Climate Change News Digest

A new study shows the Arctic climate system may be more sensitive to greenhouse warming than previously thought, and that current levels of Earth''s atmospheric carbon dioxide may be high enough to bring about significant, irreversible shifts in Arctic ecosystems.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, under pressure to spur job growth, said on Saturday two solar energy companies will get nearly $2 billion in U. S. loan guarantees to create as many as 5,000 green jobs.

LONDON (Reuters) - A Kyoto Protocol scheme may be encouraging projects to emit more greenhouse gases because of incentives to earn carbon offsets from subsequently destroying these, a U. N. report said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Environmentalists and power companies are lobbying U. S. senators to put forward climate and energy legislation that would initially cap greenhouse emissions only from electric utilities, saying it''s the last best chance for passing a bill this year.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday took a big step toward the controversial creation of the world''s first floating nuclear power station, putting a barge that will house the plant into the water.

ATHENS (Reuters) - European Union plans to fight climate change until 2020 will cost hundreds of billions of dollars but give scant benefits, a study commissioned by a self- styled "Skeptical Environmentalist" said on Thursday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia''s influential Greens party has written to new Prime Minister Julia Gillard calling for a A$23 a ton carbon tax after upcoming elections, allowing her time to gain support for a carbon trading scheme.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain needs a green bank to meet its 2020 goals to slash carbon emissions and curb use of fossil fuels, a report commissioned by the Conservative Party said on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Australia''s new leader should ramp up renewable energy use and enshrine tougher energy efficiency standards to fight global warming, leading climate scientists said on Tuesday, describing them as easy policy wins.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The United States would send a positive signal by passing domestic legislation to fight global warming ahead of U. N. climate talks in November, the EU''s climate chief said on Monday.

Biofuels produced from algae hold 'significant promise' as an alternative to polluting petroleum- based fuels, but the technology will require years of development before it is ready to be deployed at a large- scale, commercial level, according to a U. S. Department of Energy report. The 'National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap' identifies the state of the technology and the challenges facing researchers, engineers, and policymakers in the advancement of algal biofuels. 'Many years of both basic and applied science and engineering will likely be needed to achieve affordable, scalable, and sustainable CCMPThe microalgae Botryococcus algal- based fuels,' the report says.

After a meeting between President Obama and a bipartisan group of U. S. senators, leading Senate proponents of climate and energy legislation say the only climate bill with a chance of passage this year would be a measure placing a cap on the carbon dioxide emissions of electric power utilities. At least two Republican senators - Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine - involved in Tuesday''s meeting with Obama said they would support placing a cap and price on the CO2 emissions of utilities, provided that most or all of the proceeds were rebated to taxpayers. A key sponsor of climate and energy legislation in the Senate, John Kerry (D- Mass), suggested he might be willing to drop his move to place a cap and a price on CO2 emissions throughout the economy in favor of a more limited bill capping the emissions of electric ...

Two of Sudbury''s so- called green schools are getting national and international attention. The Rainbow District School Board announced Walden Public School will be showcased next year at an international conference on sustainability.[...]

Plans to build a $50 million wind farm in Currituck will begin by measuring wind speeds, and if the readings are positive, North Carolina may be on the way to having its first wind farm, says a businessman who is taking steps to start the process.

Europe''s biggest coal- fired power station is calling for changes to the Government''s renewable energy regulations to enable Drax to convert one of its six coal generators to run on biomass.

Britain is not on course to meet its climate change targets for reducing carbon emissions, the Government is bluntly warned today.

Households are typically being charged more than £80 a year in hidden taxes to help combat the impact of climate change, research suggested today.

This report ranks the nation''s 100 largest power producers on four pollutants: carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and mercury, all of which are linked to environmental and public health issues.

Australia''s biggest wind farm lowered our greenhouse gas emissions last year, but still, people don' t like it.

YORBA LINDA, Calif. " Documents released Friday by the Nixon Presidential Library show members of President Richard Nixon''s inner circle discussing the possibilities of global warming more than 30 years ago. Adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan, notable as a Democrat in the administration, urged the administration to initiate a worldwide system of monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, decades before the issue of global warming came to the public''s attention. There is widespread agreement that carbon dioxide content will rise 25 percent by 2000, Moynihan wrote in a September 1969 memo. "This could increase the average temperature near the earth''s surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote.