The earth's land based ecosystems absorbed all of the carbon released by deforestation plus another 1.4 billion tons emitted by fossil fuel burning during the 1990s, a new study suggests. But the

Government ministers from around the world moved a step closer yesterday to bringing a far-reaching treaty to combat global warming into force after their officials reached a key agreement. Ministers

Norwegian Environment Minister Boerge Brende promises to have a domestic trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions ready by 2005, when the European Commission plans to launch a similar project.

Ministers from more than 160 countries met in Morocco in a mood of cautious optimism about the prospects of finalising the 1997 Kyoto protocol on climate change.

"Unlike areas that have been inhabited for long periods - where people have measured temperatures every day for hundreds of years - there are very few instrumental records of temperatures on the

Global warming could cut harvests of staple crops like rice, maize and wheat in the tropics by one third over the next 50 years, according to a report published by the United Nations Environment

Harvests of some of the world's key food crops could drop by up to 30 percent in the next 100 years due to global warming, a U.N. agency said. The grim prediction was made by the United Nations

The Japanese government is set to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming even if the US remains opposed to the treaty. The reports came amid the seventh session of the conference of the parties

Climate negotiators from around the world are just past the midpoint of their two week meeting to hammer out the finer points of keeping 38 industrialized nations from emitting greenhouse gases

In Marrakech, representatives of more than 160 nations are meeting to push the Kyoto Protocol on global warming a step closer to ratification. As delegated hammer out the mechanics for implementing