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

June 2008

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Australian news

Carbon load to be spread

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says the federal Government cannot offer widespread exemptions from its proposed emissions trading scheme without placing excessive pressure on industries that will be covered by the regime. Mr Tanner told The Australian he was being lobbied by businesses arguing for a one-in, all-in approach to emissions trading, under which the Government would put a price on carbon emissions to encourage a transition to a low-emission economy. His warning that the Government could not exempt economic sectors "left, right and centre", came as Kevin Rudd savaged the federal Opposition as "an absolute policy shambles" on the issue, and as Brendan Nelson continued to distance the Coalition from pre-election promises to include fuel in an emissions scheme.
27 June The Australian article
27 June The Australian opinion

Climate change fight needs political ardour: Greenpeace

Greenpeace says the only thing Australia lacks in the fight against climate change is political will. The environment group is stepping up its campaign on the issue, sending its ship the Esperanza to ports on the eastern seaboard to call for urgent action.
27 June ABC News online article

Going nuclear not essential: Rudd

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Australia does not need to resort to nuclear energy as part of its climate change strategy. A newspaper report says that former NSW premier Bob Carr and Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes are urging the Federal Government to consider the use of nuclear energy. The report says Mr Carr believes that nuclear energy can be used while renewable energy sources continue to be developed. However Mr Rudd told ABC's AM program that nuclear options are not needed.
27 June ABC News online article

Liberals back petrol in carbon trading scheme

The Federal Opposition has signalled cautious support for including petrol in a carbon trading scheme, as long as it does not drive up fuel prices. Federal Parliament is now in recess for two months after a week dominated by debate on climate change.
27 June ABC News online article

Heating a fuel tax is explosive politics

Good climate change policy includes more than petrol. Given the level of public concern over rising petrol prices, it is only natural the Opposition has decided to play politics with what was once a key part of its own climate change response. It now says transport fuels, which account for about 17 per cent of Australia's carbon emissions, should not automatically be included in any carbon trading scheme. To its credit, the Rudd Government has not taken the bait. Rather, given the groundwork already laid with the symbolic ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the Government has used the Opposition's U-turn to climb back onto the high moral ground.
26 June The Australian opinion

New greenhouse emissions reporting system to start

From Tuesday 1 July businesses emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases will be required to monitor and measure the emissions ahead of reporting them to the Government by October next year. Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said the requirements were part of Australia’s new National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System. “The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System will be an important part of our efforts to
tackle climate change as we move to establish an emissions trading scheme,” Senator Wong said.
26 June Dept of Climate Change and Water media release
27 June The Canberra Times article

Millions of 'green collar' workers needed by 2015: report

A CSIRO report predicts a carbon emissions trading scheme will require three million workers to be trained or re-skilled by 2015. The report warns the Federal Government that bold steps will be needed to ensure overall employment growth is not endangered by emissions trading. But it has also found that a scheme could lead to an increase in employment rather than job losses.
26 June ABC News online article
26 June ACF article
26 June CSIRO report

Brendan Nelson discusses emissions trading

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has discussed emissions trading in a radio interview on the ABC's AM program.
26 June Liberal Party transcript

Opposition's 30c petrol rise 'hysteria'

The Federal Opposition's claims that petrol prices will soar by 30 cents a litre if fuel is included in a carbon-emission trading scheme are based on "hysteria", an expert says. The initial effect on bowser prices would be about three cents a litre, or about six cents within five years, emissions trading expert Brett Janissen says.
25 June news.com.au article

Fuel prices could rise under carbon trading scheme: Rudd

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not been able to rule out a petrol price rise under the carbon emissions trading scheme. In a rowdy Question Time, the first half of which was dominated by climate change, Mr Rudd was challenged to confirm if the scheme would raise the cost of petrol. Mr Rudd agreed that prices could rise.
25 June ABC News online article

Motorists have had their strongest hint yet to prepare for higher petrol prices under the Rudd Government's plan to fight climate change.
25 June Herald Sun article

Greens label fuel price debate 'populist nonsense'

The Greens say both sides of politics should stop bickering over populist measures to drive down fuel prices. Greens Senator Christine Milne says the focus should be on cutting back Australia's reliance on oil.
19 June ABC News online article

We need tough love, not bad parenting

Elizabeth Farrelly argues that Australians need to accept higher fuel prices as a means to change our fuel-guzzling habits- "...human behaviour can change, and be changed by tax. So we must reject the bad parenting our leaders pathetically offer, demanding instead the tough love we need. Demand, for our own sake, the increased fuel prices that can make change smooth, not catastrophic. That's moral courage. That's citizenship."
4 June Sydney Morning Herald opinion

Climate change major threat to Queensland

Queensland has more to lose from climate change than any other Australian state, with the twin threats of severe drought and intense cyclones, a new report shows. The state government has responded by launching a $3 million campaign to get householders to shrink their carbon footprints.
25 June news.com.au article

Australia on track to meet Kyoto greenhouse gas emission target

Australia must work harder to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions despite a report indicating the nation will meet its Kyoto pollution target, the climate minister said. The government released a report on Australia's emissions for 2006, the first official progress report since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new government ratified the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in December last year.
24 June International Herald Tribune article

Smart policy can improve families’ energy affordability

The Climate Institute released a discussion paper from economists at CSIRO and the Australian National University on the impact of emissions trading on household energy budgets. This first of its kind analysis finds that for most households wage growth will outstrip increases in energy prices, improving energy affordability over coming years. Energy efficiency policies and some targeted payments can ensure this happens for all families.
23 June The Climate Institute media release and full report
23 June news.com.au article

Greens senators list options for relieving the burden of climate change costs

Greens Senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne pointed to options, other than cash compensation, for the government to relieve the burden of climate change costs on low income earners. Senator Milne pointed to the Greens’ EASI scheme to retrofit all Australian households with energy saving options such as insulation and solar hot-water systems, which would permanently reduce power bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Brown pointed to investment in fast, efficient public transport as another way to give low income earners assistance in coping with rising petrol prices.
23 June Senator Bob Brown media release

Global warming to boost Pacific pests

While global warming threatens the lowlying countries of the Pacific, higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are expected to give invasive pests from South Pacific countries a major advantage. Australian ecologist Tim Low says pests will adapt faster to climate change, and cope better with extreme weather events like cyclones and fires.
22 June ABC Radio online article

Mining executive warns on cost of climate change policy

Australians will need to make big sacrifices if the nation is to achieve a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, a mining executive warns. Peter Freyberg, who heads the Australian coal operations of Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata, cautioned that government measures to arrest climate change would have a big impact on Australians.
21 June Herald Sun article

World heritage sites 'threatened by climate change'

The Federal Government is being asked to support a move for international recognition of climate change as a threat to world heritage sites. An Australian legal and environment group has joined with a US group to urge the World Heritage Centre to adopt guidelines that take climate change into account in planning for the conservation of world heritage sites.
21 June ABC News online article

Garrett funds emissions testing facility for heavy duty vehicles

Australia’s first engine emissions test facility for heavy duty vehicles will be built in Western Australia with $2.76 million in Australian Government funding, announced by Environment Minister Peter Garrett. “This project will assist with funding the development of the first facility in Australia capable of testing heavy duty vehicle engines to international certification level testing for both regulated and greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Garrett said.
20 June Dept of Environment, Heritage and the Arts media release

Climate change refugees the forgotten people

Australia has a duty to help those who will lose their homes to rising sea levels. This is National Refugee Week, an appropriate time for Australians to consider the plight of climate refugees — those people being displaced as a result of sea-level rise, drought and extreme weather events.
18 June The Age opinion

Greens’ renewable energy ‘feed-in’ bill referred to Senate Committee

Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, welcomed the referral of her Private Member’s Bill for a comprehensive national feed-in law to the Senate Environment Committee as an important step towards a 100% renewably powered Australia and a vital opportunity for Australia’s renewable energy sector to actively campaign for real support.
17 June Senator Christine Milne media release

Moving on from fossil fuels: Progressing Australia to a hydrogen energy economy

In the midst of rising oil prices and intensifying debate on renewable energy, the Australian Academy of Science has produced a report which examines Australia's contribution to research into hydrogen as a future energy carrier. The report is based on an analysis of Australian hydrogen energy research publications and funding. The study found that although Australian research is a minor component of this fast-moving field, Australian researchers are making significant contributions in areas such as in hydrogen storage materials, carbon capture and storage, and solar-thermal reforming of natural gas.
16 June Australian Academy of Science media release and report

New climate change report on the Murrumbidgee region

Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, has welcomed the release of a report on the effects of climate change on water availability in the Murrumbidgee region in southern New South Wales. The report forms part of the CSIRO Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project, being undertaken on behalf of the Australian Government and the Murray-Darling Basin states. The project looks at the impacts of climate change and land use change across the Basin’s 18 regions.
16 June Dept for Climate Change and Water media release

Aust scientists call for urgent climate change action

A group of high-profile Australians has issued a statement that has been described as a 'call to arms' to avoid the dangerous effects of climate change. The group, which includes some of the country's leading scientists, population and health experts - as well as politicians - is calling for an urgent response to global warming.
14 June ABC News online article
12 June The Age article

Australia 'holding up UN climate deal'

Australia is blocking the progress of a post-Kyoto climate change accord, a delegate at an UN conference in Germany says. A UN meeting in Bonn, Germany, adjourned after making little progress, with delegates worried the glacial pace could delay the accord past the target date. Participants said not enough ideas were put on the table, and environmental organisations accused Australia, the US and Canada of obstructing progress.
14 June news.com.au article

Australia and Indonesia sign greenhouse agreement

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Ken Rudd signed an agreement to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, Rudd told a joint news conference. Indonesia, which hosted a UN climate change conference in December, has been a driving force behind calls for rich countries to compensate poor states that preserve their rainforests to soak up greenhouse gases.
13 June Reuters article

$2.8 million for coastal communities

The Rudd Government is providing $2.8 million for three new projects to help Australia’s vulnerable coastal communities plan for the effects of climate change. Announcing the projects in Fremantle, Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said adapting to the unavoidable effects of climate change is a priority under the Government’s climate change policy.
13 June Dept for Climate Change and Water media release

NT Govt seeks community guidance on climate change response

The Northern Territory Government is seeking feedback from the community about climate change. The Government says it will have a climate change policy ready by the beginning of next year.
12 June ABC News online article

Govt 'knew about' climate change in 1984

The Hawke government knew about the risks of climate change 25 years ago but did little about them, according to Labor heavyweight Barry Jones who was a federal minister at the time. Dr Jones cast himself as an Australian version of climate campaigner Al Gore in a speech to a Canberra conference. He said he was the first politician to sound the alarm on global warming, as science minister in 1984.
11 June Sydney Morning Herald article

Exotic pests 'the joker in the climate change pack'

Researchers attending a national pest conference in Darwin are warning that climate change will demand greater surveillance for exotic pests. Andreas Glanznig from the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre says global warming could favour the black striped mussel, climbing perch, walking catfish and black spined toad. The warning comes as the federal Department of Agriculture reviews Australia's national quarantine and biosecurity arrangements.
10 June ABC News article

Rudd hails Kyoto's 'hope for future'

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has paid tribute to the Japanese city of Kyoto for its role in dealing with climate change policy. In a welcoming ceremony at Kyoto's luxurious state guest house, Mr Rudd and wife Therese Rein were met by Kyoto's governor. Two geisha were also on hand to welcome Mr Rudd, who said he had wanted to visit the city because of its crucial role in world climate change policy.
10 June ABC News article

Concern at lack of climate change research into marine eco-systems

A CSIRO scientist has warned Australia's fight against climate change is being compromised by a lack of local research. Hobart-based researcher Elvira Poloczanska is the co-author of an article in the latest edition of the journal Science that identifies a lack of research into the impact of climate change on marine eco-systems.
7 June ABC News online article

Rudd's Japan, Indonesia trip to tackle climate change

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will focus on climate change and forming a European-style union in Asia during a visit to Japan and Indonesia.
6 June Bloomberg article

'Climate change will beat us'

Economist Ross Garnaut thinks humanity will probably lose the fight against climate change. The architect of Australia's response to climate change says the issue is "too hard" and there is "just a chance" the world will face up to the problem before it's too late. Professor Garnaut issued the chilling prognosis in a speech in Canberra.
5 June news.com.au article

World news

Emissions, Kyoto and policy

'We've passed the safe CO2 concentration' - Hansen

Renowned NASA climate scientists James Hansen argues that the "safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is no more than 350 parts per million, and it may be less." This recommended level is less than the amount currently in the atmosphere - 385 ppm. His views have gained wider support in the scientific community, though some see it as unrealistic.
27 June Discovery Channel article
23 June The New York Times article
24 June CNN.com article

California unveils major plan to slash emissions

California took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. The plan, which aims to reduce pollutants by 10 per cent from current levels by 2020 while driving investment in new energy technologies that will benefit the state's economy, is the most comprehensive yet by any US state.
25 June Reuters article

McCain bucks Bush on climate change

Republican Presidential nominee-elect John McCain vowed to combat global warming without sacrificing economic growth, contradicting President George W. Bush on the need for binding emissions cuts. Unlike Bush, McCain pressed for mandatory cuts in emissions of warming gases as he spoke at a California event alongside Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who opposes the White House hopeful's call for offshore oil drilling.
25 June AFP article

New Hampshire is among 11 battleground states targeted for Republican John McCain’s second television ad of the general election campaign. The new 30-second ad, which began airing on WMUR and cable networks, attempts to separate McCain from President George W. Bush on the global warming issue.
17 June UnionLeader.com article

Taking climate change seriously - finally

It's been a long time coming, but the United States is finally going to have a President who takes climate change seriously enough to do something about it. The day before Senator Barack Obama clinched the Democratic Party's nomination for president, his colleagues in the United States Senate began preparing for the biggest global warming vote in Washington's history.
8 June CBS News article

US climate change bill blocked

US lawmakers blocked a sweeping climate change bill, after Republican warnings of high energy costs dashed Democrats' hopes for pollution caps under President George W. Bush's administration.
6 June AFP article through Yahoo News

Congress retreated from the world's biggest environmental concern — global warming — in a fresh demonstration of what happens when nature and business collide, especially in an election year. Senate Democratic leaders couldn't overcome Republican opponents who managed to block the most serious effort in Congress to date to address the warming of the planet. The legislation called for cutting greenhouse gases by 71 percent from power plants, refineries and factories over the next 40 years.
6 June Associated Press article

Before the anticlimactic demise of legislation to combat global warming, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, called climate change “the most important issue facing the world today.” Senator George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, a critic of the bill, nonetheless called it “the most significant piece of legislation to ever come out of the Environment and Public Works Committee.”
7 June The New York Times article

The most obvious lesson to be learned from the Senate’s failure to mount any sort of grown-up debate on climate change last week is that the country needs a new occupant in the White House. By that we mean a president who not only understands and cares deeply about the issue, but who is willing to invest the time and the political capital necessary to push good legislation through Congress.
11 June The New York Times opinion

If Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" convinced Americans that global warming is a problem, rising gasoline prices and the recent bungled Senate debate on emissions regulations may have convinced the public that it isn't ready to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions just yet.
10 June The Wall Street Journal Digital Network article

A piece of legislation which called for significant reductions in U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions was shelved by the US Senate by a 48-36 vote. Although the bill was not likely to pass in an election year, it may be viewed as a positive when a new president takes office, because both Presidential Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain favor mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
11 June Logistics Management article

A US economist praises Congress for planning to fight global warming, but he says the plan being considered would hasten environmental calamity. Peter Morici, former chief economist at the US International Trade Commission, is concerned about the Warner-Lieberman bill pending in the Senate. It would limit US greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to 2005 levels, and reduce those by 70 percent in 2050.
4 June UPI.com article
3 June The Christian Science Monitor article

Even before debate began on the first comprehensive climate change bill to reach the Senate floor, the White House said President George W. Bush would veto it in its current form. Bush himself slammed the bill, saying it would cost the US economy $6 trillion. His estimate drew quick denials from those who support the legislation.
3 June Reuters article

Ex-EPA official critical on climate change

A high-ranking political appointee resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency after concluding there was no more progress to be made on greenhouse gases under the Bush administration. Jason Burnett, associate deputy administrator for about a year before his resignation took effect June 9, was the principle adviser on climate change issues to agency chief Stephen Johnson. He helped developed the EPA's response to last year's Supreme Court ruling that the agency had the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
25 June Associated Press article

Annan: Rich countries must take lead in tackling climate change

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that industrialised countries must take the lead in dealing with the threat of climate change. "Looking at global emissions from a per capita perspective, it is obvious that the richest countries must take the lead," Annan told the first annual meeting of his new humanitarian forum. "We must have climate justice," Annan said. "We must recognise that the polluters must pay, not the poor and vulnerable."
24 June China View article

Museveni wants compensation for climate change effects

Developing countries should be compensated for the negative effects of climate change, according to President Yoweri Museveni. "Africa, a home to a-sixth of the global population, is responsible for less than one-twenty-fifth of the global greenhouse gas emissions," he noted. "Implicit in these statistics is the right to compensation from those primarily responsible for global warming."
24 June New Vision Kampala article through allAfrica.com

UN climate chief asks G8 summit to agree on 2020 emission targets

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has urged next month's Group of Eight summit in Japan to come to an agreement on mid-term targets for carbon emission cuts. "My hope is that the G8 summit would lead to a agreement amongst G8 countries on the direction of their emission reductions by 2020. So perhaps agreeing that their efforts should be guided by a certain range of emissions reductions," De Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told journalists in Geneva.
24 June AFP article

Seoul meeting lowers G8 expectations

Major carbon dioxide emitters failed to agree on a numerical target for reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 even though the final session of a two-day meeting in Seoul was extended, conference sources said. According to the sources, however, participants in the fourth Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change (MEM) did manage to hammer out a broad agreement on a draft MEM leaders' declaration to be issued on July 9 after talks to be held on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit meeting in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, which starts July 7.
24 June Daily Yomiuri Online article

US envoy says no 'G8 solution' to climate change

The US ambassador to Japan has voiced doubt on whether the upcoming Group of Eight summit would take action on climate change, saying that any solution must also involve developing nations. Host Japan has expressed hope that the July 7-9 summit of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations -- Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States -- will help shape negotiations on a post-Kyoto climate treaty. But Thomas Schieffer, the US ambassador to Japan, said that any solution on curbing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming needed to bring on board major emitters in the developing world such as China and India.
16 June AFP article

Scientists warn G8 of climate peril to food

Scientists from Group of Eight countries and the five biggest emerging nations urged next month's G8 summit to ratchet up action against global warming, warning that climate change threatened food and water supplies. The 13 academies called for leaders to commit to a goal -- sketched in the 2007 Heiligendamm summit as something they would "seriously consider" -- that would halve global emissions of carbon gases by 2050.
9 June AFP article through Yahoo News

Tough 2020 climate goals unachievable - US

The United States will tell a July meeting of the Group of Eight rich nations that it cannot meet big cuts in emissions of planet-warming gases by 2020, its chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson said. "It's frankly not do-able for us," he told Reuters, referring to a goal for rich countries to curb greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
4 June Reuters article through Planet Ark

Report shows EU emissions falling slightly in 2006

EU member states have made progress in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to be on course to meet their Kyoto targets, according to data released for 2006. But the EU Commission is particularly concerned about emissions rises in the new member states. The report, released by the European Environment Agency (EEA), shows emissions from the EU 27 fell by 0.3% from 2005 levels, and 7.7% from the base level of 1990. Total emissions amounted to over 5.1 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2006, compared to almost 5.6 billion tonnes in 1990.
23 June EurActiv article

Resetting Earth's thermostat

Policymakers have only considered two responses to climate change: cutting emissions, and adaptation - that is, learning to live with a warmer planet. There is, however, a third possible strategy, one that could be fast, effective and affordable -- but that is being ignored. This idea is commonly known as geo-engineering.
23 June Los Angeles Times opinion

Blowing smoke on climate change

The good news is the world's two biggest polluters are talking about energy. The bad news is they are not talking seriously about climate change. As talks between the United States and China wend inevitably in the directions set by the arcane and intricate requirements of bilateral investment, you have to wonder why the most important issue of all is way down the list.
23 June The Standard opinion

Russia must act now on environment: Medvedev

Parts of Russia will be uninhabitable within the next three decades if the country does not take better care of the environment, Russian news agencies quoted President Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev, addressing law students in his home city of St Petersburg, said Russians had been more concerned about survival than the environment in the 1990s.
21 June Reuters article

Residents of proposed eco-towns may be fined for using cars

Residents of Gordon Brown's eco-towns are set to face fines for driving their cars out of the controversial green settlements. Motorists living in England's new eco-towns may also be expected to park their cars at the outskirts and walk or cycle to their homes.
17 June Telegraph article

Oregon Governor outlines climate change proposals

All new buildings constructed in Oregon could be required to achieve zero net emissions by 2030 under a set of legislative proposals outlined by Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Speaking in Portland to a climate conference, Kulongoski outlined a series of energy efficiency proposals to complement his major push in the upcoming 2009 legislature: a cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions.
17 June Portland Business Journal article

1000+ amendments to NZ climate change bill

The future of controversial climate change legislation in New Zealand is in the balance after it was reported back from a parliamentary select committee with more than a thousand amendments. The bill seeks to set up a greenhouse gas emission trading scheme (ETS) and has been through a fraught process to take it to this stage.
16 June stuff.co.nz article

Attempting to 'kick the carbon habit'

The stunning natural landscape defines the national character of New Zealand, so to the average inhabitant climate change must seem like a remote concern. But Prime Minister, Helen Clark, is urging them to "kick the carbon habit" and reduce their net greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
9 June BBC News article

Green group takes Ottawa to court over Kyoto law

An environmental group is preparing to argue in court that the Canadian federal government has run afoul of the law by flouting its obligations to reduce greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol. Friends of the Earth's lawyers will ask a Federal Court judge to compel the Conservatives to follow a climate-change law they've blithely ignored since Parliament passed it one year ago."It's a simple case requiring the government to comply with the law," said Ecojustice lawyer Hugh Wilkins, who is working with Friends of the Earth.
16 June Canadian Press article

Draft second edition of CCB Standards available for public comment

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) invites you to review the Draft Second Edition of the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB)Standards. The First Edition of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards represents the culmination of two years of intensive collaborative effort, including expert input, field testing and independent review. From February 2008 the CCB Standards has been undergoing revision in preparation for a Second Edition and feedback is invited from a wide range of users, experts and those affected by the Standards.
15 June CCBA download draft standards

China increases lead as biggest carbon dioxide emitter

China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas produced by human activity, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year’s global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found.
14 June The New York Times article

US official urges more cooperation with China on climate change

The United States and China have no choice but to cooperate closely on combating global warming to work out long-term solutions that could be shared by the world, said a visiting US senior environmental official. "We share a lot in common in terms of challenges ... our two countries have no choice but to cooperate more aggressively on clean energy technologies, because we face the same challenges and we need similar solutions," said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
13 June China View article

UN climate deal said "daunting" as Bonn talks end

The world faces a daunting task to agree a new deal by the end of 2009 to slow climate change, the United Nations said as 170-country talks ended with recriminations about scant progress. Developing nations at the June 2-13 meeting accused the rich of dragging their feet in setting new cuts of greenhouse gases and failing to offer enough ideas for sharing new technology or for aiding the poor to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
13 June Reuters article
13 June IISD Reporting Services Bonn meetings summary report and report on side events

Negotiators from more than 172 countries are meeting in Bonn to hammer out a deal that may culminate in a new global climate agreement. In this week's Green Room, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer argues that negotiators want to see more of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, not less.
10 June BBC News opinion 

The chairman of United Nations climate talks urged governments to boost efforts to secure a new deal to tackle global warming by making specific proposals as soon as possible. Participants hope to reach an agreement by December 2009 so that it can come into force after the first round of the Kyoto Protocol, which is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, ends in 2012.
6 June Reuters article

Africa: one voice on climate change

Africa needs one common strategy on climate change to stand any chance of persuading rich countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020, environment ministers agreed at a meeting in Johannesburg.
12 June IRIN article through allAfrica.com

City seeks to be carbon neutral

Stirling is aiming to become the UK's first carbon neutral city. Funding of £1.25m has been given to the community-led project, Going Carbon Neutral Stirling (GCNS), which hopes to reduce the area's environmental impact.
12 June BBC News online article

Global warming could release trillions of pounds of carbon annually from East Siberia's vast frozen soils

East Siberia's permafrost contains about 500 Gigatons (1100 trillion pounds) of frozen carbon deposits that are highly susceptible to disturbances as the climate warms.
12 June ScienceDaily article
20 May Geophysical Res. Lett. 35, abstract

Cut landfills to slash emissions: Study

Reducing waste going to landfills and incinerators to near zero is one of the quickest and cheapest way to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by an alliance of waste management organisations. The report is also critical of the inclusion of landfill gas project activity in carbon credit schemes.
12 June Carbon Positive article
5 June Stop trashing the climate (report)

Bush: Global climate pact possible on my watch

President George W. Bush said that a global climate change deal was possible before he leaves office in January 2009. "I think we can actually get an agreement on global climate change during my presidency," Bush said at his final summit with leaders of the European Union, which is at odds with the US approach. Bush is unwilling to set binding targets in the United States without undertakings from emerging economies such as China and India.
10 June AFP article through Yahoo News
10 June China News article

Franco-German car emissions deal gets cool welcome

Environmentalists and the European Commission reacted coolly to a plan by Germany and France to tighten limits on auto pollution — but not by as much as the EU wants. The proposed EU law would compel car makers to have all their models emit an average of no more than 120 grams of carbon-dioxide per kilometer by 2012. By 2015, the limit would be 95 grams.
10 June International Herald Tribune article

National academies weigh in on climate and health

Calling some effects from global warming inevitable, the science academies of 13 nations -- including the United States -- issued a joint statement calling on world leaders to cut greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2050 and speed up technology research that helps foster a "low-carbon society."
10 June ABC News article
10 June ScienceNews article

Finnish PM urges rich nations to take lead on climate change

Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has urged developed countries to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while helping emerging economies with clean energy technologies. "Competition for vital natural resources, in particular water, may further intensify in many parts of the world as a result of changing weather patterns. This is likely to lead to increasing local and regional strife," he said.
9 June AFP article

UK says West shouldn't 'demonise' China, India on environment

UK Business Secretary John Hutton said Western leaders shouldn't "demonize'' China and India over their carbon emissions, arguing that growing nations have a right to the higher living standards that come from using more energy.
7 June Bloomberg article

Hot air over global warming

Fresh reports every day tell of glaciers melting, thinning polar ice triggering prospects of a scramble for the riches under the Arctic ice cap, worries about rising water levels inundating low-lying countries, and soaring oil prices. Amid this background, ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized nations and leading developing countries such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa, their leading scientists, and bureaucrats met in Kobe to do something about the most pressing environmental issues the world faces. The deliberations produced just another few million dollars of hot air.
7 June The Japan Times article

Hurdle for future cities: human habits

Among the United Arab Emirate’s seemingly endless construction sites, developers outside of Abu Dhabi have broken ground on perhaps the most ambitious green-city project in the world. With government support, the Masdar Initiative will create a carbon-neutral city capable of housing 50,000 residents. Upon completion, the city will act as a living test site for the latest in sustainable urban innovations.
6 June The Christian Science Monitor  article

'Together' launches US campaign to fight climate change

In observance of World Environment Day, businesses, US cities nationwide and nonprofit organizations joined with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to launch Together, a consumer engagement campaign on climate change. Together is an initiative of The Climate Group, a global, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to building public-private partnerships to find solutions to climate change.
6 June Environment News Service article

Climate conference demands strong steps against global warming in open letter

Former national leaders, experts and activists demanded that world governments take urgent action to reduce climate-damaging emissions before global warming becomes irreversible. An open letter adopted at the end of the two-day International Climate Conference 08 said the participants see "the risks of climate change have been quantified and demand urgent action to cut global greenhouse gas emissions."
6 June The International Herald Tribune article

Indonesia urges G8 to deliver, as Jakarta floods

Indonesia's environment minister said that events in Jakarta, hit by flooding due to unusually high tides this week, served as a timely warning of the impact of global warming on coastal cities. Rachmat Witoelar urged Group of Eight countries, due to meet next month for a summit in Japan, to show their commitment to tackling global warming, which threatens many coastal and low-lying areas.
5 June Reuters article

Canada offers cash and bicycles for scrapped cars

Canadians will be offered bicycles, public transit passes or cash if they agree to scrap their old gas-guzzling vehicles. Ottawa says five million of the 18 million cars and trucks in Canada were made before 1996, when tougher emissions standards were introduced. The older vehicles produce about 19 times more pollutants than newer models, the government said.
5 June Reuters article

‘India won’t cut greenhouse gas emission against development’

India will not reduce greenhouse gas emission at the cost of development and poverty alleviation, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena said. “India is struggling to bring millions of people out of poverty. We cannot accept binding commitments to cut down greenhouse gas emission,” Meena said at a function to mark the World Environment Day.
5 June Thaindian News article

Bush, Dutch PM discuss climate change

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he stressed the importance of making progress in the fight against climate change in talks with US President George W. Bush at the White House. "It's important to make progress on the issues of climate change and energy," said Balkenende, whose country is particularly concerned about global warming since one fourth of its territory is below sea level.
5 June AFP article through Yahoo News

It's lean and mean, but is it green? EU plans clampdown on car ads

It's a staple of the glossy magazine: the eye-catching spread selling the latest Chelsea tractor or high-performance German road machine. But the luxury car advert looks likely to become much less attractive under green advertising rules being drafted by the EU. As a packet of cigarettes carries a mandatory health warning, a Mercedes C-class advert may be forced to carry a climate hazard alert within months. Manufacturers would be forced to stop supplying pollution information in barely readable small print at the bottom of ads.
5 June The Guardian article

Japan PM says mid-term emissions targets needed

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said mid-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions were needed, but expressed doubt about whether G8 members could agree on them at the summit he hosts next month. Group of Eight (G8) leaders agreed last year in Germany to consider halving global emissions by mid-century, a proposal favoured by Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada but opposed so far by the United States and Russia.
4 June Reuters article

The science of denial

The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or conceal scientific evidence and muzzled at least one prominent scientist to justify its failure to address climate change.
4 June The New York Times opinion

All three US candidates are strong on global warming: UN climate chief

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the profiles of all three US presidential candidates pointed to a major change in US policies on global warming after George W. Bush leaves the White House next January. Yvo de Boer, who is executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said he found the stances of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain "very encouraging."
3 June AFP article

UN climate change chief confident of 2009 deal

A new global deal on climate change should be achieved at a meeting in Copenhagen next year despite disagreement at talks this week, the head of the U.N climate change secretariat said. "I really am confident that at the end of the day, the deal will be struck," Yvo de Boer said in a speech at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
3 June Reuters article

Kyoto CO2 project scheme seen swayed by politics

Politics played a "clearly significant" role in the executive rulings made in a clean energy project scheme under the Kyoto Protocol, a study showed. Researchers from the University of Zurich analysed 1,000 greenhouse-gas emission-cutting projects submitted for registration by the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a scheme run by the United Nations. "The impact of political-economic variables is clearly significant," the report said, referring to the subsequent decisions made by the executive board.
3 June Reuters article

Summary of European stakeholders meeting: International climate policy after 2012

The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, together with the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change, hosted a workshop of leading thinkers on international climate policy in Venice, Italy, on May 15–16.
3 June Belfer Center summary report

Agriculture and Natural Resource Management

Adapting farming to climate change: report

CSIRO has released a national overview of climate change impacts and adaptation options for Australian agriculture. Bringing together the latest science from research groups around Australia, the report includes chapters on each of Australia’s major agricultural sectors, with a focus on steps that can be taken to adjust to the ongoing changes in our climate. Speaking to the Farm Writers Association of NSW in Sydney, co-editor of the report, CSIRO scientist Dr Mark Howden, said it was time for agriculture to start focussing on proactive solutions.
26 June CSIRO media release and report
27 June The Canberra Times article
27 June The Age article

Looming tropical disaster needs urgent action: report

A major review by University of Adelaide researchers shows that the world is losing the battle over tropical habitat loss with potentially disastrous implications for biodiversity and human well-being. The review concludes we are "on a trajectory towards disaster" and calls for an immediate global, multi-pronged conservation approach to avert the worst outcomes.
26 June ScienceDaily article
25 June news.com.au article

Farming and global warming - the effects

The theme in Edinburgh at the first "summit" climate change conference hosted by the International Dairy Federation – an organisation based in Brussels – was basically that dairy farmers must wake up soon to the negative effects of their sector in relation to global warming and the emission of greenhouse gases.
26 June The Scotsman article

Drought-resistant wheat beats Australian heat

Will Australia's farmers fall for the charms of drought-resistant wheat, even if it's genetically modified? Faced with climate change and a growing food crisis, enthusiasts certainly hope such traits will help overcome aversion to GM technology.
25 June New Scientist article

Abandoned farmlands are key to sustainable bioenergy

Biofuels can be a sustainable part of the world's energy future, especially if bioenergy agriculture is developed on currently abandoned or degraded agricultural lands, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution and Stanford University. Using these lands for energy crops, instead of converting existing croplands or clearing new land, avoids competition with food production and preserves carbon-storing forests needed to mitigate climate change.
24 June ScienceDaily article

Farmers can help with climate change

Farmers can make a huge contribution to the problems of climate change, the Australian federal Parliament has been told. The big difficulty is how to measure the carbon stored in the soil through changed tilling and cropping practices. NSW independent MP Tony Windsor, a farmer, kicked off a rare non-partisan parliamentary debate by urging both sides to put politics to one side when considering an emissions trading scheme.
24 June The Age article

Madagascar: New eco-deals protect unique forests

Madagascar has signed a series of environment agreements to protect unique forests and support local communities as part of a commitment by the government to ramp up environmental protection on the Indian Ocean island. In its largest ever debt-for-nature swap, Madagascar signed a deal with France, in which US$20 million of debt owed to the former colonial power was put into a conservation fund, the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity (FPAB).
19 June allAfrica.com article

Murray-Darling should be declared 'national emergency'

The Australian Federal Opposition says the Government must declare the state of the Murray-Darling Basin a national environmental emergency. A leaked scientific report reveals the Government was warned last month that vegetation and wetlands could be lost unless flows are returned to the lower lake system by October.
18 June ABC News online article

Pine beetle devastates Canadian forest, may fuel global warming

"Western Canada is experiencing an infestation of pine beetles of a magnitude never before seen,'' said Erica Lee, the Alberta government's top specialist on the insect and a leader in efforts to contain it. "The potential to spread to eastern parts of the continent is very real.'' The beetle, officially Dendroctonus ponderosae, has killed half of British Columbia's mature lodgepole pines since 1999, according to the provincial government. It forecasts that 76 percent of the trees will be dead by 2015, as climate change makes it easier for the insects to live at higher elevations and in northern latitudes.
18 June Bloomberg abstract

Plan to conserve forests may be detrimental to other ecosystems

Conserving biodiversity must be considered when developing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, researchers warn in the journal Science.
18 June ScienceDaily article
18 June Science 320, 1454-1455, abstract

Bush begins effort to track state of environment

The White House has directed four agencies to develop yardsticks for charting changes in the amount and quality of the nation's water. Clay Johnson, a deputy director of the White House budget office, said various indicators would be used to evaluate whether environmental policies and programs are working. "We currently lack consistent information on the environment and natural resources to analyze national trends," he said in a statement.
19 June Associated Press article

Space cameras to monitor forests

Plans to use a state-of-the-art camera onboard a satellite to monitor deforestation levels in Africa's Congo Basin have been unveiled. The high resolution RALCam3 camera, designed and built by UK scientists, will provide the first detailed view of the area's rate of forest cover loss. The project is part of the Congo Basin Forest Fund, a £108m joint-initiative by the UK and Norwegian governments.
17 June BBC News online article

Tropical forest sustainability: a climate change boon

Improved management of the world’s tropical forests has major implications for humanity’s ability to reduce its contribution to climate change, according to a paper published in the international journal, Science. The authors – Dr Pep Canadell from CSIRO and the Global Carbon Project, and Dr Michael Raupach from CSIRO – say the billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed annually by the world’s forests represents an ‘economic subsidy’ for climate change mitigation worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
13 June CSIRO media release
13 June Science 320, 1456-1457 abstract

Computer climate models need updated forest dynamics data

Two papers published in the journal Science highlight how an improved understanding of forest dynamics is needed to better predict environmental change. The research suggests that a new generation of realistic forest modelling, which is urgently needed and now within reach, will significantly improve an understanding of how forests work, how tree species respond to deforestation, and how forests impact climate regulation and environmental change.
13 June ScienceDaily article
12 June Science 320, 1452-1453, abstract
12 June Science 320, 1502-1504, abstract

Quaffing the future

Enjoy a nice glass of Australian Chardonnay? Global warming could change the way you drink. Global wine production is under increasing pressure from rising temperatures and water shortages as climate change takes hold in vineyards across the world. But wine is going green as producers, shippers and retailers look for ways of reducing the carbon footprint of the world's favourite tipple.
11 June BBC News online article

Nuts may be solution to dirty cattle belches

The cast offs from snacking on cashews may help fight global warming caused by animals that belch methane. Tests in Japan have show that oil produced from the shell of the cashew nut may slash by 90 percent the methane emissions from belching cattle when mixed as an additive to feed.
11 June Reuters article

Climate change blamed as mango harvest goes sour in India

The news will send a shiver through fruit aficionados the world over: India's mangoes, revered for millennia for their succulence, are becoming fewer and less sweet as changes in weather patterns affect harvests. Official estimates suggest that three million tonnes of mangoes have been wiped out by a severe winter in India so far this year and the unseasonable deluges that have swept key growing regions in recent days may weigh further on production.
9 June The Times article

UN food meeting ends with a call for ‘urgent’ action

A three-day United Nations conference on spiraling food costs concluded with the delegates calling on countries and financial institutions to provide more food for the world’s poor and increase agriculture production to ensure adequate supplies in the future.
6 June The New York Times article

Indonesian president calls for mass tree planting

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono marked World Environment Day with a call for citizens to make a bigger effort to plant trees across the massive archipelago. Indonesia planted some 79 million trees in a day-long event ahead of a global climate change conference on the resort island of Bali in December, but Yudhoyono said the nation had to do more. With soaring food prices adding to concerns over climate change, he said people should consider planting fruit-bearing trees.
5 June AFP article through Yahoo News

Food, oil crises should not overshadow climate danger

Crises over soaring food and oil prices should reinforce rather than distract from the need for action over climate change, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme said.  UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said it was inevitable that attention on climate change would abate this year after the intense international focus on it in 2007.  "What we are saying is take a breath, but don't sit back because the situation is actually worse than we thought two years ago," Steiner told AFP.
5 June The Economic Times article  

Biofuel battle highlights UN food summit

Leaders gathered at a three-day UN summit on the world's food crisis have quickly laid out their disagreements over a key issue: how much the rush for environmentally friendly biofuels is contributing to the rocketing prices that are causing hunger and unrest around the globe.
3 June Associated Press article through CBS News

Urgent action must be taken to tackle the soaring cost of food that is plunging poor nations into crisis, according to a new Oxfam report. As world leaders prepared to meet in Rome for an emergency United Nations food summit, Oxfam called on governments to draw up a global action plan to tackle the disaster.
3 June The Scotsman article

Images reveal 'rapid forest loss' in PNG

High-resolution satellite images have revealed the "rapid deforestation" of Papua New Guinea's biodiversity rich rainforests over the past 30 years. An international team of researchers estimates that the current rate of loss could result in more than half of the nation's tree cover being lost by 2021.
2 June BBC News online article

Economics and business

Global warming creates red-hot opportunities

Global warming is not only melting the polar ice-caps, it's also heating up unprecedented opportunities for smart young graduates to fast-track their way to a partnership. Firms of every size are reaching out to graduates with knowledge about climate-change issues as Australians prepare for the national carbon trading scheme, scheduled to be introduced in 2010, and the torrent of activity that will follow - including litigation, due diligence, compliance and corporate manoeuvrings.
27 June The Australian article

Global carbon revolution needed in 42 years: report

The world needs a shift as radical as the Industrial Revolution to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while safeguarding economic growth, the McKinsey Global Institute said. It said in a study that a modern "carbon revolution" to curb global warming would require a tenfold rise by 2050 in the level of economic output for every tonne of greenhouse gases emitted, mainly by burning fossil fuels. "This is comparable in magnitude to the labour productivity increases of the Industrial Revolution," a 48-page report said.
26 June news.com.au article

Cisco aims to cut emissions by a quarter

Cisco aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2012 in absolute terms, the company said. The company plans to further invest in networking innovations, renewable energy, energy efficiency and site improvements to reach its goal.
25 June ClimateBiz article

Branson 'happy for Virgin to pay' climate change tax

Virgin chairman, Sir Richard Branson, has said that he is willing to pay carbon emissions taxes on his aviation business to fight climate change. Branson said that industries contributing to polluting the atmosphere should pay the price. He referred to the aviation and shipping industry as well as to the coal industry.
25 June news.com.au article

Businesses urged to tackle climate change

Companies need to tackle climate change despite the economic slowdown, the Confederation of British Industry warned. CBI director-general Richard Lambert said at the Siemens sustainability conference in London that energy and the environment should be the top long-term priority for all businesses.
24 June vnunet.com article

Rich have biggest carbon footprint

When it comes to ecological footprints, wealthy Canadians are a confirmed size 12, creating a global warming impact 66 per cent greater than the average household, according to a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The study is the first to link national income and consumption patterns with global warming, and it showed that the richest 10 per cent of Canadians create an environmental footprint that's 2.5 times the size of those created by the lowest 10 per cent on an income scale.
24 June canada.com article

Global warming could cost US $1.9 trillion

If global warming continues at its current pace, it will cost the United States some $1.9 trillion annually by the end of this century, according to calculations by two Tufts researchers. Tufts researchers calculate the high cost of climate change.
24 June Huliq News article

Climate change fund needs major boost - UN official

Rich countries must provide extra cash to expand a fledgling UN fund to help poorer nations adapt to global warming, the UN climate change chief said. The U.N. Adaptation Fund, which is financed by a green tax, has just 37 million euros (58 million dollars) in the pot at the moment. Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told AlertNet that hundreds of millions of dollars would be needed each year to kickstart climate change adaptation, which includes measures such as switching to new crops, building flood defences and preparing for shifting patterns of disease.
24 June Reuters article

Carbon standard 'to renew trust'

A scheme highlighting businesses which have made genuine cuts in emissions is being launched to rebuild public trust in the green claims made by firms. The Carbon Trust says its standard will only be issued to UK organisations that show "real reductions year-on-year".
24 June BBC News online article
24 June inthenews.co.uk article

Study finds major cities can take climate change lead

The world's major cities are also among the planet's worst polluters but they have the solutions to most of their problems at their fingertips, a leading environmental consultancy said. To make the case more compelling, consultancy McKinsey said that most of the available solutions would save more than they cost so made economic sense while the remainder still made environmental sense despite their higher cost.
23 June Reuters article

Intelligent IT deployments to cut global emissions 15 per cent: report

Even as the technology sector's carbon footprint is expected to double in the next 12 years, applying tech tools to monitoring energy use, maximizing energy efficiency and reducing the need for travel, shipping and resource use could save businesses billions of dollars and cut overall CO2 emissions, according to a new report. The report, SMART 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age, was developed by The Climate Group in partnership with the Global e-Sustainbility Initiative (GeSI), and looks at how information technology can play a positive role in fighting climate change.
20 June ClimateBiz article

World's largest firms demand global emissions target

Bosses at 100 of the world's largest companies have issued an unequivocal call for political leaders to deliver a "rapid and fundamental" strategy designed to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by "at least" 50 per cent by 2050. The statement was organised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and was endorsed by some of the world's most powerful businesses, representing over a tenth of global stock markets.
20 June Business Green article
20 June Bloomberg article

Resource crises: Should we strike a deal with the dealers?

The current high prices for oil and foodstuffs are indicators of an imminent crisis in the world economic order, which fails to internalise ecological limits and resource scarcity, says Luxembourg Green MEP Claude Turmes.
19 June EurActiv opinion

New guide helps companies make the most of climate partnerships

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the US EPA released a new report developed to give an overview and a roadmap for businesses that are seeking to make the most of a partnership with one of the EPA's 35 climate-related programs. The report, A Business Guide to US EPA Climate Partnership Programs, aims to rigorously evaluate -- from a corporate managers' perspective -- the environmental and business benefits of participating in voluntary government climate programs.
19 June ClimateBiz article

Insurers broaden coverage for climate change risks

Insurers are developing new ways to help commercial customers adapt to emerging climate change risks, a panel of experts said. Underwriters are busy coming up with new insurance policies, and fine-tuning already existing products, to provide broader coverage to companies grappling with a wide range of emerging climate-related risks.
19 June Reuters article

Suncor Energy releases report on climate change

Suncor Energy Inc. released its 14th annual climate change report, which shows that while greenhouse gas emissions climbed slightly during the past year, the company has reduced emission intensity at its oil sands operation by nearly half since1990.
18 June iStock Analyst article

Defining corporate carbon neutrality

Clean Air - Cool Planet and Forum for the Future have released a report, Getting to Zero: Defining Corporate Carbon Neutrality, which examines current claims and offers guidance to corporations and stakeholders.  
17 June Clean Air - Cool Planet report

Bayer increases production, not emissions

Although Bayer increased its worldwide production volume five percent last year, its carbon dioxide emissions went up one percent, and when measured in terms of CO2 emissions per metric ton of product, emissions actually fell 2.7 percent.
16 June ClimateBiz article

G8 finance chiefs say global warming demands urgent action

World finance chiefs said urgent action was needed to battle global warming, calling for funds to provide green technology to developing nations to help them reduce emissions. The finance ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) club of rich nations said they supported multilateral funds proposed by the United States, Japan and Britain aimed at helping emerging countries afford cleaner technology. They said the private sector also had a key role to play in tackling global warming by making substantial investments into activities that cut the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.
15 June AFP article
14 June Reuters text of G8 Finance Ministers' statement
13 June AP article through Yahoo News

Africa: Whose money on the table for climate change?

UK-based development agency Oxfam has called for clarity on funds promised by rich countries to help the world's poor cope with the global food crisis and adapt to climate change. In a report released ahead of the G8 finance ministers' meeting, Oxfam said G8 leaders must ensure that all the money - including the US$6 billion pledged at the Rome food crisis summit - comes on top of existing aid commitments.
13 June allAfrica.com article

US urges support for global warming fund

The US Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, has urged other Group of 8 industrialized nations to back a special fund of up to $10 billion to help developing countries fight global warming. Paulson appeared with his counterparts from Japan and Britain, and with the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, to encourage G-8 nations to back the Climate Investment Funds.
13 June Associated Press article through International Herald Tribune

Climate change firm seeks US boost

A leading climate change consultancy entered the US market for the first time amid hopes of a business boost from a "greener" President. Oxfordshire-based AEA Technology has agreed to buy consultant Project Performance Corporation (PPC) for £33.1 million as the candidates for the White House set out their environmental credentials.
13 June The Press Association article

US eyes deal on slashing clean technology tariffs

The United States hopes the world's major economies will agree to remove trade barriers on clean energy technologies when they meet alongside the Group of Eight rich nations next month, a senior official said. James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the World Bank had identified 43 technologies the United States and Europe proposed eliminating tariffs on.
13 June Reuters article

Green is the new gold in IT world

Hi-tech companies are competing on a new front - to become the greenest business. A year after pledging to become the greenest company on the planet, computer maker Dell has introduced measures aimed at claiming the "green crown". But there's no shortage of environmental monitors making sure corporate boasting isn't little more than window dressing.
12 June BBC News online article

Citi tips climate change, infrastructure firms

Climate change and infrastructure are two major investment themes for the next few years being pushed by Citi wealth managers, part of Citigroup Inc. Edward Kerschner, Chief Investment Strategist for Citi Global Wealth Management said his firm had identified a variety of investment opportunities in both areas.
12 June Reuters article

Rich polluters must pay up for climate change

At least USD50-billion is needed to help Africa's nearly one billion people adapt to climate change, and the global polluters most responsible for causing this change must pay mandatory compensation, say African NGOs.
12 June ioL article

GreenChill members save $13M

Membership in the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, a voluntary US Environmental Protection program, has tripled since its kick-off in November. All told, the program’s 28 supermarket partners have saved nearly $13 million in operating costs. Along the way, the partners have avoided emissions of 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The program was meant to help the supermarkets curb greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting emissions related to refrigeration systems.
11 June Climate Biz article

Emissions, utilities and auctions: there is no free power lunch

An economy-wide cap on climate warming emissions -- our preferred climate policy -- has one enormous sticking point: once the cap is in place, who gets the right to pollute? That's the core of the debate over the "allocation" of emissions permits. Literally billions of dollars are at stake. And not too surprisingly, just about every industry you can think of believes that, once strict emissions limits are imposed, they should get a generous slice of permits for free.
11 June Climate Biz article

Growing your company while reducing emissions

Emission reduction targets are at the centrepiece of any credible green business policy but as many firms are now discovering, setting the right target is far more difficult than it first appears. With growing numbers of companies having had emission targets in place for a number of years, the realization is dawning that simply setting a 20, 60 or even 80 percent emission target in line with the latest political or scientific consensus can soon result in unexpected levels of complexity followed by significant PR headaches.
11 June Climate Biz article

Emerging economies can fund climate fight - World Bank

Emerging economies can help fund the fight against climate change through sovereign wealth funds, swollen by oil and other exports receipts, the World Bank's Latin America chief, Pamela Cox, said. Developing countries blame climate change on rich nations which have fuelled decades of growth by burning fossil fuels, and so want them to take the lead in fighting the problem.
10 June Reuters article through Planet Ark

Major private sector investment needed to combat climate change

The private sector would need to make major investments in combating climate change as the governments would not be able to find trillions of dollars needed for the purpose over the next decades, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim has said.Despite the efforts of the UN and other international and regional institutions, the world body estimates that nearly 90 per cent of the funds needed to address global warming will derive from the private sector, Kerim said at an Assembly event with the theme "Global Private Investments and Climate Change."
10 June Chennai Online article

World Bank prices first UN carbon offset bond

The World Bank has priced a $25 million bond linked to United Nations-approved carbon emission offset credits, the market's first such bond, lead manager Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe said.  Payments on the bond are linked to Certified Emissions Reduction credits (CERs), which are issued under the Clean Development Mechanism, a trading scheme that allows rich nations to invest in clean energy projects in developing countries.
9 June The Ecconomic Times article

Namibia: Local economy can't escape climate change

Unam economists say whether or not people believe in climate change or climate variability, the phenomenon definitely has an impact on the country's economy. Dr Omu Kakujaha said climate change and climate variability put great stress on all economic sectors, especially the primary sector on which Namibian economics is so much dependent. These are the agriculture and fishing sectors.
9 June New Era article through All Africa.com

‘Green collar’ jobs stand up to credit crunch

The "green" jobs market continues to thrive despite economic downturn putting serious pressure on many business sectors throughout the UK, environment & sustainability recruitment specialist Acre Resources says.
6 June Carbon Positive article

$45 trillion urged in battling carbon emissions

In one of the strongest warnings so far about the world's thirst for energy, the International Energy Agency said that investment totaling $45 trillion might be needed over the next half-century to prevent energy shortages and greenhouse gas emissions from undermining global economic growth.
6 June The International Herald Tribune article
6 June AFP article through Yahoo News

Wong warns of climate impact on economy

Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has warned that an emissions trading scheme to help combat global warming will have a wide effect on prices.
6 June AAP article through Finda

Russia’s carbon emissions: A truly burning issue

Selling mortgages to people who can't pay them back turned out to be a bad way of doing business in the long run. But inflated credit rates are nothing compared to the droughts, plagues, floods, forest fires and general death and destruction which may be the long-term effects of companies churning out carbon emissions with no thought to their long-term impact on the environment.
6 June The Moscow News article

Greens criticize World Bank climate funds

Some 121 environment and development groups have questioned the credibility of proposed World Bank funds to help the poor fight global warming, but the UN's climate change agency broadly welcomed them. Last month 40 developing and industrialized countries agreed on two separate multi-billion dollar funds, managed by the World Bank and regional development banks, one to help developing countries cut their contribution to climate change and the other to help them prepare better for more storms and floods.
5 June Reuters article

Poor nations demand climate funds

Rich and poor countries argued over how the West can deploy know-how to fight climate change in developing countries but not lose jobs at a UN-run climate conference in Germany. Poorer nations want the West to help them cut their emissions of planet-warming gases and prepare for climate change such as rising seas and more extreme weather because historically the rich are most responsible for those emissions.
3 June Reuters article

Industries allied to cap carbon differ on the details

Some of the most powerful corporate leaders in America have been meeting regularly with leading environmental groups in a conference room in downtown Washington for over two years to work on proposals for a national policy to limit carbon emissions. The discussions have often been tense. Pinned on a wall, a large handmade poster with Rolling Stones lyrics reminds everyone, “You can’t always get what you want.”
2 June The New York Times article

Energy

£100bn energy 'revolution' welcomed

Plans to generate a 10-fold increase in renewable energy in the UK will provide thousands of jobs, help tackle climate change and secure power supplies, the Government has said. The renewable energy strategy, which includes plans for 7,000 new wind turbines on and offshore, was broadly welcomed by environmental campaigners. But elsewhere concerns were raised over the £5-£6 billion annual cost to the economy the moves would require, with fears much of it would be passed on to consumers and businesses.
27 June Press Association article

Electric cars are 'sexy'. Schwarzenegger says

Calling electric cars "sexy" and America's energy policies "shameful," charismatic California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a surprise appearance in Miami to praise Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's efforts to stop global climate change. The "Terminator" star helped wrap up the second annual Florida Summit on Global Climate Change by challenging Florida to continue in California's footsteps by pushing renewable energy, vehicle efficiency and create a "consistent long-term energy policy that gives consumers more choices."
26 June Herald Tribune article

Electric Mercedes on the way

German car maker Daimler will market an electric model by its Mercedes division and one by its small city-car brand Smart in 2010, boss Dieter Zetsche said. "We're preparing an electric Smart for 2010 and an electric Mercedes for the same year,'' Zetsche told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
21 June news.com.au article

No end seen on reliance on oil, fossil fuels

World energy demand will grow 50 percent over the next two decades, oil prices could rise to $186 a barrel and coal will remain the biggest source of electricity despite its effect on global warming, US government experts predict. The Energy Information Administration's long-range forecast to 2030 said the world is not close to abandoning fossil fuels. They will continue to be at the core of energy production in transportation and electricity generation, according to a new report.
26 June Associated Press article
Energy Information Administration report

Africa power sector should tap carbon credit funds

Africa's electricity producers can raise additional funds for much-needed investment by developing clean energy that allows them to sell emission credits, a continental electricity official said. Eddie Njoroge, head of the Union of Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa, told Reuters this was one of the options open to utilities who have to make the necessary investments to meet rising demand.
25 June Reuters article

New cars to get energy ratings in Ireland

All new cars sold in Ireland will be labelled with an energy efficiency rating from next month to encourage drivers to buy greener cars. The ratings, similar to those used on home appliances such as fridges, will place cars in one of seven bands, ranging from the most efficient A rating, to the least in band G.
24 June edie article

Technology could combat energy challenges: IEA

Leveraging new and existing technologies can help curb carbon emissions and slow global warming, part of a transformation needed for a more sustainable energy future, the International Energy Agency said. The IEA, backed by 27 governments, has been seeking to spread its message about how clean energy technologies might reduce reliance on oil while slashing emissions.
24 June Reuters article

Climate change is 'top of priorities'

CBI director-general Richard Lambert has warned politicians that the economic slowdown is no reason for them to get distracted from taking urgent action to tackle climate change and secure the UK's future energy supply. Speaking at a conference on sustainability, Mr Lambert said energy and the environment were at the top of business's long-term priorities. He said that alternative energies like wind and solar were "an economic opportunity on a scale that has not been seen before".
24 June Telegraph.co.uk article

McCain proposes incentives to spur fuel efficiency

John McCain, calling for "a swift conversion of American vehicles away from oil,'' said he would spur a market for vehicles that emit little or no carbon dioxide by offering consumers a $5,000 tax credit to buy them. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also proposed a $300 million prize for the development of a battery with sufficient capacity and power to ``leapfrog'' those that now fuel plug-in hybrids or electric cars.
23 June Bloomberg article

To ease gas prices, Obama eyes speculators

Senator Barack Obama proposed tightening the regulation of oil speculators in an effort to ease record high gasoline prices and address one of Americans’ top concerns.
23 June The New York Times article

Paris plans help-yourself green car hire

First came self-service bicycles, and now Paris is launching a green scheme to provide electric cars that drivers can pick up and drop off anywhere in the city. The Socialist mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, announced that from the end of next year, 4,000 electric cars will be placed around Paris and its outskirts for drivers in the scheme to help themselves for short journeys. It is the first electric car project of its kind in a capital city.
20 June Guardian article

China sharply raises energy prices

Faced with increasingly severe fuel shortages and the prospect of power failures during the summer air-conditioning season, the Chinese government unexpectedly announced sharp increases in regulated prices for gasoline, diesel and electricity. The increases are the latest sign of how China’s integration into the global marketplace has limited the flexibility of the country’s leaders in responding to economic crises.
20 June The New York Times article

UK Government moves to end confusion over 'green' energy

Relegating detailed descriptions of a tariff's environmental benefits to the small print will no longer be enough for 'green' energy suppliers. As any household or company which has tried to make the switch to a clean energy supply will know, the myriad environmentally-friendly tariffs come in wildly differing shades of green. Recognising this consumer minefield, Government has written to energy watchdog Ofgem asking it to provide detailed guidelines to energy suppliers with a view to establishing a rating system ranking the different environmental benefits of any given tariff.
20 June edie article

Stove projects stir up energy award success

Innovators bringing sustainable energy to communities in developing countries were recognised at an awards ceremony held in London, United Kingdom. Projects from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Tanzania and Uganda were all awarded prizes of £20,000 (around US$40,000) at the annual Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. The Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE) project, which designs safer and more efficient wood-burning stoves, was crowned the overall Energy Champion, winning a £40,000 prize.
20 June SciDev.net article

McCain sets goal of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030

Senator John McCain said that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors built in the United States by 2030, a course he called “as difficult as it is necessary.” In his third straight day of campaign speechmaking about energy and $4-a-gallon gasoline, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told the crowd at a town-hall-style meeting at Missouri State University that he saw nuclear power as a clean, safe alternative to traditional sources of energy that emit greenhouse gases. He said his ultimate goal was 100 new nuclear plants.
19 June The New York Times article

ESBI to build first windfarm

Irish utility firm Electricity Supply Board International (ESBI) is to build its first windfarm in the north of the country, it has emerged. Some 18 megawatts of electricity is expected to be generated by the farm, utilising six large wind turbine generators. This will be enough to power 10,500 homes.
18 June edie article

McCain and Bush call for end of offshore drilling ban

Sen. John McCain called for an end to the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, offering an aggressive response to high gasoline prices and immediately drawing the ire of environmental groups that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has courted for months.
17 June Washington Post article

The environmental movement, only recently poised for major advances on global warming and other issues, has suddenly found itself on the defensive as high gasoline prices shift the political climate nationwide and trigger defections by longtime supporters.
18 June Los Angeles Times article

President George W Bush has called on Congress to end a 27-year ban on drilling for oil in US coastal waters, to reduce dependence on imports. Mr Bush said existing restrictions on offshore drilling were "outdated and counter-productive".
18 June BBC News online article

G8 science ministers commit to more sustainable energy research

The first ever meeting of G8 science and technology ministers highlighted the crucial role of science in resolving global issues. Ministers pledged to boost investment in R&D for environmental and clean energy technology and work together on new energy alternatives, such as fusion energy (ITER), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and next-generation biofuels.
17 June EurActiv article

Solar power takes off in Kenya

The expense and unreliability of electricity supply is fuelling East African interest in solar energy. In rural Kenya, where there is no electricity, solar systems have proven popular with small-scale businesses and farms, where it is used to power water pumps and lighting.
17 June SciDev.net article

Honda's hydrogen cars in production

Honda has begun producing a next-generation fuel cell vehicle that it hopes will propel zero-emission cars running on hydrogen closer to the mainstream. Japanese automakers are in a race to produce fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles amid soaring prices at the pump, spreading their bets on an array of technology including hybrid, electric and fuel cell automobiles.
17 June news.com.au article

Californian solar plant faces strong opposition

It seems like an idea any environmentalist would embrace: Build one of the world's largest solar power operations in the Southern California desert and surround it with plants that run on wind and underground heat. Yet San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and its potential partners face fierce opposition because the plan also calls for a 150-mile, high-voltage transmission line that would cut through pristine parkland to reach the United States' eighth-largest city.
17 June Associated Press article

Wind cost to beat coal by 2030

Greenpeace Australia has released new economic modelling revealing that wind power will be cheaper than coal by 2030. The claim is contained in an ambitious blueprint to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which says changing to renewable energy makes economic, not just environmental, sense. The blueprint — Australia's Energy (R)evolution — proposes cutting greenhouse emissions to 60% of 1990 levels by 2020 by generating 40% of electricity from renewable sources.
16 June The Age article
16 June news.com.au article

Global limits of biomass energy

Biomass energy—energy generated from agricultural waste or specially grown energy crops—has been widely touted as a clean, renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Research is booming to improve energy crops and methods of converting crops to fuel. Already, Brazil gets 30% of its automotive fuel from ethanol distilled from sugar cane. But critics warn that “energy farming” will gobble up land needed to grow food or will impinge on natural ecosystems, possibly even worsening the climate crisis.
14 June ScienceDaily article

Commission accuses US of biodiesel dumping

The EU has initiated anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations into imports of biodiesel from the United States in what could turn into the next major trade row between the bloc and its number one trading partner. "Examination by the European Commission of complaints lodged by European industry found that an investigation was warranted – sufficient evidence was provided of subsidies to the US biodiesel sector, as well as dumping of biodiesel in the European market," stated a press release.
13 June EurActiv article

Climate protest halts coal train

About 30 climate campaigners have halted a train taking coal to one of Europe's biggest power stations in North Yorkshire. A giant banner reading "Leave it in the ground" has been draped over the train bound for Drax near Selby.
13 June BBC News online article

San Francisco introduces rebates for solar power systems

San Francisco supervisors have given final approval to a program that will create a $3 million fund to provide rebates for residents and businesses that install solar power systems.
11 June San Francisco Chronicle article

EU member states in push to revise renewables plans

Germany, the UK and Poland are proposing new flexibility mechanisms to help reach EU renewable energy targets, while Italy is demanding a new method be used to calculate countries' renewables potential. Rome is also pushing for a reduction of the EU's 10% biofuels target.
10 June EurActiv article

UK Govt cash boost for biomass

Farmers, foresters and biomass producers can apply for up to £200,000 under a new round of grants announced by Government. The Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme aims to help small-scale biomass suppliers fuel for use in heat and electricity generation. Ministers said the fund would help the growth of the biomass industry - an area which Government believes will have an important role in helping to meet the EU's target of using 20% renewable energy by 2020.
10 June edie article

World major economies see new nuclear dawn

Top economic powers have declared that the world is entering a new era of nuclear energy amid rising concerns over high oil prices and global warming, but Germany stood firmly as an exception. The 11 nations, which together consume two-thirds of world energy said in their joint statement that "a growing number of countries have expressed interest in nuclear power programmes."
9 June AFP article through Yahoo News
9 June China View article
9 June Reuters article through International Herald Tribune

Energy technology perspectives publication

“The world faces the daunting combination of surging energy demand, rising greenhouse gas emissions and tightening resources. A global energy technology revolution is both necessary and achievable; but it will be a tough challenge”, said Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Tokyo, at the launch of the latest edition of Energy technology Perspectives (ETP).
6 June International Energy Agency media release and publication details

Climate change spurs scrap metal recycling

The future looks rosy for scrap metal traders as the world's resources begin to run out and the threat of climate change triggers energy savings, a recycling conference heard. With a rising global population, forecast to reach 8.2 billion by 2030 from 6.7 billion now, the generation of waste is increasing rapidly, offering big potential for recycling, which saves energy and helps reduce greenhouse gas production.
4 June Reuters article

Brazil to defend biofuels at UN summit in Rome

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would seek to convince world leaders gathering in Rome that ethanol is not to blame for global food inflation threatening millions with hunger. Brazil is the world's largest ethanol exporter and a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, making it a target of critics who say ethanol is behind increases in world commodity prices.
2 June Reuters article through Planet Ark

Researchers boost yields of rice-waste biofuel

Chinese scientists have developed a new method that dramatically increases the yield of a clean biogas fuel from rice straw.
2 June SciDev.net article

Sequestration

Harvested plantations 'a sequestration factory'

By comparison with unharvested plantations (or environmental plantings) that grow once and sequester carbon only once in the living trees, harvested plantations act like a carbon sequestration factory, producing an additional amount of sequestration with every rotation, while the carbon from previous rotations continues to be sequestered in the post-harvest formats, according to an article in the latest Treesmart News. The harvested plantation sequestration is also less risky, with the total sequestration eventually being distributed across a portfolio of formats (living trees, HWP, landfills, bioenergy), rather than all being tied up in one form in living trees (just waiting to be burned down!).
TreeSmart News Issue 2-2 (scroll to page 2)

Investors warned against carbon sink forests scheme

The Australian senators opposed to the new scheme of tax breaks for forests have warned investors not to put any money in, even though the law has been passed. The scheme gives a tax deduction for new forests which are intended to be carbon sinks. But the Greens say it is flawed and they are working with the Nationals and Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan to have it overturned.
27 June ABC News online article
26 June Senator Christine Milne media release

Super plant mops up CO2

An extraordinary indigenous African plant known as "elephant's food" could mop up the excess carbon dioxide that causes climate change, while making a fortune on the international carbon trading market. Scientific evidence gathered in the Eastern Cape over the past seven years and published recently in peer-reviewed literature indicates that the plant, spekboom, has enormous carbon-storing capabilities. Its capacity to offset harmful carbon emissions is equivalent to that of moist, subtropical forest.
23 June Mail & Guardian article

European forests carbon sink could shrink: study

Carbon capture by European forests has increased by about 70 percent since the 1950s, but this trend might be coming to an end, a joint European study said. The increase was due to favorable climate, raised levels of carbon dioxide in air the and nitrogen fallout, but logging for bioenergy use as well as climate change are threatening carbon sink capacity.
23 June Reuters article

Commission hopes to revive blocked EU soil law

Soils are crucial for storing CO2 and must be protected as part of the fight against climate change, according to the Commission, which wants to breathe new life into a proposed framework directive on soil protection that was rejected by a small group of member states last December.
13 June EurActiv article

Is it safe to bury carbon dioxide to reduce global warming?

One way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is to rely more on alternative energy source that do not produce CO2. These include hydroelectric, wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, and tidal energy. Each of these has limitations, and it will be difficult to make a quick shift from fossil fuels to these other sources. But what if the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels did not reach the atmosphere? Instead of letting CO2 go up the smokestack and into the air, can we capture it and put it somewhere? Is this possible?
20 June American Chronicle opinion

Carbon capture and storage bill introduced into Australian Parliament

Australian Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson has introduced landmark legislation to Parliament which will establish the world’s first comprehensive framework for carbon dioxide capture and geological storage.  This Bill will enable carbon dioxide to be stored safely and securely in geological storage formations deep underground in Australian off-shore waters under Commonwealth jurisdiction. Minister Ferguson said: "Carbon dioxide capture and geological storage, or CCS, holds great potential as a method of avoiding the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."
18 June Department of Resources and Energy media release

Capture carbon to avert catastrophic climate change, say world's scientists

The world must have a clear plan to fit power stations with facilities to capture carbon dioxide within a year to prevent "catastrophic" climate change, the world's leading scientific bodies said. But the warning came as Britain's support for the technology was blasted as "woefully inadequate" by experts.
10 June Times Online article

Carbon-capturing technology is stalled by a Catch-22

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions is a fine idea, and a lot of companies would be proud to do it. But they would prefer to be second, if not third or fourth. This is not a good way to get started in fighting global warming. As efforts to pass a bill on global warming collapsed in the US Senate, companies that burn coal to make electricity were looking for a way to build a plant that would capture its emissions. There is a will and a way - several ways, in fact - to do just that.
9 June International Herald Tribune article

Climate and climate change

North Pole may have ice-free period this summer: US expert

There could be a brief time this summer when there is no ice on the North Pole, a US scientist said, blaming global warming that has melted the Arctic ice sheet over decades. "We could have no ice at the North Pole at the end of this summer," National Snow and Ice Data Centre scientist Mark Serreze said.
28 June ABC News online article
27 June CNN article

Global warming causing plant migration in Europe: study

Global warming has caused numerous European plant species to migrate to higher elevations over the decades, according to new research. The research appears in the June 27 edition of the journal Science, and has potentially "important ecological and evolutionary consequences," the study's authors wrote. A team of international scientists working in mountainous regions of Western Europe compared the natural elevation range of 171 forest plant species between 1905 and 1985, and again between 1986 and 2005.
27 June AFP article
26 June Guardian article
27 June Science 320, 1768-1771 abstract

Tropical oceans expose riddle over global-warming equation

A probe into levels of an important greenhouse gas above the tropical Atlantic has challenged assumptions about key sources of global warming, scientists said. Researchers found that natural chemicals in the atmosphere west of equatorial Africa destroyed 50 per cent more ozone in that region than expected. This process also reduced concentrations of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas.
25 June AFP article through Yahoo News
26 June ScienceDaily article

Extreme weather events can unleash infectious diseases: study

An international research team has found the first clear example of how climate extremes, such as the increased frequency of droughts and floods expected with global warming, can create conditions in which diseases that are tolerated individually may converge and cause mass die-offs of livestock or wildlife.
25 June ScienceDaily article

Climate change to create "plant refugees"

Climate change may turn many of California's native plants into "plant refugees" in the next century as they seek more-suitable habitats, US researchers said. "Many species may have to move to cooler areas in order to survive," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University said in a statement.
25 June Reuters article
25 June ScienceDaily article

Uganda: Water crisis - change in climate cited

Change in climate is one of the major barriers to safe water provision in the country, the water and environment minister has said. Maria Mutagamba cited areas lying along the cattle corridor as the most affected by the water crisis. The minister made the remarks while opening the African Water Facility regional project implementation training at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.
24 June New Vision Kampala article through allAfrica.com

Will climate-change war-cry fall on deaf ears?

You could hardly move for VIPs at the Global Humanitarian Forum meeting on "the human face of climate change" in Geneva. The participants range from wealthy businessmen like Richard Branson to the president of the Maldives and the heads of practically every U.N. agency going.But the stars of the show so far have been a group of youngsters who gave powerful testimonies about the impact of climate change on their own lives and their communities. Their stories are the reason why 300 or so eminent people have gathered in Switzerland for a rather swish two-day brainstorm in an air-conditioned luxury hotel.
25 June Reuters article
25 June AFP article
24 June China View article

Climate change will have destabilising consequences, intelligence agencies warn

US intelligence agencies usually work hard to stay outside the political fray, but they waded firmly into the debate over climate change by producing an unsettling assessment of the national security implications of changing weather patterns.
25 June US News & World Report article
25 June AFP article
25 June Reuters article

Oxygen-starved oceans rapidly dying

The world's coastal oceans are in crisis, with oxygen-starved ''dead zones'' increasing by a third in just two years as global temperatures increase with climate change, according to the International Whaling Commission's latest scientific report. Dead zones, caused by over-enrichment of waters by nutrients from run-off, sewerage and warming waters, represent ''the worst-case scenario for coastal biodiversity'' and are the ''severest form'' of ocean habitat degradation, the report says.
25 June The Canberra Times article

Reducing impact of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands and coral reefs

The US Environmental Protection Agency has released a report that can help reduce the potential impact of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other sensitive ecosystems. The report, entitled Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources, identifies strategies to protect the environment as these changes occur.
24 June ScienceDaily article

NASA launches ocean satellite to keep a weather, climate eye open

A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.
23 June ScienceDaily article

Ice core reveals how quickly climate can change

Weather patterns can permanently shift in as little as a year, according to the records preserved in an ice core from Greenland
23 June Scientific American article
19 June Reuters article

Birds migrate earlier, but some may be left behind as climate warms rapidly

Many birds are arriving earlier each spring as temperatures warm along the East Coast of the United States. However, the farther those birds journey, the less likely they are to keep pace with the rapidly changing climate.
22 June ScienceDaily article

Tibet prepares plan to fight environmental hazards

Tibet is planning an "ecological security" plan to counter threats from global warming and rapid development to glaciers and grasslands on the roof of the world, its top environmental official said. Tibet, which made headlines for recent unrest over Chinese control, is faced with environmental strains on the vast highlands that span the region and much of neighboring Qinghai province.
22 June Reuters article

Global warming: is it a scenario too scary to think about?

To Patricia Kremer, climate change is a runaway train carrying Earth toward a forbidding future. ”Just stop the train,” said Kremer, a retiring marine scientist who has witnessed the effects during her studies of the ocean's environments for 30 years. She and her husband, James, who is also about to retire from a career as a marine scientist and professor, work at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus. She is not alone in thinking this. United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon says that whether you call it climate change, global warming or climate disruption, it's “the defining challenge of our age.”
22 June TheDay.com article

Poll: Most Britons doubt cause of climate change

The majority of the British public is still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an exclusive poll for The Observer. The results have shocked campaigners who hoped that doubts would have been silenced by a report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found a 90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate change and warned that drastic action was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
22 June Guardian article

Global warming to spark increase in US wildfires

Today much of the north-western US wilderness is already a tinderbox, but thanks to global warming, wildfires will be scorching even more land every year by the end of the century.
21 June New Scientist article

Climate change 'could wipe out whales'

Climate change could help do to whale populations what commercial whaling has not - wipe out an entire species. Humpback, southern right and minke whale populations could be damaged by a lack of food caused by a change in sea temperatures, according to researchers from the Federal Environment Department.
19 June news.com.au article

20-year intense downpours to occur every 6 years

As President Bush toured the Midwest flood zones, a new administration report on extreme weather warns that human-induced climate change is making heavy downpours more intense, with storms that used to occur every 20 years projected to occur every six by the end of the century.
19 June ABC News article
19 June US Climate Change Science Program report

Ocean warming on the rise

Increased scientific confidence that ocean observations are accurately reflecting rising global temperatures is central to new Australian research published in the journal, Nature. The team of Australian and US climate researchers found the world’s oceans warmed and rose at a rate 50 per cent faster in the last four decades of the 20th century than documented in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCC AR4).
19 June CSIRO media release
18 June Telegraph article
19 June Nature, 453, 1090-1093, abstract

As sea turtles disappear, scientists ponder climate change

The Yucatan Peninsula, home to the largest hawksbill nesting population in the Atlantic, is witnessing a dramatic drop in the nesting population of the hawksbill sea turtle, one of the rarest marine turtles in the world. For unknown reasons, only about one-third of the nests will be laid by the endangered sea creature this year compared to the numbers a decade ago. Almost two decades of conservation efforts – which began in earnest in 1989 after Hurricane Gilbert, the strongest hurricane on record in the area – are now confronting a series of puzzling challenges that suggest the emergence of global warming as a principal factor in declining sea turtle populations.
18 June New America Media article

New 'lookouts' for climate change

Corries high in the Scottish mountains are to become "lookout posts" in an effort to better monitor the effects of climate change. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) is leading the Snowbed Project which will attempt to uncover evidence of warming temperatures on fauna and flora. Corries are large circular, hollow depressions on a mountainside. Climate change models predict a decrease in the amount of snow on the mountains into the summer.
18 June BBC News Online article

UN warns of growth in climate change refugees

Climate change is forcing growing numbers of people in the developing world to flee their homes and seek refuge abroad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned. Announcing findings that the number of refugees worldwide had risen steeply for the second year running, António Guterres said that environmental degradation induced by climate change was forcing greater displacement as resources became increasingly scarce.
17 June Times Online article
18 June ABC News online article

Climate change threatens 4,000 species of fish, corals

Beautiful coral reefs are increasingly under threat from climate change, and so are 4,000 species of fish, critically dependent on them for food, shelter or reproduction, warns a study. It blames global warming for the latest threat to marine biodiversity. Already many corals have died because of warmer waters associated with climate change.
17 June NDTV.com article

The good news about global warming

File under necessity, invention: the Lilypad, Vincent Callebaut Architectures' concept for off-shore cities, to be used when rising sea levels have obliterated coastlines around the globe. Modeled after an Amazonian, er, lily pad, the Parisian firm's stunning design includes space for 50,000 people each, and revolves around a central lagoon, which collects and purifies rainwater, and serves as ballast for the structure.
16 June men.style.com article

Alaska salmon may bear scars of global warming

With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs. "See, it's all of the biggest, best-looking fish," said Pat Moore, waving a stogie at the pile of discards. "It breaks my heart. My dogs cannot eat all that. The maggots will get them first." More Alaskan salmon caught here end up in the dog pot these days, their orange-pink flesh fouled by disease that scientists have correlated with warmer water in the Yukon River.
15 June Los Angeles Times article

Even the Antarctic winter cannot protect Wilkins Ice Shelf

Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced further break-up with an area of about 160 km² breaking off from 30 May to 31 May 2008. ESA’s Envisat satellite captured the event – the first ever-documented episode to occur in winter.
14 June ScienceDaily article

Southern collaboration 'key to adaptation' says climate scientist

Adapting to climate change — unlike mitigating it — will succeed in developing countries only by sharing local understanding and knowledge with other low-income nations. These were the words of a leading climate scientist speaking at a Commonwealth Foundation briefing on climate change and health in London, United Kingdom.
13 June SciDev.net article

Computer models show major climate shift as a result of closing ozone hole

A new study led by Columbia University researchers has found that the closing of the ozone hole, which is projected to occur sometime in the second half of the 21st century, may significantly affect climate change in the Southern Hemisphere, and therefore, the global climate.
13 June ScienceDaily article
13 June Science 320, 1486-1489, abstract

More disease outbreaks in Europe with climate change: experts

Europe could face an increase in outbreaks of diseases carried by insects and rodents as the climate on the continent becomes hotter and wetter, EU health experts said. "These diseases are closely linked to climate change ... We need to address this risk," Renaud Lancelot of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) told reporters in Stockholm.
13 June AFP article

Freshwater runoff from Greenland ice sheet will more than double by end of century

The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously calculated according to a scientific paper by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Sebastian H. Mernild published in the journal Hydrological Processes. The study is based on the results of state-of-the-art modeling using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as satellite images and observations from on the ground in Greenland.
12 June ScienceDaily article

Has global warming research misinterpreted cloud behaviour?

Climate experts agree that the seriousness of manmade global warming depends greatly upon how clouds in the climate system respond to the small warming tendency from the extra carbon dioxide mankind produces.
12 June ScienceDaily article

Permafrost threatened by rapid retreat of Arctic sea ice: study

The rate of climate warming over northern Alaska, Canada, and Russia could more than triple during periods of rapid sea ice loss, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings raise concerns about the thawing of permafrost, or permanently frozen soil, and the potential consequences for sensitive ecosystems, human infrastructure, and the release of additional greenhouse gases.
11 June ScienceDaily article

Changing global environment under the lens in new UN photo exhibition

From the glaciers of Antarctica to the dry river beds of Sudan’s Darfur region to the devastation wrought by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the world’s changing environment is being documented by photographers at a new exhibition at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
11 June UN News Centre article

Africa most vulnerable to global warming effects, UN says

Africa produces a tiny fraction of the world's greenhouse gases but is particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming, UN environmental experts said at a conference of African environment ministers. Some of those present had harsh words for the developed world, in particular the United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases. They said industrialized nations are pressing Africans to reduce gas emissions while not doing enough themselves.
11 June Los Angeles Times article

Africa’s changing environment emerges in new UN atlas

Major changes in Africa’s environmental landscape, from disappearing glaciers in Uganda to the loss of unique vegetation in South Africa, are shown in a new atlas published by the United Nations which uses satellite images taken over the past 35 years.
10 June UN News Centre article
11 June ZEENEWS.COM article
11 June The Independent article

South Africa: Climate change threatening world oceans

The world's oceans are under the constant threat of climate change, with water levels rising resulting in an increase in the acidity of the water. The celebration of World Ocean Day was a sombre reminder of just how volatile the planet is and what must be done to halt climate change.
10 June BuaNews article through allAfrica.com

May 'warmest since records began'

Last month was the warmest May in Scotland since records began in 1914, according to Met Office data. The statistics showed May was also the fourth driest recorded, with just 34% of the usual rain for the month.
10 June BBC News online article

The world's first climate change "refugees"

The 1,500 residents of Carteret Island, an atoll of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, are fast becoming the world's first climate change refugees. Sea levels around the atoll have risen 10cm in the past 20 years, inundating plantations, and the situation is deteriorating, islanders told IRIN, saying they urgently need assistance to be relocated to higher ground.
8 June IRIN article

Nobel winner puts Bollywood spotlight on climate change

The head of the UN's Nobel prizewinning climate panel grabbed Bollywood's spotlight to call for greater efforts to stop climate change, during a star-studded awards weekend for Indian film. Rajendra Pachauri accepted a special global leadership award from the International Indian Film Academy, which will hand out its film honours in Bangkok. He praised the body and the event's host, Indian megastar Amitabh Bachchan, for advocating action against climate change during the weekend gala.
6 June AFP article

Nepal hard hit by climate change

Global warming is causing ‘massive problems’ for Nepal, melting snows and bringing deadly floods despite the Himalayan country's low greenhouse gas output. The towering mountain range that forms Nepal's northern border with Tibet is showing worrying evidence of global warming, Environment Minister Formullah Mansoor said. “Our contribution is very low in the global context, but the effects of global warming on our country are very high and costly,” the minister said.
5 June The Times of India article

"Spiderman" sparks copycat with NY skyscraper climb

The man known as the French "Spiderman" climbed The New York Times building to draw attention to global warming, and six hours later another climber made an apparent copycat ascent. Alain Robert, 45, the first person to scale the 52-story skyscraper, told reporters ahead of the ascent on UN World Environment Day his aim was "to raise awareness of global warming since this is one of the main problems for our time."
5 June Reuters article

Sahel in the front line in fight against climate change

West Africa's Sahel region is "humanity's front line in the fight against climate change" and industrialised countries have a moral obligation to help the region cope, a UN special advisor said. Jan Egeland, the special advisor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on conflict and climate change, told AFP in a telephone conversation from Mali. "There is a moral responsibility for those industrial countries that caused climate change to help countries in the Sahel that did nothing to cause it" he said.
5 June AFP article 

Kiribati likely doomed by climate change

The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said that his country may already be doomed because of climate change. President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by seawater in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator.
5 June AFP article through Yahoo News
6 June The Independent article

World Environment Day calls for end to carbon addiction

The United Nations urged the world to kick an all-consuming addiction to carbon dioxide and said everyone must take steps to fight climate change. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said global warming was becoming the defining issue of the era and will hurt rich and poor alike. "Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit," Ban said in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.
4 June Reuters article

South Africa: Midrand threatened by climate change

Midrand is one of the areas under threat by uncontrolled climate change due to its development on wetlands, said City of Johannesburg's MMC for Environmental Management, Prema Naidoo. This he said was because a portion of Midrand was built on wetlands, which act as a sponge in the event of an extended period of wet weather.
2 June BuaNews article

A captivating remedy

A crude division can be made between two sets of people who both want to fight climate change. One seeks a fundamental reconstruction of the way humans live, a sustainable revolution that would change many aspects of modern society. The other has smaller ambitions, hoping technology will provide a specific solution to climatic threats, leaving the rest of life intact.
2 June The Guardian opinion

Reef madness

Silently and steadily, a tragedy is unfolding beneath the ocean's waves: Coral reefs around the world are disappearing. According to some projections, there may be few, if any, left by the end of the century. This dire and credible prediction has shocked many marine scientists, who had not realized how close to the tipping point coral reefs are. The news is especially disheartening because 2008 is the International Year of the Reef. The culprit here is carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming and that also is turning our oceans into an acid bath.
1 June Los Angeles Times editorial opinion

Trading and tax

EU deal clinched on capping aircraft emissions

MEPs and national governments, represented by the EU's current Slovenian Presidency, reached a landmark deal on the details of plans to include aviation in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme as of 2012. The deal still needs to be formally approved but, according to reports, it would require all flights, both within the EU as well as international ones arriving or leaving the bloc, to participate in the Union's carbon cap-and-trade scheme as of 2012.
27 June EurActiv article

Mauritius plans to sell first carbon credits

Mauritius is planning a first batch of carbon credit projects aimed at boosting the use of renewable energy on the Indian Ocean island. The world's rapidly-developing carbon markets allow polluters to invest in clean energy projects in poor countries. That way, rich countries earn carbon credits that help them meet targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.
25 June Reuters article through The Times of India

Tokyo approves Japan's first greenhouse gas curbs

Tokyo's local government has ordered Japan's first mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and set up a carbon market, moving faster than the national government. Tokyo's metropolitan assembly approved plans to force 1,300 major businesses to cut emissions blamed for global warming by 25 percent by 2020 compared with 2000 levels. The requirements will take effect in 2010 followed the next year by a carbon market, which gives businesses an incentive to go green by letting them buy and trade emission credits.
25 June AFP article

Japan to test carbon trade but puts off interim CO2 goal

Japan will start a trial system for carbon trade this year, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said, unveiling a climate change policy that set a goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but stopped short of what environmentalists say is key. Japan will aim to cut its emissions by 60-80 percent by 2050 and announce an interim target sometime next year, Fukuda said in a speech one month before hosting a G8 summit, where global warming is high on the agenda.
9 June Reuters article
9 June aap article through Yahoo 7

The top UN official for climate change urged Japan to flesh out an announcement that it intended to slash carbon emissions blamed for stoking global warming. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the announcement by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, was useful but sketchy.
12 June AFP article through Yahoo News

A Japanese climate policy plan is likely to set a 2050 target to cut greenhouse gas pollution but it also needs a mid-term emissions goal for Japan to gain credibility at next month's G8 summit, experts say.
6 June Reuters article

Japan's capital Tokyo is preparing to force industry to make big cuts in greenhouse gases, an official said, taking the lead in a country struggling to meet its Kyoto Protocol obligations. Tokyo's outspoken governor, Shintaro Ishihara, has decided to go it alone and create Japan's first emissions cap system, an idea that has met resistance among some in industry and the central government. "If we don't make the efforts that we should right now, we would regret it after 20 or 30 years," Ishihara told business leaders.
3 June AFP article

Rejected Indian CDM projects head to CCX

Failed Indian Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are being registered with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for offset credits, Carbon Finance has learned. Two developers, Bajaj Auto and Carbonyatra, confirmed that projects they have registered with the exchange were initially designed to be CDM projects. Such projects are likely to be controversial, as US legislators mull a federal US cap-and-trade programme. The role of international offsets in any such programme is proving vexatious, and some US commentators consider CDM credits to be suspect, believing many projects to be ‘non-additional’ – that is, that they would have gone ahead without carbon finance.
25 June Carbon finance article

Stock markets join cleantech index gold rush

Two of the world's biggest stock exchanges, FTSE and NASDAQ announced plans for new indices designed to serve booming demand from environmentally conscious investors. FTSE said that it has teamed up with cleantech-focused investment firm Impax to launch a new index dedicated to tracking investments in alternative energy and energy efficiency, water treatment and pollution control, and waste technologies and resource management.
23 June GreenBiz.com article

Exports to Europe may trip on carbon barrier

Indian goods being exported to the European Union may face higher barriers if the 27-member grouping goes ahead with a proposal to place a carbon tax on goods imported from advanced developing countries. While the EU justifies the proposed tax as a measure to create a level-playing field between polluting developing countries and countries that have agreed to cut emissions under the Kyoto protocol, India feels that the move may be yet another step to render exports from certain countries non-competitive.
23 June The Economic Times article

Climate change will mean tax pain

There will be pain. Climate change? Think pain. Think the kind of pain that comes from having your wallet drained, your job threatened and cherished habits overturned. In fact, brace yourself for complete head-to-toe pain when we’re finally forced to adapt to the new way of life in store. How can it be otherwise, given the enormity of even slowing global warming, never mind stopping it? Except, you’d never know it from our politicians. Cut through all their rhetoric and you realize that, almost 11 years on, we’re still paying mere lip service to the Kyoto Protocol.
22 June The Chronicle Herald opinion

EU heads towards 'carbon leakage' clash

France and Germany are calling on Brussels to identify which sectors could benefit from special protection measures against foreign competition under a tightened EU carbon market before wrapping up global climate talks. But the Commission and a key MEP are insisting on waiting. The French government, which is set to take over the EU's six month rotating presidency on 1 July, says the EU should decide now in favour of imposing special import duties on products made in third countries with lax climate change regimes. Such duties, to take effect after 2013, would send a reassuring signal to Europe's heavy industries, such as cement and steelmakers, who are likely to face tougher emissions restrictions as the EU tightens its carbon 'belt'.
18 June EurActiv article

European system for cutting carbon dioxide emissions is working well

For the past three years, the European Union has been operating the world's largest emissions trading system and the first system to limit and to trade carbon dioxide emissions. An MIT analysis of this initial "trial" phase finds that—despite its hasty adoption and somewhat rocky beginning—the European Union cap-and-trade system has operated well and has had little or no negative impact on the overall EU economy.
12 June ScienceDaily article

New Hampshire signs global warming initiative

New Hampshire has become the 10th US state to participate in a regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The law adds New Hampshire to the other New England states, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland in a market-based, "cap and trade" program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the region's power plants.
11 June The Boston Globe article

Madagascar signs big carbon deal to fund rainforest conservation

Madagascar will sell more than nine million tons of carbon offsets to fund rainforest conservation in a newly established protected area. Conservationists say the deal will protect endangered wildlife, promote sustainable development to improve the economic well-being of people living in and around the park area, and help fight global warming.
10 June mongabay.com article

Carbon prices at two-year high in Europe

Carbon prices in the European Union have hit their highest level in two years on the back of spiralling oil prices. The price is the highest carbon allowances have seen in 25 months, having risen some 40 percent in the last four months alone.
10 June  EUobserver article through BusinessWeek

China eyes domestic emissions trading scheme

China's central bank has drawn up a tentative outline for a domestic emissions trading scheme that could cover everything from greenhouse gases to water pollutants, and speed the country's push for greener growth.  It is the first sign that Beijing is seriously considering a comprehensive national strategy to force its companies to either control their pollution or pay for their excess, as it struggles to meet its own tough environmental goals.
9 June  Reuters article through Planet Ark

Reformed carbon scheme could drive global change, says report

Hopes of a global deal on climate change would be raised by early adoption of the European commission's tough reforms of the region's carbon trading regime, according to a recent report . The Carbon Trust, the company set up to help business curb carbon emissions and develop new, low carbon technologies, said the reforms of the emissions trading scheme (ETS) were a "big, bold stride in the right direction".
9 June The Guardian article

The great carbon bazaar

Evidence of serious flaws in the multi-billion dollar global market for carbon credits has been uncovered by a BBC World Service investigation. The credits are generated by a United Nations-run scheme called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The mechanism gives firms in developing countries financial incentives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But in some cases, carbon credits are paid to projects that would have been realised without external funding.
4 June BBC News online article

UN climate chief says cutting fuel taxes a bad idea for the environment

The top UN climate official says cutting fuel taxes in the face of rising oil prices would counteract efforts to fight global warming. Yvo de Boer says rich countries must confront their populations with "the environmental consequences of their actions." He says rich governments should encourage consumers to reduce dependence on oil and such fuels that contribute to global warming.
3 June The Associated Press article through International Herald Tribune

Demonstrations in Paris and London over fuel prices

Truckers and taxi drivers slowed traffic around a Paris business district to a crawl in a protest over rising fuel prices, and hundreds of fishermen demonstrated in London to demand government help. Dozens of trucks and taxis in Paris drove slowly toward and around the headquarters of the oil giant Total in La Défense, site of the main financial district on the western edge of the city, to protest a new tax on heavily polluting vehicles.
3 June International Herald Tribune article

Protests over rising fuel prices have spread across the globe.
11 June Reuters article

Tanzania: Emissions pact pays off

Tanzania, one of the first countries in Africa to sign and ratify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the mid-1990s, has started to benefit from measures being taken globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Recently four villages, two in Morogoro district and one each in Babati and Muheza districts, managed to obtain a total of Sh8 million from a programme under the Kyoto Protocol for sale of carbon dioxide sequestered through participatory management of their village forests.
3 June The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) article

US carbon price would bring quick emission cuts: study

The setting of a carbon price on all US power generators would lead to significant immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, a new study finds. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, looks at the short-term impacts of a carbon price of $35 a ton in the US, imposed via an emissions trading scheme or carbon tax. It concludes that such pricing would quickly lead to a reduction in US emissions of up to 10 per cent.
2 June Carbon Positive article

Oil shock brings cheer at last to EU's carbon market

After slumping to prices that had made it a near-laughing stock, the European Union's carbon market, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), has been given a useful boost by, of all things, oil. In the last three months, the cost of buying a tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) has raced upwards by more than 25 percent, according to Paris-based carbon bourse BlueNext.
1 June Yahoo News article

Conferences

Emissions trading

EU Emissions Trading 2008 will be held on 7 to 9 July in Brussels. Attend this Environmental Finance conference to hear leading industry and government specialists review the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in depth – in particular how Phase II is working in practice, and their hopes and expectations for Phase III.
Details

Post-2012 Burden Sharing Symposium

The Institute of Policy Studies (Victoria University of Wellington), in collaboration with the NZ European Union Centres Network, is hosting a Post-2012 Burden Sharing Symposium in Wellington, New Zealand, on 29 July, 2008.
Details

Financing for climate change

An international conference on Financing for Climate Change - Challenges and Way Forward, will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 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.
Details

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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