Increasing energy use, climate change and carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels make switching to low-carbon fuels a high priority. Biofuels are a potential low-carbon energy source, but whether biofuels offer carbon savings depends on how they are produced.

Every month six aircraft are added to the Indian airspace. In 2006-07, 60 million people travelled by air in the country

New York City unveiled new fuel emissions standards for the city's 10,000 black taxis on Wednesday that will compel the town car owners to switch to hybrid technology within five years. The move -- part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to decrease the city's carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030 -- comes less than a year after Bloomberg announced the city's 13,000 yellow taxi cabs will go hybrid by 2012. Black town cars service mostly corporate clients and are responsible for two percent of the city's transportation related emissions, Bloomberg said. He said the change will cut their emissions by half. Hybrid cars are powered by a gasoline engine combined with an electric motor with batteries that recharge when the car is in motion. (Reporting by Edith Honan, editing by Daniel Trotta and Vicki Allen) REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Lehman Brothers Inc. has announced it will start trading carbon credits in Japan, becoming the first global investment bank to link the Japanese and European carbon markets. Lehman Brothers has become the first foreign financial firm to open an account in Japan's national registry system for trading in Certified Emission Reductions, the company said. A CER is a carbon credit developed by carbon offset providers that is certified as being equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide under the mechanism defined by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming. The carbon offset system allows emitters of greenhouse gases to pay another party to undertake to remove an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Lehman Brothers said its entry into Japan's carbon trading market follows a significant increase in its global reach in the international carbon markets, including China, India and Latin America.

Increased carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere also could worsen air pollution worldwide and lead to the deaths of up to 22,000 people a year, a new study shows. Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from burning fossil fuels have been linked to sea-level changes, snowmelt, disease, heat stress, severe weather, and ocean acidification, but this is the first study to link CO2 rise to pollution. Because carbon dioxide doesn't directly affect respiration, it hasn't been classified as an air pollutant. But the study, led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, predicts that as temperatures and water vapor rise because of extra atmospheric CO2, ozone pollution levels also will rise. Using a high-resolution model that correlates pollution levels to human health, Jacobson found that each 1.8-degree rise in temperature could increase yearly air pollution deaths in the USA by about 1,000, which he extrapolated to 22,000 worldwide. Jacobson notes that many of these deaths would likely occur in smoggy urban areas.

Lehman Brothers Inc said Tuesday it will start trading carbon credits in Japan, becoming the first global investment bank to link the Japanese and European carbon markets. Lehman Brothers has become the first foreign financial firm to open an account in Japan's national registry system for trading in Certified Emission Reductions, the company said. A CER is a carbon credit developed by carbon offset providers that is certified as being equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide under the mechanism defined by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming. The carbon offset scheme allows emitters of greenhouse gases to pay another party to undertake to remove an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is the devil molecule of our time. Yet a pioneering band of researchers would like us to see it differently - as a valuable resource. They are developing a collection of technologies to retrieve some of the CO2 that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere, using its carbon atoms to form hydrocarbons. Feb 27, 2008

New solar technology greatly improves performance A new coating for solar panels could lead to more efficient solar collection. The energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California's Mojave Desert could power all of the United States' electricity needs if the energy could be efficiently harvested, according to some estimates. Unfortunately, current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications. A team of Northwestern University researchers has developed a new anode coating strategy that significantly enhances the efficiency of solar energy power conversion. A paper about the work, which focuses on "engineering'

ONGC is collaborating with Norway's StatoilHydro on carbon management projects WHILE MOST OIL companies avoid speaking of climate change, India's ONGC has taken the issue head on. The oil and gas giant has signed an agreement with Norway's StatoilHydro to explore carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), clean development mechanism (CDM) and other carbon management projects. StatoilHydro, which runs one of the largest CCS projects in the world, will help ONGC's facilities suck C02 out of the atmosphere and pump it underground for storage. This reduces excessive levels of the gas in the atmosphere and lowers the risks of abrupt climate change. But for oil companies, there is an added benefit of pumping C02 underground, as it is also Recovery or EOR acts on the same principle, but uses C02 to extract hard-to-reach oil. By trapping C02 underground, ONGC will also earn revenues by selling carbon credits through the CDM. These credits can be sold to companies that have been unable to take their own C02 emissions below legally permissible limits.

EVERY silver lining has its cloud. At the moment, the world's oceans absorb a million tonnes of carbon dioxide an hour. Admittedly that is only a third of the rate at which humanity dumps the stuff into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, but it certainly helps to slow down global warming. However, what is a blessing for the atmosphere turns out to be a curse for the oceans.

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