India is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. There is no way we can keep our economy moving without spreading out our energy sources. We should keep in mind that the fossil fuels that we now burn will spew out more carbon if we don't switch to cleaner and sustainable fuels. We will end up paying heavily for polluting the environment.

weight matters: Obesity contributes to global warming, says a study. Obese people require 1,680 daily calories to sustain normal energy and another 1,280 calories to maintain daily activities. This is 18 per cent more than someone with a stable body mass index. The next step will be to quantify how much a heavier population is contributing to climate change, higher fuel prices and food

In a sprawling greenhouse with shiny silver ducts running through, stacks of cardboard boxes feature prints of a flower alongside the distinctive red Toyota logo. In an experiment aimed at putting to use some of the carbon dioxide blamed for global warming, the giant auto group is using Asia's largest greenhouse for potted flowers, stretching across five acres. "Nowadays you automatically think of C02 as a villain. But it's what plants need to grow," said Teruo Takatomi, president of unit Toyota Floritech Co. Ltd.

Twenty years ago Monday, James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA, shook Washington and the world by telling a sweating crowd at a Senate hearing during a stifling heat wave that he was "99 percent' certain that humans were already warming the climate.

The World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit has expressed interest in providing funds to Petrobangla to

Hong Kong has joined the international carbon trading structure with a promise to slash emissions, but analysts say the move will fail to produce any serious reductions in greenhouse gases. "It is a bit of an impotent gesture and is about four years too late," said Shane Spurway, head of carbon banking at Fortis Bank. In a low-key press release sent out just before a public holiday weekend earlier this month, the city's Environmental Protection Department said it had set up the legal framework to allow projects that could sell on their reductions in carbon emissions.

Alcoa, Royal Dutch Shell and 97 other companies are urging world leaders to devise a plan for fighting global warming by setting greenhouse-gas targets for all nations and creating an international carbon market. A new climate-change treaty is needed with incentives to capture and store carbon dioxide and protect forests, the 99 companies said in a statement prepared by the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based business coalition. The group presented the proposals on Friday to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who hosts a meeting of the Group of Eight nations next month in Japan.

Are countries that regulate greenhouse gases exposing their industries to unfair competition from those that do not?