The climate talks ended with uncertainty over the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol and no agreement on binding emission reductions. The difference between optimists and pessimists is that the optimists have more fun, joked Elias Freig-Delgado, a member of Mexico's Ministry of Finance Special CO{-2} Task Force and the working groups of the U.N. High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. Mr. Delgado was speaking at the Forest Day meeting during...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appeared to back the environmental evangelism blessed by Rahul Gandhi and pursued by Jairam Ramesh, saying “the business practices of some corporate houses have come under intense public scrutiny for their perceived ethical deficit”.Although the Prime Minister’s statement, made at India Corporate Week, carries echoes of the corruption charges now swirling around the country, the preceding sentences suggest environment issues were on his mind.Immediately after...

In response to growing frustration that the U.N. climate negotiations are not producing real-world results, individual nations, states and business are cobbling together patchwork solutions to preserve forests, produce clean energy and scrub pollution from the air.Under this new approach, businesses in California will offset their greenhouse gas emissions by funding tropical forest preservation in Mexico and Brazil; Japan will help pay for nuclear power plants in developing nations; and...

While the Gujarat government may have announced a 'farmer-friendly' land acquisition policy developed by the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation's (GIDC), farmers have so far given mixed reactions to it. Right ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit scheduled in January,GIDC has gone all out to ensure a hassle-free land acquisition process, as the upcoming meet is likely to generate demand for large tracts of land for industry.Saurabh Patel, state industries minister,...

EU wants balancing package with adaptation, technology, finance, REDD plus and capacity-buildingAs the high-level segment of the U.N. climate change conference began here on Tuesday, the second period of commitment to the Kyoto Protocol (KP) has become a contentious issue. After Japan's statement on the opening day of the conference last week that it was not in favour of committing itself to a second phase, things had taken a downturn.The...