Environmental News Network

Aid needed to help China make carbon cuts
nternational carbon funds should be aggressively directed towards helping China avoid the use of carbon-rich technologies, say Ning Zeng and colleagues in this Science article. Action is needed despite significant gains in energy efficiency, they note, because based on current economic growth rates and levels of carbon intensity (emissions per unit of gross domestic product) China's emissions by 2030 will equal today's entire global output. >> Read the Full Article
Vanishing central African glaciers threaten water supplies of millions
Nairobi, Kenya â€“ Nairobi, Kenya â€“ Forget the snows of Kilimanjaro â€“ Africa is at risk of losing the central African glaciers that feed the Nile and supply water to two million people. A WWF and partner organization team of 27 people of eight nationalities recently returned from the Rwenzori Mountains after gathering data showing that the mountain's glaciers have shrunk by 50 per cent in the last 50 years and more than 75 per cent in the last century. >> Read the Full Article
Japan to host climate change summit
TOKYO (Reuters) - Leaders from 16 countries including the Group of Eight (G8), China, India and Brazil will gather to discuss climate change on the sidelines of the G8 summit in July, Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday. Global warming is at the top of the agenda for the G8 summit and host country Japan is inviting the leaders of Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa and Mexico to attend an expanded gathering on the topic on July 9, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference. >> Read the Full Article
Lehman sees U.S. climate move to spur carbon trade
TOKYO (Reuters) - Signs the United States will soon respond to global warming and a new climate pact now under discussion are set to drive the carbon market further in the next two years, Lehman Brothers said on Monday. Several states in the United States, the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, have recently moved to choose carbon trading, instead of carbon taxation, paving the way for Washington to take similar moves. >> Read the Full Article
DoT releases study of climate change and effects on Gulf Coast transportation
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DoT) on Wednesday released a study of the potential impacts climate change and land subsidence could have on the Gulf Coast region's transportation infrastructure. Examining an area that includes 48 contiguous counties in four states - from Galveston, Texas to Mobile, Alabama â€“ the DoT has undertaken the study to provide valuable information to regional transportation planners and government. The report is the first of a three-phase study on a region of particular concern given its geography, ecology and vulnerability, as well as the central role it plays in the nation's oil and gas infrastructure. >> Read the Full Article
Meltdown in the Mountains
Zurich/Nairobi, 16 March 2008 - The world's glaciers are continuing to melt away with the latest official figures showing record losses, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today. Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled. >> Read the Full Article
Ozone case shows Bush meddling in science: watchdogs
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's decision to intervene in setting air pollution standards is part of a longstanding administration pattern of meddling in environmental science, watchdog groups said on Friday. In cases this week dealing with polar bears, ozone smog and environmental research, groups that monitor these decisions faulted the Bush administration for slighting science in favor of politics. >> Read the Full Article
Britain dismisses Japan climate change plan
MAKUHARI, Japan (Reuters) - Japan wants major emitters to fight climate change by targeting efficiency of industries, a trade ministry official said on Friday, but Britain dismissed it as the wrong approach. Japan is hosting a three-day meeting of 20 of the world's top greenhouse gas polluters and believes sectoral curbs on major polluting industries such as cement makers and power generators can rein in growing carbon dioxide emissions. >> Read the Full Article
Britain's Blair takes on climate change
LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has already taken on an international role as a Middle East envoy, is now tackling climate change with a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Blair traveled to Tokyo on Friday to unveil a climate change initiative and said on his Web site he will go to China and India in the next week to discuss his proposals with the world's two largest developing economies. >> Read the Full Article
Indonesia lawmakers set to reject ASEAN haze pact
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian lawmakers are set to reject a Southeast Asian pact designed to fight cross-border smoke caused by forests fires, a legislator from an environmental commission said on Friday. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations approved the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 and Indonesia, where most of the fires occur, is the only country that has not ratified it, drawing criticism from its neighbors affected by the annual haze. >> Read the Full Article