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San Francisco Chronicle: London should be the clearinghouse as private investors provide at least half the funding needed to fight global warming in developing nations, U.K. Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said. "It's likely that at least half, if not considerably more" of the $100 billion dollars a year that will be required to fund new infrastructure and cleaner sources of energy will come from private financing, Barker said today in an interview before his speech at the London Stock ...

Ecologist: Climate change may be causing flowers to open before bees emerge from hibernation leading to declines in pollination, new research suggests Climate change could be affecting pollination by disrupting the synchronised timing of flower opening and bee emergence from hibernation, suggests new US-based research. Declining numbers of bees and other pollinators have been causing growing concern in recent years, as scientists fear that decreased pollination could have major impacts on ...

AllAfrica: The European Union has been urged to drop its pledge to produce 10 per cent of all transport fuels from biofuels by 2020 because of the effect this has had on the purchase of African land by multinational companies. According to a report released on August 30 by a UK-based campaign group, Friends of the Earth, the amount of land being taken in Africa to meet the EU's rising demand for biofuels "is underestimated and out of control.' Its report echoes findings from another UK ...

Business Green: There are less than six weeks before organisations need to register for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Almost 1,600 organisations have registered, which is about half the number now expected by the Environment Agency. The scheme is mind-blowingly complicated with new rules appearing all the time. For instance, in early August the agency decreed that even insolvent firms and those in administration have to register! DECC has realised the degree of complexity and ...

Business Green: A leaked report prepared for the German government has warned that global oil supplies could peak as early as this year, triggering widespread market failures and a shift in the balance of world power. The report, which was obtained by the German newspaper Spiegel, was produced by analysts at the military think tank Bundeswehr Transformation Centre and warns that the peaking of oil supplies will result in numerous global challenges. It predicts global oil supply could peak this ...

Reuters: Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts said on Monday, arguing for greater investment in water storage. In a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), experts said Africa and Asia were likely to be hardest hit by unpredictable rainfall, and urged policymakers and farmers to try to find ways of diversifying sources of water. The IWMI research estimates that up ...

BBC: A massive expansion is to take place at Europe's largest onshore wind farm, which is situated in East Renfrewshire. ScottishPower Renewables is to add another 75 turbines to Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor by 2012. This will bring the number of turbines on site to 215 - raising electricity generating capacity by two thirds. The 140 turbines currently at the wind farm, to the south of Glasgow, can produce enough electricity to power 180,000 homes. The ...

Reuters: Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts said on Monday, arguing for greater investment in water storage. In a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), experts said Africa and Asia were likely to be hardest hit by unpredictable rainfall, and urged policymakers and farmers to try to find ways of diversifying sources of water. The IWMI research estimates that up ...

Guardian: India's grain warehouses are bursting at the seams and sacks of rice and wheat lie rotting in the open for lack of storage space. These government-managed stocks are for offsetting a fall in agricultural production in the event of drought or floods, but are also meant for sale to the poorest segment of the population at subsidised prices. But because the public distribution system (PDS) is undermined by bureaucracy and corruption, 60m tonnes of grain is lying in warehouses or under ...

Business Green: To use a suitably Australian idiom it would be wrong to piss on the chips of the country's Green Party just hours after it secured a powerful hold over the future direction of Labor's new minority government. But at the same time those environmental commentators lining up to suggest Labor's narrowest of victories will result in the rapid adoption of a progressive climate change policy are likely to be disappointed. In the short term at least, it is entirely understandable for low ...

Bloomberg: Options to buy European Union carbon permits for 2012 traded in London yesterday at a strike price of as much as 50 euros a metric ton, according to CarbonDesk Ltd. Some 1,000 lots of call options, which give the right to buy permits at a given price, traded at 50 euros ($64), 2,000 lots at 40 euros and 1,000 lots at 30 euros, London-based CarbonDesk said today in a research note. Investors may have used a butterfly strategy, the research note said. A butterfly spread combines ...

Jakarta Post: President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono has pledged to intensify the government's battle against companies operating illegally in rainforests to cut forest losses and help regain the trust of foreign countries. The government is currently revising a 2005 presidential instruction on illegal logging. The draft expanded the definition of violations including illegal mining and illicit forest encroachment. "They are the main causes of forest losses and the players are easy to ...

How many old mobile phones do you have lying around? One, two, three? A recent consumer survey found that 44% of the world’s phones are lying unused in drawers, yet only 3% of people recycle them. Want to make some extra cash and help save the planet? Here's how.

LONDON (Reuters) - Smart meters to boost energy efficiency in homes do not automatically achieve a significant reduction in energy demand, research showed on Wednesday.

It's time for an upgrade. But that's no reason why your current machine, however ancient, should become landfill. So you've reached that stage of your cycling career - you've had your perhaps very elderly bike for long enough that it's time for an upgrade. But what to do with the original?

The procession of bards wends its way through narrow streets in St Ives. From the Guildhall they pass St Ia's church, whose pillars are garlanded in hops, the lifeboat station, harbour, cafes, ice-cream and pasty shops, art galleries, gift shops, holiday lets and crowds of bemused visitors, en route

Post vans try out hydrogen-fuelled deliveries in Isle of Lewis. The nation's posties have used the greenest kinds of transport for generations, relying on their feet and their distinctive fleet of red bicycles to make their rounds.Now their delivery vehicles, too, could go green.

White House says oil has gone from Gulf of Mexico oil spill

The Greenland and West Antarctic ice caps are melting at half the speed previously predicted, according to analysis of recent satellite data.

Business Green: One of the oldest rail lines in the US will soon become home to a cutting-edge energy-harvesting technology that promises to recover the energy lost by braking trains and feed it into the grid. Philadelphia-based smart grid firm Viridity Energy and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced last week that they have been awarded a $900,000 (£583,000) grant by the State of Pennsylvania that will allow them to complete an ambitious pilot ...