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A change in the moral climate? (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:41
| Guardian: Sir David Attenborough said yesterday that he detected signs of a "moral change" in the public's attitude to global warming. He accepted that some people may find his views "optimistic" or "naive", but he said that historical examples like the change in attitudes to slavery 200 years ago showed that society could undergo rapid and profound moral shifts. "When you started it was perfectly acceptable that you should own slaves and treat human beings in ... |
Americans guzzle hybrids; Prius sales triple in May (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:41
| Associated Press: The gas-electric hybrid car, once the domain of your granola-crunching, environmentally conscious neighbor, moved into the mainstream last month as $3-per-gallon gasoline helped to nearly triple Toyota Prius sales. Toyota said it sold just over 24,000 Priuses in May, boosting the car into ninth place among all vehicles for the month and cracking the list of 10 top sellers for the first time. The Prius helped Toyota post a U.S. sales gain of 14.1 percent in May compared with a ... |
Carbon tax would boost investment in clean technology (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Economist: The current row over climate change sounds all too familiar. Germany, host of this year's G8 summit, is trying to get the world to agree on what to do when the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases runs out in 2012. America, which dislikes the tough targets the Europeans want the world to sign up to, is proposing separate negotiations between the world's big emitters. Environmentalists accuse it of trying to sidetrack the issue. The lineup is like the one that led to America's ... |
Climate change set to dominate G-8 summit, with Germany's Merkel poised to play key role (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Associated Press: Angela Merkel must juggle her good relationship with U.S. President George W. Bush against European differences with Bush's latest proposal to fight climate change at next week's Group of Eight summit in Germany. The German chancellor – a skilled dealmaker who worked on the Kyoto Protocol climate change treaty as environment minister in the 1990s – has made the push for concrete goals to reduce emissions a centerpiece of her leadership of the G-8. But Bush's proposal to let each ... |
Australia: Climate demands radical response (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Canberra Times: GIVEN its explicit terms of reference "advising the Government on the nature and design of a workable global emissions trading system in which Australia would be able to participate, while preserving the nation's major competitive advantages through the possession of large reserves of fossil fuels and uranium" the report of the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading is unremarkable in its insights. It has recommended that work being immediately on a "cap and ... |
Tokyo to require firms to meet CO2 targets (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Asahi Shimbun: The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to require large companies and factories to meet reduction goals for carbon dioxide emissions under a new set of standards intended to combat global warming. Companies or factories that fail to meet their emission reduction targets would be required to buy carbon emissions credits from others that have successfully cut down their CO2 emissions. While trading of emissions credits has begun in Europe, the new system being proposed by the ... |
Truth about Kyoto: huge profits, little carbon saved (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Guardian: In autumn 2005, three journalists working for the environmental group the Centre for Science and Environment decided to investigate some of the Indian projects which were trying to break into the lucrative new business of carbon trading. They started looking at four schemes in Andhra Pradesh which were trying to convert biomass - dead plants, animal dung - into fuel. They studied the formal reports which the schemes had commissioned from a UK company, Ernst and Young, to satisfy the ... |
Australia: Companies forced to report high emissions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australia has taken a step towards setting up a greenhouse emissions trading scheme, after the state and territory environment ministers agreed to a plan for mandatory reporting. The deal will see companies emitting more than 25,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year having to disclose those emissions from July 1 next year. Environment ministers have met in Cairns today, where they have considered the plan put forward by Victorian Minister John Thwaites. Mr Thwaites ... |
Earth's Climate Approaches Dangerous Tipping Point (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:42
| Environment News Service: A stern warning that global warming is nearing an irreversible tipping point was issued today by the climate scientist who the Bush administration has tried to muzzle. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, today published a study showing that greenhouse gases emitted by human activities have brought the Earth's climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet. "If global emissions ... |
Schwarzenegger Says Bush Recognizing Climate Issue (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:43
| Reuters: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at odds with the White House on global warming, avoided criticism on Thursday of the new climate plan unveiled by US President George W. Bush, saying it acknowledged there was a problem. Schwarzenegger praised Bush's call for a meeting this autumn of the nations that emit the most climate-warming greenhouse gases, and said Washington still has a chance to show international leadership on the issue. "That means they are acknowledging ... |
Japan to propose global warming fund (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 12:00:44
| United Press International: Japan is considering the creation of a fund that would help developing nations cut greenhouse gas emissions. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to unveil the proposed plan next week during the G8 summit in Germany, Kyodo news service said Friday. Assistance would be provided for the deployment of energy-saving devices in power plants and factories, clean energy sources such as solar power, and conservation of forests. Kyodo said Japan is also considering providing ... |
Australia to launch carbon trading scheme by 2012 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Reuters: Australian Prime Minister John Howard pledged on Sunday to establish a national carbon trading scheme by 2012 to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions, calling it the most momentous economic challenge of our time. Seeking to deflect opposition charges that he had presided over a decade of foot-dragging on climate change, the conservative leader said an "aspirational" target for reducing carbon emissions would be set in 2008 once the economic costs had been fully ... |
China set to confront climate change, defend growth (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Reuters: China's first plan for climate change will seek to fortify the country against damage from global warming but also against international pressure to cut greenhouse gas pollution that Beijing calls the cost of growth. China will unveil its national plan on Monday, two days before President Hu Jintao attends a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Germany at which global warming will feature. Beijing has already signaled that the plan is meant as a defensive policy wall to limit ... |
Cracks on climate as G8 leaders meet in Germany (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Reuters: Leaders from the world's major industrialised nations will try to paper over deep divisions on global warming and a range of foreign policy issues when they meet on the Baltic coast this week for a G8 summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host of the annual Group of Eight meeting at the elegant Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm, has been working for months to lay the foundation for a summit breakthrough in the fight against climate change. But her drive looks doomed ... |
EU governments seek new design for CO2 trade scheme (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Reuters: European Union nations are moving closer to redesigning the bloc's emissions trading scheme to force industry to pay more to emit carbon dioxide and hand Brussels greater authority to set EU-wide emissions caps. In a series of interviews over the weekend, EU environment ministers meeting in Germany said consensus was emerging that the permits limiting industrial emissions should be sold to companies participating in the scheme, rather than given away. Furthermore, ministers are ... |
Australia PM pledges climate plan (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| BBC: Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced a shift in policy on climate change, promising to set up a carbon trading scheme to cut pollution. Mr Howard said he would set a target next year for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and also pledged to put in place a carbon trading scheme by 2012. Australia is one of the worst polluters per head of population in the world. Despite his new plans, Mr Howard has warned that setting a cap on carbon emissions would hurt ... |
Australia Targets Emissions Trading System by 2012, Howard Says (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Bloomberg: Australia will introduce a carbon emissions trading system by 2012 and will next year set a greenhouse gas target to combat climate change, Prime Minister John Howard said. A national trading system and its prices will be established by the market, Howard told the three-day Liberal Party conference in Sydney today. It will mean higher electricity costs for businesses and households, he said. ``Australia will move toward a domestic carbon trading system beginning no later than ... |
India to resist Bush pressure on global warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:18
| Reuters: India, one of the world's top polluters, will not accept equal responsibility to cut emissions and combat climate change despite U.S. President George W. Bush's proposal for a deal among top emitters, officials said on Sunday. Bush, under fire for resisting tough action on global warming, last week called on 15 influential countries -- led by the United States, China, Russia and India -- to agree by the end of 2008 on a long-term goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The issue ... |
Coal as Motor Fuel (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Philadelphia Inquirer: America has been called the Saudia Arabia of coal. A quarter of the world's known coal reserves sit beneath U.S. soil. How tempting it is in these days of high gas prices and volatile oil suppliers to ignore coal's vices and further exploit this domestic fuel, which already provides half of the nation's electricity. But expanding coal isn't a smart choice for America right now. Although cheap and plentiful, it's dirty. Its environmental byproducts outweigh its ... |
Australia: PM criticised for not revealing greenhouse reduction target (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: There has been widespread criticism of Prime Minister John Howard for not announcing a target for greenhouse reduction until after the election. Mr Howard says there will be a national emissions trading scheme, but not until as late as 2012 and he will not say what the target for cutting emissions is until next year, prompting an attack from Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown. "It's like saying well we're going to have new corporate taxes but we'll tell you after the ... |
A blistering critique of climate change politics (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Green Left: Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change By Clive Hamilton Black Inc. Agenda, 2007. 266 pages, $29.95 (pb) Scorcher will leave you fuming. Clive Hamilton's well-written account of the politics of climate change blows the whistle on the corporations, their lobbyists, the politicians, the climate change denialist front-groups and websites, the media and others that have obstructed efforts to ensure Australia plays its part in cutting greenhouse gas emissions to ... |
China expected to announce climate change plan (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 06:00:20
| Radio Australia: The Chinese Government is expected to announce an action plan for emissions on Monday. The ABC's China correspondent, Stephen McDonell, reports that this year China is expected to pass the United States as the world's greatest contributor of greenhouse gases. China's action plan on climate is thought to include an increased commitment to renewable energy and measures to capture methane gas emissions using carbon sequestration. China will also re-emphasise it goal of ... |
Canada to back U.S. view that any climate deal requires China, India (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 06:00:20
| Canadian Press: Canada appears set to back the American view that any climate-change deal struck at this week's G8 summit will require the participation of developing countries like China and India. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his environment minister arrived Sunday in Europe, where they will attend a pair of world gatherings and also meet the newly elected president of France. Climate change and curbing greenhouse gas emissions will be front and centre at this week's G8 meeting amid ... |
Bill aims to curb wind farms to spare birds (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 06:00:20
| Associated Press: Birds and bats have a powerful advocate in the new Congress, and he is making the wind energy industry nervous. Rep. Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, is pushing legislation that would more strictly regulate wind energy to protect birds, bats and other wildlife killed when they fly into the giant turbines. Wind energy advocates say the bill could significantly cripple the burgeoning industry and they brand the measure as "anti-wind." A ... |
Blair gives Bush coded warning on climate change as G8 tensions rise (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Scotsman: TONY Blair has warned the leaders of the world's richest countries that it is their duty to make progress on climate change, in an attempt to defuse tensions between the United States and other nations ahead of this week's G8 summit in Germany. The Prime Minister flew to Berlin yesterday for talks with the country's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in an attempt to allay fears the US was going it alone on greenhouse gas emissions. It was feared US president George Bush's call for ... |
Britain, Germany call on US to do more on climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called on leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) nations to press the United States to go further in its climate change proposals. US President George W Bush last week said that "by the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases." The leaders of the G8 industrialised nations will meet in Germany this week. Ms Merkel says ... |
Climate debate heats up G-8 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Christian Science Monitor: This week's meeting of the world's eight top economic powers is set to become a battle over whether future efforts to combat global warming will continue to require binding international commitments or turn the clock back to 1992, when nations agreed to a less rigorous approach that the international community has long since rejected as ineffective. The choice came into stark relief with President Bush's May 31 call to build a new international framework for action on global warming. ... |
Global Carbon Market Gets Mixed Signals (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:19
| Reuters: The chances of carbon markets becoming a global weapon against climate change were no clearer on Friday, as Australia gave a qualified thumbs up, similar to Canada, but the White House remained opposed. Carbon markets are supposed to target the cheapest emissions cuts, and therefore reduce the cost of fighting climate change. The European Union already has a scheme which obliges its heavy industry to buy emissions permits above a certain limit. The Kyoto Protocol allows rich ... |
Global warming or not, ocean is rising over Pacific islands (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Associated Press: The people of the Central Pacific do not need science to understand one possible effect of global warming. These Micronesians, whose islands spread from near the Philippines on the west to five hours from Hawaii on the east, require no charts or graphs to know that rising ocean water is a critical and constant presence in their lives. When the moon is full, the ocean waves at high tide are several feet higher than ever in the past, according to longtime island residents. ... |
Bush Proposal Will Not Eclipse Kyoto - Brazil's Lula (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Reuters: US President George W. Bush's proposals on carbon emissions will not supersede the Kyoto protocol because cuts would be voluntary, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday. "I hope to hear Bush's proposal live at the G8 (Group of Eight) meeting. The concrete fact is that there is no chance of President Bush's proposal eclipsing the Kyoto protocol and other multilateral decisions because his proposal is based on voluntary (cuts)," he told reporters in ... |
China Says Impact of Climate Change Clearer Daily (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Reuters: The impact of global warming on China is clearer each day, but climate change must be tackled in a way that allows sustainable development, a top-level meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao agreed. The world's number two emitter of greenhouse gasses will release its first national plan to curb rising emissions next week, seeking to rebut international criticism that it is not doing enough on the issue. Officials in China's State Council, or cabinet, called at their meeting ... |
Dry Winter Setting Off Canada Forest Fires (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Reuters: A winter of unusually little snow has brought five times the normal level of forest fires to parts of Central Canada, prompting other provinces to fly in extra help, and bringing small scale evacuations of rural settlements. Quebec has already reached a "critical" burn level several times this year and is experiencing a five-fold increase in burned land from its five-year average, officials said. "It's not unprecedented, but in recent years we've had much less ... |
Dutch Plan Extra Tax for Gas-Guzzling Cars (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Reuters: The Dutch government plans to levy an extra tax on cars to help fight climate change that could run into thousands of euros for the most heavily polluting vehicles. Cars that exceed a threshold level of carbon dioxide emissions would be taxed by an extra 80 euros to 90 euros (US$108 to $121) for each gram above the level, the Dutch Finance Ministry said in a statement on Friday. It also plans to lower taxes for vehicles with relatively low emission rates. The threshold is 240 ... |
Europeans Cool to Bush Plan on Climate Change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Reuters: President Bush's plan to combat climate change got a cool reception Friday in Europe, where the European Union's environment chief dismissed it as unambitious and the "classic" US line. Bush, under pressure to do more ahead of a summit in Germany next week of the Group of Eight industrial nations, said Thursday that he would seek a deal among top emitters on long-term cuts in greenhouse gases by the end of 2008. "The declaration by President Bush basically ... |
Lula rejects Bush move on climate change talks (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:20
| Guardian: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has flatly rejected President Bush's proposals for parallel global negotiations to combat climate change, insisting that countries come to agreement at the United Nations, and not under US leadership. In a rare interview with a British newspaper, President Lula told the Guardian that Brazil, a fast developing country whose support is critical to a global deal on emission cuts, had not even been informed that Mr Bush was contemplating a new ... |
Malaysia to allay fears in EU over oil palm cultivation (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Business Times: MALAYSIA's palm oil, which has gained acceptance in the food processing industry in the US after a long-drawn battle with soyabean oil, is now up against environmentalists in the European Union (EU). Environmentalists are accusing Malaysia, which is the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil, of upsetting biodiversity as it brings more land into oil palm cultivation. Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin has embarked on a week-long ... |
Merkel Says US Could Join UN on Climate Change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she believed the United States could be brought into a UN process to combat climate change at this week's summit of leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations. Speaking three days after US President George W. Bush announced his own climate strategy, described by some critics as an affront to German plans, Merkel said Bush's ideas would make talks at the summit more interesting. Merkel, who hosts the June 6-8 summit in ... |
Germany: Nearly 1,000 hurt in protests around G8 site (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Guardian: German authorities yesterday closed most routes to the G8 summit site at Heiligendamm and pulled over cars for spot checks on the main road from Rostock, where protest riots have led to hundreds of people being injured. Three days before the world's industrial powers gather, the situation around the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm was calm, police said. But, after Saturday's violence, they had stepped up security in Rostock, stopping people in the city centre yesterday to check bags and ... |
Too late for 'luxury' of Kyoto delay, warns Blair (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Guardian: Tony Blair has issued a stark warning to fellow world leaders ahead of this week's G8 summit on climate change, telling them it would be unforgivable if they failed to agree on ways to tackle global warming. Speaking in Berlin after talks with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, he said that it would be the people in the world's poorest countries who suffered most from rising global temperatures: the summit offered the chance of a "historic breakthrough". "We ... |
US House Leader Wants to Pass CO2 Bill This Year (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, said on Friday she wanted Congress to pass mandatory caps on heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions this year. "I'd like to see it pass this year," Pelosi told reporters at a news conference. "Congress will act upon cap-and-trade legislation in this Congress." Pelosi's comments came a day after President George W. Bush called on 15 influential countries to agree by the end of 2008 to a ... |
United Kingdom: Blair pushes climate agenda (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Times (UK): Tony Blair called for "quicker and bolder progress" in reaching a deal to halt global warming as he made a brief visit to Berlin yesterday for eve-of-summit talks with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. In another attempt to stoke up pressure for a breakthrough on climate change, he told legislators in the Bundestag that time was running out. "Our failure to act would leave future generations with a terrible legacy with potentially catastrophic consequences for the environment, our ... |
Britain's energy policy fails to stack up, says expert panel (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Guardian: The government has failed to provide Britain with a coherent energy strategy, putting future supplies and climate change goals at risk and falling short of what is needed to help the world's poorest countries adapt to rising temperatures, a top-level panel of experts says today. Lord Patten of Barnes, chair of the Oxford University task force, said: "Britain's energy policy just doesn't stack up. It won't deliver security. It won't deliver on our commitments on climate change. It ... |
Britain, Germany want climate change pressure on US (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Radio Australia: The British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called on leaders of the G8 nations to press the United States to go further in its climate change proposals. The leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations will meet in Germany on Wednesday. Chancellor Merkel says any advances on climate change need to take place within the framework of the United Nations. "For me it is important, essential that each initiative that is ... |
Bush Adds New Track to UN Climate Bid (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: President George W. Bush wants leaders of the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases to agree long-term cuts by the end of 2008, adding a new track to international efforts to fight global warming. Following is a timetable, and some of the hurdles, towards building a global deal likely to start up on Jan. 1, 2013 after the first period of the United Nation's Kyoto Protocol runs out. Under Kyoto, 35 industrialised nations have agreed to cap their greenhouse gas emissions, ... |
Germany's Gabriel Wants Full Auctioning in CO2 Trade (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: The European Union should charge companies in the future for all of the permits they get to emit carbon dioxide (CO2) as part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Germany's environment minister said on Friday. The scheme, which sets limits on the amount of CO2 factories may emit and allows them to trade certificates based on whether they overshoot or undershoot their targets, is the EU's key tool to fight global warming. Currently governments hand out most of the ... |
United Kingdom: London March Urges G8 Action on Debt, Climate (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: Hundreds of people clad mainly in white lined the banks of the River Thames in central London on Saturday to urge Group of Eight nations to honour their promises. Banners bearing the names of organisations including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Cafod and Action Aid called for G8 leaders to take urgent action on debt, AIDS, global warming and trade at next week's summit. The protesters chanted slogans like "G8, the world can't wait" and blew whistles and horns. ... |
Australia: PM is 'scaremongering on climate change' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Ninemsn: Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett has accused Prime Minister John Howard of scaremongering on climate change, denying that he favours a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. Mr Howard on Sunday told the Liberal Party's Federal Council in Sydney that Mr Garrett wanted a 20 per cent cut in emissions, a move he described as "the recipe for a Garrett recession". To meet that target, every coal and gas-fired power station would have to be replaced by a nuclear ... |
Whale Forum Passes on Addressing Global Warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Reuters: An international forum this week on the fate of the world's whales barely addressed what scientists consider one of the most serious threats to marine life: global warming. A warming climate threatens food sources in Antarctic waters for the world's largest creature and has been linked to unusual migration patterns and the strange behavior of whales off Alaska's coast, scientists say. A proposed International Whaling Commission resolution expressing concerns about global ... |
Bush critics warming to his plans for cutting emissions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| International Herald Tribune: After an initial chorus of criticism from environmental groups and European politicians, there have been significant expressions of support for President George W. Bush's shift last week to supporting cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming. On Friday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon - who plans his own push on climate action within the United Nations this autumn - endorsed Bush's proposal, particularly if it tied into talks aimed at ... |
Bush faces isolation on climate at G8 talks (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:21
| Financial Times: George W. Bush Sunday night appeared likely to split the world's eight richest nations on the eve of their summit, despite a last-ditch intervention by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, over global warming. Climate change will dominate what looks like being a tense three-day summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial economies beginning on Wednesday as Germany, present chairman of the club, and the US squabble over how to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions. Mr ... |
CO2 'rising three times faster than expected' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Telegraph (UK): Global emissions of carbon dioxide are increasing three times faster than scientists previously thought, with the bulk of the rise coming from developing countries, an authoritative study has found. The increase in emissions of the gases responsible for global warming suggests that the effects of climate change to come in this century could be even worse than United Nations scientists have predicted. The report, by leading universities and institutes on both sides of the ... |
Global Warming 'Is Three Times Faster Than Worst Predictions' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Independent (UK): Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed. They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted. News of the studies - which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated - comes ... |
Merkel says U.S. could join U.N. on climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she believed the United States could be brought into a U.N. process to combat climate change at this week's summit of leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations. Speaking three days after U.S. President George W. Bush announced his own climate strategy, described by some critics as an affront to German plans, Merkel said Bush's ideas would make talks at the summit more interesting. Merkel, who hosts the June 6-8 summit in ... |
UN urges protection of animals from climate (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Reuters: A senior United Nations official urged a 171-nation U.N. wildlife forum on Sunday to take action to help protect animals from climate change. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will also discuss measures at its two week-week meeting to help commercially valuable animal and tree species threatened by over-use. A U.N. report has said human activities were wiping out three animal or plant species every hour and has urged the world to do more to ... |
What's so bad about deforestation? (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Reuters: Worldwide about 13 million hectares or 32 million acres of forest -- an area the size of Greece or Nicaragua -- is cleared every year, the United Nations estimates. Here are some explanations of the environmental impacts associated with deforestation: CLIMATE CHANGE: -- Trees store carbon by absorbing carbon dioxide via photosynthesis and holding it in woody branches and roots. -- When trees are burned, or cut and left to decay, their stored carbon is released ... |
Biofuel crops take root in EU (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Yomiuri Shimbun: This is the fourth installment of a five-part series on the changes and developments taking place in the United States and Europe in connection with global efforts to combat accelerating global warming, a major issue to be addressed at the upcoming Group of Eight summit meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany. "Originally this area was widely used to cultivate potatoes, but recently, the cultivation of rape plants has been spreading," said 60-year-old Oldrich Tesar, who has been ... |
Blair Joins Merkel Urging US to Change Climate Stance at G-8 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Bloomberg: U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair today joined Germany in urging the U.S. to alter its stance on climate control, saying that a Group of Eight meeting next week offers a ``time to act'' to set up a global plan to cut greenhouse gas. With the U.S. and Germany, hosts of the G-8 summit, still far apart on how to combat global warming, Blair said he supported Chancellor Angela Merkel's bid to win over the group to agree targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. President George W. Bush ... |
Blame US carbon emissions on coal (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:22
| Associated Press: As the United States struggles with its embarrassing title as the world's leader in greenhouse gases, it must be noted that some states spew far more than their share and show no signs of slowing down. -Wyoming's coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year. -Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and ... |
China Sets Energy Efficiency as Performance Target (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:23
| Reuters: Chinese government leaders and major companies were put on notice on Sunday that energy efficiency and pollutant reduction will be key factors in their performance assessments, Xinhua news agency said. They should be set as indexes for assessing economic and social development and the performance of government and company leaders, the State Council, or cabinet, warned in a circular. "They will receive a negative performance assessment if they fail to reach goals for ... |
G8 has 'duty' over global warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:23
| Guardian: Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned the leaders of the rich world they have a "duty" to make progress on climate change at this week's G8 summit in Germany. Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Mr Blair said that it would be "grossly, unforgivably irresponsible" not to act to prevent the massive suffering which could be caused by rises in average global temperatures. Mr Blair said that the Heiligendamm summit which opens on ... |
Germany praises Bush on global warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:23
| Associated Press: Just days before hosting a Group of Eight summit that has already drawn violent protests, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday described President Bush's new initiative on global warming as "very welcome," but insisted it must fall within the framework of United Nations treaty negotiations. Bush on Thursday proposed the 15 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases hold meetings and set an emissions goal. But he would let each country - including the U.S., China, India and ... |
Australia: Howard promises emissions trading scheme (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 06-03-2007 at 09:00:23
| Financial Times: John Howard, the Australian prime minister, on Sunday stepped up his efforts to improve his environmental credentials by pledging to establish a domestic carbon emissions trading scheme by 2012. The tactical about-face came just days after George W. Bush, US president, called for a new round of talks among the world's biggest economies to set emission targets. The US and Australia are the only two leading western countries to have refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate ... |
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