CLIMATE CHANGE

An “innovative” global tax on financial transactions should help pay for the nearly $150 billion in expenses needed by 2020 to fight climate change in developing countries, the leaders of France and the United Kingdom said on Friday.

A draft climate pact unveiled on Friday revived hopes that U.N. talks might be able to pin down an international deal to fight global warming, but developing nations said they needed more cash from the rich.

Industry has struggled to sway U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen because of a remote negotiating process and a lobby split between climate policy winners and losers, executives said on Friday.

A steel plant in northeast England due to close in January will likely get its 2010 quota of free European carbon permits, a windfall worth around 100 million euros ($147.3 million), the UK government said on Friday.

A 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by rich nations would be a pretty good result for a U.N. climate summit even though it falls short of developing nations' hopes, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Tuesday.

A draft climate pact unveiled on Friday revived hopes that U.N. talks might be able to pin down an international deal to fight global warming, but developing nations said they needed more cash from the rich.

The world should at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with rich nations taking the lead, according to a first draft text on Friday seeking to break deadlock on a new climate pact at U.N. talks.

First draft proposals to scale up global carbon markets, under U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, would soften the rule for project developers to prove their emissions cuts are tougher than normal trends.

European leaders promised on Friday to provide developing countries with 7.3 billion euros ($10.8 billion) over three years to try to win their support for a climate change deal in Copenhagen.

Tokyo is considering ways to reflect in its 2020 greenhouse gas emission-cut goal the value of a global contribution to emissions cuts from Japan's energy-saving technology, a vice trade minister said on Friday.

A sustained rise in European carbon prices in 2010 needs renewed buying from utilities rather than a positive outcome from U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, Barclays Capital's head of environmental markets said.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Thursday to break the deadlock at climate change talks in Copenhagen, even though many nations accused the United States of lacking ambition.

China's top climate envoy called on President Barack Obama to increase a U.S. offer to cut greenhouse gases, and said it would discuss a 2050 emissions goal only if rich nations offered more cash and carbon cuts.

U.N. climate talks are making progress on sharing green technologies but rich nations need to offer deeper cuts in carbon emissions by 2020 to help unlock a deal, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Thursday. There's a general recognition that we need a technology mechanism, as part of a U.N. climate convention, Yvo de Boer told Reuters on the sidelines of December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen, when asked about progress so far.

Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. President Barack Obama urged leaders on Thursday to confront climate change and warned of dire consequences if the world did nothing to curb rising carbon emissions.

NASA has given out a grant to the University of Georgia that will help undergraduate professors to observe and report on the effects of climate change on birds.

Fraudulent trading in European Union carbon emissions credits in the past 18 months has led to more than 5 billion euros in tax revenue losses for several EU nations, European police agency Europol said in a statement.

California's global warming law, similar in scope to a measure under consideration by the U.S. Congress, will have a negligible effect on the bottom lines of small businesses, a study showed Wednesday.

The United States supports taking early action to liberalize trade in products that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and believes that could spur progress in broader world trade talks on environmental goods and services, a U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama's top aides promised on Wednesday robust negotiations toward a global climate change deal this month, but firmly stated the United States does not owe the world reparations for centuries of carbon pollution

Al Gore, the former U.S. Vice President and noted environmentalist, says that recently leaked emails from East Anglia University will do nothing to counter the scientific consensus about climate change.