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China, India Sign Up to Copenhagen Climate-Change Agreement

Bloomberg: China and India signed on to the Copenhagen climate-change agreement reached in December in the Danish capital, meaning all the world's largest emitters have now agreed to the deal. Chinese lead negotiator Su Wei today wrote to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to add his country's name to the agreement. The letter was posted on the body's Web site. India Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today told parliament that India had also signed up. "Our ... more >>

Obama to push climate change in White House meeting

Reuters: President Barack Obama will corral on Tuesday key Republican and Democratic senators whose support is critical for passing a climate change law, seeking to jump-start stalled efforts to overhaul energy policy. Obama called the White House meeting with top lawmakers and members of his cabinet to reinvigorate one of his policy priorities, which even his advisers admit has suffered from the president's intense focus on healthcare reform. The House of Representatives has already ... more >>

New study reveals scale of "outsourced emissions"

Business Green: The extent to which the UK and other industrialised nations are "outsourcing " their carbon emissions to developing countries was again highlighted today with the publication of a major new report revealing that goods and services imported into developed countries typically account for around a third of their total carbon footprint. The study from a team of researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science used published trade data for 2004 to assess the global trade flows for ... more >>

EU climate chief: global deal unlikely before 2011

Associated Press: The European Union's climate change chief says a global deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions may not be possible before 2011. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says it would be risky to expect a legally binding deal to emerge from the planned December U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico. Hedegaard told the European Parliament on Tuesday that "remaining differences between parties may delay agreement on this until next year." more >>

Carbon emissions 'outsourced' to developing countries

Physorg: China is by far the largest "exporter" of carbon dioxide emissions, as seen in this map of the net flow of emissions embodied in trade among the major exporting and importing countries. Arrows indicate direction and magnitude of flow; numbers are megatons (millions of tons). Credit: Steven Davis/Carnegie Institution for Science A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution finds that over a third of carbon dioxide emissions associated with consumption of goods and services in ... more >>

World's Pall of Black Carbon Can Be Eased With New Stoves

Yale Environment 360: With a single, concerted initiative, says Lakshman Guruswami, the world could save millions of people in poor nations from respiratory ailments and early death, while dealing a big blow to global warming -- and all at a surprisingly small cost. "If we could supply cheap, clean-burning cook stoves to the large portion of the world that burns biomass," says Guruswami, a Sri Lankan-born professor of international law at the University of Colorado, "we could address a significant ... more >>

Wild relatives of crops seen aiding climate fight

Reuters: Farm experts plan to track down wild relatives of crops such as rice or wheat with traits that make them able to resist global warming in a project costing perhaps $50 million, a leading expert said on Tuesday. "The wild relatives of cultivated crops ... are largely uncollected or conserved in gene banks," said Cary Fowler, head of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust which co-manages a "doomsday" seed vault on an Arctic island north of Norway. "We're at the early stages" ... more >>

Climate forest deal in sight: Indonesia

Agence France-Presse: Wealthy and developing nations should be able to seal an agreement this year on deforestation, unlocking a key part of the next treaty on global warming, Indonesian negotiators said Monday. At December's Copenhagen climate summit, six nations pledged a total of 3.5 billion dollars to help developing countries fight the loss of forests, seen as a leading cause of global warming along with industrial pollution. Basah Hernowo, a senior official in Indonesia's forestry ministry, ... more >>

China supports nuclear power development in orderly way

Xinhua: Nuclear power should be developed with due regulations and in an orderly way thanks to its strict requirement for human resources, technology, security and quality, a Chinese official said Monday here at the international conference on civilian use of nuclear energy. Nuclear power, a clean, safe and economic energy, "plays an important role in energy conservation, environment protection and the strive to cope with climate change," Deputy Director of China' s National Energy ... more >>

'Gribble' marine pest may be key to biofuel breakthrough, say scientists

Times (UK): A marine pest could be the key to a biofuel breakthrough, say scientists. Gribble, which resemble pink woodlice, plagued seafarers for centuries by boring through the planks of ships and destroying wooden piers. But now environmental scientists are taking a keen interest in the crustaceans. A team of British researchers has learnt that gribble have a gift for digesting wood not seen in any other animal. Enzymes produced by the tiny creatures are able to break down woody ... more >>

James Hansen keen on next-generation nuclear power

Australian: RENEWABLE energy won't save the planet so it's time to go nuclear, according to one of world's most high-profile climate scientists. "We should undertake urgent focused research and development programs in next generation nuclear power," said atmospheric physicist James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute in New York. While renewable energies such as solar and wind were gaining in economic ... more >>

EU faces court challenge over biofuels reports

Reuters: Four environmental groups have sued the European Union's executive for withholding documents they say will add to a growing dossier of evidence that biofuels harm the environment and push up food prices. The lawsuit, lodged with the EU's General Court, the bloc's second highest court, alleges several violations of European laws on transparency and democracy. But the European Commission countered that the action was premature as it had not formally refused access and had already ... more >>

UK offshore wind costs at least twice nuclear: Study

Reuters: Generating Britain's electricity from offshore wind farms is likely to be at least twice as expensive as nuclear power, according to a new report by engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff. Britain plans to build up over 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power capacity by 2020 and wants to build new nuclear power plants to replace old reactors. The government's nuclear plans are opposed by some environmental groups as being too costly. But analysis by Parsons ... more >>

Cool it on efforts against new rules, EPA chief asks

Houston Chronicle: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday pushed back against lawmakers' attempts to halt the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, refiners and other industrial facilities. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency's proposed new rules, which would take effect next year, could help ignite new demand for clean energy technology. Instead of trying to block new rules, lawmakers should spend their energy focusing on "new legislation to do ... more >>

S Africa, India in race for UN climate chief job

Times of India: South Africa will pit its tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk against Indian environment secretary Vijay Sharma for the key post of UN's climate change chief. Sharma will face competition from van Schalkwyk as the UN seeks a replacement for Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Van Schalkwyk's nomination was approved by the South African government after President Jacob Zuma met with him at the weekend to emphasise ... more >>

United Kingdom: Gardeners urged to stop using peat-based compost

Independent (UK): The star of the BBC's Gardeners' World has been drafted in by the Government as they try to persuade the public to stop using peat compost. Ministers hope that Diarmuid Gavin will help them convince gardeners to stop using peat, which is present in almost half of all compost sold by garden centres. Yesterday the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced a new target to phase out the use of peat compost in amateur gardens by 2020 but shied away from imposing a ban, provoking ... more >>

'No reason for US to wait for India, China on climate change'

Press Trust of India: The US should not wait for India and China to act on climate change and should go ahead with its environmental protection activities in terms of legislation besides research and development, a top official of the Obama Administration has said. Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also decried lawmakers of the opposition Republican Party who have been opposing the Climate Change legislation and asking the Obama Administration not to take any ... more >>

Climate Change: Who Pays for Emissions in Global Trade?

Time Magazine: Popularly, China is a villain in climate change. Many people who attended last year's chaotic U.N. climate-change talks in Copenhagen -- especially those who belonged to the U.S. delegation -- singled out China as the main reason the summit nearly collapsed. Chinese diplomats fought hard against any form of emissions regulation, even though their country is now the world's No. 1 national carbon emitter, and will emit far more carbon in the future than any other. In Washington, opponents of ... more >>

India backs Copenhagen climate deal: minister

Agence France-Presse: India has decided to formally back a climate change accord struck in Copenhagen last year that includes non-binding limits on global warming, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday. Ramesh told parliament that India, the last major emitter yet to formally endorse the agreement, would join the more than 100 other countries that have already "associated" with it. "We participated in the negotiations on the Copenhagen Accord and we stand by the accord," Ramesh ... more >>

Legal action targets EU biofuel policy

Business Green: European biofuel developers are facing fresh uncertainty about the future of the industry, after four environmental groups yesterday launched legal action against the European Union, accusing it of withholding evidence that allegedly shows that current biofuel policies harm the environment and push up food prices. The lawsuit, filed on Monday by ClientEarth, Transport & Environment, the European Environmental Bureau and BirdLife International, will result in further investment ... more >>

Third of EU emissions 'imported'

BBC: Rich countries including several EU nations are "importing" about a third of their CO2 emissions, says a study. US-based researchers used a global trade database to track goods and services, and assigned emissions to the countries where they were used. Nearly a quarter of China's emissions come from goods exported to the West. Writing in the journal PNAS, the researchers say this is an ethical reason why rich countries should lead global attempts to cut ... more >>

United Kingdom: BNFL memoir revives nuclear safety fears

Guardian: The autobiography of a former director of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is likely to reignite fears about the safety of nuclear power, as Britain prepares for a new generation of reactors, by exposing the panic that rocked the industry two decades ago when a link was suggested between radiation and childhood leukaemia. At its height, workers at Sellafield were advised not to have children, while bosses at the Cumbrian nuclear complex even proposed establishing a sperm bank or calling ... more >>

Climate change scientists hit back

Radio Australia: As scepticism about climate change gains traction around the world, a group of international scientists is trying to hit back. They've released a new study which they say shores up the facts and figures behind global warming. The researchers say the study not only updates the information which the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has about global warming, but shows the situation is much worse. Presenter: Di Bain Speaker: Professor David Karoly, Melbourne ... more >>

Green living with Ed Begley Jr.

CNN: Actor Ed Begley Jr., best known for his roles in "St. Elsewhere", "The West Wing", "Best in Show" (he's also twice appeared on "The Simpsons") is the star of "Living with Ed". It's a reality show that follows him and his wife Rachelle Carson as they attempt to live the green life on the outskirts of LA, while competing to out-eco neighbor Bill Nye. Begley has been a committed environmentalist for decades, and is the author of "Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly ... more >>

Wanted: an eco prophet

Guardian: It's an exceptionally inconvenient truth. Only one American in three believes that human beings are responsible for climate change: a polling result 10% down on where opinion rested the year before. Worse, the number of Americans who believe that climate change is a hoax or a scientific conspiracy – not doubting, just damned blank certain – has doubled since 2008. Add in those who assert that the changes, if any, are of "no significant concern", and you've got 30% of the US denying, scoffing ... more >>

EDF nuclear reactor carries 'Chernobyl-size' explosion risk

Guardian: French anti-nuclear campaigners claim a new power plant being built in Normandy carries an accident risk of "Chernobyl proportions". Sortir du Nucléaire, a protest network, says leaked confidential documents show that tests on the third-generation pressurised water reactor present a potentially catastrophic scenario. The network has eight internal papers showing the results of tests on the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) that, it claims, reveal defects in the mechanism that ... more >>

Global climate change and biodiversity

New Nation: Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim, an eminent scientist of Bangladesh and nature lover notes that about 40 per cent of about 44 thousand species of the world are at stake due to climatic and other disasters. Human-induced climate change tends to reduce the genetic diversity of individual species. Again, successful adaptation to climate change may depend to a greater extent on the ability of species to disperse to new areas but this ability is also increasingly impeded by human-induced landscape change. ... more >>

Methane bubbling out of Arctic Ocean - but is it new?

New Scientist: A wide expanse of Arctic Ocean seabed is bubbling methane into the atmosphere. This is the first time that the ocean has been found to be releasing this powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere on this scale. The discovery will rekindle fears that global warming might be on the verge of unlocking billions of tonnes of methane from beneath the oceans, which could trigger runaway climate change. The trouble is, nobody knows if the Arctic emissions are new, or indeed anything to do ... more >>

United States: A municipal power co-op tied to area towns tackles a $2B hydroelectric project

Toledo Blade: Three months after halting construction of a mammoth $3.3 billion coal-fired power plant it had proposed for southern Ohio's Meigs County, American Municipal Power Inc. is following through with a $2 billion investment in five hydroelectric projects at existing dams along the Ohio River. Seventy-nine of AMP's 126 member communities have committed themselves financially. Nearly a third of those investors are small and mid-sized communities in northwest Ohio and southeast ... more >>

Hydrogen highway inches closer

North Shore News: A few days before B.C. Transit unveiled 20 gleaming new hydrogen-powered buses in Whistler, the fleet got its first fuel-up at a North Vancouver company called Hydrogen Technology and Energy Corporation, or HTEC. But the three-year-old company doesn't yet have the plant equipment to ship hydrogen over long distances, so when the Whistler buses went back to the pump in the resort town, they refuelled with hydrogen brought in by tanker truck from Quebec. Critics of hydrogen ... more >>

Despite economic collapse, the greenest country on Earth innovates

Daily Green: The news from Iceland has been all about its economic meltdown, but there's other seismic activity going on there, too. Will Iceland roll with hydrogen vehicles or, as it looks increasingly likely, plug-in battery ones? Despite the delivery, during the Copenhagen climate talks, of 10 new Ford Focus FCV fuel-cell vehicles into the tiny country of just 300,000 people (adding to a small fleet of 10 hydrogen-burning Priuses), it's still likely that Iceland will have an EV infrastructure ... more >>

Arctic seafloor a big source of methane

ScienceNews: With a boot for scale, this photo shows methane-rich bubbles accumulating beneath the sea ice of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf -- a shallow, Greenland-sized swath of the Arctic Ocean that scientists recently discovered is leaking large amounts of planet-warming methane.Igor Semiletov Prodigious plumes of planet-warming methane are bubbling from sediments across a broad region of Arctic seafloor previously thought to be sealed by permafrost, new analyses indicate. The resulting ... more >>

Global climate battle plays out in World Bank

Reuters: The United States and Britain are threatening to withhold support for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a coal-fired plant in South Africa, expanding the battleground in the global debate over who should pay for clean energy. The opposition by the bank's two largest members has raised eyebrows among those who note that the two advanced economies are allowing development of coal-powered plants in their own countries even as they raise concerns about those in poorer ... more >>

Coal-State Dems Unveil Bills Stalling EPA Emission Curbs

Greenwire: Four influential coal-state Democrats introduced companion bills in the House and Senate today that would block U.S. EPA from implementing any climate-related stationary source rules for two years, a timeout of sorts that they think gives Congress time to pass legislation dealing with the issue. Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia unveiled the Senate bill, while the House measure was introduced by West Virginia's Nick Rahall, the chairman of the Natural Resources ... more >>

Millions of low-energy lightbulbs wasted as companies exploit loopholes

Guardian: Forty-two million energy-saving lightbulbs were sent out by utilities companies in the three months before Christmas under the government's £3bn energy-efficiency scheme, even though many are unlikely to be used. Since the scheme began less than two years ago, 224m bulbs have been distributed – almost 10 for each household. According to a survey by the Energy Saving Trust last year, the average home had six unused bulbs lying in drawers. When the government introduced the ... more >>

New Study: Humans Are Causing Climate Change

redOrbit: The UK Met office says that it is becoming clearer that human activities are causing climate change. The office says that the evidence is stronger now than when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change carried out its last assessment in 2007. The review has assessed 110 research papers on the subject. The analysis, which was published in the Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change Journal, said the Earth is changing rapidly, most likely due to greenhouse gases. The ... more >>

How food and water are driving a 21st-century African land grab

Guardian: We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia's largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches. The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 500m rows in computer ... more >>

Rise in UK carbon emissions disputed by report

Guardian: A major study for the UK government has cast doubt over claims that rising temperatures are causing soil to pump greater amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further fuelling global warming. In 2005 it was reported in the science journal Nature that over the past 25 years 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide had been released by the soil of England and Wales. The figure cancelled out all emissions cuts in the UK since 1990. However, a national survey of the soils of Great ... more >>

US and Brazil sign deforestation agreement

Mongabay: Brazil and the United States have signed an agreement to worth together to reduce deforestation as part of an effort to slow climate change. The memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brasilia last Wednesday comes as talks on REDD, a proposed climate change mitigation mechanism that would pay tropical countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, move forward despite the lack of a formal climate treaty. Under the MOU, ... more >>

In Aftermath Of Ash Spill, A New Round Of Challenges

Associated Press: More than a year after a Tennessee coal ash spill created one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in United States history, the problem is seeping into several other states. Enlarge This Image <h6 class="credit">Wade Payne/Associated Press Sediment can be seen in the Emory River in Tennessee as machines pump it into holding ponds. Enlarge This Image <h6 class="credit">Wade Payne/Associated Press Coal ash sediment being loaded into plastic-lined rail ... more >>

The Newest Hybrid Model

New York Times: In former swamplands teeming with otters and wild hogs, one of the nation's biggest utilities is running an experiment in the future of renewable power. Across 500 acres north of West Palm Beach, the FPL Group utility is assembling a life-size Erector Set of 190,000 shimmering mirrors and thousands of steel pylons that stretch as far as the eye can see. When it is completed by the end of the year, this vast project will be the world's second-largest solar plant. But that is not ... more >>

On global warming, the science is solid

Houston Chronicle: In recent months, e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in the United Kingdom and errors in one of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's reports have caused a flurry of questions about the validity of climate change science. These issues have led several states, including Texas, to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's finding that heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (also known as greenhouse gases) are a threat to human ... more >>

Bringing Al Gore back to Earth

Toronto Sun: Writing recently in the Op-Ed section of the New York Times, Al Gore said: "I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis were an illusion." Funny, that`s exactly what I wish about Al Gore. Now reduced to preaching climate hysteria to the converted in the echo chamber of the liberal, warmist Times, the paper at least identified Gore thusly: "As a businessman, he is an investor in alternative energy companies." Bingo! Gore, our would-be carbon billionaire, has a dog ... more >>

India: Conserving and restoring moorlands can slow down climate change

Asian News International: Scientists have stressed that conserving and restoring the moorlands is important because they are some of the rarest habitats in the world, home to extremely rare animals and plants, and can also slow down climate change. Seventy-five per cent of the world's heather moorlands are in the UK. However, pollution, overgrazing and wild fires have damaged large areas. Several organisations in the Peak District National Park in England are trying to restore and conserve the moorland ... more >>

Cap-and-trade key to U.S. energy reform: Exelon CEO

Reuters: U.S. energy reform has stalled now that the Democrats have lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and Republicans drift to a more negative position, a top industry executive said on Saturday. "What I see is a series of disjointed, piecemeal approaches that will not yield the optimal solution," Exelon Corp Chairman John Rowe said in remarks prepared for a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax are the only ... more >>

Australia: States at sea over coastal levels

Australian: AUSTRALIA'S six state governments have four different figures for predicted sea-level rise caused by climate change, leaving developers and councils confused and sparking calls for a federal takeover of coastal climate change planning. While Kevin Rudd pushes to cut red tape and boost housing construction, the property industry says the different state plans, which dictate where houses can be built or renovated near the coast, are creating a new layer of bureaucracy and risk holding ... more >>

British rivers could power 850,000 homes

Telegraph: The Environment Agency will reveal that the water wheels have the potential to generate enough electricity to power 850,000 homes -- more than three per cent of the UK's residential electricity demand. A study commissioned by the Government body has concluded that there is vast untapped potential across the England and Wales for generating energy from rivers. Waterways in Wales, the upper reaches of the Thames, the Humber, the Aire, Severn and the Mersey have been identified as ... more >>

California looks to Australia for lessons on water management

Pasadena Star-News: Over the past decade, Australia has seen its temperatures rise, its reservoirs plummet, and its crops dry up - the result of the country's worst drought in 100 years. The experience rings familiar to California water managers. In response to its crisis, Australia has made a $50 billion government investment in water infrastructure, cut water allocations to farmers by 70 percent, and slashed household water use to a quarter of what is used in Californian homes. And it seems to ... more >>

Growing low-oxygen zones in oceans worry scientists

McClatchy Newspapers: Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth's oceans, particularly off the United States' Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say. They warn that the oceans' complex undersea ecosystems and fragile food chains could be disrupted. In some spots off Washington state and Oregon, the almost complete absence of oxygen has left piles of Dungeness crab carcasses littering the ocean floor, killed off 25-year-old sea ... more >>

Wind power worries small Oregon town

Associated Press: For decades, not much has changed in the tiny northeastern Oregon town of Union. Nestled in the Grande Ronde Valley, it lies close to the spectacular Eagle Cap Wilderness. But a Texas company's proposal to build a wind energy project on the slopes that overlook two sides of town is drawing Union's 1,900 residents squarely into a clash being played out elsewhere in the West. Many fear the proposal will mean spoiled views and damage to wildlife habit. Plans for the $600 ... more >>