BARCELONA, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - An elusive consensus on the best way to reduce forest carbon emissions took shape Wednesday with the release of a joint statement by forestry companies, green organisations and indigenous peoples.

WARSAW, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Poland is calling for a more gradual introduction of EU measures to slash CO2 emissions by 2020, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

The country, which joined the EU in 2004, supports the measures but would prefer to see them implemented more slowly to protect its economy, Environment Ministry spokesman Michal Milewski told AFP.

WARSAW, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Poland is calling for a more gradual introduction of EU measures to slash CO2 emissions, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

'We are not blocking the EU plan, in fact we fully support it,' Polish Environment Ministry spokesman Michal Milewski told AFP.

PARIS, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - Wall Street's sickness and its contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change.

Tighter budgets, shrinking corporate profits and worries about jobs could crimp manoeuvering room at upcoming UN talks on toughening curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions, sources say.

SYDNEY, Sept 30, 2008 (AFP) - Failure to curb global warming would 'haunt humanity' forever, Australia's top climate adviser said Tuesday as he urged the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050.

SYDNEY, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Australia's leading climate change scientists Monday pleaded with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to override his top adviser on the issue and drastically slash carbon gas emissions.

PARIS, Sept 29, 2008 (AFP) - Climate change will amplify the risk of flooding in northwestern Europe, water scarcity and forest fires on the northern Mediterranean rim and bring milder winters to Scandinavia, the European Environment Agency (EAA) said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - The World Bank said Friday that 10 nations had pledged more than 6.1 billion dollars to its new investment funds aimed at helping developing countries fight global warming.

PARIS, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - China has leapfrogged the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter and India is heading for third place, scientists said on Friday in a report that warned global greenhouse-gas levels were scaling record peaks.

PARIS, Sept 26, 2008 (AFP) - China has leapfrogged the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter and India is heading for third place, scientists said on Friday in a report that warned global greenhouse-gas levels were scaling record peaks.

PRAGUE, Sept 23, 2008 (AFP) - Japan signed a deal Tuesday to buy some of the Czech Republic's unused carbon credits, the Prague environment ministry announced.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - Greenland's ice cap, which covers more than 80 percent of the island, is melting faster than expected because of global warming, a Danish researcher said on Monday.

SYDNEY, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Australia will launch a multi-million dollar international carbon capture and storage institute to fight global warming, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Friday.

OTTAWA, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - Ice unearthed in Canada that stayed frozen for 700,000 years, even in warmer times, should allay fears of melting permafrost venting its vast carbon stores to hasten global warming, a study said Friday.

MUMBAI, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - India is to host a Live Earth concert later this year, featuring stars from the world of music, film and television to raise funds for solar energy, organisers announced Thursday.

MUMBAI, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - The global economic downturn and the crisis in the US financial markets offers the chance for investment in green energy, former US vice-president Al Gore said Thursday.

PARIS, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - Plant and soil can take up to two years to recover from an exceptionally hot year, a finding that has implications for the combat against global warming, according to research published on Wednesday.

GENEVA, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - The ozone hole is larger in 2008 than the previous year but is not expected to reach the size seen two years ago, the World Meteorological Organisation said Tuesday.

PARIS, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, helping to curb the greenhouse gases that drive global warming, according to a study to be published Thursday.

Many environmental policies are based on the assumption that only younger forests, mainly in the tropics, absorb significantly more CO2 than they release.

NEW DELHI, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - India, like other fast-growing emerging nations, must effectively tackle climate change to maintain its strong economic performance, the head of France's international development agency said Wednesday.

SPREMBERG, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - One of Europe's biggest power firms inaugurated a prototype coal-fired power station on Tuesday it says is almost emissions-free but environmentalists were less than impressed.

SCHWARZE PUMPE, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - One of Europe's biggest power firms inaugurated a prototype coal-fired power station on Tuesday it says is almost emissions-free but environmentalists were unimpressed.

BERLIN, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - One of Europe's biggest power companies inaugurates on Tuesday a pilot project using a technology presented as a huge potential breakthrough in the fight against climate change.

But green campaigners have denounced the project as a cosmetic operation that does not really address the problem of global warming.

LONDON, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - People should cut their consumption of meat to help combat climate change, a top United Nations expert told a British Sunday newspaper.

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told The Observer that people should start by having one meat-free day per week then cut back further.

KUTUBDIAPARA, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - Jafar Alam hammers a nail into a rickety wooden boat, repairing the vessel that will help his family earn a living.

Although the fisherman depends on the ocean for his livelihood, he has mixed feelings about the water after rising sea levels drowned his plot of land on Kutubdia Island on Bangladesh's southern coast 22 years ago.

DHAKA, September 7, 2008 (AFP) - Bangladesh wants rich nations to pay the billions of dollars it says it needs to help fight the effects of climate change because they are the biggest environmental culprits.

LONDON, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - British explorer Lewis Gordon Pugh declared Friday he had kayaked further to the top of the world than anyone else ever has, as his bid to reach the North Pole failed -- much to his delight.

MADRID, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - Climate change will melt the 21 remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountains before 2050, a group of Spanish researchers said Friday.

SYDNEY, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - Australia's chief climate advisor Friday urged a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 but conceded this may not save the country's natural assets such as the Great Barrier Reef.

BERN, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - Some 5,000 years ago, on a day with weather much like today's, a prehistoric person tread high up in what is now the Swiss Alps, wearing goat leather pants, leather shoes and armed with a bow and arrows.

PARIS, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Global warming is likely to boost the power of the strongest tropical cyclones, a study released on Wednesday says.

An additional one degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) in sea temperatures in tropical regions where cyclones breed could lead to a nearly one-third rise in the number of the most powerful storms, it says.

OTTAWA, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Two ice shelves in Canada's far north have lost massive sections since August while a third ice shelf now is adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said researchers Wednesday who blamed climate change.

THE HAGUE, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Low-lying Netherlands must spend billions of euros on dike upgrades and coastal expansion to avoid the ravages of rising sea levels due to global warming, experts warned Wednesday.

The government must spend up to 1.5 billion euros every year to 2100 on safety measures, said a report compiled by a government appointed commission.

GENEVA, September 2, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said Tuesday it has re-elected chairman Rajendra Pachauri for a second term.

Pachauri has been head of the organisation since 2002 and oversaw its seminal assessment report in 2007 which gave graphic forecasts of the risks posed by global warming.

GENEVA, September 1, 2008 (AFP) - The United Nations said Monday that swathes of mountain ranges worldwide risk losing their glaciers by the end of the century if global warming continues at its projected rate.

PARIS, August 31, 2008 (AFP) - Scientists Sunday said they could no longer rule out a fast-track melting of the Greenland icesheet -- a prospect, once the preserve of doomsayers, that would see much of the world's coastline drowned by rising seas.

GENEVA, August 31, 2008 (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he expects 'greater leadership' on climate change from whichever candidate succeeds George W. Bush as President of the United States in 2009.

OSLO, August 31, 2008 (AFP) - British explorer and adventurer Lewis Gordon Pugh has begun a kayak expedition to the North Pole aimed at drawing attention to the dramatic impact of melting polar ice in the Arctic, his blog said Sunday.