Science News

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a state regulatory panel to resume consideration a petition to establish a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

Lawyers for the group, New Energy Economy, and the regulatory panel had asked the high court to overturn a preliminary injunction that Lovington Judge William Shoobridge granted in April while he considered the merits of the case.

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The Canadian government quietly cut its greenhouse gas emissions target for 2010-2012 this week, unleashing a firestorm of criticism from the opposition on Friday.

It outlines CO2 cuts of five million tonnes in 2010, followed by eight million and 10 million tonnes fewer emissions in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

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China, the worlds top source of the toxic gases blamed for global warming, said Thursday it was “not very optimistic” that its efforts to slash emissions were working.

The countrys vice minister for environmental protection, Zhang Lijun, told a press conference that sulphur dioxide emissions had risen by 1.

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The European Commission, under pressure from states and industry, on Wednesday cooled its enthusiasm for the EU to unilaterally commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.

A day earlier Germany, France and others had voiced opposition to the main thrust of the paper, that the EU should consider unilaterally deepening its pledged emissions cuts from 20 percent, as currently agreed, to 30 percent by 2020.

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France and Germany gave a less than warm response Tuesday to a EU Commission suggestion that Europe unilaterally binds itself to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020.

“We have shared our concerns at the commissions proposal,” French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said.

Their criticism came on the eve of the publication of a commission paper laying out reasons for deepening Europes emission cuts from the currently agreed 20 percent compared with 1990 levels.

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US President Barack Obama on Friday mandated a new national policy on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing fuel efficiency for pollution-spewing trucks.

“I believe that its possible in the next 20 years for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half the pollution that they do today,” Obama said.

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The European Commission will next week urge EU nations to hike their targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 to 30 percent, saying the costs and risks to industry are less than previously estimated.

Until now Europe has agreed only to cut emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

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The United States has to lead the global fight on climate change by breaking with business-as-usual and setting tough standards for the amount of greenhouse gases it emits into the atmosphere, US scientists said Wednesday.

That limit would correspond to a reduction of US emissions from 1990 levels by 80 to 50 percent, depending whether the upper or lower “budgetary level” is chosen, and would require “a major departure from business-as-usual emission trends,” the report said.

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Environmental leaders pleaded Monday for greater US government commitment to helping preserve the worlds endangered tropical rainforests, which are seen as key in the global fight against climate change.

“To give you an idea of what that means in terms of scale, that is larger that the entire emissions of the European Union,” he said.

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US senators on Wednesday unveiled a long-awaited plan on climate change, proposing to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020 off 2005 levels through regulation of power, industry and transportation.

After months of fine-tuning, Kerry and independent Senator Joe Lieberman proposed a bill that would put the onus on heavy industry and power plants to cut carbon emissions, which scientists blame for global warming.

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