Agence France-Presse: A US plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions is "very encouraging", EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said Wednesday, while admitting it falls far short of Europe’s plans. "This is really very encouraging," Dimas told reporters in Brussels as he unveiled a report on how Europe should adapt to climate change. "I am even more optimistic in getting an agreement in Copenhagen" in December at key global talks on battling climate change, he added. The US House of …

Guardian: Greenpeace has accused three of the world’s biggest PC manufacturers of failing to live up to their promises to make more environmentally friendly computers. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo have all been singled out in a report from the environmental campaign group, which claims they have failed to deliver new machines that do not depend so heavily on toxic chemicals. "HP, Lenovo and Dell had promised to eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from …

Agence France-Presse: Deforestation, one of the main drivers of global warming, has barged its way to the heart of UN climate talks, which resumed in Bonn this week. But which makes the better incentive for saving the carbon-absorbing tropical woodlands: market mechanisms or public funding? This question has split nations, divided green groups and tossed in yet another factor to bedevil efforts to agree a pact by year’s end for tackling climate change. Reducing emissions from deforestation …

Associated Press: Eleven hundred more ducks died after landing on a toxic waste pond in northern Alberta last year than was originally estimated, a Canadian oil sands official acknowledged Tuesday. The carcasses of 1,606 ducks were collected from the oily waters, compared to the 500 originally counted, Syncrude Canada chief executive Tom Katinas said. The deaths of the mallards last April drew widespread attention and prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lament that Canada’s international …

Herald: Scottish Government ministers have delayed introducing a major assessment exercise intended to monitor the environmental impact of key transport policies and help cut emissions. The Herald has learned that the Carbon Balance Sheet, which will assess emissions caused by all major transport projects and programmes over the last five years and was due to be published by 2008, is now not expected to be ready until the end of 2010. The revelation has sparked an angry response from …

Washington Post: House Democrats introduced an ambitious climate bill yesterday aimed at pleasing both environmental and business interests, even as Senate leaders acknowledged that the party faces serious challenges in trying to pass a carbon limit in the near future. The 648-page "discussion draft," crafted by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman (Calif.) and Rep. Edward J. Markey (Mass.), chairman of the subcommittee on energy and the environment, would create the first federal …

ClimateWire: Adaptation is at the center of a sweeping new climate and energy bill that marks a shift in focus from merely cutting greenhouse gas emissions to dealing with unavoidable consequences of global warming. The draft climate and energy bill (pdf) unveiled yesterday by House Democrats would establish a cap-and-trade program to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, set a national renewable electricity standard and create new energy efficiency programs. But for many environmental and …

Australian: AN Anglican Bishop has used a memorial service to victims of February’s Victorian bushfires to lavish praise on Kevin Rudd for acting on climate change. George Browning, the former Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, told more than 2000 people gathered in London’s Westminster Abbey that human activity was causing climate change and extreme weather conditions. In a sermon in the presence of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornnwall, as well as the Prime …

Reuters: U.S. plans to step up the fight against climate change and revive the economy will not mean a slide toward protectionism, Washington’s delegation told United Nations climate talks on Wednesday. Developing nations at the 175-nation U.N. meeting in Bonn say that exports, of everything from Chinese steel to African flowers, would suffer if rich states put up import barriers to penalize their emissions from burning fossil fuels. "We certainly do not see it that way," U.S. deputy …

West Australian: Green groups have welcomed calls for more scrutiny of climate change effects on WA’s eastern jarrah forests. Conservation Commission chairman John Bailey raised the possibility of more logging curbs in releasing the forest watchdog’s audit of the 2004-13 forest management plan on Monday. The report called for renewed focus on the eastern jarrah forest around Dwellingup and Collie because of the commission’s fears that declining rainfall was slowing …