World CO2 up 39 percent by 2030 without new policy: EIA

Global emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will jump more than 39 percent by 2030 without new policies and binding pacts to cut global warming pollution, the top U.S. energy forecast agency said on Wednesday.

Too much emphasis on emission targets: Chu

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said on Tuesday that setting exact targets for carbon dioxide emissions had led to an “over-obsession” with numbers, as the United States moved closer to overhauling its energy policy.

Rising stars of the sea: Will global warming benefit starfish?

Increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the world’s oceans may actually speed the growth of starfish, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results contrast with previous findings of global warming’s negative effects on the five-armed fish’s relatives.

Why the Right to Emit Carbon Dioxide Is Given Away in U.S. Climate Change Bill

A massive climate bill has taken its first step forward in the House, its path paved by the giveaway of allowances — free greenhouse gas emission permits designed to mute the economic impact of a carbon cap-and-trade program.

Carbon capture success in Wisconsin

Capturing the carbon dioxide that wafts up the smokestack after burning coal (or any other fossil fuel) has been identified by everyone from President Obama to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a critical technology to help keep the lights on while combating climate change. And now there has been yet another successful demonstration that the technology to capture that CO2 from flue gas might actually work: chilled ammonia can capture more than 88 percent of the greenhouse gas before it goes up the smokestack.

Solar Forecasts and Climate Change

Ultimately, global warming can be blamed on the sun. It’s the sun’s light that bathes the Earth and then gets sent back towards space as heat. But some of that heat gets blocked by those pesky carbon dioxide molecules building up in the atmosphere-inexorably warming our planet.

U.S. CO2 emissions fall sharpest since ‘82

U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use fell 2.8 percent in 2008, as a depressed economy forced motorists and businesses to cut back on power use.

U.S. energy CO2 output drops record 2.8 percent

U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas — carbon dioxide — from energy sources, such as gasoline, diesel and coal, fell a record 2.8 percent last year as the recession hit consumer demand for fuel, the government said on Wednesday.

Snorkel teams can assess climate impact on corals

Teams of snorkel-wearing scientists could be warriors against the ravages of climate change on coral reefs, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Wednesday.

Cement makers eye big cuts to greenhouse gases

Nearly a third of the world’s cement industry has united on a strategy to cut global warming gases in a way that will not slow a construction boom in poor countries, backers of the initiative said on Wednesday.

Climate Bill Could Be a $750 Billion Boon for Consumers, Study Finds

Opponents of climate legislation paint efforts to reduce carbon emissions as “cap and tax” policy, but a new analysis of the current House proposal to curb greenhouse gas emissions finds that consumers would receive around $750 billion in direct and indirect handouts and subsidies through 2030 to offset the higher energy costs.

House panel to begin debating climate change bill

U.S. lawmakers were set on Tuesday to begin wrangling over a climate change bill aimed at reducing carbon dioxide and other pollutants with Republicans objecting that the legislation would burden the economy with higher energy costs.