– A round-up of the day’s top climate change stories
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USA: President Obama on Monday nominated MIT professor Ernest Moniz as energy secretary, Environmental Protection Agency official Gina McCarthy as EPA administrator (Washington Post)
The National Journal has written an engaging ‘4 things you never knew’ about Gina McCarthy – they include the fact she is a ‘tough-talking and enthusiastic Bostonian’ and a longtime government official who once world for Mitt Romney.
One of her first tasks will be to oversee the implementation of EPA measures to tackle climate change by shutting polluting power plants.
UNFCCC: Divisions over plans to develop a global climate deal by 2015 appear as wide as ever after two influential groups of developing nations accused rich countries of undermining negotiations. (RTCC)
Oil: China has overtaken the US as the world’s largest net importer of oil, in a generational shift that will shake up the geopolitics of natural resources. (FT)
CCS: UK renewable energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects will have a second chance to apply for millions of pounds in EU support when applications for funding reopen in April. (Business Green)
UK: Talks between EDF Energy and the Government over building Britain’s first new nuclear plant in a generation are at “crisis point” and could fail within weeks because of deadlock over subsidies for the project. (Telegraph)
Arctic: A study suggests that global warming is opening up a first-time chance to cruise through the Northwest Passage, which could translate into big savings in time and money for shippers. (USA Today)
Australia: Climate change was a major driving force behind a string of extreme weather events that alternately scorched and soaked large sections of Australia in recent months, according to a report issued Monday by the government’s Climate Commission. (New York Times)