Human-induced emissions are on the rise, says a new study

In a recent study, the Global Carbon Project stated that carbon emissions from human activity have grown nearly four times faster than in the 1990s. The emissions grew at 3.5 per cent per year between 2000 and 2007 as against 0.9 per cent per year between 1990 and 1999.

Let's cut to the chase. If we are serious about climate change then we have to be serious about changing (drastically) the way the world generates and uses its energy. But even as the rich world talks glibly about 'decarbonisation' of its economy it has done precious little to reinvent its energy system and to wean itself from its fossil fuel addiction.

European car makers are probably using their call for 40 billion euros (US$55 billion) of loans from the European Union to develop green vehicles as a lever to enter talks with the regulator regarding CO2 legislation, analysts say.

The loan, which has been widely dismissed as unlikely to be granted, also brought to the fore the high costs involved in cutting vehicle emissions.

Warmer temperatures in the years ahead will dry up peatlands, release more carbon dioxide into the world's atmosphere and aggravate global warming, a study in Japan has found.

Refugees are moving to Antarctica by 2030, the Olympics are held only in cyberspace and central Australia has been abandoned as too dry, according to exotic scenarios for climate change on Monday.

Setting a fixed price for carbon during the initial phase of Australia's emissions trading scheme will stunt the fledgling market, the head of the country's only carbon exchange warned on Friday.