• Source: Targeted News Service

The International Union for Conservation of Nature - USA Multilateral Office issued the following news release:

Two days after the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in Kobe, the National Diet of Japan adopted the Basic Act on Biodiversity. The Act formally recognises biodiversity as a challenge all countries must face and one that needs immediate nonpartisan action.
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Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change

• Author: Lesley Wroughton
• Source: Reuters News

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced $1.2 billion in new loans and grant financing for poor countries struggling with soaring food and fuel prices and called for a global action plan.
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Filed by Anita Li under Development, Energy and Nuclear Safety

• Source: Al Jazeera English

Vladimir Putin has met Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, to discuss soaring oil prices and EU-Russian relations during a visit to France, his first overseas trip since becoming prime minister.
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Filed by Anita Li under Global Financial Crises, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

• Author: Karine Fortin
• Source: The Hamilton Spectator

Prime Minister Stephen Harper began his mission to overhaul Canada’s tattered environmental image in Europe yesterday by playing up Canada’s protection of the Arctic.
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Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change

• Author: Margaret McQuaile
• Source: Platts Oilgram News

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called May 28 for G8 leaders meeting in Japan in July to discuss a global strategy for dealing with the impact of high oil prices.
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Filed by Anita Li under Global Financial Crises, Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy, Multilateral Trade

• Author: Eric Johnston
• Source: The Japan Times

Environment ministers from the Group of Eight countries meeting Sunday in Kobe apparently sidestepped the major issue of setting midterm greenhouse-gas reduction targets for 2020 due to a divide between developing and industrialized countries over specific targets. Scientists believe 2020 is a key deadline in avoiding a potentially disastrous rise in world temperatures. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment, Climate Change

• Author: Eric Johnston
• Source: The Japan Times

Experts gathering for the Group of Eight environment ministers meeting in the city known for its high-quality beef have a suggestion on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Eat less beef. “One way to combat climate change is reducing meat consumption,'’ said Ragendra Pachauri of the International Panel on Climate Change at a symposium Saturday, the opening day of the three-day climate meeting in Kobe. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment, Climate Change

• Source: The New York Times

The World Bank will raise at least $5.5 billion with the United States, Britain and Japan this year for climate change funds that will help poor nations use clean technology and tackle global warming, a bank official said on Sunday.

The bank will agree to set up the funds at its July board meeting and will raise the money by autumn, the bank’s vice president for sustainable development, Katherine Sierra, said in an interview in the Japanese city of Kobe, where she is attending a meeting of the Group of 8 environment ministers. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, The Environment, Climate Change

• Source: AFX International Focus

KOBE, Japan (Thomson Financial) - Environment ministers from the world’s top industrial powers called Monday for more effort to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but little headway was seen in setting more immediate goals.

Ministers from the Group of Eight held three days of talks here in a bid to set the tone for a summit involving the G8 leaders, which opens July 7 in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako and is expected to focus on climate change. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment, Climate Change

• Source: ISI Emerging Markets Africawire

Environment ministers from the G8 rich nations on Monday urged their leaders to set a global target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a small but vital step in the fight against climate change.

But they stopped short of suggesting specific interim targets ahead of 2050, a key demand of developing countries in tough United Nations-led talks to forge a new treaty on global warming by the end of next year. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment

• Source: Dow Jones International News

TOKYO (Dow Jones)–Justice and home affairs ministers of the Group of Eight nations will confirm their intention to step up efforts for a crackdown on criminals abusing personal identity, as the so-called “ID crimes” amount to a serious threat to global economic activities, a draft of their statement showed Monday, Kyodo News reported.

The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are also expected to call on financial institutions and regulators for cooperation to fight money laundering and other organized crimes at their meeting next month in Tokyo, according to the draft seen by Kyodo News. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Transnational Crime

• Source: Jiji Press English News Service

Kobe, May 26 (Jiji Press)–Environment ministers from the Group of Eight major countries on Monday wrapped up a three-day meeting determined to lead efforts to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Developed countries “should take the lead in achieving a significant reduction,” Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita said in his chairman’s statement. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment

• Source: Associated Press Newswires

KOBE, Japan (AP) - Under pressure to boost talks on a new global warming pact, Group of Eight environment ministers on Monday endorsed slashing greenhouse gas emissions in half by mid-century, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets.

The three-day meeting in Kobe was dominated by calls from the U.N., European countries and developing nations to move forward on setting targets for cutting emissions by 2020. Scientists say those targets are needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment, Climate Change

• Source: Nikkei Weekly

Industry still fearful of state-determined limits on emissions

The government is getting down to the details of introducing a carbon credit trading scheme as part of its long-term strategy for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment, Climate Change

• Source: Nikkei Weekly

The government plans to support developing nations that agree to combat global warming by setting up a new program under which yen loans would be offered at about half the rate of conventional development aid.

Japan intends to offer up to 500 billion yen of this type of aid during the next five years. The money will go to nations that actively take steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The plan will be announced at the Hokkaido G-8 summit in July. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, The Environment

• Source: ITAR-TASS World Service

KOBE (Japan), May 26 (Itar-Tass) — Colossal amounts of industrial and consumer waste are dangerous for Russia’s ecological security, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Semyon Levi told Tass on Monday. The Russian official represented Russia at the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in the Japanese city of Kobe. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment

• Author: Janice Tang
• Source: Kyodo News

YOKOHAMA, May 27 — Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will begin marathon bilateral talks on Tuesday with visiting African leaders ahead of a three-day development conference in Yokohama, where Japan will pledge to double aid and investment in hopes of securing diplomatic support and energy supplies from the resource-rich continent.

While Fukuda meets separately with 16 African presidents and premiers throughout Tuesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and his counterparts from 52 participating African nations will gather in the afternoon to fine-tune documents for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which will begin Wednesday. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development

• Author: Karine Fortin
• Source: The Canadian Press

OTTAWA _ Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s whirlwind trip aimed at swaying European leaders to his climate change agenda has drawn scorn from environmentalists who give it little chance of success.

Harper begins the tour Tuesday with the aim of bringing onside world leaders opposed to Canada’s stance in advance of the economic summit of G8 nations this summer. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under The Environment

• Source: Business and Finance Daily News Service

ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet said this morning financial markets were experiencing an “ongoing correction” and repeated that the G7 was concerned about excessive dollar volatility.

“We are observing an ongoing market correction, which has…high level of volatility,” Trichet told a news conference during a meeting of the Group of 30 in Israel. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy

• Author: By ELISABETH BUMILLER; Brian Knowlton contributed reporting from Washington.
• Source: The New York Times

Senator John McCain distanced himself from the Bush administration on Tuesday by vowing to work more closely with Russia on nuclear disarmament and to move toward the elimination of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

In what his campaign promoted as a major speech on nuclear security policy, Mr. McCain told a small crowd at the University of Denver that he would pursue a new arms control agreement with the Russians and that he supported a legally binding accord between the two nations to replace verification requirements in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, which expires in 2009. (more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

• Source: Europolitics Energy

Environment ministers from the world’s eight richest countries (G8)(1) agree that they must set an example in the fight against global warming, with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. This is what was agreed, on 26 May, at the close of a three-day debate in Kobe (Japan) in preparation for the G8 summit in July, organised by Japan in Toyako, where the fight against global warming will be a key priority. (more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Climate Change

• Source: States News Service

The following information was released by the United Nations:

I am delighted to be here at the TICAD IV and I feel proud to be part of the organization of this historic Summit. I extend to all of you warm greetings from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Our special thanks go to Prime Minister [Yasuo] Fukuda and the Government of Japan for generously hosting this event, which exemplifies this country’s strong commitment to Africa’s development. (more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Development

• Author: David Akin
• Source: Calgary Herald

Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged France Tuesday to fight a European ban on seal products and asked the French to help Ukraine join NATO. (more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Financial Supervision, Corporate and Public Governance, The Environment, Climate Change

• Author: Keya Acharya
• Source: Inter Press Service

India is missing out on an opportunity to represent developing countries’ interests in the ongoing debate over how to fortify the United Nations Environment Program, according to a leading expert on international environment law.
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Filed by Nicole Cargill under The Environment, United Nations Reform

• Source: Reuters News

The world must act quickly, but keep an eye toward the future to reverse the food crisis that has plunged millions into hunger and has raised new doubts about the future of global agriculture, a leading research center said on Wednesday. (more…)

Filed by Nicole Cargill under Other, Global Financial Crises, The Environment