External News

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday the world would likely not be able to reach agreement on climate change-related actions without first striking a deal on climate financing. Addressing the Seventh African Development Forum (ADF-VII), which is dedicated to climate change, he said it would, however, be 'challenging' for developed countries to honour a pledge made at Copenhagen last year to raise US$100 billion annually to finance climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing countries.

Lumber futures rose the maximum permitted by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, reaching a four month high, as the U.S. disputes the pricing of wood imported from Canada, the biggest foreign supplier reports Bloomberg.

A large fall in greenhouse gas emissions brought about by a reduction of industrial activity led by the economic crisis has put the EU on a fast track to meet its Kyoto commitments, but Austria, Denmark and Italy are falling behind, according to new figures.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has just announced that its approval of the NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Nova Scotia Power's proposal to burn trees to create power.

The voluntary carbon market remains sluggish, hit hard by the global financial crisis and ongoing worldwide recession, but life is flickering in the forest carbon segment.

Voluntary carbon buyers are in the market but taking much longer to carry out their buying programmes knowing they are in a good position to hold out and squeeze prices down, says David Pontis, an emissions broker at Tullet Prebon. Organisations are still offsetting but the market appears to be 70 per cent sellers and 30 per cent buyers currently, Pontis said.