Appreciate Ramesh

Oslo: Climate change seems a factor in the rise and fall of the Roman empire, according to a study of ancient tree growth that urges greater awareness of the risks of global warming in the 21st century.

Good growth by oak and pine trees in central Europe in the past 2,500 years signalled warm and wet summers and coincided with periods of wealth among farming societies, for instance around t

Cancun: The climate talks at Cancun hit a bad logjam on Monday night with Japan and AOSIS (Association of Small Island Countries) demanding that India and other developing countries get bound into international emission reduction commitments before they allow Kyoto Protocol to continue or the long-term deal to proceed.

India and China took a joint and strong position against the blackmail a

Small island states want U.N.

India has reached out to small island states, which are most vulnerable to climate change, to convey its sensitivity to their concerns on the issue, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) had asked emerging economies like India and China to take legally binding cuts on carbon emissions at the Copenhagen conference last year.

Noting that AOSIS

AHEAD of the August round of negotiations at Bonn, the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries will meet in Rio de Janeiro in late July. This will be the third quarterly meeting of the four countries. It is expected that the other developing countries will be invited to take part in the deliberations.

The drab and dull climate meetings in Bonn finally saw some sparks of excitement on Thursday when the grouping of small island states sparred with oil producing nations led by Saudi Arabia over the need to have a scientific evaluation done on options for restricting the global rise in temperatures to within 1.5 degree from pre-industrial levels.

A NEW line of division has appeared in the climate change negotiations, this time on the issue of a temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Centrigrade.