WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Steven Chu says he will provide $2.4 billion from the economic recovery package to speed up development of technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and factories that burn coal.

Chu told a meeting of the National Coal Council on Friday that it's essential that ways are found to capture carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants and industrial sources. Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Chu said coal will remain an essential energy source. He said even if coal plants in the United States were shut down, as some environmentalists want, China and India will not turn their back on coal.

via US Makes $2.4 Billion Bet On Clean Coal In Stimulus Package.

Report: Low Carbon Zones: A transformational agenda for China and Europe

This report calls for cooperation between China and Europe in three areas, technology, finance, and market access, as well as for creation of special ‘Low Carbon Zones’ which would be modeled upon the ‘Special Economic Zones’ which played such a large role in China’s economic transformation.

OSLO (Reuters) – A planned new U.N. climate pact is shaping up to be a mildly tougher version of the existing Kyoto Protocol rather than a bold treaty to save what U.S. President Barack Obama has called a “planet in peril.”

via New U.N. climate deal: not much bolder than Kyoto? | Green Business | Reuters.