Agence France-Presse: The United States is ready to accept "binding international obligations" to reduce greenhouse gases, which could be announced as soon as July, a senior White House official said here Monday. Daniel Price, assistant to President George W. Bush for International Economic Affairs, said the undertaking would have to be made as part of a "global agreement" in which all major economies would make the same commitment. The agreement could be announced "in …

Hutchinson News: A study recently released by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that taxing carbon dioxide emissions would be the most efficient method for curbing emissions. That doesn’t mean the idea will be readily embraced. "You have to first come to the conclusion that regulating CO2 is the right thing to do. That’s not happened," said Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s spokesman Steve Miller. "Really, utilities don’t have a carbon footprint, their customers …

Reuters: Solar power will be a bright investment prospect as the appetite for green energy grows, even though the global credit crisis is making banks more wary of providing financing. In the short term, the sector will also have to contend with a shortage of silicon, a key ingredient for solar cells that turn sunlight into electricity, and possible changes in political support as elections take place. "This year will be a very volatile year," said Sven Hansen, chief …

Sunday Herald: INDUSTRIOUS AND affable, the humble bumblebee heralds the arrival of springtime and is a harbinger of long, hot summers. But they have been spotted earlier than ever before this year, prompting fears that climate change could be the last nail in the coffin for the endangered insect. Intensive farming and habitat destruction have already caused populations to crash. Now experts fear that global warming could finish off the bumblebee. Usually queens awake from hibernation in …

Toronto Star: "You see there, where all the earth has been disturbed?" asks Tracy Pepler, pointing to a patch of soil at the base of a grove of chestnut trees. "That was made by wild boar. We haven’t seen them yet, but we know they’re here. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll see one today." She continues up the trail, along the border of a small woodland in East Sussex, England. The sun is shining, the ground mossy and moist, and the air hovering around a balmy 12 degrees Celsius. It’s …

Reuters: Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world’s first commercial airline flight powered by renewable energy on Sunday. A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil. "Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Virgin founder Richard Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight’s …

Mercury: AUSTRALIANS can have few illusions about climate change after the release of economist Ross Garnaut’s interim report this week. His full report comes out later this year but already it is clear that sceptics, procrastinators and wishful thinkers will get no comfort from the recommendations. The independent study concludes that climate change is likely to cause far-reaching damage unless the world makes big cuts in emissions. With its fragile, arid environment, Australia …

Asia Times: Every year for the next 20 years, up to 10 million people will move from China’s countryside to urban areas. This unprecedented migration will place huge demands on existing cities, and on the environment. On average, Chinese city dwellers use three times more energy than their rural counterparts, and by 2020 China will account for 16% of the world’s total energy consumption. This is a prospect that is causing serious concern, both inside and outside China. If China follows the …

Age: THE Federal Government will reform the unregulated carbon offsets market by the end of the year, in a move it hopes will restore credibility to the burgeoning but contentious sector. With this week’s interim report from Ross Garnaut spelling out the need for emissions cuts, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has revealed the Government may buy offsets to neutralise its carbon footprint, a move adopted last month by the South Australian Labor Government. In an interview with The …

Sydney Morning Herald: PHIL KOPERBERG’S decision to pull the plug as NSW Minister for Climate Change the day the Garnaut review was released is a telling sign that the urgency of the global warming challenge has escaped the Iemma Government. Well before Koperberg’s resignation, the vital decisions affecting the state’s rising greenhouse emissions were being made by the Treasurer, Michael Costa, a proclaimed climate sceptic, not the climate change minister. The most important decision is the …