The Bank of England has said it will consider whether exposure to carbon-intensive industries puts the UK’s financial stability at risk, and has identified the criteria for such exposure to be considered a threat.

Business and environmental lobby groups have responded to a Commission working paper on emission targets by urging the adoption of more ambitious climate goals and limiting the supply of Emissions Trading System (ETS) allowances.

Despite failing to enact comprehensive climate legislation, there is no reason the US Congress should not pass a clean energy standard (CES) and grant related tax credits, President Barack Obama said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

The Bank of England should investigate how exposure to high-carbon industries puts the UK’s financial stability and long-term growth at risk, says a coalition of investors, academics and environmental groups.

A ‘realistic’ legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions needs to be agreed for 2030 if the EU is to achieve its ambitious aim of zero emissions by 2050, the EU energy commissioner Günther Oettinger said today as he launched the European Commission’s energy roadmap 2050.

Rio Tinto Alcan last week blamed the closure of its aluminium smelter in north-east England on a potential 10-fold rise in environmental costs from 2013.

The EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) must be the long-term driver for renewable energy in the European Union, according to electricity industry experts.

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has lost the backing of its main sponsor, Pew Charitable Trusts, and has renamed itself while seeking a broader base of financial supporters.

The media at this year’s UN climate change negotiations will inevitably focus on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol – but there is other work going on that will have a bigger impact on both investment decisions and the world’s climate, according to a former UK negotiator.

A global market in carbon captured within the world’s oceans – ‘blue carbon’ – should be established to help protect the marine environment, according to a major UN report.

Japan’s pledge to cut its emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 could be revised if it is not legally adopted this year, warned observers, as hopes dim for passage of a climate bill enshrining the target, despite parliament resuming for an extraordinary session last week.

The UN is going down the wrong path in setting up its Green Climate Fund (GCF), according to Yvo de Boer, former chief of the UN’s climate change convention.

Procrastinating over the future of the Kyoto Protocol has caused the private sector to flee climate financing, countries gathering at this year’s UN climate change conference in South Africa will be told.

Investors in UK low-carbon businesses should not be alarmed by a recent speech from the finance minister apparently rowing back on UK leadership on reducing carbon emissions, according to an influential MP.

Proposals to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants will not be released at the end of September as planned, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said, prompting concern the agency is rowing back for political reasons.

The UK’s political leadership is not showing enough support for the transition to a green economy, according to environmental industry leaders and a report by the think-tank Green Alliance out today.

The EU should promote low-carbon energy policies in countries outside its borders as part of the bloc’s plans to tackle climate change and become less vulnerable to oil shocks, according to the European Commission.

Canada’s environment ministry has proposed tougher regulations for coal-fired power plants, but they do not go far enough to help the country achieve its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, according to an environmental NGO.

The deal to raise the US debt ceiling may have averted a disastrous credit crisis, but it is bad news for the clean energy sector.

The equity markets no longer believe that EU governments are going to allow utilities to recoup the investments needed to meet the bloc’s climate change objectives, threatening the 2030 targets, according to a leading utilities analyst.