COOLUM, Australia, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) -
APEC finance ministers will discuss how the Asia-Pacific region can deal with climate change while also meeting its ever-expanding energy needs at a gathering in Australia beginning Thursday. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, Climate Change
UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (Reuters) - The first U.N. special session on climate change focused on the world’s rich countries on Tuesday, as policy-makers urged long-standing polluters to shoulder much of the burden for cutting greenhouse gases. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, The Environment, Climate Change
As the White House draws up plans for President Bush’s global warming summit, some officials are hopeful that the fall meeting might kick start international talks on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
“The feeling I get is that there is a new sense of momentum,” Chris Dodwell, a top environmental official for the United Kingdom, said yesterday following meetings with senior Bush administration officials in Washington. “There does seem to be a shift in approach.” (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under The Environment, Climate Change
MANILA, July 31 — Foreign ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific nations met in Manila on Tuesday to discuss climate change and energy issues as the international community gears up for a series of key international conferences aimed at curbing global warming, Japanese officials said. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, Conflict Prevention and Human Security
These programmes also put a damper on chaotic migration, staunching the exodus from rural to urban areas, reducing the pressure on major cities, and providing a disincentive to small-scale miners and farmers to raze forests. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, Multilateral Trade, Development
UN chief Ban Ki-moon late Tuesday appealed to all countries to do their utmost to seal a new climate change deal by 2009 and have it in force by the time the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under The Environment, Climate Change
(c) 2007 Wilmington Publishing Limited
The G8 of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, the US, and the UK, together with Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa have reached a tentative agreement to at least halve global CO2 emissions by 2050.
The deal came at the latest G8 Summit, in Heiligendamm, Germany, with the big emerging economies also incorporated in the process, and includes the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, the US, China and India. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change
(c) 2007 Informa PLC
The Queen and Prince Philip do it. Even government ministers do it. Let’s do it, let’s drive an LPG-fuelled car.
Not quite in Cole Porter’s lyrical league, but the above sentiments do give a flavour of the growing popularity of LPG vehicles, albeit from a low base, encouraged by a felicitous combination of cheaper costs and environmental benefits. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, The Environment
Asia-Pacific Group Achieving Climate Results Through Partnership
A group of U.S. and Asian businesses and governments is leading an effort that could have a profound impact on how major issues of climate change are addressed globally, U.S. officials say. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety
JAPAN will have “extreme difficulty” meeting greenhouse gas emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, a government panel has confirmed.
Japan, which undertook to cut its greenhouse gas outputs by 6per cent from 1990 levels between next year and 2012, when Kyoto expires, is emitting about 14per cent above the target. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Climate Change
The government plans to set up a headquarters at the Prime Minister’s Office to tackle global warming by coordinating measures prepared by ministries to deal with climate change, sources said.
By setting up the section as early as August, the government aims to facilitate cooperation among ministries on global warming issues ahead of next year’s Group of Eight summit meeting in Toyakocho, Hokkaido. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Climate Change
The following information was released by the U.S. Department of State:
PAULA DOBRIANSKY: Thank you Minister Turnbull, Deputy Secretary Bamsey and the Australian government for organizing this very important meeting. As our understanding of the climate system has strengthened, so too has our understanding of the opportunities to address climate change. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade, The Environment, Climate Change
CANBERRA - Put away your bucket and spade, and reach for the calculator, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) finance ministers hit the Sunshine Coast from July 30.
Climate change, investment, government finances and capital markets will be key areas of discussion when finance ministers and their officials of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation countries meet for five days of talks. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Macroeconomic Policy, Multilateral Trade, Investment and Competition Policy, Development, Climate Change
WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush had talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the White House on Tuesday with the two sides focusing on issues of the Middle East, Iraq war and Darfur, Sudan.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Ban said he welcomed Bush’s plan to hold a high-level meeting on the Middle East peace process in the autumn. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Climate Change, Conflict Prevention and Human Security
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today invited United States President George W. Bush to attend a high-level United Nations debate on climate change to be held this fall.
“On climate change, which is a very important issue for all humankind, I appreciate President Bush’s initiative, during the Heiligendamm G-8 Summit meeting,” Mr. Ban told reporters after his meeting with the US leader in Washington, DC. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security, Conflict Prevention and Human Security
PARIS, July 17, 2007 (AFP) - The OECD warned Tuesday that China’s breakneck economic growth was wreaking severe damage on the environment and said Beijing’s efforts to date to curb pollution had been insufficient. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, Macroeconomic Policy, The Environment, Climate Change
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he will ask President Bush on Tuesday to have a top U.S. official attend a high-level U.N. meeting on climate change in September because “American participation is crucially important.” (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under The Environment, Climate Change
Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, July 17 — India, Brazil, South Africa, China and Mexico - the outreach partners of G-8 - are planning to hold a “structured dialogue” that may set the stage for the formation of a G-5 forum.
“I do hope that before the next G-8 summit, it will be possible for us to have a more coordinated presentation,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters Tuesday when asked about the likely formation of a G-5 grouping of the G-8 outreach nations. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, Development
© Copyright 2007. Hindustan Times Media Limited. All rights reserved.
New Delhi, July 17 — India today sought civil nuclear energy cooperation from Brazil and South Africa, ahead of talks on a landmark deal with the U.S.
Brazil and South Africa on Tuesday agreed to intensify cooperation in the field of atomic energy with India at a trilateral meeting at Hyderabad House here. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade, Development, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Terrorism, United Nations Reform
Indo-Asian News Service Washington, July 16 — India and the US are making last-ditch efforts to break an impasse over a few ticklish issues at critical talks here on the 123 agreement to implement their landmark civil nuclear deal. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade, Energy and Nuclear Safety
Companies. Moscow. The banking sector will grow significantly faster than GDP in the ‘E7’ emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, according to new projections by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Total profits from domestic banking in the E7 could be around half those in the G7 (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada) by 2025 and larger than in the G7 before 2050, reported the press-centre of PricewaterhouseCoopers. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Financial Supervision, Corporate and Public Governance, Development
Some 30 environment ministers from Europe, the US and big emerging countries have made a commitment that the next Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia (December 2007) will start off talks on a new international climate change agreement and on what to do once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The commitment was made at an informal meeting in Riksgränsen (north Sweden) from 11 to 14 June. The talks are due to end by 2009 at the latest. All the parties noted the US’s re-engagement’ with satisfaction. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, Climate Change, Regional Security
The following information was released by the United Nations Environment Program:
A multi-million dollar effort to track the fate and fortune of the world’s biological diversity is being launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Development, The Environment
TOKYO, July 9 — The Japanese government has decided to propose introducing an ‘’energy use efficiency'’ index as a new international framework to tackle global warming before next year’s Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, government sources said Monday. (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Other, Climate Change
GENEVA (Thomson Financial) - Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday that developing countries were largely on the same ‘wavelength’ in deadlocked global trade talks.
Amorim, a leading figure in the G20 group of emerging and developing nations in the World Trade Organisation, said after meeting representatives of the broader G90 group of developing nations that any differences were ’smaller than what we have in common.’ (more…)
Filed by Maria Robson under Multilateral Trade, Development
