Inter Press Service: While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of persistent biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be bigger than that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now plans to gather incontrovertible evidence on the value of preserving biodiversity and the cost of losing it. The world's oldest and largest global environmental network will task its scientific ...

Inter Press Service: As Pakistan and India wrangle over the waters of the Chenab, Kashmiris -- through whose homeland the river and four other tributaries of the mighty Indus flow -- have reason to be agitated. Soon after Indian Prime Minister inaugurated the 450 Mw Baglihar hydro-electric dam project across the Chenab, during a visit to Jammu & Kashmir state last week, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari warned that disrupting the flow of the river could reverse recent improvements in ties between the ...

Business Green: The government has indicated it could scale back biofuel adoption targets, in response to continued concern that soaring demand for plant-derived fuels is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and food prices worldwide. Transport minister Lord Adonis today formally accepted the recommendations of the Gallagher Review and proposed that the government's biofuel targets should be delayed so that biofuels make up five per cent of transport fuel used in the UK by 2013-14, rather than ...

BBC: Green groups are fearful that a summit opening in Brussels will see attempts to dilute the EU's climate and energy package because of the economic crisis. Multi-billion-euro bank rescue schemes are due to dominate the two-day meeting of EU leaders but they will also discuss the climate change package. The EU's environment commissioner has told the BBC that the target of a 20% cut in emissions by 2020 still stands. But states may be able to trade away part of their ...

National Public Radio: You may have noticed that clear-glass buildings are springing up in cities across the United States. The reason dates back to some 1970s-era research designed to make windows more energy-efficient. In fact, this line of research turns out to be one of the biggest success stories to come out of the last energy crisis -- and there are lessons to be learned, as America once again ramps up its energy research. Glass Towers The technology is called low-emissivity window ...

Business Green: Fears are mounting that the implementation of the EU's flagship climate change package could be delayed beyond the end of the year, after it emerged that member states are at loggerheads over almost every aspect of the legislative programme. Despite last year agreeing unanimously to targets that would require the EU to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent and source 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, member states are now split on how the costs of meeting the targets ...

WWF: WWF has launched an appeal to the French Presidency of the European Union and to all European governments not to let the financial crisis undermine the need to reach an agreement on a solid package of measures to address climate change before the end of the year. At the European Council meeting taking place in Brussels on 15-16 October 2008, and in relation to the "EU climate and energy package", the European Council will discuss the controversial issue of the potential impact of the ...

Guardian: "This is a truly horrifying case," said Mark Thomas, investigations officer for the RSPB, after Kyle Burden, a 19-year-old gamekeeper at the Kempton estate in south Shropshire, received a six-month suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty at Telford crown court last month to nine charges of killing buzzards and badgers, setting spring traps, and possessing a shotgun. "Wildlife on this estate was killed brutally and systematically. Birds of prey were shot, badgers trapped and ...

Business Green: New research from analyst firm New Carbon Finance suggests that the average price of carbon on the world's carbon markets will soar to $49 (£28) a tonne over the next 12 years. The EU is expected to lead the gains, with the price of credits in its emissions trading scheme more than doubling from an expected average of $39 during the current trading period up to 2012 to $97 by 2020. Similarly, large-scale price hikes are also predicted for planned carbon markets in North ...

News.com.au: THE 680-page final report on the impact of Australia of climate change will be published tomorrow - after its publishers paid for carbon credits to make up for the environmental damage caused by printing it in the first place. Professor Ross Garnaut's report, released online last month but largely overlooked by media coverage which was instead focusing on that day's Wall St meltdown, spells out how climate change will affect this country and what can be done about it. At its ...

Xinhua: Environment ministers and officials from more than 30 countries held an informal meeting in the Polish capital this week to prepare for a major UN climate conference. Progress in battling climate change, long-term climate strategies and the impact of the current economic crisis on climate protection were among the themes of the meeting organized in preparation for the forthcoming climate summit in Poland, Polish news agency PAP reported on Tuesday. Poland is preparing to host ...

Reuters: European Union plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cause economic damage because they are so costly, Italian industrial leaders said in comments published on Wednesday. Their remarks followed an appeal to EU leaders by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso not to sacrifice the fight against climate change to the urgent economic problems thrown up by the global financial crisis. The EU has set goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 ...

Japan Times: Brazil is poised to take its place among the world's petro-powers. Estimates of its newfound oil reserves place it in eighth place among oil-producing nations, ahead of Nigeria as well as Brazil's rival for influence in Latin America, Venezuela. Such newfound wealth is normally a source of celebration. But Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, perhaps fearing the infamous "resource curse" that has blighted the development of so many countries blessed with mineral wealth, is ...

Reuters: Industrial carbon emissions will fall faster in Europe as result of a coming recession, cutting the demand for and price of emissions permits under the European Union's emissions trading scheme, said Deutsche Bank analysts. Lower carbon prices may hand an unexpected boost for politicians and green groups urging industry and bankers not to back down in the fight against climate change. Recession will cut industrial carbon dioxide emissions by about 100 million tonnes in 2009 ...

Reuters: Vietnam plans to complete five biofuel plants by 2010 to meet a tiny part of domestic demand for petrol and diesel, the government said. The plants will churn out a combined 100,000 tonnes of ethanol 5 percent gasoline (E5) and 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel 5 percent (B5) per year to meet 0.4 percent of national demand, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Van Lang said in a report. The plants will use cassava and sugarcane as feedstock. Lang said the government ...

Independent: Any arachnophobes should look away now. It has emerged that numerous species of non-indigenous spider, some venomous, are spreading across England at an alarming rate thanks to rising temperatures. The problem has become so acute in some parts of the country that people are beginning inundate experts with worried calls about a host of frightening-looking species that have started turning up in their gardens and houses. Until recently, most were limited to areas around ports in ...

Guardian: French attempts to craft a global warming pact to make the EU a world leader in tackling climate change are gridlocked, with governments unable to agree on how to share the pain and costs of slashing greenhouse gases by 20% within 12 years. A European summit tonight in Brussels will fail to agree on the means to the end of meeting the EU's ambitious targets, warned diplomats and officials. The deal has to be struck by the end of the year for the package, which was agreed ...

Guardian: Consider two propositions. First, avoiding climate catastrophe could require cuts in carbon emissions of as much as 80%. Second, deforestation accounts for 17% of the total. The upshot is obvious. Unless we somehow safeguard the forests, the carbon savings needed elsewhere could entail virtually shutting down the fossil fuel economy. Yesterday a government-commissioned review by the businessman Johan Eliasch spelled out this steely logic. It made an overpowering financial case for investing ...

Guardian: 'Will the world and humankind be very much the poorer if we lose a thousand or so species?" asks Marcel Berlins (G2, October 8) in response to an International Union for the Conservation of Nature report revealing that 1,141 of the 5,487 known species of land mammal are at risk of extinction. Berlins acknowledges that he is being deliberately provocative and would genuinely like an answer to this question. As a conservation biologist, I can provide one. Berlins states: "I ...

Reuters: Tackling climate change will help, not hinder, governments' efforts to overcome the global financial crisis, the EU's environment chief said on Tuesday. Skip related content The 27-nation European Union has set ambitious goals to curb carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, partly by making power generators and heavy industry pay for permits to pollute in its emissions trading scheme. Critics say the financial crisis makes it very difficult for ...