Nearly 200 governments will say next week they are unlikely to meet a target of slowing the rate of extinctions of living species by 2010, a failure which could threaten future food supplies. Up to 5,000 delegates and some heads of state, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, will try to agree at the Convention of Biological Diversity in the German city of Bonn on ways to save plant and animal species.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks here on Sunday with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and expressed skepticism over a U.S. initiative to halt the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, Japanese officials said. Merkel was quoted as telling Abe that she is

A grass-roots movement to generate power in towns and basements is challenging the energy industry's status quo.

Coal miners are still working in the German town of Bottrop, but the government has decided to end mining in the country by 2018 because German coal is the most expensive in the world.

Leading power equipment manufacturer, OSRAM, on Thursday announced that it had joined hands with the largest German power generation company RWE to launch their first energy efficiency project in India based on the Kyoto Protocol guidelines at a cost of 150 million Euros. Under the programme, high-quality OSRAM energy-saving lamps will be distributed to around 700,000 households in the Vishakhapatnam region in the first phase. The project will be financed exclusively via CO{-2} certificates under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) based on the Kyoto Protocol for reducing CO{-2} emissions in developing and emerging countries, according an official release here. The energy-saving lamps are being distributed by the local power supply company in cooperation with self-help groups. At the same time, ordinary light bulbs will be collected from the households and sent for eco-friendly recycling. In all, this project is likely to save up to 400,000 tonnes of CO{-2}. "The project together with our partner RWE will reduce CO{-2} emissions in India and help the country keep its energy requirements down. It will also give a broad cross-section of population who would not otherwise be able to afford energy-saving lamps the opportunity to save money,' said Wolfgang Gregor of OSRAM.

This commercial ship, partly powered by a giant kite, set off on its maiden voyage from the German city Bremen to Venezuela in the third week of January. Designers of the vessel, MS Beluga