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United Kingdom: 55 charged over parliament protest

Press Association: More than 50 climate change protesters who spent the night on the roof of the Houses of Parliament have been charged with trespass, Scotland Yard said. The demonstration by Greenpeace supporters in October last year was aimed at MPs returning from their summer break. Demonstrators unfurled a banner which said: "Change the politics, save the climate". Among those charged are 23 people accused of trespassing on a protected site on October 11 last year. Another seven ... more >>

Canada: British Columbia OKs 19 projects in clean power push

Reuters: British Columbia has given the green light to 19 private-sector clean energy projects that will generate enough power to supply nearly 218,000 homes in Canada's Pacific Coast province. The approvals, announced late on Thursday by BC Hydro, the government-owned electricity utility, mark the first phase in the provincial government's long-delayed push to generate more green power. Fourteen of the 19 proposals are 14 run-of-river hydroelectric projects, in which river water is ... more >>

NOAA director urges better explanations of climate

Associated Press: Climate change is here and scientists need to do a better job of explaining it to the public, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. "We are no longer constrained by talking about some possible future. Climate change is happening now and it's happening in people's back yards," Jane Lubchenco told reporters at a briefing. "Scientists have seriously underestimated the importance of explaining what we know about climate in a way people can ... more >>

Putin in deal to build nuclear reactors for India

Guardian: India and Russia today signed a nuclear co-operation agreement, which paves the way for the building of about a dozen nuclear reactors in India, with Russian help, over the next few decades. The agreement came at the end of talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi. "We are building a strategic partnership with India in the nuclear sector," Putin told business leaders in a video conference earlier. No ... more >>

United Kingdom: £3bn coal power plant will test strength of Ed Miliband's environment rules

Guardian: The first application to build a coal plant in Britain since energy secretary Ed Miliband introduced tough new environmental rules will be submitted next week, the Guardian has learnt. UK-based conglomerate Peel Group is pressing ahead with the £3bn project to build a 1.6GW plant at Hunterston in Scotland, which will partially fit experimental carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Its former partner, Dong Energy, dropped out last year, citing the recession. The application, ... more >>

Progress seen on forest scheme, Germany to join

Agence France-Presse: Around 60 countries pushed ahead on Thursday with a multi-billion-dollar scheme to reduce climate-changing emissions from deforestation, to which Germany added its support, British minister Joan Ruddock said on Thursday. "There was a tremendous mood of determination to get things done. I regard this as quite a breakthrough, actually," Ruddock, who is secretary of state for energy and climate change, told AFP in a phone interview. Around 60 countries, gathering donor economies ... more >>

Time-Lapse: Mountaintop Mine Spreads Across Forest

National Geographic: Surface mining may not move mountains. But a series of satellite views of a Boone County, West Virginia coal mine shows that the practice--also called mountaintop mining--can wipe out whole swaths of forests. Taken between 1984 and 2009 by NASA's Landsat 5 satellite, the true-color pictures document the evolution of the Hobet mine in the Appalachian Mountains. Mountaintop miners use heavy construction equipment--up to 40 stories tall--to get at the "layer cake" of coal seams ... more >>

United Kingdom: £30bn high-speed rail plan signals end of the road for motorways

Guardian: The government signalled the end of intercity motorway building today as it announced plans for a £30bn high-speed rail network, with the first phase between London and Birmingham opening in 2026. Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, said the motorway network had reached its limit and the burden of ferrying millions more people between cities would instead be taken by fleets of trains travelling at up to 250mph. Work on the first phase linking the capital and England's second city ... more >>

Sarkozy steps up calls for green Tobin tax

Business Green: French president Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to make proposals for an international tax on financial transactions -- designed to raise funds for climate-related projects -- a central issue when France takes the chair of the G20 group of large economies next year. Speaking at a conference on forests yesterday, Sarkozy reiterated his support for a so-called Tobin tax. This would raise much of the $100bn a year in climate funding for poorer nations, set to be delivered from 2020 as part of ... more >>

Climate change makes birds shrink

BBC: Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause. A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings. This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures. However, there is little evidence that the change is harmful to the birds. Details of ... more >>

List polar bear as endangered species

Guardian: It is a familiar story in the climate change debate. The US government is at odds with the rest of the world and, despite criticism, wants other countries to change their minds and fall in line behind Uncle Sam. This time, the tale comes with an unexpected twist. This weekend, the US will warn that the threat from climate change to the survival of the polar bear is so great that the world must grant it the highest possible protection. At the meeting of the international body ... more >>

EU names and shames renewable energy laggards

Business Green: The European Commission yesterday confirmed that the EU is on track to narrowly beat its goal of generating 20 per cent of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2020, releasing new figures that predict member states will together generate 20.3 per cent of their power from renewables by the end of the decade. The data shows that 12 of the 27 member states are on target to meet their renewable energy targets, while 10 countries are in a position to exceed their ... more >>

Mapping out the future of Alpine glaciers

EuroNews: The Alps are known as "Europe`s water tower". Their glaciers provide 40 percent of Europe`s fresh water. Pure and abundant, alpine streams fill major rivers, including the Danube, Rhine, Po, and Rhone, making irrigation and transportation possible in large parts of Europe. But these glaciers are facing an uncertain future, as studies show that temperatures in the Alps are increasing at a rate that`s more than twice the global average. Umberto Morra di Cella is a ... more >>

A second wind for German industry?

Economist: THE Roding Roadster, a sports car unveiled at last September's Frankfurt motor show, has a powerful motor and lightweight construction that promise a thrilling ride. But at Munich's Technical University (TUM), which the Roding's designers attended, there is even more buzz about the Tesla, a battery-powered car from California. It shows that electro-mobility "could be fast and fun', says Markus Lienkamp, who teaches car technology at TUM. Annoyingly, Tesla opened a dealership in Munich on ... more >>

Natural gas: An unconventional glut

Economist: SOME time in 2014 natural gas will be condensed into liquid and loaded onto a tanker docked in Kitimat, on Canada's Pacific coast, about 650km (400 miles) north-west of Vancouver. The ship will probably take its cargo to Asia. This proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, to be built by Apache Corporation, an American energy company, will not be North America's first. Gas has been shipped from Alaska to Japan since 1969. But if it makes it past the planning stages, Kitimat LNG will be one ... more >>

Exxon chief doubts natural gas in cars is viable move

Dallas Morning News: Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive Rex Tillerson, it seems, has not joined the T. Boone Pickens army. Pickens has been stumping for the past two years for Americans to shift to natural gas as a vehicle fuel, particularly for heavy duty trucks. He says the move would help wean the U.S. off of foreign oil, support domestic natural gas, cut energy costs and reduce pollution. Tillerson said he doubts natural gas would accomplish all of that. And he isn't just promoting his own ... more >>

Ocean acidification: Another path to EPA rules on carbon emissions?

Christian Science Monitor: Nearly three years after the US Supreme Court found that carbon dioxide was a pollutant that fell under the purview of the Clean Air Act, the US Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to explore approaches for tightening its regulations dealing with ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. Ocean acidification results from the ocean's uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Maine scientists have become increasingly concerned about the effect industrial emissions of CO2 ... more >>

More Americans say global warming exaggerated - poll

Reuters: A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated, as more people also doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll. The new doubts come as President Barack Obama is pressuring the Congress to produce legislation significantly cutting smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for climate change problems. With congressional elections ... more >>

More funds needed to fight deforestation: Sarkozy

Associated Press: Rich nations must contribute more to a climate change fund and help fight deforestation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at a conference Thursday on saving the world's forests - a key defense against global warming. Ministers from some 64 nations attended the one-day Paris meeting, including Indonesia and other heavily wooded countries in the Amazon and Congo river basins. Efforts to halt deforestation, one of the culprits in climate change, have been bogged down along ... more >>

Electric cars jostle for position on the power grid

New Scientist: IT MIGHT have hogged the limelight at last week's Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, but the most arresting detail on Porsche's latest concept car (pictured) was actually somewhat mundane: a wall plug. But over the next 12 months plugs will be increasingly appearing on production models from the world's biggest car makers. And as they do, electricity providers and governments will be scrambling to prepare for the as-yet-unknown effects of shackling our transport power needs to the electricity ... more >>

U.S. beats Canada in green investments: Report

Canwest News Service: The Obama administration is spending eight times more per person on new renewable energy, public transit and energy efficiency measures than Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, concludes a new analysis released on Thursday. The review by the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group, compared spending in both countries and suggests an increasing gap between the two governments on green investments. The report says it factored currency exchange rates and the ... more >>

Burning wood as renewable power draws scrutiny in Oregon and nationwide

Oregonian: By the end of this year, Seneca Sustainable Energy plans to fire up a power plant that will convert about 700 tons a day of logging leftovers and waste from its nearby sawmill into enough electricity to power 13,000 homes. The plant features West Coast-leading pollution controls endorsed by the Environmental Protection Agency. It's projected to release far less pollution than the usual practice of burning slash piles in the woods. But it will also release more carbon dioxide ... more >>

Western U.S., Canada go own way on carbon trading

Reuters: As U.S. prospects for a national climate change bill fade, five U.S. states and Canadian provinces are on track to start a cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide in 2012, say officials who see fading federal momentum boosting regional efforts. California, the keystone market with the eighth-largest economy in the world, New Mexico, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec all plan to join the system meant to combat climate change and boost economies by ... more >>

Wind resistance: Analysis suggests generating electricity from large-scale wind farms could influence climate

Physorg: Wind power has emerged as a viable renewable energy source in recent years -- one that proponents say could lessen the threat of global warming. Although the American Wind Energy Association estimates that only about 2 percent of U.S. electricity is currently generated from wind turbines, the U.S. Department of Energy has said that wind power could account for a fifth of the nation's electricity supply by 2030. But a new MIT analysis may serve to temper enthusiasm about wind power, at ... more >>

United Kingdom: Study reveals carbon footptint of UK music industry

Guardian: Each year the UK music industry is responsible for around 540,000 tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions, according to researchers from the UK and US. Three-quarters of this is due to live music performances, while the rest is caused by music recording and publishing. "This is the first study to map the greenhouse-gas emission profile of the music industry," Catherine Bottrill of the University of Surrey told environmentalresearchweb. "Furthermore, there are few publicly available studies ... more >>

Say goodbye to one of the driest, warmest Canadian winters since 1948

Canadian Press: Environment Canada says the winter we just experienced was one of the warmest and driest across the country since 1948. The national average temperature was 4 degrees Celsius above normal and precipitation was 22 per cent below normal. This year, parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario had 60 per cent less precipitation than normal. Senior climatologist David Phillips says the weather was "quite spectacular,' adding, "we've never seen a winter like this.' He ... more >>

US carbon traders fear pink slips

Reuters: Wall Street was supposed to become the capital of a global carbon trading market worth a trillion dollars a year but now many who thought green trading desks would be the next big thing are fearing the pink slip. US banks had looked forward to a huge "cap-and-trade market" a system where companies would buy and sell the right to emit gases blamed for warming the planet. Many hired carbon traders, picked up assets, and trained members of energy desks to deal in emissions ... more >>

Beyond white middle class environmentalism

Ecologist: Akashi is a grassroots campaign that gives a bigger voice to black and minority ethnic groups on climate change issues Shilpa Shah is 'the change she wants to be' to slightly misquote Gandhi. Winner of the 2009 Sheila McKechnie Foundation Environment Award, she looks at ways to include UK individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in the debate on climate justice. Along with her mother, Tina Shah, and co-worker Siobhan Mellon, Shilpa has been working ... more >>

Erik Assadourian: our society needs some serious cultural engineering

Ecologist: Matilda Lee: Humans are social animals competing for status, which, in our consumer society, is displayed largely through the things on which we spend our money. How can we ever sate our appetite for status without these things? Erik Assadourian: Culture defines what gives one status. In our consumer culture, status is equated with stuff. In some cultures, it is not a status symbol to keep buying new stuff, but to take care of the stuff we already have. Changing status symbols will ... more >>

Study shows tax payers subsidizing ethanol at $4.18 per gallon

Huffington Post: A new study by University of Missouri Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (PDF) reveals that the current corn ethanol tax credit is effectively costing tax payers $4.18 per gallon and is driving up grain prices. The study estimates that the tax credit, which would cost about $5.85 billion next year if extended, will lead to 1.4 billion gallons above the 12.6 billion gallons required by law through the Renewable Fuel Standard (see page 64). In other words, next year the oil ... more >>

Senate extends controversial biodiesel tax credit

Business Green: The US biodiesel industry was celebrating this week after the Senate approved the extension of the controversial $1 (66p) a gallon tax credit that had been allowed to expire at the end of last year. The one-year extension of the tax credit, which will retroactively cover biodiesel produce since the turn of the year, was passed as part of the new jobs bill. The bill will still need to be reconciled with a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives and there is no set ... more >>

Climate Change Threatens Migratory Birds, Report Says

New York Times: Changes in the global climate are imposing additional stress on hundreds of species of migratory birds in the United States that are already threatened by other environmental factors, according to a new Interior Department report. The latest version of the department's annual State of the Birds report shows that nearly a third of the nation's 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or suffering from population decline. For the first time, the report adds climate change to ... more >>

Coastal and ocean birds most at risk from global warming

San Jose Mercury News: Birds that rely on oceans and live on coastlines are more vulnerable to climate change than birds found in any other habitats in America, according to a new report released Thursday by federal biologists and other researchers. Terns that live on California's beaches -- along with murres, auklets, puffins and other species found in offshore areas like the Farallon Islands off San Francisco -- face loss of habitat from rising seas, disruption of ocean food supplies and other problems in ... more >>

EPA to allow states address rising ocean acidity

Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will consider ways the states can address rising acidity levels in oceans, which pose a serious threat to shellfish and other marine life. The agency's decision was announced in a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. The environmental group sued the EPA last year for not requiring Washington state to list its coastal waters as impaired by rising acidity under the Clean Water Act. "It's one of the ... more >>

Climate change pushing bird species 'towards extinction:' US

Agence France-Presse: Climate change is pushing some bird species "towards extinction," US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned Thursday as a new report on the threats facing North American birds was released. "For well over a century, migratory birds have faced stresses," Salazar said. "Now they are facing a new threat -- climate change -- that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction." Birds that depend upon the ocean for survival "are among ... more >>

Central American shrimp, lobster fast disappearing

Agence France-Presse: Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America, threatening a two-billion-dollar industry and 136,000 jobs, regional experts said Thursday. "Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species," especially shrimp and lobster, said Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) regional director Mario Gonzalez. "The Pacific shrimp population, Panama excluded, has fallen dramatically" because ... more >>

Group: polluters use offsets to avoid carbon cuts

Associated Press: Major European polluters are buying their way out of making big cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon offsets that pay for environmental programs in developing nations, a nonprofit group said Friday. To avoid the high cost of becoming greener, power companies and steel makers are using offsets to meet emissions-reduction requirements, and thus undermining the EU's cap-and-trade program that would otherwise punish them financially for not cleaning up their operations, ... more >>

Guyana: Indigenous leaders' objections to LCDS, REDD+ 'malicious distortion'

Stabroek News: The Office of Climate Change (OCC) last night described the objections by some indigenous leaders to the LCDS and REDD+ policies as "malicious misrepresentations and distortions" and a deliberate attempt to mislead the public on the two policies. The OCC referred to articles published in this newspaper and the Kaieteur News following a statement issued after a workshop on 'Indigenous Peoples Rights, Extractive Industries and National Development Policies in Guyana.' The statement had, ... more >>

Mysterious electric car firm bursts onto US market in job salvation push

Business Green: A previously unheralded electric car maker emerged as an unlikely saviour for the US auto industry this week, announcing plans to step in and take over a Toyota factory in Fremont, California when the Japanese car manufacturer vacates the plant at the end of the month, potentially saving 4,700 jobs. Aurica Motors said that when Toyota vacates the NUMMI plant on 31 March it wants to convert the facility to make its planned E-Car -- an all-electric vehicle featuring swappable battery ... more >>

Tax break to flip switch on US smart grid roll out

Business Green: The emerging US smart grid industry has vowed to accelerate the roll out of new intelligent grid systems, after the government this week confirmed the sector will not be taxed on the federal grants that will largely fund the first wave of projects. Economic stimulus legislation introduced last year included a $3.4bn fund for Smart Grid Investment Grants, designed to kick-start the installation of smart-grid systems that promise to enhance the reliability of transmission networks, ... more >>

White House finalizing rules to cut car emissions

Reuters: The White House is finalizing rules on the first U.S. greenhouse gas emission standard for automobiles, which would raise average fuel economy 42 percent by 2016 in a bid to slash oil imports and fight climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department sent the final rules this week to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, according to a notice posted on the OMB website. The higher mileage requirements will reduce U.S. greenhouse ... more >>

Feds: US birds declining due to changing climate

USA Today: Nearly one-third of U.S. bird species "are endangered, threatened or in significant decline," due to climate change, Department of the Interior chief Ken Salazar said Thursday. Salazar issued a report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change", created by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in collaboration with conservation groups. In it, researchers looked at five factors affecting bird species and weighed them against climate change effects. The factors were ... more >>

Climate change threatens US migratory bird populations, Interior Department report says

Associated Press: Global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations, which are already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution, according to a report released Thursday. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference to release the study, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change." The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at particular risk from ... more >>

Uranium mining focus of Va. forum

Associated Press: Opponents of uranium mining in Southside Virginia and the people who want to end a state moratorium on mining the fuel for nuclear power plants have one more difference of opinion: the size of the deposit. A speaker at a forum Thursday organized by environmentalists said the deposit totals 5.5 million pounds, not the 119 million pounds estimated by Virginia Uranium Inc. Environmental analyst Paul Robinson said much of the uranium deposit is "too diluted to be reasonably mined" ... more >>

Industries hoarding greenhouse gas emission permits

Guardian: Companies across Europe are hoarding permits to produce greenhouse gas emissions worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal. The surplus credits have been amassed from over-allocation of permits to pollute from the European emissions trading scheme, and by buying cheap credits from carbon-cutting projects in developing countries and holding on to their more expensive official EU allowances. The saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut the ... more >>

NYC judge allows Chevron arbitration to proceed

Associated Press: A judge ruled Thursday that Chevron can proceed with an international arbitration claim against Ecuador related to a 17-year-old court battle over rain forest contamination in that South American nation. U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan rejected an attempt by Ecuador to block the arbitration but also said his decision was limited in scope and left the arbitration panel to decide what, if anything, it will hear and when. His ruling does not directly affect the ... more >>

Report says climate change threatens birds

Associated Press: AUSTIN, Texas -- An Interior Department report says global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference Thursday to release a study entitled "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change." The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at ... more >>

EPA to let states address rising ocean acidity

Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider ways the states can address rising levels of carbon dioxide in oceans. The agency on Thursday settled a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. The problem stems from oceans absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and results in the rising acidity of the water. It seriously threatens shellfish and other marine life. The lawsuit accused the EPA of acting improperly ... more >>

Italy to host Europe's biggest solar plant: company

Agence France-Presse: Europe's most powerful solar power plant is set to start operations in Italy later this year, the US company building the installation on an area as large as 120 football pitches said on Thursday. The plant in Rovigo near Venice in northeast Italy will take up 850,000 square metres (9.15 million square feet) and produce 72 megawatts, SunEdison said in a statement announcing the start of construction. The current biggest plant in Europe, located in Spain, produces 60 megawatts ... more >>

Aquatic 'dead zones' contributing to climate change

Physorg: The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters. In the March 12 edition of the journal Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science oceanographer Dr. Lou Codispoti explains that the increased amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) produced in low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of ... more >>