Australian Carbon Farming Initiative

The Australian Government has approved a methodology that will allow farmers and land owners to generate extra revenue while reducing carbon pollution by planting permanent native forest trees.Australian Government's CFI  |  Farm Weekly Australia

Scotland could generate £2bn annually by exporting electriicty

According to a report by think-tank Reform Scotland the country could generate £2bn annually by exporting electricity and becoming a world leader in new energy technology if energy policy was fully devolved from Westminster. The report, Powering Scotland, said energy powers should be formally devolved to Holyrood so that the Scottish Government can formulate a policy that truly meets the country’s needs.

"This would increase Scottish exports by £2 billion per annum, equivalent to around 17% of manufacturing exports to the rest of the UK".
Reform Scotland

Durban Climate Deal or No Deal?

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) confirmed that attendees delivered a "breakthrough on the future of the international community’s response to climate change". A universal legal agreement on climate change will be adopted as soon as possible, but no later than 2015.

Governments also agreed to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from January 2013 and to "get the Green Climate Fund up and running" to deliver financial support of developing countries to reduce emissions.
UNFCCC
 Climate activists are saying that this is still not enough and it will mean that the 2 degrees Celcius rise will be breached and it now be 4 degrees. Some even called the deal useless. Whilst the new agreement will be decided no later than 2015, it is not schedulded to come into effect until 2020 which many are saying is too late.
Further Views and links EcoAnalytics

Stop the Annual Charade of UN Climate Talks

A must read persepctive on Durban COP17 from Michael Liebreich saying it won't work and summising that the UNFCCC should be broken into three tracks.

1. A forum for the top 20 emitting nations to work on mitigation, or controlling the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.
2. A group to work on helping the poorest nations on Earth deal with adaptation, which should unequivocally be funded by the biggest historical emitters.
3. A group to deal with eliminating deforestation, which is far too complex to be seen through a climate and carbon lens alone.

Bloomberg

Met Office Climate Change Assessment

The results of a major new scientific assessment of climate change assessment commissioned by Chris Huhne, the UK's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and lead by the Met Office Hadley Centre studied 24 different countries, from developed to developing. It notes that all the countries in the study have warmed since the 1960s and that the occurrence of extremely warm temperatures has increased whilst extremely cold temperatures have become less frequent.

Key findings:

• All countries studied show an increase in the number of people at risk from coastal flooding due to sea level rise. By the end of the century, in the worst case scenario, up to about 49 million additional people could be at risk, with the majority being in Bangladesh, China, India, Egypt and Indonesia;
• The majority of countries studied are projected to see a significant increased risk of river flooding;
• The production of staple food crops may decline in parts of Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Russia, Turkey, and the USA. In some cases, crop yield increases may be expected for example in Germany and Japan. Food security is highlighted as a growing risk before 2040 in Bangladesh and India;
• Water resources are threatened by drought and growing demand. Areas highlighted as likely to suffer increased water stress include parts of Italy, France and the southwest USA. In some cases however, water stress may decline in some regions.

Met Office | Country Specific Reports