Reuters: The world is striving for a new U.N. climate "treaty" in December to succeed Kyoto. Or perhaps it will be a vaguer "agreement," "deal" or "decision." Delegates at 175-nation U.N. talks in Bonn on ways to step up the fight against global warming are locked in a semantic dispute — but a vital one which will determine how ambitious a new deal is and how far it can be enforced in international law. "It certainly has big legal implications," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate …

Agence France-Presse: Economic stimulus packages launched by crisis-hit countries are not investing enough in "green" sectors, the environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday. Executive director Gerd Liepold said stimulating consumption for its own sake was the wrong response to the economic crisis, and urged governments to pay more attention to the "climate crisis." "At this moment, because of this economic crisis, we’ll have a lot of stimulus packages, a lot of state-sponsored economic …

Guardian: Thousands of merchant ships chug in and out of south Florida’s bustling ports each year, bringing boatloads worth of economic benefit to the region. They also deliver a more dangerous cargo: airborne pollution from giant diesel engines that can sicken coastal residents, or even shorten people’s lives. A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the most comprehensive yet, found that commercial vessels - freighters, tankers and cruise ships - generate …

Greenwire: U.S. EPA is seeking to impose stricter emission regulations on marine vessels along U.S. coastlines, a move expected to dramatically slash air pollution in port cities, Administrator Lisa Jackson announced today. The move makes the United States the first country to ask the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, to create an emissions control area around the nation’s coastline. "This is an important – and long overdue – step in our efforts to protect the air and water …

redOrbit: Airline executives said on Tuesday they plan to cut the number of flights they operate in line with a drop in both cargo and passenger demand, effectively reducing their carbon emissions by nearly 8 percent this year, Reuters reported. The world financial crisis has taken the heat off the airline industry, which was once seen as a driving force behind global warming. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said about 6 percent of the forecast carbon cut will come as …

Agence France-Presse: Delegates at UN climate talks on Tuesday targeted more than a dozen new industrial chemicals for inclusion in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty, which runs out in 2012. The synthetic compounds are potent greenhouse gases that could, if produced in large quantities, contribute significantly to global warming, scientists warn. "In terms of the impact these new gases will have over the next decade, it is not that significant," said Steve Sawyer, executive director …

CQ Politics: Key House Democrats released details of their proposed climate-change legislation Tuesday but left unresolved what could be the most controversial issue: how to distribute emission allowances under a cap-and-trade program to address global warming. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., released the bill with Edward J. Markey , D-Mass., who leads the subcommittee on energy and environment. They are hoping to mark up the legislation by the end of …

BBC: There are already too many people living on Planet Earth, according to one of most influential science advisors in the US government. Nina Fedoroff told the BBC One Planet programme that humans had exceeded the Earth’s "limits of sustainability". Dr Fedoroff has been the science and technology advisor to the US secretary of state since 2007, initially working with Condoleezza Rice. Under the new Obama administration, she now advises Hillary Clinton. "We need to …

SciDev.Net: A remote Chinese island is installing a power station that will harness the wind, sun and waves to produce energy and fresh water. Situated on Dangan Island in the South China Sea, the station should provide 80 per cent of the energy requirements of its 300 inhabitants. A desalination facility will provide 10,000 tons of water per year. "Before this, there were only [power stations] combining wind and solar [energy]," says You Yage, an ocean energy researcher at the Guangzhou …

BBC: Labels showing products’ carbon footprints will not help tackle climate change, says Alex Kasterine. In this week’s Green Room, he argues that carbon labelling schemes will harm exports, especially from developing nations, without making much impact on emissions. Carbon labelling schemes have been developed in order to show how much carbon dioxide (CO2) has been emitted during the production, processing and transport of a product. Retail giant Tesco is trialling carbon labels …