Reuters: The rich caused the problem and must therefore pay the price of fixing the global climate change crisis, a new report said on Monday. Christian Aid, an agency of British and Irish churches, said industrialised nations were historically responsible and therefore morally liable to foot the multi-billion dollar cost of tackling the problem of man-made emissions of carbon gases. "Nations that have grown rich in part by polluting without facing the costs of doing so must now …

Reuters: US Republican senators on Thursday urged a Democratic-led Senate committee to slow its work on a bill to cap climate-warming carbon emissions, arguing that debate is being rushed. "Climate change is a serious and complex issue that deserves our full attention," Sen. George Voinovich said at an environment committee hearing. "So I’m asking, could you slow it down?" Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, acknowledged the desire to get a law passed quickly, but said, …

Agence France-Presse: The Nobel-winning panel of world climate experts gathered here Monday to hammer out a key report as a top UN official warned that political failure to fix global warming would be "criminally irresponsible." "The effects of climate change are being felt already," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said. "Climate change will hit hardest the poorest and most vulnerable countries. Its overall effect, …

Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Europe must take the lead in cutting environmentally harmful greenhouse gas emissions, but developing giants such as China and India must also do their bit, the European Union’s top official said Monday at the start of the 2007 World Energy Congress. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso made the appeal during a keynote speech at the Rome gathering organized by the World Energy Council, a United Nations-accredited non-governmental organization present in over 90 countries. …

Telegraph (UK): Almost a third of the world’s species will face extinction if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, a United Nations report will say this week. A draft copy of the report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) also warns that if temperatures rise by more than 2C now expected before 2050 20 per cent of the world’s population will face a great risk of drought. With that level of temperature rise, other parts of the world will face increased flood risk …

Reuters: A small aboriginal village downstream from Alberta’s massive oil sands plants is calling for a moratorium on new projects in the region after a study found high levels of heavy metals and carcinogens in its fish and drinking water. The village of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, a one-time trading post on the northeast shore of Lake Athabasca with a population of 1,400, says oil sands developments may be responsible for rare types of cancer in the community, poor water quality and other …

Independent (UK): Asia will be hit especially hard by climate change, from China and India to tiny Pacific islands, and decades of human development across the continent will be pushed into reverse, a powerful coalition of aid and green groups reports today. With more than 60 per cent of the world’s population, Asia is where the human drama of global warming will be played out, according to the report from the alliance of 23 of Britain’s leading poverty and environmental campaigning groups, from Oxfam …

Wall Street Journal: To understand the deadlock in the debate on global climate change, take a look at your iPod. The vast majority of the world’s MP3 players are made in China, where the main power source is coal. Manufacturing a single MP3 player releases about 17 pounds of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. IPods, along with thousands of other goods churned out by Chinese factories, from toys to rolled steel, pose a question that is becoming an issue in the climate-change debate. …

Financial Standards: The Chinese Government has formed its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) fund as part of its strategy to foster and finance projects for climate change. Inline with its Kyoto Protocol obligations, China’s CDM fund was launched last week and will use revenue from the country’s carbon trading to invest in climate change projects. The fund is the first of its kind, according to Financial Times, and follows the fact that 60 per cent of world’s carbon reduction projects are in …

CanWest News Service: Canadian motorists could save about $37 billion over the next decade if car manufacturers were forced to meet California’s fuel consumption standards for new cars, suggests a new report released by an environmental consultant. The study, produced for ClimateforChange.ca, said consumers might face additional costs to purchase cars with better technology, but that those expenses would be offset by significant savings in reduced fuel costs, economic spinoffs and a decrease in the …