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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Business Day: AS TEMPORARY measures go, the idea of a South African carbon capture and storage (CCS) effort in mitigation of the greenhouse effect and climate change would seem reasonable were it not for the inherent constraints to the process. If CCS is to significantly reduce SA’s contribution of greenhouse gases to the earth’s atmosphere, it would be best done by capturing CO’ at the most important point sources, that is, at Eskom’s coal-fired power plants, and permanently stored away …

Reuters: China, the world’s top greenhouse gas polluter, has passed a milestone in the number of U.N.-backed clean energy projects, with the world body approving more than 500 such schemes so far. China has the highest number of such projects, which yield tradable carbon credits for investors in wind farms, solar power, small hydro, biomass or cleaning up planet-warming industrial gases. The scheme, called the clean development mechanism (CDM), is part of the Kyoto Protocol climate pact …

AAP: THE global financial crisis must not be used as an excuse to delay action on global warming, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. Addressing an environmental think-tank in Washington, Senator Wong said while economic conditions made tackling climate change more difficult, failure to act would only increase investment uncertainty and jeopardise jobs. Instead, an emissions trading program like the government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would disengage …