Climate Change News

Time Magazine: Like much of the rest of the world, Europe has invested heaps of money and even more hope in the promise of biofuels to provide secure supplies of environmentally friendly energy. But now rising food prices, trade tensions and social unrest are prompting a rethink of the E.U.'s ambitious hopes for running its cars and trucks on biofuel. The latest call for a change of course came from economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who this week urged ...

Reuters: Indigenous rights groups praised Peru's petroleum agency on Thursday for excluding areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oil and gas concessions. Rights groups say the decision is a turnaround for Perupetro, which previously had indicated it might open up the protected areas for bidding. "This decision acknowledges a certain standard ... that there will be no exploration or extraction of natural resources on lands inhabited by un-contacted tribes," ...

Radio Australia: China's President Hu Jintao has expressed hope that Japan will share environmental technology with his country. He made the statement while touring a new recycling factory near Tokyo which processes used bottles and electronic devices. Mr Hu says his administration wants to focus on green businesses. China's pollution has been rapidly growing as its economy soars, posing particular concern for neighbours such as Japan and South Korea. Mr Hu and the Japanese prime ...

Marketplace: Renita Jablonski: One of Britain's leading energy companies has warned wind power is becoming unprofitable in the U.K. From London, Stephen Beard reports. Stephen Beard: Centrica says the economics of offshore wind farms are now marginal. The cost of construction doubled in the past two years. The soaring price of steel and copper are mainly to blame. This is the second attack on the viability of wind power here in recent days. Last week, the Shell Oil company delivered a devastating ...

Reuters:  A senior World Bank official said on Thursday that countries should not greatly increase biofuels production until there is more clarity about how much they have contributed to the global food price crisis. Juergen Voegele, director for agriculture and rural development department at the World Bank, cautioned against shifting a lot of the blame to biofuels but also said massive subsidies for the biofuel industry was not helping the crisis. "We don't think it's ...

Age: AN EMISSIONS trading scheme is likely to increase petrol prices by about 10 cents a litre, adding pain for motorists and challenging the Reserve Bank's goal of reining in inflation by 2010. As world oil prices continued their record-breaking run, hitting a peak of almost $US124 ($A132) on the New York futures exchange, energy experts, economists and petrol companies said motorists would pay even more at the bowser once a trading scheme began. Investment bank Goldman Sachs also ...

AAP: There is no end in sight to the drought afflicting the Murray-Darling Basin and the big dry could become a permanent feature of eastern Australia, experts warn. The latest Murray System Drought Update contains nothing but bad news for farmers and communities struggling to cope. Even grimmer news is that it could become worse next year. Meteorologists have warned another dreaded El Nino weather pattern - which brings dry weather to eastern Australia - could be on the ...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Scientists in Hobart are starting small in their bid to discover the answers to one of the world's biggest problems: they are researching krill in the hope of finding out what impact climate change may be having in the Southern Ocean. The shrimp-like krill is one of the smallest animals in the Antarctic, but Dr Andrew Constable from the Australian Antarctic Division says it could help unlock some of the secrets of one of the world's most complex ecosystems. "Krill is the ...

Times: British great tits have proved themselves to be far more adaptable to climate change than their counterparts in the Netherlands. In the past half century the great tits living in Wytham Woods (also known as the Woods of Hazel) near Oxford, have brought forward the date that they lay their eggs by an average of two weeks. The advance is a response to climate change and the timings of the egg-laying showed that the birds tracked the variations in temperature. The ...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The latest climate change science suggests Australia's food bowl should plan for permanently reduced autumn rainfall. The Murray Darling Basin Commission's May drought update also shows little prospect of an improvement in the seriously low water availability in the lower basin. Critical urban needs, and rural stock and domestic requirements, are only reasonably assured, after some water was held over by state governments from last year. Commission chief executive Wendy ...