President George W. Bush on Wednesday proposed a target of stopping growth in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, delivering his opening shot in negotiations with the US Congress and international community about climate change. The target marked the most specific goal yet set by the Bush administration for curbing carbon emissions, but fell short of more aggressive targets set by European countries and proposed by Democrats in Congress.

Italy will achieve its greenhouse gas-cutting targets under the Kyoto protocol by buying carbon credits from Russia, under a deal announced yesterday that could cost the government billions of euros. Italy is expected to miss its Kyoto targets by a total of about 400m to 500m tonnes of carbon dioxide, and will therefore have to make up the shortfall with carbon credits issued by the United Nations. But the government did not say how many credits it would buy under a deal with Carbon Trade and Finance, a joint venture between Russia's Gazprombank and Dresdner Bank.

Slum-dwellers in Dar es Salaam pay the equivalent of

Carbon traders will today find out whether the European Union's emissions trading scheme has succeeded in persuading companies to curb their greenhouse gas output. The European Commission is expected to release data today showing the extent of carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 from businesses covered by its emissions trading scheme. It is widely expected to show that emissions from heavy industry such as steel and cement making have fallen by a small amount, but that emissions from the power sector have risen slightly.

Investors in the fledgling market in greenhouse gas emissions have seen their share of volatility and shocks in the past three years. Shares in several carbon trading companies have fallen sharply in the past year, and traders have had to cope with a crash in the carbon price and uncertainty over the future regulation of the market.

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