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Source: Washington Post - STOCKHOLM — As governments bicker over who should do what to slow the pace of global warming, the U.N.’s climate chief is increasingly looking to business leaders to show the way forward to a low-carbon future. Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press that her efforts to reach out to high-profile executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Virgin Group represent “a deeper recognition of the fact that the private sector can contribute in a decisive way.”

Source: Inter Press Service - VANCOUVER, Canada, Feb 21, 2012 (IPS) - Amid revelations of a well-funded U.S. organisation's plans to deliberately distort climate science, scientists and journalists at a major scientific conference called on the Canadian government to stop its muzzling of scientists.

Source: Huffington Post - While some see the threat of climate change as pitting the needs of the planet against those of progress and business, some brave entrepreneurs will seize the opportunity that efforts to build a more sustainable future will create.

Source: Times of India - NEW DELHI: In a consolidation of the Durban results, the environment and forests ministry has notified inter-ministerial groups that will advise on key elements of India's stance on climate negotiations for future. The groups, with officials from various ministries including power and renewable energy, will advise and guide the negotiating team through issues which are to be taken up through the year and at the full meeting of all countries in Qatar.

Source: RTCC - The UN system to transfer climate technology is not about rich nations giving to poor, according to a member of the UN climate agency’s Technology Executive Committee. The goal of the mechanism is to shift the technology required to reduce the impact of climate change, to countries where it is needed most.

Source: Bloomberg - China probably won’t allow United Nations carbon credits in its cap-and-trade program unless they are approved by a domestic regulator, according to an official at the Shanghai Environment & Energy Exchange.

Source: Daily Nation - Kenya has been identified as one of the countries with huge untapped renewable energy resources. A United Nations Environmental Programme report launched on Tuesday at Gigiri, Nairobi, says Kenya, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Sudan and Chad have particularly significant potential.

Source: San Jose Mercury News - For the past two decades, Peter Gleick has earned a reputation as a nationally known expert on water and climate issues, winning a MacArthur "genius award," penning a long list of scientific articles and testifying before Congress. But over the past two days, the 55-year-old Berkeley resident has found himself at the center of a national maelstrom of his own making: using a false name to obtain confidential documents from a pro-industry think tank known for minimizing the risks of global warming.

Source: TPM - 21 hours ago - Climate change denial has become a litmus test for modern Republicans, but Rick Santorum, in his fondness for melding faith and government, has become one of the precious few to cite the Bible as evidence that the science-accepting crowd has it all wrong — and apparently the first to bring that thinking to the presidential stage.

Source: Montreal Gazette - Two Canadian climate-change scientists from the University of Victoria say the public reaction to their recently published commentary has missed their key message: that all forms of fossil fuels, including the oilsands and coal, must be regulated for the world to avoid dangerous global warming.

By Invitation.

Source: Huffington Post - "When our political leaders can't agree on whether climate change is a threat, the majority of people can't either. The public is divided because our political leaders are polarized." This is the upshot of a recent study on U.S. public attitudes towards climate change according to one of its lead authors, J. Craig Jenkins of Ohio State University.

Source: The Guardian - The extreme Russian heatwave of 2010 was made three times more likely because of man-made climate change, according to a study led by climate scientists and number-crunched by home PC users. But the size of the event was mostly within natural limits, said the scientists, laying to rest a controversy last year over whether the extreme weather was natural or human-induced.

Source: Scientific American - "Game over" for climate change. So opines NASA climatologist Jim Hansen when it comes to the development of the Canadian tar sands. And one big way to unleash the estimated 170 billion barrels of heavy oil stuck in Alberta's sands is to build a pipeline to the world's biggest oil consumer: the U.S.

Source: The Hindu - A recent international conference on climate change and sustainable agriculture in New Delhi brought forth the shocking realisation that there are no conclusive studies in India on the prospective impact of climate change on the agriculture sector including livestock and fisheries.

Source: Economic Times - Leaders from across the world gathered in Durban in December last year to find common ground on what is currently the most important challenge facing humanity: climate change. With virtually no headway made since the Kyoto Protocol, there is precious little time left for all nations to act before we reach the point of no return. Governments across the world must give a clear signal that they are committed to a legal deal on climate change that puts the world on track to a low-carbon economy.

Source: EurActiv - European finance ministers will today (21 February) call for the EU executive to prepare a paper on raising climate funds through carbon pricing on aviation and maritime transport by June, if draft conclusions seen by EurActiv are approved. Money raised would help finance a $100-billion per year Green Climate Fund, the centerpiece of any successor deal to the Kyoto Protocol, to help poor countries adapt to and mitigate the effects of global warming.