Australia's landmark carbon trade scheme, being watched around the world in the lead up to global climate talks in December, hit a political roadblock on Thursday when parliament delayed a vote on the plan until August.

D. Raghunandan, Prabir Purkayastha & T. Jayaraman

India

New Delhi: In a bid to break the stalemate over talks to decide on a post-2012 framework on climate change, India, along with other developing countries, has moved an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol that proposes a new target for reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by the developed nations.

The Asian Development Bank

Gazprom, the energy company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Dow Chemical Company to expand trading in carbon dioxide emission credits intended to slow climate change, a business that is a growing sideline for the Russian company.

French emissions exchange BlueNext has taken its first step toward a carbon trading platform in China with a deal to offer its clients a database of Chinese carbon-cutting projects, its chairman said on Thursday.

Rapid rises in temperatures worldwide may overwhelm farmers' efforts to keep up, say experts who want funds to breed new crops and freeze heat-resistant strains bred over past centuries.

A Stanford University study to be published on Friday estimates that African growing seasons for the continent's staple foods -- maize, millet and sorghum -- will be hotter in nine out of 10 years by 2050.

Climate negotiations can succeed only if developed countries stop weaseling out of their historical culpability
Nitin Desai / New Delhi June 18, 2009, 0:28 IST

The climate change talks made no progress at Bonn
Business Standard / New Delhi June 16, 2009, 0:20 IST

Rich countries may act on their own to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developing a carbon market they hope will lure in poor nations even if U.N. climate talks get bogged down, experts said.

Nearly 200 countries have been trying to reach an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on global warming with a December deadline at a meeting in Copenhagen approaching.