GLOBAL WARMING

Japan unveiled plans on Wednesday for greenhouse gas cuts over the coming decade only marginally deeper than its current U.N. commitments, a step green groups say threatens to deal a blow to global climate talks.

NASA announced on Wednesday it will grant about $8 million to fund educational projects about global climate change.

China must press ahead with new ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions for the world to have hope of containing global warming, a U.S. energy official said, urging cooperation to end distrust between the two biggest emitters.

Japan should shun a politically inexplicable option of a rise in greenhouse gas emissions when it sets a 2020 target in coming days, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.

Climate change accounts for more than 300,000 deaths per year around the world and $125 billion of economic losses annually, as this factor creates condition where more people feel the effects of natural disasters or suffer environmental degradation, the Global Humanitarian Forum said in a report Friday.

The melting ice sheet this century in Greenland is a bigger threat to major U.S. coastal cities than previously believed, according to a new government study.

The health sector can play a leadership role in reducing the magnitude and consequences of global warming by reducing its climate footprint. These efforts, some of which are already underway, can greatly reduce the serious health threats posed by global warming and set an example for other sectors.

Ties between the United States and China could be transformed by cooperation on climate change, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, linking environmental concerns to human rights and the rule of law.

Top emitters of greenhouse gases tried on Monday to break a deadlock about sharing the burden of cuts in a U.N. climate pact, and Washington rejected charges that it was lagging Europe in fighting global warming.

Industry should play its part in the fight against climate change by persuading governments to aid carbon cuts rather than lobbying against them, the U.N. Secretary-General told a business conference on Sunday.

Global warming could be worse than expected this century, rising more than five degrees, if lawmakers don’t move to enact policies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said today.

A planned new U.N. climate pact is shaping up to be a mildly tougher version of the existing Kyoto Protocol rather than a bold treaty to save what U.S. President Barack Obama has called a planet in peril.

There is no consensus at this time on the climate bill, said U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

China must swiftly decouple its rapid economic growth from rising carbon dioxide emissions for global greenhouse gas levels to stay manageable, the authors of a new study said, urging sweeping support to help that transition.

Countries such as the United States can come up with ideas for a U.N. climate pact beyond an April 24 deadline, the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Friday.

Former vice president Al Gore testified before the Congress on Friday that he supports a climate legislation which he says, will solve problems with the economy, climate and national security.

Democrats in Congress worked on Thursday to win over U.S. lawmakers skeptical of climate change legislation, while climate leader California took another major step with low-carbon rules on fuels that could be copied nationwide.

Residents of the Thai capital produce as much carbon pollution as New Yorkers and more than Londoners, a U.N.-backed study released on Wednesday shows.

A $6 cardboard box that uses solar power to cook food, sterilize water and could help 3 billion poor people cut greenhouse gases, has won a $75,000 prize for ideas to fight global warming.

Global warming is likely to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise seen by the European Union and many developing nations as a trigger for dangerous change, a Reuters poll of scientists showed on Tuesday.

China, India and other developing nations joined forces on Wednesday to urge rich countries to make far deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions than planned by 2020 to slow global warming.