'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
President Obama's use of inauguration speech time to tout greenhouse gas emission policy may have distanced some event-goers. But as far as world opinion goes, Mr. Obama was golden.
After devoting scant attention to climate change during his re-election campaign, President Obama pivoted sharply on the issue during his inauguration speech and promised to make addressing the threat of global warming a major priority in his second term.
Seeking to control global warming, nearly 200 countries agreed Saturday to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some rich countries, but will only cover about 15 percent of global emissions.
Rich countries are to blame for climate change and should take the lead in forging a global climate pact by 2015, a deadline that "must be met," the head of the United Nations said Wednesday.
Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.
During a year with a monster storm and scorching heat waves, Americans have experienced the kind of freakish weather that many scientists say will occur more often on a warming planet.
During a year with a monster storm and scorching heat waves, Americans have experienced the kind of freakish weather that many scientists say will occur more often on a warming planet.
The European Union on Tuesday backed down from a controversial plan to charge international airlines for the pollution they create on flights to and from the continent, facing retaliation from the U.S., China, and India and other nations who said it encroached on their sovereignty.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill pressed the Obama administration Wednesday to back the cash-strapped American airline industry in a mounting battle over the European Union's plan to charge international carriers extra fees for carbon emissions.
Frustrations with Poland are growing in the European Union after the coal-powered nation for a second time blocked the EU's long-term plans for cutting carbon emissions.
The president of a U.N. climate conference has announced agreement on a program mapping out a new course by all nations to fight climate change over the coming decades.
Negotiators from 194 nations have worked straight through a second night to map out the future fight against global warming, but the top European delegate says time is running out before the conference must close.
As delegates gather in South Africa to plot the next big push against climate change, Western governments are saying it's time to move beyond traditional distinctions between industrial and developing countries and get China and other growing economies to accept legally binding curbs on greenhouse gases.
Those who doubt the earth's climate is changing are a diminishing breed in Europe, according to a new survey released Friday. It shows large majorities in the European Union see climate change as a very serious problem _ and fighting it as an opportunity to create jobs and boost the economy.
Weary delegates from almost 200 nations struggled through night and day Friday to cobble together final decisions wrapping up the U.N. climate conference, small steps to revive the faltering, yearslong talks to guard the Earth against planetary warming.
"We need the U.S. to engage even more," European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard told The Associated Press. "Because that can change the dynamic of the talks."
"Qatar has a GDP per capita which is three times ours in Europe," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard told The Associated Press. "Should ... also the Qataris come up with some financing? So we have tried to encourage them. I don't know what the response will be, but let's see."
