Reuters: China would soon follow the US lead if Washington agrees to tackle its emissions in the next few years because China’s government takes the threat of global warming more seriously than the United States does, a climate expert said on Tuesday. "My impression is that the national government — top level ministry officials — in China regard the threats of global warming to their country with a much higher level of seriousness than their counterparts do here in the United …

Carbon Positive: The upcoming UN climate convention talks in Bali in December may get a last-minute shake-up with signs that Australia, an opponent of the Kyoto Protocol and key US climate ally, may well switch sides on the eve of the meeting. Australia, the only other rich nation along with the US not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, could soon see a change of government to the pro-Kyoto Labor Party. A national election is due and Prime Minister John Howard says he will have it by early December at the …

Agence France-Presse: Teenager Zhu Xiaotong’s home a few hours’ drive outside Beijing is a world away from the acrid air and snarling traffic jams that have come to dominate China’s energy-hungry capital. Cherry tomatoes, capsicum and spring onions rise up from a little garden patch that forms the centrepiece of her family’s brick courtyard home, while a solar panel heater ensures the Zhu’s have warm water even in winter. Zhu, the 19-year-old daughter of cabbage farmers, has also for the past few …

Agence France-Presse: Environmental groups on Wednesday gave the Brazilian government a seven-year plan aimed at putting an end to deforestation in the Amazon rain forest. "It is necessary to immediately halt the deforestation of the Amazon region," said Paulo Adario, a coordinator for Greenpeace, one of nine non-governmental organizations that presented the plan to the government. "The climate of the planet and the natural diversity of the region cannot support the current rates of …

Reuters: Governments may need to impose tougher curbs on climate change than the most stringent now under consideration to help safeguard the planet, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Wednesday. Risks ranging from extinctions of animals and plants to rising sea levels meant that even a tough European Union goal of limiting global warming to 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels might be too lax. "People are actually questioning if the 2 degrees Centigrade …

Sydney Morning Herald: A hotter, drier future that will put pressure on water resources and farming is inevitable. Nationally, temperatures will rise by about 1 degree by 2030, and rainfall will decline by up to 5 per cent, according to the report, Climate Change in Australia. The impact of human activity will then depend on how quickly greenhouse gas emissions are cut, with a worst-case scenario leading to a 5 degree warming and a 30 per cent decline in annual rainfall by 2070. An author of …

Associated Press: Island countries from around the world warned Tuesday that despite debate over global warming and the potential for a significant increase in sea levels, there has been little concrete action to stem the climate changes that threatens their existence. “The international community has convened numerous conferences and summits at which it has agreed on wide-ranging plans and programs of action,” Foreign Minister of the Maldives Abdalla Shahid, told the U.N. General Assembly. …

Associated Press: Environmental groups and California Attorney General Jerry Brown petitioned the federal government Wednesday to regulate on emissions from oceangoing ships that spew heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming. In separate written requests, they asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt standards for carbon dioxide emissions from the thousands of cargo ships, cruise liners and other large vessels that dock at American ports each year. Marine vessels are …

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A report released today shows renewable energy will benefit the Australian economy, but only with the help of a clean energy target and an emissions trading scheme. The Renewable Energy Generators of Australia commissioned the economic analysis, which has found that early investment in clean energy would save the Australian economy $800 million by the year 2050. The two-year study by consultants McLennan Magasanik Associates modelled 10 different cost scenarios for introducing …

Reuters: Norway must play a leading role in the fight against climate change because its wealth is based on oil and gas production, the country’s new energy minister said on Tuesday, urging the industry to do more on the environment. Norway’s offshore oil and gas industry is already subject to some of the strictest environmental standards in the world, including a carbon dioxide tax and a ban on flaring. But in her first public speech since taking office last month, Aaslaug Haga said …