Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday defended Italy's position on an EU climate change deal, denying he was isolating Italy within Europe over the matter.

The row began when EU Environment commissioner Stavros Dimas was quoted as saying he was "astonished" by Italian objections to the deal and that Italy had overestimated the cost of compliance.

In the Juma forest reserve deep in Brazil's Amazon, conservationists will receive money from a Brazilian bank and a global hotel chain to protect trees and combat global warming.

European leaders handed concessions to heavy industry and former communist nations on Thursday to smooth the path to a December agreement on fighting climate change amid economic turmoil.

Moscow doubts carbon trading can solve climate change because recent swings in stock and commodities prices show markets are unable to fix global problems, an official Russian document showed.

Tackling climate change will help, not hinder, governments' efforts to overcome the global financial crisis, the EU's environment chief said on Tuesday.

An influential global network of governments, scientists and conservationists called on Tuesday for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and said financial turmoil must not sideline work to safeguard animals and plants.

Australia's plans to launch a carbon emissions trading scheme within two years will not be derailed by the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Tuesday.

Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, Woodside Petroleum Ltd, this week told Rudd's centre-left Labor government that global market volatility and bank credit paralysis should put emissions trading on hold.