Environment News

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Fossils of three new species of dinosaurs have been discovered in Australia, including a meat-eater larger than Velociraptor from the Jurassic Park movies, suggesting Australia may have a more complex prehistoric past.

TOKYO (AFP) - India's foreign minister on Friday called for an ambitious but fair greenhouse gas reduction target under a new climate treaty, saying any pact should not hinder the economic growth of developing countries.

OTTAWA (AFP) - The Liberal Party, Canada's main opposition group, warned the government Thursday against blocking an international deal to combat climate change, due to be negotiated in Copenhagen this December.

PARIS (AFP) - Climate change has caused a flock of wild sheep on a remote northern Scottish island to become smaller, according to an unusual investigation published on Thursday.

MADRID (AFP) - Spain's government said Thursday it would allow the country's oldest nuclear reactor to operate beyond its intended 40-year lifespan, reversing a policy of gradually phasing out nuclear power.

WASHINGTON - Like the wool sweater that emerges from the dryer a size too small, global warming seems to be shrinking sheep.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The nation's largest utility can dump millions of tons of coal ash from a Tennessee spill into an Alabama landfill, federal regulators said Thursday, despite criticism that the plan is unfair to one of Alabama's poorest counties.

JAKARTA (AFP) - An elephant calf has starved to death in Indonesia, the eighth endangered Sumatran elephant to have died in the wild since May, environmental group WWF said Thursday.

PARIS (AFP) - The world's paramount authority on species loss warned on Thursday that pledges to roll back the threat to biodiversity by 2010 were running into the sand.

STOCKHOLM - The chances of concluding a new global climate change pact remain dim unless China, India and Brazil make significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as well a senior Swedish climate change official said Thursday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia on Thursday pledged 52 million dollars (42 million US) to improve water quality on the Great Barrier Reef, which is coming under increasing threat from toxic chemicals and climate change.

BRADFORD, Pa. - A northwestern Pennsylvania man was sentenced to two to 10 years in state prison for conspiring with his son to cause an oil spill in the Allegheny National Forest because he was upset with his former employer.

BEIJING (AFP) - China said on Thursday that it was "firmly" opposed to provisions in a new US clean energy bill that will make it easier to impose trade penalties on nations that reject limits to globe-warming pollution.

BEIJING - China said Thursday it opposed part of a landmark U.S. bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying tariffs should not be imposed on countries that do not cut emissions.

GENEVA - Governments are failing to stem a rapid decline in biodiversity that is now threatening extinction for almost half the world's coral reef species, a third of amphibians and a quarter of mammals, a leading environmental group warned Thursday.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Nearly 2,300 plant species are at risk of disappearing from flora-rich Brazil, many more than once thought, according to an academic study released on Wednesday.

NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenya on Wednesday unveiled extensive plans to invest in renewable energy, including free distribution of one million energy-saving light bulbs in exchange for ordinary bulbs.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Sweden kicked off its six-month European Union presidency Wednesday amid fears the bloc's unresolved institutional woes may overshadow its priorities of tackling climate change and the economic crisis.

MANILA (AFP) - Wildlife officials have foiled an apparent attempt to smuggle rare 200-year-old trees out of the Philippines, the government said Wednesday.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch capital Amsterdam announced Wednesday a cash bonus of up to 1,000 euros (1,400 dollars) for residents who scrap their old cars to buy newer, environmentally friendly ones.

TOKYO (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for Japanese companies to help fight global warming through green investment and ambitious emission cut targets, a business lobby said.

Canada seen worst of G8 not curbing climate change

ROME (Reuters) - With only five months to go until a new global pact on climate change, none of the Group of Eight nations is doing enough to curb global warming, with Canada and the United States ranking bottom, a study said on Wednesday.

ROME (Reuters) - With only five months to go until a new global pact on climate change, none of the Group of Eight nations is doing enough to curb global warming, with Canada and the United States ranking bottom, a study said on Wednesday.

PARIS (AFP) - Canada ranks last among the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations for tackling climate change while Germany is top, the green group WWF and the German insurance giant Allianz reported on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - The future of one of the world's rarest animals, the Borneo rhino, depends on action taken to protect the forest reserves where it lives, conservation group WWF said Wednesday.

TOKYO (AFP) - The Group of Eight rich nations summit in Italy next week is likely to call on industrialised countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a report said Wednesday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A federal court judge in Sacramento has upheld California regulations that require oceangoing ships using the state's ports to use cleaner fuel in order to reduce harmful emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency gave Calif. go-ahead to impose new restrictions geared to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The long-standing request, which had been denied by the Bush administration, would clear the way for a law to be enacted requiring new cars to increase their fuel economy 40% by 2016.

NEW YORK - Nuclear power giant Areva said Tuesday it would sell its transmission and development division in a bid to raise cash to shore up its balance sheet and fund future investments.