Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said Friday that his province, which has been riding a commodity-driven boom, should not be saddled with new environmental taxes as prices for oil and grain fall from their highs of a few months ago.

California's landmark legislation to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 will help the state's economy in the long run, according to a report issued Wednesday by the state agency charg

The Australian government would be open to negotiations with big business over plans for carbon trading, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday, after industry complaints about government proposals.

But Rudd warned business that carbon trading, needed to help Australia cut its greenhouse gas emissions, could not be done without some cost on industry.
"It will never happen cost free. It is not a cost-free business," Rudd told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Exelon, the electric company based in Chicago, will promise on Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by an amount larger than its total emissions in 2008, in a bid to shape the debate on carbon dioxide rules and to get a jump on compliance.

A government white paper issued Tuesday calls on households to save energy as a means of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. According to the paper, the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions in Japan from the household sector compared with overall emissions of such global warming gases is lower than in the United States and Europe. However, household energy consumption in Japan surged 44 percent in 2005 from 1990, the white paper on the environment and recycling says.

Nine of the 10 US urban areas that release the most greenhouse gases per person lie east of the Mississippi River, a study showed on Thursday. "A north-south divide is also apparent," said the report issued by two think tanks, the New York-based Regional Plan Association and the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Seven of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are in the south, including two cities each in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, it said.

Obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says. This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school's researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet on Friday. "We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility," Edwards said in a telephone interview. "Obesity is a key part of the big picture."