to use new technology.
29 July ABC News online article

Developing nations of 'Rainforest Coalition' agree to avoid deforestation

Representatives of 27 developing countries, members of the so called "Rainforest Coalition", have agreed to reduce gas emissions and avoid deforestation. Delegates at a two-day meeting in Santa Cruz agreed on the need for rich nations to recognize the efforts made by developing countries to reduce gas emissions, and to avoid the destruction and degradation of forests.
30 July mathaba.net article

Rainforest conservation could offset 500m tons of CO2 emissions at $2/ton

Industrialised nations could collectively offset 500 million tons carbon of dioxide emissions at roughly $2 per ton by protecting tropical rainforests, according to estimates published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The calculations, based on three different forestry and land-use models, provide an estimate of what developed nations would need to spend to participate in an "avoided deforestation" program to cut global carbon emissions.
24 July Mongabay.com article
23 July PNAS journal article doi:10.1073/pnas.0710616105

Tanzania: Govt on spot over biofuel production

More than 600,000 hectares of fertile land suitable for food production in the country have been hived off for the cultivation of bio-fuel crops, an independent study by a land use research organisation has revealed. The revelation came even as the Government was put under pressure by MPs to halt the allocations and cancel those that have been made at the expense of food production.
23 July allAfrica.com article

Using trees to fight climate change

Farmers are being urged to use their trees to help combat the effects of climate change. Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones launched a review of the Woodland Strategy for Wales against the background of a research paper that spells out the potential effects of climate change on Welsh woodlands. The Minister wants farmers to work with the forestry sector and use the trees on their land to help combat climate change.
22 July WalesOnline article

Dried-up Murray-Darling will leave 1m thirsty

Australia's worst fears about the drought-stricken Murray River have been confirmed again with available drinking water supplies plummeting to record lows. The diabolical forecast for the Murray-Darling Basin - the nation's food bowl which is supposed to sustain thousands of farmers and irrigators - showed a rapid deterioration of water between March and June this year, a joint report by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and state governments warned.
21 July news.com.au article

'Forest Nations' initiative pushed in Europe

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has continued his campaign in Austria and the United Kingdom to focus attention on PNG and forest nations’ initiatives to combat climate change while pursuing “clean” economic growth. Sir Michael put forward at the European Forum in Austria initiatives for developed countries to cooperate with developing countries to reduce carbon emissions while still allowing sustainable development to take place.
18 July Pacific Magazine article

Forestry carbon bid

The Australian Government will push to expand forestry's role in international emissions trading as part of a post-Kyoto carbon agreement. The Government's green paper on cutting carbon emissions, not only included forestry as a carbon sink, but went beyond the Kyoto Protocol in recognising carbon stored in wood products.
18 July The Age article

Scientists make methane the sacred cow of climate change

Oh, I say. Family First senator Stephen Fielding certainly knows how to attract attention. Headlining the political party's latest media missive, the senator posed this delightful question, ''Will there be a Fart Tax Mr Rudd?''
16 July The Canberra Times opinion

CSIRO paints a grim picture of Murray in new report

The Murray River could be robbed of more than two-thirds of the flows at its mouth by 2030 due to climate change and extraction. Kevin Rudd released the grim results of CSIRO modelling, and made a long-term pledge to cut greenhouse emissions. "We're moving to tackle climate change with a new scheme to reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change," the Prime Minister said. "The situation in the Murray-Darling Basin demonstrates that doing nothing is not an option."
15 July The Australian article
14 July ABC News online article

Zambia: Farmers adapt to climate change

Zambia is feeling the effects of global warming and experts warn that urgent measures are needed to avoid critical food shortages. Scientific research has shown that rising temperatures around the world are in part to blame for the floods and drought facing some regions today. Several stakeholders are now looking at how smallholder farmers are changing their methods in order to continue producing under conditions created by climate change.
14 July Africa News article

Canada's Boreal forest gets some protection

A huge swath of Canada's northern Boreal forest will be permanently protected from tree harvesting and mining as part of a plan to combat climate change, Ontario province's premier announced. The forest forms a band of mostly coniferous trees almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) wide across the entire country, and has remained mostly undisturbed since the retreat of glaciers 10,000 years ago. But growing foreign demand for Canada's natural resources, as well as increased annual forest fires and insect infestations due to warming, are threatening this pristine wilderness.
14 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Forest funding 'could put billions in wrong hands'

The rush to protect forests as a way to tackle global warming could see billions of pounds handed over to corrupt politicians, criminals and polluting industries, experts have warned. The Rights and Resources Initiative, a coalition of groups from around the world, says not enough has been done to address land rights in tropical countries, where much of the money is being directed. Without clearer guidelines on land ownership and involvement by local people, they say, the funds provided by rich countries, including Britain, to protect trees could fuel violent conflict and fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
14 July Guardian article

Booming demand for food, fuel and wood as the world's population surges from six to nine billion will put unprecedented and unsustainable demand on the world's remaining forests, two new reports from the Rights and Resources Initiative said.
14 July ENN article

Climate change to impact on fisheries

Climate change will have a strong impact on fisheries and aquaculture, with significant food security consequences for some populations, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
11 July The Press & Journal article

The old man who farms with the sea

A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.
10 July Los Angeles Times article

Research prepares farmers for leaving the land

The CSIRO says it's preparing to help farmers get ready for massive climate change which would make agriculture unviable in some areas. The work will be part of the agency's re-focussed climate adaptation projects. Andrew Ash, who's leading the research, says the CSIRO will help develop better seasonal weather forecasting and crop varieties, to help tackle gradual climate change. But he says it will also suggest new industries and social solutions, for areas where it's too hot and dry to continue conventional farming.
10 July ABC Rural article

Farmers tell of drought devastation

More than one in five Australian farmers in drought-affected areas have had to pawn or sell something because of lack of money, a study reveals. And more than one-third say farm production is at its lowest level ever. The study, involving 8000 people in rural and regional Australia, is the biggest of its kind undertaken, and comes after the release of CSIRO data showing droughts will become much more frequent in Australia.
9 July Sydney Morning Herald article

New hope for drought-tolerant pasture

A new pasture crop that thrives in drought conditions has been released by the South Australian Research and Development Institute. Farmers will be able to plant either of two sulla varieties with roots that probe deep into the soil in their search for moisture.
9 July ABC News online article

Farmers talk tough on emissions trading scheme

Farmers say they will refuse to join any emissions trading scheme which puts them at a disadvantage with their overseas competitors. Professor Ross Garnaut, the author of a report provided to the Government, has suggested the agriculture sector could join a trading scheme by 2013.
9 July ABC News online article

Even though agriculture cannot be covered by an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), the Australian Government must take steps to ensure consumers can still afford basic food items as substantial price hikes become ‘the norm’, the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) warned.
9 July National Farmers' Federation media release

Investigating a 'green' agricultural system

CSIRO research underway in Central Queensland’s cattle country is investigating whether the integration of trees, pasture and livestock into a single agricultural system will produce greater net returns for producers and the environment. The ‘silvopastoralism’ system is gaining worldwide attention as a potentially profitable land-use practice, particularly following the emergence of new market opportunities such as carbon trading.
8 July CSIRO media release

Capacity to adapt agriculture to climate is being lost

The capacity of our regional communities to adapt to climate change is being undermined at their hour of greatest need. "With drought and drier periods becoming the norm rather the exception we urgently need new ways to assist farmers to deal with climate variability and manage seasonal risk. Unfortunately because Governments have been in denial for so long, Australian farmers aren't now as well equipped as they should be," said Senator Rachel Siewert.
7 July The Greens media release

South African carbon cost study launched

Launching "groundbreaking" research into the carbon footprint of South African fruit and wine exports, Trade and Development Minister Gareth Thomas said the scheme would enable the food industry and its consumers to understand more about the effect of goods bought on climate change.
7 July News 24.com article

African 'wall of trees' gets underway

Three years after it was first proposed, preparations for an African 'wall of trees' to slow down the southwards spread of the Sahara desert are finally getting underway. The 'Great Green Wall' will involve several stretches of trees from Mauritania in the west to Djibouti in the east, to protect the semi-arid savannah region of the Sahel — and its agricultural land — from desertification.
7 July Science and Development Network article

Govt gives $46m to help farmers reduce emissions

The Federal Government has tripled earlier allocated funding to help farmers reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change. Announcing that $46.2 million will now used towards research and development into farming practices, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the money will be spent on reducing greenhouse pollution in agriculture, better soil management and adaptation of farming practices.
7 July ABC News online article

Minister: Climate change may affect South Africa's corn crop severely

South Africa's corn yield will fall by 20 percent in 15 to 20 years due to climate change, South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said as he arrived in Japan for the G8 summit. Western South Africa is becoming drier while the east is facing increasingly severe storms, Schalkwyk said.
7 July China View article

Food and climate crises 'linked'

Climate change will worsen the world's food crisis, the UN has forecast. Food and global warming are interconnected, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the long term, climate change will bring still higher food prices, worsening water problems and more drought. Ignoring the issue "will get you into deeper trouble down the road," he said.
5 July The Press Association article

Rudd pledges action on Murray's Lower Lakes

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made his first visit to inspect the dire state of the Lower Lakes of the River Murray in South Australia. Mr Rudd says he is shocked by how far the water has receded in Lake Alexandrina near Milang. A day after the release of the Garnaut Report, he says the condition of the lakes is evidence of climate change.
5 July ABC News online article
5 July Prime Minister of Australia transcript of press conference

The federal Opposition says the Prime Minister is without any credibility when it comes to managing the Lower Lakes region of South Australia's Murray-Darling Basin.
5 July ABC News online article

Call to encourage climate-friendly farms

Australian farmers could have a huge impact on greenhouse emissions and the government needs to start seriously encouraging them to sequester carbon in their soils, say some experts. Professor Peter Grace of the Queensland University of Technology, an expert on agriculture and greenhouse emissions, estimates that in an ideal situation, more than 900 Megatonnes of CO2 equivalents could be sequestered per annum through improved pasture management.
4 July ABC Science article

Kyoto rules must change if farmers are to contribute

The National Farmers' Federation wants the Federal Government to actively petition for new accounting rules under the Kyoto Protocol to ensure agriculture's sequestration of carbon is acknowledged. NFF president David Crombie says it is essential the Government's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties conduct a "full and sober analysis of how Australia will be impacted" by the Kyoto protocol.
3 July Stock and Land article

New deforestation data reveals hotspots

New methods of estimating rates of worldwide tropical deforestation suggest a small number of hotspots are responsible for a large of proportion of total clearing and are at odds with official data of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
2 July Carbon Positive article

Economics and business

Industries 'can lead in carbon reduction'

Rather than merely adhering to national climate-change rules, industries, such as cement, can lead the way with their own global agreements.
29 July BusinessWeek opinion

SBI seeks CDM consultants to earn carbon credits

India's largest public sector lender State Bank of India is looking for energy consultants to save power and earn carbon credits. As part of its exercise to go green, the SBI has invited applications from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) consultants for energy saving projects.
27 July Hindustan Times article

Profiting from climate change

The investing world is full of cunning hands that profit from financial calamity. Ken Heebner of CGM Focus fame made a killing during the dot-com bust by shorting tech stocks. More recently, other astute investors have grown their portfolios by betting against banks and home builders. Nicolas Huber aims to profit from a different type of calamity: climate change. More specifically, he invests in companies set to thrive in a world of rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and mounting natural disasters.
25 July US News and World Report article

Costs of climate change to be in the billions

Climate change will carry a price tag of billions of dollars for a number of US states, says a new series of reports from the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). The researchers conclude that the costs have already begun to accrue and are likely to endure.
23 July ScienceDaily article

Global climate change is already having an impact on Colorado’s $2 billion ski industry and could shorten the ski season by as much as 30 days if current trends continue, according to a report.
23 July Denver Business Journal article

Climate change will lead to lower water levels in Lake Erie and cost Ohio's shipping industry and related businesses more than $1 billion annually.
23 July Business Courier of Cincinnati article

Global climate change will create devastating drought in Nevada and throughout the Southwest, continuing to drop the levels of already low Lake Mead and Lake Powell, a new study said. This will threaten the water supply of for 2 million Nevadans.
24 July Fox 5 News online article

Rising temperatures and reduced water supply could cost Kansas more than $1 billion in agriculture losses by 2017.
25 July 27 News online article

Indian Inc not ready for climate change initiatives

Despite wide awareness about climate change, Indian corporates are not ready to tackle this issue, says a study by global consultancy KPMG. An overwhelming 83 per cent of the respondents claimed to have a fair understanding of climate change issues. However, just under half of them said they have a clear strategy in place to tackle these issues. The recent KPMG report is an attempt to assess the preparedness of India Inc towards this global phenomenon.
23 July The Economic Times article
24 July Reuters article through Yahoo! News

World Bank criticised on environmental efforts

The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report. The review examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent pledges for environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not put into practice when dollars were turned into dams, pipelines, palm plantations and the like.
22 July New York Times article
22 July Reuters article
22 July IEG report

Can banks stop climate change?

Who would think the banks would land the job of sorting out the world's climate change problems? But strange as it may seem, there are many who believe that only the world's financial institutions can help us now. Since the arrival of the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the 'Kyoto Market', backed by the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), some of the world's biggest banks have been stepping up their activities in carbon finance.
20 July CNN article

ICC suggests national climate change insurance fund

The Indian Chamber of Commerce has suggested greater government efforts in establishing a long-term National Carbon budgeting for each industrial sector and introduction of a National Climate Change Insurance Fund.
19 July The Hindu article

Aviation industry goes 'green' at Farnborough

The commercial aviation industry, widely accused of not doing enough to tackle climate change, pledged at the Farnborough International Airshow to become more 'green.' While rocketing oil prices are already forcing plane manufacturers and airlines to produce and buy fuel-efficient aircraft, European politicians believe the industry can do far more to become less polluting.
17 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Wall Street firms eye 'green' banking

Wall Street has always followed the money, but this time its weightiest denizens -- the big investment banks -- are eyeing a new kind of green. The billions of dollars being poured into clean energy and other "green" technologies amid global fears of soaring commodity prices, dwindling supplies of traditional energy and climate change have created new investment banking opportunities, from arranging the financing for solar power plants to taking geothermal companies public.
16 July Reuters article

Exelon plans huge cut in emissions

Exelon, the electric company based in Chicago, has promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by an amount larger than its total emissions in 2008, in a bid to shape the debate on carbon dioxide rules and to get a jump on compliance.
15 July New York Times article

Nippon Steel says emissions rules may force overseas growth

Nippon Steel Corp., Japan's largest maker of the metal, said it may be forced to increase production overseas should it be disadvantaged compared with rivals under new international climate change rules under discussion.
15 July Bloomberg article

CDP and IBM research project unveils best practice guide to carbon

IBM and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of 385 institutional investors with a combined asset base of $57 trillion, have undertaken an extensive joint research project into carbon management practices and compiled a Best Practice Guide.
15 July Carbon Disclosure Project article

Govt and private sector should work together to spread Japanese expertise

Addressing the challenge of utilizing accelerating technological progress to help cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, as agreed at the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, provides Japan with a superb opportunity to help the rest of the world while also seeing its own businesses benefit. During the three-day gathering, much attention was paid to Japan's energy-saving technologies as a means of slashing greenhouse effect gas emissions.
15 July Daily Yomiuri online article

EU executive to tackle eco-impact of consumerism

The European Commission will launch a raft of proposals to curb the environmental impact of consumerism in the 27-nation EU by supporting eco-friendly products and technology. The plan comes as the European Union moves to cut energy consumption amid soaring fuel and power prices and as part of its ambitious mid-term goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by one fifth by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
15 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

'Green jobs' on the increase

As employment in the fossil fuel sector declines, more and more people are finding work in the renewable energy sector and related professions, with the number of 'green jobs' expected to swell considerably in the coming years, says a new study.
14 July EurActiv article

A wealthy but still green Bangkok

Bangkok can make money by going green, a World Bank economist suggests. Through a new mechanism known as carbon finance, Bangkok can profit from cleaning up its pollution, turning solid waste and waste water into renewable energy, getting people out of their cars and putting in place low-carbon mass transportation system, said Dr Nat Pinnoi, a carbon finance expert from the World Bank.
14 July The Nation article

Japan offers $300m loans to Indonesia for climate change program

Japan has offered Indonesia US$300 million in loans to finance a wide range of activities to overcome climate change. The loans were part of the Japanese partnership program aimed at overcoming climate change, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a press statement.
14 July Antara News article

Climate change comes second after growth for India Inc

For most of India Inc, tackling the adverse impact of climate change is second preference as they aim for growth and expansion, claims a study, which also warns that such an approach will cost the firms dearly in future.
13 July The Hindu article

Economics of climate change

At the Group of Eight (G8) summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, climate change battled heightened economic worries for top billing. With all the major polluters at the table at the so-called Major Economies Meeting, which in addition to the world's richest nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - also featured India, China and eight more top contributors to greenhouse gases, this year's G8 summit delivered the kind of watered-down statement we have come to expect from these sorts of international conferences.
13 July Bangkok Post editorial opinion

Bulb saves SoCal $27 million

More than 100,000 Southern California Edison customers have installed more than 1 million energy-efficient light bulbs since October as part of an effort to combat climate change, the utility announced. Using Energy Star Compact Fluorescent Lamp bulbs has saved customers $27 million on their utility bills while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 420 million pounds, according to the utility.
10 July CBS 2 online article

Proceeds of carbon credit sale to fund Asian clean energy projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has established a new fund that will use carbon credits generated beyond 2012 to provide urgently needed financing for clean energy projects in the Asia-Pacific region. The current regulatory framework, based on the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires on 31 December 2012, hampering the trading in post-2012 carbon credits. This would affect the level of interest in developing new clean energy projects and other climate change initiatives in developing countries.
8 July GMA News article

Emissions trading will unlock $20 billion in investment: Clean Energy Council

The Clean Energy Council said emissions trading would boost the economy, unlocking $20 billion in clean energy investment. While the Federal Government is formulating the scheme, recent surveys showed businesses were unprepared for the new policy, which is set to commence in 2010.
7 July Government News article

Don't bother investing in climate change - yet

Investors buying stocks in companies selling climate-friendly products such as electric vehicles and solar panels are finding the profits are not rolling in just yet. The problem, say analysts, is that nascent technology such as this is still more dependent on news about government subsidies than the soaring price of crude. And with countries scaling back in the wake of the credit crunch and the global economic downturn, the short-term outlook is not good.
6 July Times Online article

Carbon market looks past G8 to US election

Carbon market traders and backers of clean-energy projects aren't holding their breath for a strong statement on fighting change during the G8 summit and are more focused on who wins November's U.S. election. Market players say they don't expect any breakthrough agreements on fixed emissions reductions targets at the talks at a secluded Japanese resort on the island of Hokkaido.
6 July Reuters article through The Guardian

World Bank approves climate funds before G8 summit

The World Bank agreed to establish two investment funds to help developing economies switch to clean-energy technologies to curb carbon emissions and help poor countries adapt to climate change. The approval of the Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund comes days before a summit of Group of Eight leaders from industrial countries in Hokkaido, Japan, on July 8 where climate change issues are on the agenda.
2 July The Times of India article

UN: 'Green energy' investment up

Global investors plowed $148 billion into new wind, solar and other alternative energy assets last year, in what the United Nations describes as a "green energy gold rush" gaining speed the last several years. The spike in investment — 60 percent above the $92.6 billion spent on such projects in 2006 — reflects sharply rising concerns over climate change and energy prices, U.N. officials said in a report. In 2005, alternative energy drew $58.5 billion in new money.
1 July Time article

Energy

Biofuels major driver of food price rise - World Bank

Large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices, a top World Bank economist said in research just published. World Bank economist Don Mitchell concluded that biofuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed prices up by 70 percent to 75 percent.
30 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Biofuels down, energy saving up in EU climate plan

Biofuels are down and energy efficiency measures are up as the European Union's ambitious plan to fight climate change works its way towards becoming law. When EU leaders adopted bold headline goals last year to cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable energy sources, they set a binding target of drawing 10 percent of transport fuel from biofuels derived from crops and biomass by 2020.
29 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Oil spills onto ice, climate among Arctic risks

Companies seeking oil in the Arctic will need better technology to clean up spills onto ice and could new face hazards such as rougher seas caused by climate change, experts said. The US Geological Survey has estimated that 22 percent of the world's undiscovered, technically recoverable reserves of oil and gas are in the Arctic, raising environmentalists' worries about possible impact on wildlife.
28 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Massachusetts signs biofuels law

Governor Deval Patrick has signed biofuels legislation that he said will put Massachusetts at the forefront of the clean energy movement. The Clean Energy Biofuels Act will make Massachusetts the first state to exempt cellulosic biofuels from state gas taxes, creating economic incentives for companies while requiring that the fuels meet strict greenhouse gas reduction standards. One of the major concerns with biofuels such as corn-based ethanol is that they raise food prices and -- in their growing and processing -- cause more environmental harm than gasoline.
28 July The Boston Globe article

'Clean energy' will help tackle climate change threats: Saran

With the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy initiative back on track after the recent trust vote in Parliament, government's key negotiator on Climate Change Shyam Saran has pinned hope that "clean energy" would help tackle climate change threats.
27 July The Hindu article

New material could help stretch a gallon of gas

A new, highly efficient material that converts heat into electricity may one day help cars get the most out of a gallon of gas according to US researchers. Only about 25 percent of the energy produced by a typical gasoline engine is used to move the vehicle or run accessories like the radio or windshield wipers, they said. Much of the rest escapes through the exhaust pipe. Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus and Caltech in Pasadena, California, think they can recycle some of that lost energy with a new thermoelectric material that is twice as effective as current materials.
26 July Reuters article through ENN

Renewable energy takes off in China

Wind energy output is trumping targets, and competition between operators is fierce, but coal still reigns supreme. Wind power has taken off faster than the government planned. This year, policymakers had to double their wind power prediction for 2010, having reached the old goal of 5 gigawatts three years ahead of schedule. On current trends, it will almost definitely have to be doubled again.
24 July Guardian article

Schools eye four-day week to cut fuel costs

Facing a crippling increase in fuel costs, some rural US schools are mulling a solution born of the '70s oil crisis: a four-day week. Cutting out one day of school has been the key to preserving educational programs and staff in parts of Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota, outweighing some parents' concerns about finding day-care for the day off.
24 July Reuters article

Gassing up with garbage

After years of false starts, a new industry selling motor fuel made from waste is getting a big push in the United States, with the first commercial sales possible within months. Many companies have announced plans to build plants that would take in material like wood chips, garbage or crop waste and turn out motor fuels. About 28 small plants are in advanced planning, under construction or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode.
24 July New York Times article

Vast oil, natural gas reserves estimated in Arctic

Some 90 billion barrels of oil and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas lie beneath an area north of the Arctic Circle, government scientists estimate in the largest-ever survey of the energy resources there. The US Geological Survey called the region, which includes parts of the United States, Russia and Canada, "the largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth."
24 July San Francisco Chronicle article

Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity

A tiny rectangle superimposed on the vast expanse of the Sahara captures the seductive appeal of the audacious plan to cut Europe's carbon emissions by harnessing the fierce power of the desert sun. Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claim it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity.
23 July Guardian article
25 July EurActiv article

Rebuilding a Dutch tradition, one windmill at a time

The Dutch are building windmills again. Up and down the coast, out from port cities, you can see them: white and tall and slender as pencils, their three slim blades turning lazily in the North Sea breeze. These generate electricity, of course, rather than grind grain.
22 July New York Times article

Green light for massive wind farm

Plans to build Europe's largest onshore wind farm in South Lanarkshire have been approved by Scottish ministers. The 152-turbine Clyde wind farm near Abington, will be capable of powering up to 320,000 homes.
21 July BBC News online article

Fuel cell cars still 15 years away at best: study

Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are still 15 years away from becoming a viable business for automakers even if they overcome remaining technical hurdles and the US government provides massive subsidies, a government-funded report said.
18 July Reuters article through ENN

Gore challenges US to 100% renewable energy

Former US vice president Al Gore has challenged the American public to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources within ten years. In a speech in Washington DC, the Nobel Laureate said greater use of renewable and carbon-free sources would help to solve the "present danger" of the problems of energy supply, climate change and economic downturn in the US.
18 July inthenews.co.uk article
17 July Associated Press article through Yahoo News
18 July Washington Post article

California adopts new 'green' building code

California has adopted a new building code aimed at improving energy efficiency and water consumption in all new construction projects across the state. In what was described as the United States' first statewide "green" building rules, the California Building Standards Commission said the code would help reduce the carbon footprint of every new structure in the state.
17 July AFP article

International Energy Agency Energy efficiency policy database

An electronic database of energy efficiency policies and measures is available free of charge and has recently been updated.
17 July International Energy Agency online database

OECD report says massive biofuel subsidies not helping to cut greenhouse gases

Massive government subsidies for biofuels are not helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to an OECD report. The US, EU and Canada spent €11 billion (US$17.6 billion) in public money to support energy crops in 2006 — and will more than double that over the next 10 years, according to estimates by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But this failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport by more than 1 percent, the OECD said — recommending that governments would see more savings from a lower-cost push toward cutting energy use overall.
16 July International Herald Tribune article

Bush lifts offshore drilling ban

President George W. Bush has lifted a White House ban on offshore drilling to try to drive down soaring energy prices, a largely symbolic bid unlikely to have any short-term impact on high gasoline costs. With prices at the pump over $4 a gallon, Bush pushed the Democratic-controlled Congress to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and give oil companies access to the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge.
15 July Reuters article through ENN

The great biofuels con

Growing crops for oil was supposed to solve global warming. Now, as food prices soar, biofuels stand condemned as a crime against humanity. Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels - the cropping of living plants, such as soybeans, wheat and sugar cane, to generate energy.
15 July The Age article

Greenpeace climb Eiffel Tower in nuclear protest

About 15 environmental activists climbed the Eiffel Tower to unfurl a banner protesting against France's nuclear energy policies. Campaign group Greenpeace said the banner showing the nuclear logo was placed in the middle of a circle of stars representing the European Union displayed on the tower to mark France's six-month term as EU president. "Since he was elected, President Nicolas Sarkozy has done everything he could to sell nuclear energy," said Frederic Marillier of the French section of Greenpeace in a statement.
14 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Car rental companies caught short as demand for smaller vehicles soars

The industry's economic model gets turned on its head as more customers reject gas-guzzlers. Simply put, not enough of the nation's roughly 1.85 million rental cars are gas-savers to satisfy demand, an imbalance rental agencies cannot quickly remedy. As a result, car rental companies are struggling financially, and long-held pricing models that put more luxurious vehicles ahead of crank-window econoboxes are being turned on their head.
14 July Los Angeles Times article

China says energy efficiency improving

China is making progress in a five-year effort launched in 2006 to improve energy efficiency in its fuel-guzzling economy, a state news agency said, but the country is still falling short of its annual targets.
14 July Associated Press article through San Francisco Chronicle

Kenya court halts US$370m sugar, biofuels project

A Kenyan court has temporarily halted a US$370 million sugar and biofuels project in a coastal wetland that conservation groups warned would threaten wildlife and local livelihoods. The government and the country's biggest sugar miller, Mumias, wants to plant cane on 20,000 hectares in the Tana River Delta to create jobs and plug an annual 200,000-tonne sugar deficit.
14 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Governors talk of moving beyond corn-based ethanol

Governors from the coal fields of West Virginia to the corn fields of Iowa talked at their summer meeting about moving beyond ethanol produced just from food sources. The conversation — including an energy forum — has big implications. The nation has 134 ethanol plants in 26 states with 77 more under construction or expanding, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group for the ethanol industry.
13 July AP article through Yahoo News

One small step from mankind.. a giant leap for humanity

The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous. But while our leaders wrangle over quotas for greenhouse emissions over banquets at lavish summits, there are remarkable individuals who are doing their small bit to prevent our planet from peril. Take Nigerian civil engineer, Dr Joseph Adelegan for instance. He firmly believes that the world's future fuel demands can be met through renewable energy. And he is using increasingly innovative methods to achieve these results.
11 July CNN.com article

UN warming program draws fire

A United Nations program designed to combat global warming has started doing something no one expected: It is subsidizing fossil-fuel power plants that spew millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually.
11 July Wall Street Journal article (subscription required for full article)

Nuclear power in Germany gets new support

Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a contentious call to slow Germany's planned phase-out of nuclear energy, amid growing fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions without it. Germany plans to mothball the last of its 17 nuclear power plants, which emit no carbon dioxide and produce a quarter of the country's electricity, by 2020 under a plan approved under Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder. But soaring energy costs and pressure to slash CO2 pollution have led conservatives like Merkel to call for a rethink against fierce opposition from their coalition partners, the Social Democrats.
13 July AFP article through Yahoo News

Rising energy prices and concerns about global warming are forcing Germany to rethink its decision to phase out nuclear power, a policy that threatens to make Europe's biggest economy more dependent on high-polluting coal or Russian natural gas.
10 July Wall Street Journal article (subscription required for full article)

Dyes turn windows into powerful solar panels

Windows could be used as powerful solar panels thanks to a clever new technology that concentrates the sun's rays. The technique uses transparent dyes to capture, concentrate and redirect light along the surface of the glass to photovoltaic (PV) cells in the frame, which convert the light into electricity. The breakthrough means that there is a tenfold increase in power output compared to use of the PV cell alone.
10 July Guardian article

Solar industry gets jitters as Spain plans retreat

A Spanish bonanza of solar power subsidies may hit a serious brake in September as Madrid prepares to curb support, risking squeezed margins for the global industry, say investors and analysts. Spain is an especially bright spot in the Mediterranean "sun belt" and lucrative subsidies have made it easily the fastest growing solar power market worldwide this year, analysts say.
10 July Reuters article through ENN

Bush pushes US-India nuclear deal

President Bush defended a languishing deal his administration negotiated to sell India nuclear fuel and technology, saying he reassured India's prime minister that the pact was important for both countries despite heavy opposition on both sides. Bush's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was one of a series of one-and-one sessions the president scheduled on the final day of the three-day G-8 summit of economic powers.
9 July Times Record News article

Liberal energy plan too short term

The Australian Greens have criticised the Liberal's "Securing Our Energy Future" Plan for ignoring limits on gas supply and the role of renewable energy. "The Liberal plan fails to recognise that our gas supplies won't last forever, and that they will get more and more expensive as demand outstrips supply," said Greens MLC Paul Llewellyn. "We need to use our unlimited renewable energy supplies to extend the life of our limited gas supplies. "Renewable energy is an essential a part of any secure and reliable energy future."
9 July The Greens media release

Indonesia aims to balance coal and forests

Indonesia, the world's number one coal exporter and a major greenhouse gas emitter, is struggling with conflicting green and growth aims. It wants to increase coal-fired electricity generation by over 40 percent in the next decade, cut emissions and preserve rainforests at the same time. Analysts doubt it can manage all three.
8 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Britain says to slow introduction of biofuels

The British government said it would slow the introduction of biofuels to address concerns that switching the use of land could exacerbate climate change and push up food prices. The government accepted the conclusions of a report it commissioned from Ed Gallagher, chair of the Renewable Fuels Agency, which called for a more cautious approach until more evidence was available.
8 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Toyota to add solar panels to some Prius hybrids

Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodelling, responding to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices, a source briefed on the matter said.
8 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

EU backs away from biofuel goal, eyes Brazil accord

European Union energy chiefs considered an accord with Brazil over biofuels at the end of a three day meeting in Paris during which they backed away from the EU's controversial biofuels target. Though no concrete changes were made to proposed biofuel legislation, ministers said the EU had failed to properly communicate plans to get 10 percent road transport fuels from renewable sources, such as biofuels, by 2020.
7 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

EU's Barroso fires up German nuclear power debate

The head of the European Union's executive played up the merits of nuclear energy in a German newspaper interview, stirring a debate in Berlin about how Germany should source its energy. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said nuclear power could offer a temporary way to stop climate change -- comments that touched a nerve in Germany, where the Green movement's strength has made many hostile to nuclear energy.
7 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

ACT leads Australia with solar scheme

Canberrans who use solar energy at home will soon be able to receive payment for any excess electricity they feed back into the power grid. New laws aimed at making solar power more affordable for individuals have been passed by the Legislative Assembly. Residents who feed solar electricity back into the grid will be paid a premium of almost four times the domestic price.
3 July ABC News online article

UN's climate change guru sees record oil price as a positive

The UN's top climate change official said that record oil prices, which have surged to 146 dollars a barrel, were positive for the environment. "I think they are a net positive. First of all you see that through decreasing demand in Europe and North America where people are becoming much more conscious of petrol prices," Yvo de Boer told AFP.
3 July AFP article

Climate concerns halt coal plant

The US state of Georgia has blocked construction of a new coal-fired power station because of concerns over its carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentalists welcomed the news, and predict the decision will lead to reconsideration of many coal power plants under development in the US.
2 July BBC News online article

Poland cuts CO2 quota for energy, prices to rise

Poland has cut carbon dioxide (CO2) permits for the power generation sector by about 11 percent, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said, in a long-awaited decision on the splitting of its CO2 quota. Poland's government has been in deadlock for months over splitting the country's CO2 quota as environmental concerns clash with the interests of state-owned power groups as well as fears of rising electricity prices and an economic slowdown.
1 July Reuters article

British renewables push will boost energy bills

Meeting Britain's renewable energy targets will add significantly to domestic energy bills on top of already steeply rising fuel prices, a report said. The report from tax advisory company Ernst & Young comes days after the government called for a 100 billion pound green revolution to get 15 percent of its energy -- equivalent to 40 percent of its electricity -- from renewables by 2020.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

India focuses on renewables in new climate plan

India unveiled a national plan to deal with the threat of global warming, focusing on renewable energy for sustainable development while refusing to commit to any emission targets that risk slowing economic growth. The National Action Plan identified harnessing renewable energy, such as solar power, and energy efficiency as central to India's fight against global warming and said a climate change fund would be set up to research "green" technologies.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

China to slash tax on clean-burning fuel DME

China will slash value-added tax (VAT) on dimethyl ether (DME), an alternative fuel used in diesel and petrol engines, to boost the development of alternative energy amid soaring world prices. The government will cut VAT on dimethyl ether, a low emissions fuel, from 17 percent to 13 percent starting from July 1, the Ministry of Finance said in a notice posted on its website.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Human rights, rare species on EU biofuels agenda

The European Union is near to agreeing standards for biofuels that put human rights and endangered species high on the agenda, a diplomat chairing the negotiations said. But the critical issue of how much CO2 they should save is as yet undecided. Biofuel use is soaring as developed countries try to curb dependence on imported oil and cut emissions of carbon dioxide, but critics say the industry has encouraged deforestation and pushed up food prices by competing for grain.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Sequestration

South Africa wants carbon capture at new coal-fired plants

South Africa wants all new coal-fired power stations and coal-to-liquid plants to have mandatory facilities to capture carbon dioxide emissions, a government minister said. The move comes as South Africa -- a major emitter of harmful greenhouse gases, with some 90 percent of its electricity produced from coal-fired plants -- strives to build a low-carbon economy amid global climate concerns.
29 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Carbon plan for Nullarbor limestone

Scientists are considering how limestone from the Nullarbor Plain might help trap carbon emissions. The chemical engineer leading the research, Tim Krueger, says mixing lime extract and seawater could double the volume of carbon the ocean absorbs.
29 July ABC News online article

UK scientists hit out at new coal station plans

British scientists have called on the government to deploy speedily a new technology which will almost completely eliminate carbon emissions from power stations. In a letter published in The Observer, they say failure to capture emissions from dirty coal plants planned for Britain will have catastrophic environmental consequences.
27 July The Observer article

Indonesia resumes tree-planting drive to absorb more carbon

Indonesia will continue its tree planting drive in order to recover its damaged forests, re-green its denuded land areas and help reduce global warming by providing homes for billions of tons of carbon sink.
25 July Antara News article

A concrete fix to global warming

A Canadian company says that it has developed a way for makers of precast concrete products to take all the carbon-dioxide emissions from their factories, as well as neighboring industrial facilities, and store them in the products that they produce by exposing those products to carbon-dioxide-rich flue gases during the curing process. Industry experts say that the technology is unproven but holds great potential if it works.
24 July ABC News online article

Plankton turn tropical Atlantic into a huge carbon sink

A seasonal bloom of ocean plankton fertilised by the Amazon river pulls much more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than researchers had previously supposed. The unexpected bloom may, in fact, be enough to turn the tropical Atlantic Ocean from a net source of atmospheric carbon into a net sink.
21 July New Scientist article

Geosequestration: turning carbon dioxide into rock to offset global warming

The same technology used to analyse minerals and atmosphere on Mars and other planets is being used by scientists from the Queensland University of Technology to explore methods for geosequestration of carbon emissions.
22 July ScienceDaily article

EPA unveils first rules on carbon dioxide storage

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to make sure curbing global warming doesn't contaminate drinking water. In its first regulations on the burial of carbon dioxide underground, the EPA unveiled measures to protect drinking water from the gas behind the bubbles in carbonated beverages. The fledgling technology, known as carbon sequestration, is critical to reducing carbon dioxide released into the air from coal-fired power plants, one of the country's largest sources of the greenhouse gas.
15 July Associated Press article through Yahoo News
15 July Reuters article

Dutch eye role as CO2 capture and storage hub

Rotterdam is seeking to extend its role as an energy hub to become a carbon dioxide (CO2) collector for north West Europe, leading players in the Rotterdam Climate Initiative said. Home to Europe's biggest port, a major hub for oil, coal and biofuels, Rotterdam is counting on plans to capture and store CO2 in old gas fields so it can pursue industrial development and also meet ambitious targets to cut emissions by 2025.
14 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

'Cut not sink' emissions, says expert

We would be better off reducing our greenhouse emissions rather than trying to sink them into the sea using ocean fertilisation, suggests an Australian expert. The comments come as the Australian Government considers its position on ocean fertilisation. "If you asked me would I do this for CO2 mitigation [I'd say] not now," says Associate Professor Thomas Trull of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart.
11 July ABC Science article

Coal-generated CO2 captured in Australia - a first

In a first for Australia, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. CSIRO Energy Technology Chief, Dr David Brockway, said the milestone followed the Garnaut Report’s recognition that Australia has an important role to play in developing low emission coal technologies such as PCC. “PCC uses a liquid to capture CO2 from power station flue gases and can potentially reduce CO2 emissions from existing and future coal-fired power stations by more than 85 per cent,” he said.
9 July CSIRO media release

Carbon dioxide has been captured at a power station for the first time in Australia but it will take another 17 years before it's commercially viable, says the CSIRO.
10 July news.com.au article

Shell launches carbon-capture project

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has embarked on a major carbon-capture project to clean up its oil sands output on the same day the Alberta government created a $2-billion fund to promote just such solutions to the problem of its so-called dirty oil. Shell, one of the world's largest energy companies and a major player in the oil sands, said it will begin testing ways to take carbon dioxide spewed from its Scotford Upgrader, near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and inject it safely back into saline aquifers in the ground. The upgrader takes tarry bitumen from the oil sands and processes it into a lighter synthetic crude.
9 July Report on Business article

Carbon tax needs to fund CO2 capture

Carbon capturing technology, known as geosequestration, is the only lasting solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired power stations, and should be a big ticket item in Garnaut’s interim report on climate change. On the eve of the release of Garnaut’s report, Shadow Resources and Energy Minister David Johnston travelled to the Otway CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies in Victoria to be briefed on their successful geosequestration pilot project.
4 July Liberal Party of Australia media release

CO2CRC July newsletter

The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) is one of the world's leading collaborative research organisations focused on carbon dioxide capture and geological sequestration (geosequestration, carbon dioxide capture and storage, carbon capture and storage, or ccs). The July newsletter has been posted online and outlines latest research progress including news that the Otway Project has reached a milestone with the storage of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 underground.
4 July Co2CRC newsletter

Britain seeks to set pace in carbon capture quest

Britain has announced a shortlist of firms in a tender to build the world's first commercial-scale power plant to burn coal and gas without adding to global warming. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) promises a technological solution to soaring emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning power plants -- but with strings attached.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Climate and climate change

Peru mountain glaciers 'receding rapidly'

Climate change-induced glacier melts have cost northern Peru's mountains 26 per cent of their surface area in the last 33 years, satellite images have confirmed. The reduction is equivalent to 188 square kilometres of the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain chain in the world. The mountain range is home to more than seven hundreds glaciers, with the glacier Huascaran declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.
29 July Science & Development Network article through ENN

US blacks face harsher climate change impact

American blacks are likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change and they are willing to pay to combat it, a commission aimed at raising awareness about global warming said. "There is a fierce urgency regarding climate change effects on the African-American community," said Ralph Everett, the co-chair of the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change. "People need to understand what is at stake -- our very health and well-being."
29 July Reuters article

Giant chunks break off Canadian ice shelf

Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said. Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.
29 July Reuters article through The Washington Post

Angola: Fight against poverty contributes to climate change mitigation

The deputy chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ogunlade Davidson, said in Luanda that the problem of climate changes in Africa essentially results from people's lack of resources. According to Ogunlade Davidson, although Africa is the continent that produces the least quantity of greenhouse gases (3,8 per cent) it suffers the most with the consequences, due to its low capacity of adaptation.
29 July allAfrica.com article

Climate change affects ecosystems in northern Bering Sea

Latest research shows that in the past 20 years climate change has affected ecosystems in the northern Bering Sea which may threaten the life of apex predators, such as gray whale, walrus, seal in that region. The changes in the northern Bering Sea have coincided with a reduction in sea ice, and increases in air and ocean temperatures, said Cui Xuehua, a Chinese predoctoral student from University of Tennessee, US, who is one of the science party in the 3rd Chinese National Arctic Expedition.
28 July China View article

New piece of climate change puzzle found in ancient sedimentary rocks

University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have added a new source of carbon dioxide to the complex climate change puzzle by showing that ancient rocks can release substantial amounts of organic matter into Earth’s rivers and oceans, and that this organic matter is easily converted by bacteria to carbon dioxide, which enters the atmosphere and contributes to climate change.
28 July ScienceDaily article

31,000 scientists sign petition disputing global warming

Some 31,072 American scientists have signed a petition rejecting the assertion that global warming has reached a crisis stage and is caused by human activity.
28 July Victorville Daily Press article

Kyoto, city against global warming, sees threat to gardens

Kyoto, the city whose name is synonymous with the fight against global warming, is feeling the effects of climate change first-hand as the moss dries out in its celebrated gardens.
28 July AFP article

Warm to sceptical science

You've no doubt come across a few opinion columns over the past year which claim that global warming has stopped. Or that we are heading into a new ice age. Or indeed, that rising carbon dioxide levels have nothing to do with climate change - it's all just natural causes. Yet the great majority of news stories on the latest scientific findings say that global warming is accelerating.
28 July Herald Sun opinion

NASA is 'out of line on global warming'

Considering that the measures recommended by the world's politicians to combat global warming will cost tens of trillions of dollars and involve very drastic changes to our way of life, it might be thought wise to check the reliability of the evidence on which they base their belief that our planet is actually getting hotter.
27 July Telegraph opinion

Climate change hurting marine snails

Tasmanian scientists are concerned a microscopic marine snail species found in the Southern Ocean may soon die out due to climate change. The scientists say it is field evidence that sea life in the Southern Ocean is being affected by warmer water.
28 July ABC News online article

Smoke from wildfires may reduce global warming

A new study finds that wildfires--which some scientists believe may be intensified by global warming--may actually cool the warming in the Arctic. Atmospheric scientist Robert Stone of the University of Colorado already had monitoring stations in place in Alaska during the smoky summer of 2004. Stone told KCBS reporter Patti Reising that he was able to study the effects of smoke on climate.
27 July KCBS radio article with podcast

Sites endangered by global warming

Sites endangered by global warming are drawing visitors who want to see them before they're gone. That dream vacation – diving along the Great Barrier Reef, skiing in the Swiss Alps – could remain a dream forever if you don't get a move on. The brilliant coral off Australia could be largely gone by 2050, says a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," has made "ecotourism" hot, ironically.
26 July OCRegister.com article

Climate change: secret life cycles of atmospheric aerosols

An aerosol mass spectrometer developed by chemists from Aerodyne Research Inc. and Boston College is giving scientists who study airborne particles the technology they need to examine the life cycles of atmospheric aerosols – such as soot – and their impact on issues ranging from climate change to public health.
25 July ScienceDaily article

Limit families to two children 'to combat climate change'

The world's population increases by 1.5m each week and babies born in the UK will use more greenhouse gases during their lifetime than those born in the developing world. Two doctors, writing in the British Medical Journal, suggest that doctors should talk to their patients about climate change and encourage them to think about the consequences of having a big family.
25 July Telegraph article

Climate change forcing lobster industry to adapt

The Australian Western Rock Lobster Council says it will adapt to any changes in lobster sizes caused by climate change. A Department of Fisheries expert, Dr Nick Caputi says currents between Shark Bay and Cape Leeuwin have warmed during the colder months over the past 40 years. His research shows the warm waters cause the lobsters to mature early and could affect their growth rates.
25 July ABC News online article

Call to dub climate change 'a catastrophe'

The government should stop talking about global warming and start using the term "climate catastrophe", a leading scientist said. Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, also called for a commitment to deliver a large-scale use of renewables and nuclear power, rather than encouraging "trivial solutions" such as washing clothes at low temperatures.
25 July Scotsman article

Whale playground offers glimpse into Russia's melting Arctic

A young whale pokes its melon-shaped head into the cool morning air near this remote island, a sign its herd is thriving despite mounting threats in Russia's melting Arctic. Cameras and microphones capture the whale's every move as scientists use the species only shore-side breeding ground to see how they are coping as fleets of oil tankers replace melting ice in their traditional feeding grounds.
24 July AFP article through ENN

Global warming could affect water supplies in Arctic

A changing climate may someday shrink water supplies in Arctic communities, said a researcher at a climate symposium in Iqaluit. Less snow in the winter and less rain in the summer, combined with warmer temperatures and higher winds that increase evaporation rates, raise concerns about the future of water supplies in the already semi-arid Arctic, said Paul Budkewitsch of Natural Resources Canada.
24 July CBC News online article

Global warming may boost kitten population

Global warming and kittens. While it may seem hard to see the connection between the two -- a climate phenomenon that melts glaciers and acidifies oceans, and cuddly, 4-ounce balls of fur -- experts say there could be one. Each spring, the onset of warm weather and longer days drives female cats into heat, resulting in a few months of booming kitten populations known as "kitten season."
23 July Chicago Sun-Times article

Causes and processes in past climate change

Due to the impact of global warming, it has become essential to understand the causes and processes involved in past climate changes. One of the most prominent events in Earth's climatic evolution was the transition from the global warmth of the Eocene "greenhouse" to the Oligocene "icehouse" glacial conditions.
23 July ScienceDaily article

UK to increase aid to Bangladesh to cope with climate change

The United Kingdom will increase its annual aid for Bangladesh to reduce losses caused by effects of climate change. Stefan Evans, British High Commissioner to Dhaka, announced that the aid will be increased gradually from current 114 million pounds (about 218 US dollars) annually to 150 million pounds (about 287 million US dollars) by 2010.
23 July China View article

Is world's wettest place getting drier?

The town of Cherrapunjee, in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya, is reputed to be the wettest place in the world. But there are signs that its weather patterns may be being hit by global climate change.
21 July BBC News online article

Kruger Park's global warming woes

A 2.5 degrees Celsius rise in average world temperature above 1990 levels could cause up to two-thirds of all animal species in the Kruger National Park to become extinct, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk warned.
21 July ioL article

Ugandan coffee may disappear in 30 years: Oxfam

Changing weather patterns in Uganda may lead to the extinction of the east African country's key export, coffee, in coming decades, a report by British charity Oxfam said. "The outlook is bleak. If the average global temperatures rise by two degrees or more, then most of Uganda is likely to cease to be suitable for coffee... this may happen in 40 years or perhaps as little as 30," the report said.
17 July Reuters article

Climate change could impact Costa Rica

Climate change could have a major impact on the environment of Costa Rica, upsetting delicate mountain cloud forests, and causing a decrease in plant and animal species in a region famous for its biodiversity. Regional climate models predict that the area will become warmer and drier as climate change accelerates.
17 July ScienceDaily article

Should we move species to save them?

With climate change increasingly threatening the survival of plants and animals, scientists say it may become necessary to move some species to save them. Dubbed assisted colonization or assisted migration, the idea is to decide how severe the threat is to various species, and if they need help to deal with it.
17 July Associated Press article through Yahoo News
21 July ScienceAlert article

Many Tory MPs still sceptical on climate change

David Cameron has failed to convince many of his MPs that man-made global warming is a serious problem, according to a poll that finds widespread sceptisicm across parliament about the issue. A third of Tory MPs who responded to the survey questioned the existence of climate change and its link to human activity. Two-thirds said tackling climate change should not be a priority for local councils.
16 July Guardian article

If northern trees suffer because of global warming, southern trees may still be slow to replace them

If a warmer Wisconsin climate causes some northern tree species to disappear in the future, it's easy to imagine that southern species will just expand their range northward as soon as the conditions suit them. The reality, though, may not be nearly so simple. A model developed by forest ecologists suggests that while certain northern species, such as balsam fir, spruce and jack pine, are likely to decline as the state's climate warms, oaks, hickories and other southern Wisconsin trees will be slow to replace them.
15 July ScienceDaily article

Ethanol, global warming and the ailing Gulf

The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could reach a new record size this year, and grow to cover an area equal to the State of New Jersey, researchers said. One prime culprit: The record Midwest flooding that caused the Mississippi to swell. The discharge of pollutants and nutrients from the Mississippi River causes algae to bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. When the algae dies, the decaying absorbs so much oxygen from the water that large areas become inhospitable to fish. The resulting lifeless area is called a eutrophic or hypoxic zone, or more colloquially, a dead zone. The condition is cyclic, and reaches its maximum in late summer.
15 July the daily green article

Global warning: Melting ice threatens Arctic foxes

Polar bears may not be the only Arctic wildlife threatened by global warming. Scientists have discovered that Arctic foxes also struggle as the ice disappears because they rely on the frozen seas to survive the bleak winters.
15 July Guardian article

Global warming may raise kidney stone risk

Global warming could do more than hurt polar bears: It could force a rise in kidney stones, scientists have warned. "We see a relationship between kidney stones and temperatures everywhere," says study co-author Margaret Pearle of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. "Even in places with air conditioning, warmer temperatures mean more stones."
15 July USA Today article

Global warming forces Russian scientists to abandon the ice

It looks as though global warming will cut short a study of… global warming. That’s what happens when your lab sits on a melting ice floe. Adrift on ice in the Arctic Ocean, 21 Russian scientists (and two dogs) will need an early rescue thanks to global warming. The ice chunk supporting North Pole-35—a project designed to study Arctic flora and fauna, environmental conditions and even geography—has dwindled from 3 square miles to just 0.7 square miles.
14 July Scientific American article

EPA experts detail global warming's health risks

Government scientists detailed a rising death toll from heat waves, wildfires, disease and smog caused by global warming in an analysis the White House buried so it could avoid regulating greenhouse gases. In a 149-page document, the experts laid out for the first time the scientific case for the grave risks that global warming poses to people, and to the food, energy and water on which society depends.
14 July Associated Press article through Yahoo News
11 July US EPA media release

US environmental regulators quietly published a draft study that linked global warming to higher levels of smog that could harm human health, a report green groups said stood in contrast to the Bush Administration's slow movement on climate change. The draft report published by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register said, "Climate change has the potential to produce significant increases in near-surface (ozone) concentrations in many areas of the US."
10 July Reuters article

Global warming could gulp Sabarmati: Panel

The Sabarmati riverfront development project could be under threat. The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) has thrown up a scenario which may end up with the Sabarmati river disappearing altogether.
12 July The Times of India article

Small research centre provides a global window

High on a jungle hilltop, at a unique research center in the middle of the Panama Canal, scientists are studying three-toed sloths, howler monkeys and jungle flora to better understand evolution and the practical effects of global warming. The biological secrets being studied at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are more than just thesis fodder. Scientists say some provide clear warnings of a planet in peril and could provide clues to ways to save it.
11 July Los Angeles Times article

Study clears sun of global warming

The sun's changing energy levels are not to blame for recent global warming and, if anything, solar variations over the past 20 years should have had a cooling effect, scientists say. Their findings add to a growing body of evidence that human activity, not natural causes, lies behind rising average world temperatures, which are expected to reach their second highest level this year since records began in the 1860s.
11 July Reuters article through ABC Science

Oceans are becoming dangerous places

Like a tooth dipped in a glass of Coca-Cola, coral reefs, lobsters and other marine creatures that build calcified shells around themselves could soon dissolve as climate change turns the oceans increasingly acidic. The carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere by factories, cars and power plants is not just raising temperatures. It is also causing what scientists call "ocean acidification" as around 25 percent of the excess CO2 is absorbed by the seas.
11 July Reuters article through ioL

Fall in tiny animals a 'disaster'

Experts on invertebrates have expressed "profound shock" over a government report showing a decline in zooplankton of more than 70% since the 1960s. The tiny animals are an important food for fish, mammals and crustaceans. Figures contained in the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) document, Marine Programme Plan, suggested a fall in abundance.
10 July BBC News online article

Warming spells trouble for fish

Global warming of the oceans will likely cause the extinction by 2050 of dozens of fish species that cannot migrate to colder waters, according to a study presented at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium. "The loss of biodiversity will be considerable, and replacing them with new species would take millions of years," says co-author Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada.
10 July ScienceNOW article

More climate change pain for Spain

For a long while it looked odds-on that a big international conference in Barcelona this autumn about the environment would find the Spanish host city deep in the grip of a water crisis triggered by its worst drought in 50 years. Global threats posed by the accelerating pace of climate change are a core theme of the October 5-14 congress, which will discuss a “new climate for change." For Spain, water shortages rank high amongst the potential problems of a warming world. A recent government report warned that water resources could shrink 22 percent by the end of the century.
10 July IslamOnline.net article

Climate change turns up heat on coral spawning

Marine scientists are concerned rising sea temperatures may confuse a coral polyps' sexual timing. Corals on the Great Barrier Reef mass spawn on the same night in late spring to increase the chance of sperm and eggs finding each other in the ocean and surviving predators. James Cook University researcher Dr Andrew Baird says the mass spawning is triggered by ocean temperatures and any change caused by global warming could confuse the polyps.
10 July ABC News online article

US coral reefs under threat

Half of US coral reefs are in poor or fair condition, threatened by climate change and human activities like sports fishing, shipping and the release of untreated sewage, a US government report said. Reefs in the Caribbean, in particular, are under severe assault and coral in the US Virgin Islands and off Puerto Rico had not recovered from 2005, when unusually warm waters that led to massive bleaching and disease killed up to 90 per cent of the marine organisms on some reefs.
9 July Reuters article through Times of Malta
7 July NOAA report

White House stifled evidence of climate change health risks

Officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office pressured federal health and environmental officials to edit congressional testimony to downplay the public health impacts of climate change, according to a former senior official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Senior Senate Democrats contend the allegations of Jason Burnett, the EPA's former top climate advisor, add to evidence of a concerted effort by the Bush administration to mislead the public about the risks of climate change and to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.
8 July Environment News Service article

Climate change sparks regional mental health fears

A Sunshine Coast environmental expert is warning climate change could become a major cause of mental health problems in regional communities. A health congress in Brisbane has heard climate change could help spread diseases like dengue fever, increase heat stress and reduce clean water supplies.
8 July ABC News online article

Do believe the hype on climate change

When it comes to the science of climate change - if it reads like a disaster novel, then it really is that bad.
7 July Guardian opinion

Spain and Brazil top BBC climate change concern list

Spain and Brazil are the countries most concerned about climate change, according to new research from BBC World News and Synovate. It has also found that the US has shown the biggest growth in levels over the past year. The report shows that 88% of respondents in Spain and 86% of respondents in Brazil are concerned about climate change, while 80% of respondents in the US say they are worried about the environment, up from 57% last year.
7 July BBC article through Marketing Week

Religion's role in the climate debate

It is the duty of the religious, scientific and political communities to persuade a cynical public that global warming is a very real threat.
6 July Guardian opinion

Why Canada is the best haven from climate change

A group of islands with the potential to develop into a tourist paradise has been named as the country least equipped to withstand the effects of climate change. At the other end of the scale, Canada is the best place to move to if you want to be a climate change survivor in the decades ahead (although Britain is also a good place to be as a warming atmosphere takes hold).
4 July The Independent article

Merger of US earth sciences agencies proposed

From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet. Creation of a new Earth Systems Science Agency is urged in the journal Science, by merging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Geological Survey.
3 July Associated Press article through Yahoo News
4 July Science 321, 44-45 abstract

South Asia climate 'crisis' talks due

Environment ministers from the South Asian regional grouping, Saarc, have gathered in Bangladesh to discuss a plan to tackle climate change. Experts say millions of people in the region could be at risk from rising seas, melting glaciers, floods, droughts and cyclone.
3 July BBC News article

Poll shows climate change is no longer just a middle-class issue

A poll in The Guardian shows that public concern about climate change has reached a critical mass and now includes the less well-off
2 July Guardian opinion

Condemned to single-sex life by climate change

Rising temperatures look set to produce male-only offspring in the tuatara, condemning the ancient reptile species to extinction by 2085, computer modelling predicts.
2 July Environmental News Network article

Trading and tax

Is the UK Government's offset standard up to the mark?

Offset providers are angry over the government's sidelining of successful emission reduction projects – and it's all Coldplay's fault. It was the revelation back in mid-2006, that an attempt to offset the band's carbon emissions through the planting of mango trees had been thwarted by the arid soil of southern India, and the subsequent demise of many of the 10,000 trees originally planted that first served to highlight some of the risks associated with the concept of carbon offsetting.
29 July BusinessGreen analysis

South African firms may face carbon tax

Plans for an "ambitious" climate change protection plan - including carbon taxes for companies like Eskom and Sasol, and a commitment to curbing national carbon emissions from 2020 onwards - have been announced by Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
29 July ioL article

Japan to start trial carbon trading in October

Japan, under pressure to find other incentives than government spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has approved an October start for the trial trading of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming. "We'll set down rules in September on how to take part (in a trial carbon trading scheme) and in October we'd like to get started," Hiroshi Kamagata, director for the cabinet secretariat at the Cabinet Office, said at a briefing.
29 July Reuters article

China's carbon market hit by regulatory uncertainties

Local regulatory issues and concerns about the future of the clean development mechanism (CDM) are hampering carbon trading in China, one of the world's biggest potential markets, industry representatives said. The CDM, part of the Kyoto Protocol, was designed to allow developed nations to meet their commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by investing in clean projects in the developing world. But although a complicated bureaucratic structure has already been painstakingly built up, there is no certainty that the market will remain in place after 2012, when Kyoto expires.
29 July Quamnet article

Fiji takes advantage of carbon trading

Fiji will be taking advantage of the carbon trading opportunities after Cabinet approved the formation of a technical team to advice and work closely on the project with the Environment Ministry. The team will be working closely with the Director of Environment in putting together projects for carbon credit trading, both in the Voluntary and Compulsory Carbon trading markets.
29 July The Fiji Times online article

US should find way to price carbon emissions, say execs

Two top executives from US industry told a congressional panel that the country should assign a dollar cost to carbon emissions to encourage investment in efficiency and tackle climate change. "We need to reaffirm the principle of predictability," George David, chairman of United Technologies Corp, told the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
28 July Reuters article

Market meltdown? Carbon trading is just warming up

First, the price of the EU's credit allowances crashed. Now shares in companies that trade in them are falling too. But getting polluters to change their ways will be a process of trial and error.
27 July The Independent analysis

Canadian elections likely to focus on carbon tax

Elections to fill three seats in Canada's House of Commons will be held on September 8 with the major issue likely to be the opposition Liberal Party's proposal to introduce a carbon tax.
25 July Reuters article through Yahoo! News

US-Canada carbon trading group eyes 2012 start

A coalition of US states and Canadian provinces that have banded together to cut greenhouse gases will launch their carbon cap and trade system in 2012, according to a draft plan. The Western Climate Initiative's system will be phased in starting with industrial process emissions, with emissions from transportation and other fuels added to the system in 2015. It also will include emissions from electricity imported from sources outside of the group.
23 July Reuters article

US carbon initiative nets key Canadian province

The province of Ontario, Canada's industrial heartland, will join the Western Climate Initiative, a planned US-based regional carbon credit trading pact aimed at curbing global warming. Ontario is the fourth province to join the effort that includes California and six other US states, and was established by US state governors tired of what they saw as the Bush administration's inaction on climate change.
18 July Reuters article

Namibia approves CDM project

A geothermal energy project has become the first clean development mechanism (CDM) project to be approved in Namibia. CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialised countries with a commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries, as an alternative to more expensive emission-reduction mechanisms in their own countries.
17 July allAfrica.com article

Bulgaria prepares to sell spare Kyoto carbon credits

Bulgaria plans to sell spare greenhouse credits granted under the Kyoto Protocol through 2012, an Environment Ministry official said. "The ministry is preparing a proposal for trade with the national surplus quota, which has to be approved by the cabinet,'' Stefan Dishovski, head of the Bulgarian Environment Ministry's climate department, said in a phone interview.
17 July Bloomberg article

Why cap and trade could backfire

Environmentalists claim that capping greenhouse-gas emissions and creating a market for emissions trading – a policy prescription called "cap-and-trade" – would reduce carbon dioxide output and with it the risk of global warming. But it could achieve the opposite. Here's how: By turning carbon emissions into commodities that can be bought and sold, cap-and-trade policies could remove the stigma from producing such emissions.
16 July Christian Science Monitor opinion
14 July Reuters article

Japan to buy emissions allowances from Ukraine

Japan, a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, has agreed to buy greenhouse-gas emission allowances from the Ukraine to reach a target set under the UN climate-change treaty. Details of the contract including volumes and prices will be determined through negotiations, the trade ministry said in a statement. Japan is now holding talks with the Czech Republic and Poland to make similar contracts, it said.
15 July Bloomberg article
14 July Reuters article

Carbon credit market hit by UN crackdown

Chaos theory is often explained in terms of the "butterfly effect", whereby an insect flaps its wings on one side of the world and causes a tornado on the other. At first glance, the global carbon market seems like a pastiche of this model - when a cow farts in Brazil, Britain somehow moves nearer to meeting its requirement to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
14 July Telegraph article

Carbon credit to ride high on crude oil prices, China earthquake

Carbon credit or certified emission reduction (CER) prices are expected to trade on the higher side in NCDEX (National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange Ltd) and MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange) due to the steep rise in crude oil prices and the fear of supplies from China being hit by the recent earthquake. China is expected to generate 44 per cent of the global carbon credit requirement by 2012, through about 101 projects registered with Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) executive board, the highest authority under the Kyoto Protocol for registering projects and issue credits.
13 July The Hindu article

Carbon charges likely to raise airfares

Travellers can expect to pay more for flights to Europe when airlines start paying new carbon charges for flying in the continent's skies. A proposal to include airlines in Europe's emissions trading scheme has passed another hurdle, with the European Parliament agreeing airlines will be part of the system regardless of which country they are based in.
10 July Radio New Zealand article

Asia airlines join criticism of EU emissions vote

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) joined in the chorus of carrier associations condemning the decision by the European Parliament to include aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). “European legislators have again overreached their authority by seeking to impose this scheme on international airlines operating outside European airspace,” said Andrew Herdman, director general of the AAPA.
10 July Cargonews Asia article

Aviation included in EU CO2 trading scheme

The European Parliament voted in favour of including aviation emissions in the EU's emission trading scheme (EU ETS) as of 2012 in a plenary vote on 8 July. The move was immediately criticised by the aviation industry as well as the United States.
9 July EurActiv article

NZ carbon trading market says gets global approval

A New Zealand-based carbon trading market said it was in a position to become Asia's leading market for trading in greenhouse gas emissions when it starts up in early 2009 after gaining an international accreditation. The market, known as TZ1 and owned by New Zealand stock exchange operator NZX Ltd, said it had become an approved registry for the voluntary carbon standard (VCS), which is set by international environmental and economic bodies.
3 July Reuters article

Shell wants refiners exempt from EU CO2 cap plan

Royal Dutch Shell Plc wants oil refiners to be given CO2 emission permits for free in the next phase of the European Union's CO2 emissions trading scheme but is happy for most other sectors to be charged. Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told the World Petroleum Congress that the crude refining, chemicals and paper industries should be exempt from proposals to charge businesses for emitting CO2, because they would otherwise be at a disadvantage against rivals in the US and Asia.
1 July Reuters article through Planet Ark

Conferences

The European forest-based sector: Bio-responses to address new climate and energy challenges?

An International Scientific Conference titled The European forest-based sector: Bio-responses to address new climate and energy challenges? will be held in Nancy (France) from 6 to 8 November, 2008, under the auspices of the French Presidency of the European Union.
Details

Australian Forestry conference - call for abstracts

Be at the forefront of ‘a climate of change’ at the Institute of Foresters of Australia (IFA) 2009 Conference. The IFA Conference organisers are calling for abstracts consistent with the theme, Forestry: a climate of change. The Conference will be held at Caloundra, Queensland from 6-10 September, 2009.
Details

Weather/climate risk management for the energy sector

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Weather/climate risk management for the energy sector will be held in S. Maria di Leuca (Lecce, Italy), 6-10 October 2008.
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European Forest Week

The European Forest Week (20-24 October 2008) will be marked by events in Brussels, Rome and throughout Europe. The week highlights the contribution of European forests in mitigating the effects of climate change, providing wood and renewable energy, promoting fresh water supply and protecting the environment.
Details

Climate change: Preparing for the new security environment

The RUSI climate change and security conference will provide a forum to discuss the current state of research on the linkages between climate change and security, with a special focus on responses and solutions for planners and policymakers. It will be held in London, 3 September, 2008.
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Energy Convention 2008 - Workshop on policies for energy efficiency in buildings

The Energy Delta Convention 2008 will be held in Groningen, the Netherlands, from 17-19 November 2008. The Energy Delta Convention is a high-level energy conference with a unique interdisciplinary platform for senior business, science and government experts.
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IGES Special Paper Competition: Low-carbon climate-resilient society

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) is calling for papers under the theme Low Carbon Climate-Resilient Society: Issues and Challenges for Asia. This special paper competition invites papers which focus on suitable policy frameworks to achieve a low carbon, climate-resilient society in Asia. Deadline for submission is 1 November, 2008.
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2008 Crawford Fund annual development conference

The 2008 Crawford Fund annual development conference titled Agriculture in a Changing Climate: the New International Research Frontier will be held on Wednesday, 3 September, 2008 at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia. Its focus is the impact of agriculture on climate change, the potential impact of climate change on the distribution and productivity of agriculture, fisheries and forestry in our region and in Australia, and the need for international research to mitigate these effects.
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Financing for climate change

An international conference on Financing for Climate Change - Challenges and Way Forward, will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 15 to 17 August 2008.
Details 

4th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference

The 4th Australia- New Zealand Climate Change & Business Conference will be held in Auckland, New Zealand from 18-20 August, 2008.
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Forest Adaptation 2008 Conference

The International Conference Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies, and Practices will be held in Umeå, Sweden, from 25-28 August,  2008.
Details

A special session on Tropical Forest Management and Climate Change Adaptation will be held as part of IUFRO-FAO-SLU Conference on Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies, and Practices. The Conference will take place from 25 to 28 August 2008 in Umea, Sweden.
Details

2008 International Biochar Initiative Conference

The 2008 International Biochar Initiative Conference, Biochar, Sustainability and Security in a Changing Climate, will be held in Newcastle, UK, from 8-10 September, 2008.
Details 

Harvested wood products workshop

UNECE, FAO, MCPFE and Switzerland are organizing a workshop on Harvested Wood Products in the Context of Climate Change Policies to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 9-10 September, 2008 .
Details

14th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference

The 14th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference will be held in New Delhi, India, from 21-23 September, 2008 .
Details

Cambridge International Summit

Entrepreneurship for a Zero Carbon Society, Cambridge's First International Summit on Policy, Technology and Investment for a low-carbon economy will be held at the University of Cambridge, UK from 22-24 September, 2008.
Details

Carbon Finance World 2008

Carbon Finance World 2008, a meeting for senior executives involved with carbon markets, will be held in Sydney, Australia, from 13-16 October, 2008.
Details

Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2008

Australia’s first dedicated, industry-hosted trade fair & conference for carbon market participants & service providers across Australasia - hosted by the Asia-Pacific Emissions Trading Forum and Environment Business Australia - Gold Coast, Australia, October 30-31, 2008.
Details

Development Studies Association Annual Conference

The Development Studies Association will hold its Annual Conference, Development's invisible hands, at Westminster, London on 8 November 2008.
Details

Third International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change

The Third International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change will be held in Bangladesh from 22-26 February, 2009.
Details

Greenhouse 2009

GREENHOUSE 2009: Climate Change & Resources will be held in Perth, Western Australia, from 23 to 26 March 2009. Major themes will include agriculture, biodiversity, human settlements and water.
Details

 

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