Britain: A new global pact to tackle climate change may not happen

October 8th, 2009 BANGKOK - Tired of the way industrialised countries are dragging their feet on a global agreement to tackle global warming, young Indian climate activist Leela Raina has found a new way to express her frustration. She has written a blog with 11 reasons on why she will not date a man from a developed country.

October 8th, 2009 BANGKOK - "Time is running out for Copenhagen," the UN climate chief said here Thursday, exactly two months before the start of the summit that is expected to seal a deal to tackle global warming. The 4,000-odd negotiators from 177 countries, who are here for the Sep 28-Oct 9 talks to prepare for the December summit, have one day here and five days in Barcelona next month to draft an agreement for Copenhagen, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer pointed out.

October 7th, 2009 BANGKOK - "When I have only one pair of shoes, it makes sense to stay with that pair." With these words, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer Wednesday came out clearly in favour of retaining the Kyoto Protocol to tackle global warming, despite strong efforts by many industrialised countries to dump it. The issue has become the main point of contention in the Sep 28-Oct 9 talks here in preparation for the climate summit in Copenhagen this December.

October 6th, 2009 BANGKOK - Rich countries have been framing the climate debate to suit themselves rather than looking at the way global warming affects most of the world, which is why a global treaty is proving elusive, India's top climate negotiator said here Tuesday. "They don't talk about equity, they only talk of how to protect their lifestyles," the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran told a group of Indian NGO representatives.

October 2nd, 2009 Obama adviser says no climate change law this yearWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's top energy adviser says there is no way Congress will be able to pass a bill on climate change this year. "That's not going to happen," the adviser, Carol Browner, said Friday.

September 23rd, 2009 Obama pleads for harder work on climate changeUNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama has implored world leaders to confront climate change, saying there can be no peace without cooperative work to preserve the planet. Appearing before global leaders gathered at the United Nations, Obama said Wednesday that "the danger posed by climate change cannot be denied — and our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred." The president said "this is why the days when America dragged its feet on this issue are over." He said he understood the tempation of nations to put economic recovery from recession ahead of climate change work, but said that must not be allowed to happen.

September 15th, 2009 LONDON - Democratic freedoms will be in danger around the world unless governments step up immediate efforts to tackle climate change, according to a think tank based here. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday, the second International Day of Democracy, the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) has warned of "formidable environmental and natural resource challenges just around the corner - and climate change is the biggest of them all".

September 10th, 2009 EU steps up efforts for new global climate pactCOPENHAGEN — Fearing that a possible global deal on climate change is in danger, European foreign ministers announced Thursday they were stepping up efforts to make sure that nations around the world face up to global warming. Five EU foreign ministers have been traveling to European capitals for the last week to press the issue — and now they are taking the case for tackling climate change to other world capitals.

September 8th, 2009 UK: Global deal on climate change at riskLONDON — Two British Cabinet ministers said Tuesday that attempts to broker a new global pact on climate change by the end of the year are at risk of failing. Hopes for an agreement being reached at a United Nations summit in December "hang in the balance," undermined by a climate of suspicion between rich and poor countries, said Foreign Secretary David Miliband, speaking at a press conference with his brother, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband.

July 28th, 2009 Greenpeace: China power companies hurting climateBEIJING — China's three largest energy suppliers emitted more greenhouse gases than all of Britain last year, environmental watchdog Greenpeace China said in a report issued Tuesday. The report reflects the heavy reliance on coal that is hampering China's efforts to tackle climate change.

July 21st, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - The world's largest economies have "clearly ignored" the findings of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN scientific body that evaluates climate change when formulating their recent proposals on slashing greenhouse gases, a top official said. It was a "big step" for leaders of over one dozen developed nations attending the Major Economies Forum (MEF) to recognise that the global average temperature should not increase by more than two degrees centigrade, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told reporters here Monday.

July 15th, 2009 EU teams up with MTV on climate changeBRUSSELS — The European Union is teaming up with music channel MTV to raise awareness among teens about the dangers of climate change. EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas says today's youth "will bear the brunt" of climate change, including rising temperatures and sea-levels.

July 2nd, 2009 EU: China, India must make emissions cutsSTOCKHOLM — The chances of concluding a new global climate change pact remain dim unless China, India and Brazil make significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as well a senior Swedish climate change official said Thursday. Lars-Erik Liljelund, special climate change adviser to the Swedish government, said cuts from richer countries in the 27-nation bloc or planned cuts in the United States will not be enough to meet aims to cut at least 25 percent of emission from 1990 levels.

June 12th, 2009 BONN - Climate negotiators from the Obama administration will be in New Delhi to hold bilateral talks on what India is ready to do to tackle global warming, the leader of the US delegation to a UN conclave said here Friday. Jonathan Pershing, who led the US delegation at these preparatory talks of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the December summit in Copenhagen, said he had met the leader of the Indian delegation Shyam Saran on the sidelines of the talks here.

May 29th, 2009 Climate change causes 300,000 deaths a yearLONDON — A think-tank led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says that around 300,000 people die each year from disasters related to climate change.