Latest Global Warming News
Efficiency and waste to drive green tech sector
Reuters 4th September 2009
* Wave and tidal still years away from commercialisation
Japans Next Premier Vows to Cut Emissions Sharply
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: September 7, 2009TOKYO - Japan's presumptive prime minister breathed new life on Monday into efforts to curb global warming, standing by a campaign pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in the next 10 years from 1990 levels - a target that environmentalists said puts Japan at the forefront of the fight against climate change.
Nonetheless, the incoming prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, whose center-left Democrats swept to a landmark electoral victory last month, attached what appeared to be a new caveat to his pledge, saying it was contingent on similarly ambitious goals by other major polluters.
Spain's high-speed trains win over fed-up flyers
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2009
Spain's sleek new high-speed trains have stolen hundreds of thousands of passengers from airlines over the last year, slashing carbon emissions and marking a radical change in the way Spaniards travel.
Australia admits new LNG plant 'greenhouse intensive'
SYDNEY -- Australia has admitted a huge new energy project to supply Asian markets could raise national greenhouse gas emissions by up to one percent if ambitious efforts to capture them fail.Environment Minister Peter Garrett made the comments just hours after approving the Gorgon field, which will provide China and India with tens of billions of dollars of liquefied natural gas.
He said plans to pump carbon dioxide emissions into sandstone rock at Barrow Island, at the site of the project off Western Australia, were untested on such a scale.
Maldives find a new black gold
Jonathan Leake
Times Online
For Craig Sams, life is sweet. The entrepreneur, who with co-founder Jo Fairley sold the Green & Black's organic chocolate firm to Cadbury for a reputed Ł20m, has founded a biochar business, and his firm is about to announce its first deal with the government of the Maldives.
Our parliament sabotages our future
Clive Hamilton
Crikey, 12 August 2009
Is parliamentary democracy capable of responding adequately to the climate crisis?
Study links drought with rising emissions
Melissa Fyfe
August 16, 2009DROUGHT experts have for the first time proven a link between rising levels of greenhouse gases and a decline in rainfall.
A three-year collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO has confirmed that the drought is not just a natural dry stretch but a shift related to climate change.
Tony Blair: 'We can't ask people not to own cars'
The Guardian
Despite a projected tripling of traffic in China over the next decade, the focus should be on low-carbon technology rather than sacrifice, says a report by Tony Blair's Climate Group
$38bn warning on Great Barrier Reef bleaching
Adam Morton
August 10, 2009BLEACHING of the Great Barrier Reef will cost Australia almost $38 billion if climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions continues unchecked, an analysis has found.
What exactly is a green job Mr Rudd?
LEON GETTLER
August 5, 2009KEVIN Rudd's pledge last week to create 50,000 green jobs to beat the recession is hype and political flimflam. As if green workers are all we need to save the economy and planet.
The Prime Minister said a Green Jobs Corps would provide environmental training for the unemployed between 18 and 24 on public works projects such as planting trees and restoring walking tracks.