ONCE upon a time, biofuels were thought of as a solution to fossil-fuel dependence. Now they are widely seen as a boondoggle to agribusiness that hurts the environment and cheats taxpayers. A report commissioned by the United Nations endorses neither extreme. It gives high marks to some crop-based fuels and lambasts others.

MATTHEW L WALD

The world may have to wait until the dying seconds of a U.N. climate summit in December for a global deal to channel business dollars into low-carbon energy, industry and analysts said on Wednesday.

Senior executives warned progress so far in U.N.-led climate talks was inadequate to guarantee the future of low-carbon markets which could transform how the world gets its energy.

This document is the first issue of new Policy Brief series, presented by Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI).
These briefs are designed to provide timely analysis and policy guidance on emerging subsidy issues.

The first brief canvasses the G-20 recent call to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels and considers how to turn the announcement into action.

A technology to bury underground the greenhouse gas emissions produced from burning coal must be ready for global deployment by 2017-2019, U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu said on Monday.

Coal is the world's single biggest source of carbon emissions, at 40 percent. Other sources included burning oil and natural gas, and deforestation and the production of cement.

This report by Christian Aid analyses whether CCS could be a suitable technology for cutting down India's carbon dioxide emissions and also explores how CCS might be developed and deployed in the Indian context.

Has climate change been around as long as the pyramids?

The Economist

Population density intensifies in every country around the world. Recent statistics shows (World total population Wikipedia) the total population in the world is around 6.78 billion people whereas in 100 years before the overall population was approximately 2.0 billion. 100 years ago most of the countries were dependent on agriculture.

LUCKNOW: The chance discovery of a Jurassic nest by geologists in Tamil Nadu reiterates Darwin's philosophy of "nothing is constant'', incidentally in the 200th year of the `Theory of Evolution'. Underscoring this thought, noted geologist Prof Ashok Sahni, on Thursday, hailed the discovery by Periyar University researchers.

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