A tectonic shift in the global climate negotiations got underway with the African group of countries siding with India in demanding that equity and 'common but differentiated responsibilities' be embedded in the talks for a future climate regime. The re-alignments became evident with several key groups of nations submitting their views on how countries should increase their ambition levels for cutting emissions in the coming years. The submissions from Association of Small...

Renewable energy sources are attractive but in a sense, powerless. Maybe, someday we'll all live in houses with photovoltaic roof tiles but in the real world, a 1GW of solar plant will require 60 square miles of solar panels. When the demand increases, you can fire up more coal, but how will you cause the wind to blow and the sun to shine 24x7? The earth is already so disabled...

-EPW   A paradigm shift on global strategy, but will it make a difference to climate change or only pass the buck? The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Durban ended dramatically with a last minute agreement of sorts, which only talks about more talks to arrive at some kind of legally binding instrument that will impose emission curbs on all countries from 2020. The agreement is simply not enough in...

-Bloomberg Talks on EU climate policies may get new impetus after Denmark takes over the rotating presidency in January The European Union (EU) is set to resume talks early next year about moving to a stricter carbon goal after countries worldwide backed its plan to start work toward a climate treaty that will be enacted by 2020. Europe pledged on Sunday after the conclusion of a two-week United Nations (UN) climate summit in...

-The Economic Times   The Durban meet on climate change seems to work out fine for India. The conference has decided on a roadmap to curb emissions of greenhouse-causing gases by both developing and advanced economies; the actual accord is to be firmed up by 2015 and take effect in 2020. The rich, industrialised economies now need to walk the talk and take concrete action to significantly curb their carbon emissions. And...