OFF SVALBARD, Norway (Reuters) – Arctic sea ice cover has already shrunk to its third lowest level on record this year, in an irreversible trend which may see an ice-free summer around 2030, said the head of the world’s main monitoring centre.

The sea ice area will be reduced further in the next two weeks but was unlikely to beat a 2007 retreat in a 32-year satellite data record, said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre.

LONDON (Reuters) – Greater use of woody fuels is vital to slash global carbon emissions but fast advances in crop yields will be needed to avoid driving up food prices, members of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found.

Biofuels are already widely used in the United States, Europe and Brazil to substitute for gasoline and diesel, but are made from crops including sugar, oilseeds and corn which has driven concerns they are stoking food prices.

COPENHAGEN/LONDON (Reuters) – Danish wind turbine maker Vestas (VWS.CO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) wrong-footed investors on Wednesday, announcing a bulging order book which underscored a western edge over China rivals and contrasted with solar two days after U.S.-based Evergreen Solar’s (ESLR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bankruptcy filing.

The statement helped Vestas Wind Systems A/S shares bounce more than 20 percent from Tuesday’s more than six-year low and buoyed the sector a week after it was depressed by a profit warning from Germany’s Nordex SE (NDXG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – A dimming economic outlook has cut the prospects
for low-carbon stocks and commodities, vulnerable to a credit squeeze and
falling climate priority, though continuing demand to build and replace power
generation provides support.

Particular winners may include efficiency technologies as some countries
pare back nuclear power.

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors in a World Bank-backed carbon offset project in China may make a small loss in 2013, after a European Union ban, but could still net more than $800 million over the seven-year life of the project.

The project was launched in the mid-2000s in the heyday of emissions trading, which has in recent years suffered scandals including fraud and cyber theft, while carbon prices have slumped lately on gloomy world economic prospects.

LONDON (Reuters) – Carbon offsets neared all-time lows Friday, confirming their status as the world’s worst performing commodity, as slumping demand meets rising supply of the U.N. instrument traded under the Kyoto Protocol.

A worsening global economic outlook has dented prices for emissions permits which depend on a robust economy belching greenhouse gases into the air, and has also impacted oil, grains, coal and natural gas.

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) – A dream climate change cure to
turn planet-warming greenhouse gases into useful products from
jet fuel to plastics will take years to develop from the lab and
pilot projects, a report found on Thursday.

Pilot projects already use carbon dioxide (CO2) to feed
plants, for example to boost tomatoes in glasshouses, while
laboratories have tested the manufacture of concrete, plastics
and oils, but costs are high and projects depend on concentrated
streams of CO2.

LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) – A $1.2 billion write-down by
solar equipment maker REC on Tuesday highlighted the
pain being inflicted by aggressive Chinese competition and may
herald wider consolidation in the sector and flattening of
prices.

REC produces equipment across the supply chain from slices
of raw, solar-grade silicon, called wafers, to finished solar
panels.

LONDON (Reuters) – A U.N. panel that oversees a $1.5 billion trade in carbon offsets has rejected advice to suspend support for new coal plants, proposing a review instead, its chairman Martin Hession said on Friday.

The panel, called the executive board, manages a trade in carbon offsets where rich countries pay for developing country projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf.

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Power plants fitted with carbon
capture technology will need government support beyond 2020,
especially following a sharp drop in European carbon prices, an
EU and industry-funded study found on Friday.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), untested at the commercial
scale, is meant to trap and bury carbon dioxide emissions from
fossil fuel power plants.