Speakers at a workshop called for taking up projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which would also help sustainable development of the country. The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing developed countries, which emit most greenhouse gases, to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.

The Environmental Conservation Levy Bill, which provides for the government to charge an Environmental Conservation Levy, was passed in Parliament yesterday without a debate. The new Bill also proposes the setting up of a National Adaptation Fund, in keeping with a proposal made at the UN Global Climate Change Summit, held in Bali last December -- which called upon countries to adopt mechanisms to face the challenges of global warming

Britain's efforts to become more environmentally friendly are being thwarted by social forces that are causing more people to live alone, the Office for National Statistics warned yesterday.

The water industry has a lot of work to do to prepare for the introduction of a new UK carbon trading scheme. That was the message for the industry from consultants and regulators speaking at a one-day conference organised by environmental consultancy and training firm Aqua Enviro. Organisations were warned that they need to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions ready for phase one of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which begins on January 1, 2010.

EXXON Mobil has raised fresh concerns over Federal Government plans to establish a world-first regulated carbon capture and storage system in Australia. The oil giant operates the Bass Strait oil and gas fields, which have been targeted as eventual homes for the storage of greenhouse gases from the planned $5 billion Monash Energy coal-to-liquids project in the Latrobe Valley, a joint venture between Shell and Anglo American.

For Londoners used to paying an

The good news about a recent report for the government about UK costs of complying with EU targets for renewables is that it should put no more than an extra 5% on our national energy bill. The bad news is that the government want to cut this cost by subsidising continental biomass consumption as a substitute for supporting our own renewable energy sources. The subsidised biomass will consist largely of wood burning in eastern Europe from forests that may not be replaced.

The German government has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over its plans to lead a worldwide biofuels revolution on the roads after the discovery that too many cars would be unable to run on the proposed ethanol-petrol mix. The environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, had planned to introduce the new fuel to motorists next year. It is known as E-10, and 90% of it would consist of petrol and the rest of ethanol.

Simon Jenkins thinks that we need to "make today's cities work better" to preserve the countryside and reduce emissions (Eco-towns are the greatest try-on in the history of property speculation, April 4). He's right. If the government wants to get serious about climate change, and deliver 3m new homes over the next two decades, it will take far more than a handful of small, new eco-settlements. However, there's also an economic - as well as an environmental - case for promoting denser, low-carbon city neighbourhoods.

US scientists have unveiled a new, high-resolution interactive map which tracks patterns of CO2 emissions coming from fossil fuels burned daily across the country. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2 emissions in more than 100 times greater detail than was previously available. Until now, scientists say, data on carbon dioxide emissions was reported monthly at a statewide level.

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