Japan signed an agreement on Tuesday to buy allowances from Poland to emit greenhouse gas, helping Tokyo achieve its goals under the Kyoto Protocol, Japan's trade ministry said.

The deal, signed in Warsaw, is the fourth for the Japanese government following similar agreements with Hungary, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

An influential global network of governments, scientists and conservationists called on Tuesday for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and said financial turmoil must not sideline work to safeguard animals and plants.

Rich countries should pay tropical nations billions of dollars a year to save their forests, using donor money and global carbon markets to foot the bill, said a UK-commissioned report on Tuesday.

In the longer-term, by 2030, developing countries should also start paying to help create "carbon neutral" global forests through binding targets to slow deforestation and plant trees.

Controlling methane emissions through acid rain? adding sulphate to soil in paddy fields is a popular method of controlling methane emission, to the tune of up to 70 per cent. In highly polluted countries such as India and China, acid rain also deposits a substantial amount of sulphate. This leads to more than required sulphate, which can be harmful for paddy. In such cases it becomes

Roofs and pavements

Let's cut to the chase. If we are serious about climate change then we have to be serious about changing (drastically) the way the world generates and uses its energy. But even as the rich world talks glibly about 'decarbonisation' of its economy it has done precious little to reinvent its energy system and to wean itself from its fossil fuel addiction.

Attempts to tackle global warming are being made more difficult by the spreading economic crisis even as Democratic congressional leaders say it

AN EXAMPLE of the greenhouse effect cooling the climate has been seen in Spain, where the roofs of hothouse farms reflect so much sunlight that they may be pushing down local temperatures.

Since the 1970s, semi-arid pastureland in Almeria, south-eastern Spain, has been replaced by greenhouse horticulture.

NEW DELHI: India's raucous democracy, endemic poverty and soaring economic ambition make curbs on greenhouse gas emissions a hard sell, even as global pressure mounts on the government to do more on climate change.