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A government white paper issued Tuesday calls on households to save energy as a means of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. According to the paper, the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions in Japan from the household sector compared with overall emissions of such global warming gases is lower than in the United States and Europe. However, household energy consumption in Japan surged 44 percent in 2005 from 1990, the white paper on the environment and recycling says.

The Hyatt Regency Hakone Resort & Spa will participate in Japan's "Carbon Dioxide Reduction Light-Down Campaign' by turning the lobby lights off for two hours on June 21 and July 7. The Hyatt will also be lighting its lobby fireplace with candles, instead of a fire, between June 21 and Aug 31. The "Carbon Dioxide Reduction Light-Down Campaign' was started by the Ministry of the Environment to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and encourage thoughts about how to prevent global warming.

Nine of the 10 US urban areas that release the most greenhouse gases per person lie east of the Mississippi River, a study showed on Thursday. "A north-south divide is also apparent," said the report issued by two think tanks, the New York-based Regional Plan Association and the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Seven of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are in the south, including two cities each in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, it said.

This year, the surging current of the East River will help provide power to a nearby subway station. The lights that lace the ornate interior of Manhattan's Grand Central Station have largely been replaced by bulbs that burn brightly but save energy. There are plans to make the rooftop of a Queens bus depot bloom like a garden. "Carbon footprint" has become part of the national lexicon, and mass transit systems throughout the country are taking steps to ease their impact on the environment even as they strive to provide more service to a growing number of riders.

The death of about 500 ducks that landed in a pond of oily, toxic sludge operated by Canada's biggest oil sands producer was tragic, the chief executive of Imperial Oil Ltd said Thursday. Imperial has a 25 percent stake in oil sand producer Syncrude Canada Ltd, owner of the tailings pond in northern Alberta, where the ducks died earlier this week because a warning system meant to keep them off wasn't operating. "Without question, I think it was not only an unfortunate event but a really tragic one," Imperial CEO Bruce March told reporters following the company's annual meeting.

China has overtaken the USA to become the world's No. 1 industrial source of carbon dioxide, the most important global-warming pollutant, according to a scientific study to be published today. The study and two others

Aircraft makers, airlines, airports and air traffic controllers pledged on Tuesday to work towards "carbon-neutral growth" and reduce their industry's contribution to global warming. The declaration committed commercial players including Embraer, Bombardier, Boeing and Airbus to support cleaner fuels, improve fuel efficiency, better manage air routes, and work "to achieve greenhouse gas reductions wherever they are cost-effective." "We are committed to a pathway to carbon-neutral growth and aspire to a carbon-free future," the signatories said.