The IT industry accounts for about 2 per cent of global carbon emissions - close to the same as the aviation sector - and has an important role to play in the environmental agenda. The main issue for IT is the amount of electricity that computers use. Data centres in particular have come into focus as heavy consumers of power. The average centre uses 50 times more energy than the average office and can cost around

Although carbon-offsetting has gathered momentum as a way for companies to reduce their environmental impact, the best way to cut emissions is still to use less energy. And with oil trading at above $100 a barrel and energy bills continuing to rise, being more efficient makes financial as well as environmental sense. But many companies have yet to change fundamentally the way they operate in order to embrace energy efficiency.

The UK government has set a target for every new home to be "zero-carbon' by 2016. Given that it intends the industry to be building 240,000 new homes a year by that date, it is an ambitious target

Andy Redfern, co-founder of the website Ethical Superstore.com, has no illusions about consumers who claim to be green. "We had a rush last year on solar iPod charges . . . and most of them were going to Glastonbury," he says. Even if people who buy things with an environmentally friendly claim do so for selfish purposes, there is no doubt that people are buying more of them.

Bush to Give Goals for Greenhouse Gases By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: April 16, 2008 WASHINGTON

Paris Talks On Global Warming April 16 -18 FRANCE: April 16, 2008 April 15 - Paris will host a meeting of 17 top national emitters of greenhouse gases from April 16-18 in a US-backed scheme to fight global warming and guarantee energy security while promoting economic growth. Two days of formal talks on Thursday and Friday will be preceded by a workshop on Wednesday about targets by sectors, for instance for the steel or cement industries. It is the third round of the talks, which began in September 2007. Here are some frequent questions about the "Major Economies Meeting":

The government has started selecting environmentally friendly model cities as part of Japan's efforts to lead the world in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Applications will be accepted until mid-May, officials said, and 10 model cities will be selected from across the nation by the end of June. The move is seen as Japan's environmental commitment ahead of the Group of Eight summit in July in Hokkaido, where Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda needs to take the initiative in working out ways to curb global warming.

BEIJING'S unveiling of drastic measures, including a two-month freeze on all construction, is an admission that despite spending about $A18.3 billion in the past decade to reduce smog, the Chinese capital's air quality remains a formidable challenge. The tacit admission comes as a University of California report to be published next month suggests that China's carbon dioxide emissions have been underestimated and China probably overtook the US as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2006-07.