CLIMATE

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.

European carbon emissions futures rose slightly on Monday, unaffected by confirmation from world leaders that a legally binding climate pact will be delayed until 2010 or later.

Agreement in Copenhagen next month on a new pact to fight climate change will encourage long-term investors to move into firms better placed to cope with a likely and eventual rise in the cost of carbon emissions.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, but European negotiators said the move did not imply weaker action.

Asia-Pacific leaders will pledge on Sunday to keep stimulus policies in place to stop the world from sliding back into recession, wrapping up a summit that has been dogged by accusations of U.S. trade protectionism.

When President Barack Obama sits down with his Chinese counterpart next week to talk climate change, it is highly unlikely they will craft a definitive plan to tackle global warming.

U.N. negotiators will next month put farming onto the radar of climate regulations for the first time, but governments face aggressive lobbies and gaps in the science proving the extent of agricultural emissions.

World leaders are setting their sights on completing an international deal on combating global warming by the middle of next year, a U.N. official said

Australia said it will invest $50 million to develop green technologies in India, in a sign Canberra was trying to bridge differences with New Delhi over climate change negotiations.

With little prospect of any new climate change initiatives emerging at an APEC meeting in Singapore this weekend, the climate agenda might instead focus on liberalizing trade in green goods and services.

The United States hopes to reach agreement with China during President Barack Obama's visit on how to record and monitor countries' efforts to fight global warming, a top State Department official said on Tuesday.

The world will have to spend an extra $500 billion to cut carbon emissions for each year it delays implementing a major assault on global warming, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.

A climate change deal is needed not just to ward off global warming, but to ensure a shift from increasingly costly fossil fuels that could lead to a doubling of energy bills, the IEA's chief economist said on Tuesday.