Climate Change News Digest

Carbon traders do not easily secure sympathy. Yet their role is vital. Wind power turbines in Dali, in China's southwestern Yunnan province. The Asian giant has adopted more green technology thanks to carbon trading.

Thawing permafrost can release nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, a contributor to climate change that has been largely overlooked in the Arctic, a study showed on Sunday.

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So, no conspiracy, no collusion, no manipulation of data, no corruption of the peer-review process, no scandal; just an understandable reluctance to hand over data to dishonest people with a history of misrepresenting it. Squibs don t get much damper than Climategate . The most worrying aspect of the drama was the way in which most of the media ditched any attempt at assessing the claims and became caught up in the frenzy, when a couple of hours spent reading the emails and talking to one of two of those involved would have made the conclusions of the House of Commons inquiry entirely predictable.

Much has been written over the past year about how other countries, particularly China, are investing heavily to increase their economic competitiveness by building domestic clean energy industries (see Lindsey Graham: Every day that we delay trying to find a price for carbon is a day that China uses to dominate the green economy ). Senior staff from the Center for American Progress will therefore be traveling to China to meet with policymakers and companies that are driving its aggressive pursuit of clean energy technology development. They ll share their findings with you on the CAP energy policy page.

National Trust predicts three-week wait for nature's blue carpetsUsually from about now they spring up in the far south-west then spread like a Mexican wave across Britain. But the National Trust says today that nature-lovers could have to wait until the end of the month before carpets of English bluebells begin to appear in woodlands.The charity believes that after the coldest winter for more than 30 years the English bluebell season is likely to be up to three weeks late. The plants depend on warm ground temperatures and the prolonged frosts will have impacted upon their ability to grow.In recent years milder winters and earlier springs have led to the flowers appearing as early as 1 April in west Cornwall.

Source: Reuters * Electric cars win centre stage at auto shows * Cost, limited range may dent appeal * Biofuels make comeback, gasoline may dominate for decades By Gerard Wynn LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - ...

It is sad to see renewable energy grow only in some concentrated areas. Twenty-nine states have renewable goals established. California and Colorado are the leaders whereby they are heading for a portfolio of 30 percent of renewable ...

The $250 million successful USA renewable energy effort dismissed with one paragraph in 1997 and dropped even.

WASHINGTON Lower levels of oxygen in the Earth's oceans, particularly off the United States' Pacific Northwest coast, could be another sign of fundamental changes linked to global climate change, scientists say.

A shrimp-like creature and jellyfish tentacles discovered in the darkness under 600 feet of Antarctic ice, are further evidence of how life can thrive in surprising places.

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine -- Greg and Norma Dyer have a message for homeowners looking to harness wind power for a dependable source of electricity at low cost.

OTTAWA " Canadian scientists from six different federal departments have shot down a recent controversy that raised doubts about whether humans are causing global warming and have urged the government to base its climate-change policies on peer-reviewed research. In a memorandum, prepared for Environment Minister Jim Prentice prior to his participation at the Copenhagen conference last December, the top-ranking official at Environment Canada said a controversy surrounding stolen e-mails from a climate-research centre in the United Kingdom does not call into question the reliability of the science. The personal e-mails exchanged by climate scientists wound up in the hands of special-interest groups who say they are skeptical about peer-reviewed research that concludes humans are causing global warming.

Emissions from companies covered under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme has fallen by 11.2% in 2009 helped largely by economic downturn, The Guardian reported (www.guardian.co.uk). This has resulted in minor gains in price of carbon credits as uncertainty over the market has been remeoved.The preliminary data revealed that carbon emissions fell right across the EU with emissions falling 12.5% in Britain, 8.4% in Germany, 16.3% in Spain and 16.4% in Italy.However, Alessandro Vitelli, director of strategy and intelligence at analyst firm IDEAcarbon, said that gaps in the data made it difficult for carbon traders to get a clear picture about potential demand for EU emission allowance credits (EUAs), The Guardian report said.

Taiwan's government on Friday urged the public to stop burning incense sticks and ritual money in honour of the dead and opt instead for online worshipping to better protect the environment.

In a bid to trim greenhouse gas emissions to a considerable amount, Bangladesh has adopted smokeless brick making technology to replace the over 150-year- old traditional approach. The new technology has been introduced by the United Nations Development Program in Bangladesh through a project titled " Improving Kiln Efficiency in the Brick Making Industry", which will contribute 25 million U.S ...

New Delhi, Apr 5 : Since the closing of the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, 75 countries, including India, have submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) their national pledges to cut or limit the emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020.