CLIMATE

For anyone trying to understand why the United States is having such a hard time joining an international effort to combat global warming, a short drive west from Washington to one of the smaller states in the country might explain a lot.

A clutch of major emerging economies including China and India have forged a united front to put pressure on developed countries at next month's climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

Three little letters could spell big trouble for global climate change negotiations even after China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced its first firm goals to curb emissions.

Denmark said on Monday it was consulting governments on several proposals for a U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen and could not put forward a compromise text until next month's meeting.

Australia's major rivers are shrinking and farms are gripped by drought as scientists warn of climate change, but that has not convinced some skeptical politicians to back carbon-trade laws.

The White House gave a mixed reaction on Friday to China's plans to cut its carbon intensity levels, welcoming the proposal but saying the world would watch whether Beijing kept its promises to tackle climate change.

As the world wrangles over how to fight climate change, with national leaders to meet in Copenhagen early next month, capital markets are gearing up to handle the consequences if the effort fails.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Friday for the creation of a $10 billion a year fund to help developing countries battle climate change.

Three little letters could spell big trouble for global climate change negotiations even after China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced its first firm goals to curb emissions.

China will step up construction of major projects related to energy conservation and environmental protection next year, the ruling Communist Party agreed on Friday.

China is preparing to unveil a target to curb carbon emissions ahead of a major climate summit in Copenhagen next month, but experts and negotiators worry Beijing's much-anticipated figure may disappoint.

The United States unveiled a plan to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 on Wednesday and said President Barack Obama will attend U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month -- before other world leaders show up.

Rich and poor states grouped in the Commonwealth and representing a quarter of the world's population hope to create critical momentum toward a global climate deal when they meet in the Caribbean this week.

China will rate the success of the Copenhagen climate summit by the actual content of any deal reached, a top negotiator said on Wednesday, in Beijing's first hint it accepts there will not be a legally binding pact.

Any threat by the United States to slap fees on imports from countries it perceives as weak on cutting carbon emissions could hamper trade relations and delay international efforts to combat global warming.

British companies are failing to take the strategic implications of climate change seriously and are missing out on investment opportunities, a study sponsored by three major UK investors said Monday.

A team of unidentified hackers has managed to steal confidential global warming data after breaking into the e-mail server of a prominent, British climate-research center and posted them online - showing that climate scientists conspired to overstate that man has caused climate change. Kevin Trenberth, of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, told the Associated Press that he believes the hackers did this to fuel skeptics theory that that climate change was not man-ma...

A team of unidentified hackers has managed to steal confidential global warming data after breaking into the e-mail server of a prominent, British climate-research center and posted them online - showing that climate scientists conspired to overstate that man has caused climate change.

The European Union's Swedish presidency urged Russia on Wednesday to do more to combat climate change and discussed Russian energy supplies to Europe, which could be threatened by a dispute with Ukraine.

China on Monday distanced itself from proposals to delay a binding climate pact to 2010, but might be willing to sign up to a political deal at climate talks next month if it includes strong commitments from rich nations.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday next month's climate talks in Copenhagen should cut a deal with immediate operational effect, even if its original aim of a legally binding pact is not achievable.