Pessimism Pervades Lead up to Next Round of Climate Negotiations
The first round of formal United Nations (U.N.) climate change negotiations will take place in April in Bonn, Germany surrounded by pessimism. Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for climate change, and the Danish minister at the helm for much of the failed Copenhagen climate summit...

Top UN Climate Official Quits to Join KPMG
Yvo de Boer has overseen four years of climate change negotiations....

Industry Groups, State Officials Challenge EPA’s Climate Finding
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM; Washington) the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA; Washington) and several other industry groups have sued the U.S. EPA, saying its finding last December determining greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health is flawed. The U.S...

U.S. Launches Climate Program Focused on CCS, Advanced Biofuels
President Obama today announced it will form a U.S. Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to develop a “comprehensive and coordinated federal strategy to speed the development and deployment of clean coal technologies.”   The task force will be co-chaired by officials...

Developing Countries Fail to Meet Climate Accord Deadline
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says 139 countries failed to meet its January 31 deadline to pledge greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts as part of the Climate Accord. The Accord, which was agreed at the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009, is not legally binding and...

EU Debates Whether to Cut GHG Emissions by 20% or 30%
Members of Coreper, the Permanent Representatives Committee of the European Union (EU), are this week discussing whether the EU should agree now to a 20%-or 30%-cut in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020 compared to 1990.   The EU aims to agree on only one level of emissions cuts by the end of this...

Gases Firms Develop Next-Generation Green Products, Plug into CCS
R&D projects already well underway within many gases firms are set to underpin a range of low-carbon technologies including capture and storage (CCS), algae-to-fuel, and systems enabling the use of hydrogen as a fuel. Not only could this be good for the environment, but gas companies say, it will be good...

Monsanto 'Awarded' by Environmental Groups for Sabotaging Action on Climate Change
Monsanto has been selected by environmental groups as the recipient of the Angry Mermaid Award, which recognizes corporations that have done the most to sabotage effective action on climate change. The award has been introduced by environmental groups Attac Denmark (Copenhagen), Corporate Europe Observatory...

U.K. Pushes for Climate Treaty to be Made Legally Binding
U.K. prime-minister Gordon Brown has declared that he will campaign to make the weak climate agreement made in Copenhagen at the weekend legally binding.   Brown viewed the agreement in Copenhagen which sets out to limit global warming to 2C by 2050 “as a “vital first step” only...

After Copenhagen (Blog): What it Means for Industry, and Two Conspiracy Theories
The climate accord agreed in Copenhagen on Saturday arguably will do little to protect the planet from anthropogenic climate change. As every face-saving politician that participated in the event will tell you (and there are quite a few of those), there is still much work to be done.   So what does it...