China's Power Pollution to Pass US

Copenhagen summit yields basic deal to fight climate change

(NEWSER) - President Obama and the leaders of China, India, and South Africa reached a "meaningful agreement" tonight in Copenhagen on steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the White House announced. The deal requires the nations of the world to list their actions to curb emissions and sets up a framework for rich countries to pay poor nations in order to cope with the effects of climate change. The agreement is meant to limit global warming to 2° Celsius. More»

China, India helped draft leaked agreement they railed against

(NEWSER) - The “Danish text”—the leaked climate change agreement that infuriated developing nations in Copenhagen and sparked accusations of bullying by rich countries—was actually drafted by a group that included China, India, and Brazil, among other countries. They had “input into the process and product” of the agreement, which seeks to impose stricter limits on developing nations’ emissions, an insider tells the Los Angeles Times . More»

Copenhagen deal closer, but 2050 goal less likely

(NEWSER) - Industrialized nations backed away from long-term carbon cut demands on developing nations yesterday, in the hopes of reaching a deal at December's Copenhagen summit. The US and EU have pushed for a 50% reduction in global carbon emissions by 2050, but China and India refused to sign up, wary of binding themselves to future cuts. As the Financial Times reports, dropping the 2050 demand and focusing on more short-term goals will make it easier to strike a deal even if it disappoints environmentalists and Western governments. More»

(NEWSER) - China's inefficient power plants and heavy reliance on coal are dragging down global efforts to curb climate change, a Greenpeace report warned yesterday. The report found that major Chinese power companies are responsible for a huge amount of the country's coal use and emissions, with the top three producers alone creating more carbon dioxide emissions than the total for all of Britain, the Guardian reports. More»

(NEWSER) - At their recent summit, the G8 nations vowed to cut emissions 80% ... within 41 years. That seems like a pretty lethargic response to a so-called “emergency,” but as Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi said, the effort is virtually futile while “5 billion people continue to behave as they have always behaved.” The real problem, writes George Will of the Washington Post, is that they’re behaving—and industrializing—as they never have before. More»