New Nation: Bangladesh lacks capacity to devise and enforce environmental regulations on a scale remotely commensurate with its needs. Densely populated cities experience a damaging range of health hazards while natural resources in rural regions are eroded by the demands of subsistence agriculture. Bangladesh has one of the lowest per capita levels of energy consumption in the world yet the country has been named in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the most …

Reuters: South Korea hopes to be a bridge between rich and poor countries in fighting global warming by setting itself 2020 goals for greenhouse gas emissions, the nation’s climate change ambassador said on Saturday. South Korea is one of very few countries outside the 37 industrialised nations in the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol talking of national goals for emissions under a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed by the end of 2009. "We would like to play a bridging role between developing …

Hora Cero: Madagascar has signed a series of environment agreements to protect unique forests and support local communities as part of a commitment by the government to ramp up environmental protection on the Indian Ocean island. In its largest ever debt-for-nature swap, Madagascar signed a deal with France this month, in which US$20 million of debt owed to the former colonial power was put into a conservation fund, the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity (FPAB). "Thanks to …

Associated Press: Sen. Bob Menendez said his opposition to offshore drilling is like his original vote against the Iraq war: unpopular at the time but nonetheless the right thing to do. Menendez reiterated his opposition to oil exploration off the Atlantic Coast this week while in the Garden State promoting new federal property tax relief, which he helped shepherd through Congress as part of a housing foreclosure rescue bill. The Democratic senator from New Jersey, _ who is sponsoring …

Agence France-Presse: Thousands of Indigenous Peruvians have scored a victory over President Alan Garcia’s Government when Congress repealed two laws that opened up their Amazon tribal lands to development. About 12,000 Peruvians from 65 tribes occupied oil and electricity plants in the Amazon basis from August 9 before agreeing to a 48-hours truce late on Wednesday after the president of Congress promised to revise the controversial laws. Hundreds who gathered in the plaza of the north-eastern …

Press Trust of India: A UN study, that examined possible consequences of global warming in the next 20 to 30 years, has identified India as one of the "hot-spots", particularly vulnerable to increase in extreme drought, floods and cyclones in the coming decades. Commissioned by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the CARE International, the study found that India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia are the global warming hot-spot nations that are already facing considerable …

Agence France-Presse: Nigeria and South Africa are the main emitters of greenhouse gases in Africa, accounting for almost 90 percent of the emissions in the continent, environmental experts said Saturday. "Nigeria produces almost 45 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in Africa from its gas flaring by oil firms in the Niger Delta while South Africa produces as much from industrial pollution," Stefan Cramer told AFP. Cramer, the director of the Nigeria office of Heinrich Boell Stiftung, a German …

CNN-IBN: Whether its cyclones, floods or sea level rises, Mangroves protect coastlines. They have in the past, prevented entires cities from being washed out. As countires realise the importance of these coastal forests, an 11-year-old boy is busy spreading the green message in Mumbai. July 26 2005 is a day that Mumbai will never forget. When heavy rains lashed the metropolis, the city was flooded and nothing came in the way of the rain except the Mangroves. And our Madhav knows …

Arizona Daily Star: Peru’s congress voted Friday to repeal two laws facilitating the sale of Indian lands that had generated protests by dozens of tribes in the Amazon rain forest. Lawmakers voted 66-29 in favor of repealing the laws, which were passed by presidential decree earlier this year to promote private investment in tribal lands. Thousands of Indians celebrated the lawmakers’ decision in the main plaza of Bagua, a Peruvian jungle city where protesters clashed with police on …

Reuters: Morality should be a spur for stronger action to fight climate change, which threatens food and water supplies for the poorest in Africa, a group of Christian activists said on Saturday during U.N. climate talks. "We hear about climate change as a political issue, an environmental issue and an economic issue. We want to press the point that this is a moral issue," said Marcia Owens, a minister in the Florida branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She and a group of …