‘The Brazilian government has given the green light to the construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rainforest that environmentalists and indigenous activists claim will displace indigenous tribes and further damage the Amazon basin.’

via Brazil to build controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Amazon rainforest | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

‘TIANJIN, China (Reuters) – China needs to overcome its skepticism about carbon capture technologies if it is to bring down the costs of meeting its CO2 targets, experts at a clean coal conference said.’

via China skeptical as foreign firms push carbon capture | Reuters.

‘OSLO (Reuters) – Nations accounting for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have restated their promises to fight climate change, meeting a Sunday deadline in a low-key endorsement of December’s “Copenhagen Accord.”‘

via Copenhagen climate deal gets low-key endorsement | Reuters.

‘San Jose, CA – Wednesday, January 27, 2010: SolarTech (www.solartech.org), an initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, released a white paper, “Addressing Institutional Barriers, Opportunities for Streamlining Project Timelines” that finds for every typical 4-5kW residential system, the average 5 day on-site installation masks an average of 100-120 days in procedural work. The paper identifies challenges within today’s solar project development cycle and suggests methods to reduce project cycle times, while creating uniform, efficient and repeatable processes, resulting in better customer service and lower administrative costs of delivering solar energy solutions.’

via PV Group – SolarTech Study Reports Massive Procedural Delays for Customers.

‘OSLO (Reuters) – Climate change caused by mankind will release extra heat-trapping gases stored in nature into the atmosphere in a small spur to global warming, a study showed.’

via Global warming to trigger more warming | Reuters.

‘Tiny Kivalina, Alaska, does not have a hotel, a restaurant or a movie theater. But it has a very big lawsuit that might affect the way the nation deals with climate change.’

via Courts as Battlefields in Climate Fights – NYTimes.com.