A summary of today’s top climate and clean energy stories.
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Philippe Martin, Energy Minister for France, has announced a new green tax (pic: Flickr / parti socialiste
France: France will introduce a new type of green tax, Energy Minister Philippe Martin announced on Thursday, but gave no details about what form it would take or when details would become available. (Reuters)
Alaska: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy will travel to Alaska next week to highlight the President’s commitment to addressing climate change and its impact on the state. Administrator McCarthy plans to visit the Portage Glacier near Anchorage to survey the effects of climate change on the region. (EPA)
Research: It’s bad enough that invasive species wreak havoc on ecosystems. Now scientists have found that some of these pests also increase greenhouse gas emissions by prompting widespread use of insecticides. (Conservation)
Columbia: The UN climate convention and partners at the development bank of Latin America (CAF) aim to use the regional collaboration centre to drive interest in the Clean Development Mechanism. (RTCC)
South Korea: South Korea has launched ‘Armadillo’, a folding electric car. The four-whee-drive, all-electric car can hit speeds of 60km/h and when folded three can fit into one average-sized parking space. (RTCC)
UK: New regulations to ensure energy generated from forests, crops and waste is sustainable provoked a fresh row on Thursday over biomass power, with the government plans failing to reassure the industry of future financial support. (Guardian)
Brazil: Around 40% of beef and 85% of leather production serve markets that are potentially sensitive to environmental concerns, providing a partial explantation as to why Brazilian producers have made recent commitments to reducing deforestation for cattle production, finds a new study published in Tropical Conservation Science. (Monga Bay)
US: Mimicking the way plants turn sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air into energy and oxygen, the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology is in a race to brew fuel for cars – synthetic gasoline – from little more than water and sunshine. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Panama: The U.N.’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (UN-REDD) program may be faltering in Panama due to its failure to build capacity for indigenous people who should play a central role in the initiative, argue researchers writing in the journal Nature. (Monga Bay)