LONDON (Reuters) – Flooding will be Britain’s biggest climate risk this century, with damage set to cost as much as 12 billion pounds ($18 billion) a year by the 2080s if nothing is done to adapt to extreme weather, a report said on Thursday.

British summers are forecast to get hotter, while winters will get milder and wetter.

LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Flooding will be
Britain’s biggest climate risk this century, with damage set to
cost as much as 12 billion pounds ($18 billion) a year by the
2080s if nothing is done to adapt to extreme weather, a report
said on Thursday.

British summers are forecast to get hotter, while winters
will get milder and wetter.

LONDON (Reuters) – Cleaner and better-managed seas and coasts would help boost economic growth and reduce poverty and pollution, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said on Wednesday.

The report, produced with several other U.N. organizations, highlights the huge potential of a marine-based economy some five months before world governments meet to discuss pathways to

By Deborah Zabarenko and Nina Chestney

(Reuters) – Representatives from around the world gather in Rio in June to try to hammer out goals for sustainable development at a U.N. conference designed to avoid being tripped up by the intractable issue of climate change.

But there is concern in the lead-up to the conference, known as Rio+20 or the Earth Summit, that it risks ending up as all talk and little action.

LONDON (Reuters) – A huge pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is expanding and could lower the temperature of Europe by causing an ocean current to slow down, British scientists said Sunday.

Using satellites to measure sea surface height from 1995 to 2010, scientists from University College London and Britain’s National Oceanography Center found that the western Arctic’s sea surface has risen by about 15 cms since 2002.

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Investment trust Ecofin
Water and Power Opportunities Plc (EW&PO) fell in 2011 but not
by as much wider stock market indexes as strong UK and U.S.
performance helped to offset weak results in Europe and China,
UK-based Ecofin told investors.

The fund, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange
and invests in oil and gas, electricity, water and
alternative energy firms, had 537 million pounds ($823 million)
of gross assets under management at the end of last year.

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Europe’s metals sector is
gearing up for talks with the European Commission on plans to
start taxing its carbon emissions but at the same time prevent
factories and smelters from shutting shop or moving abroad.

Metals lobby group Eurometeaux, which is meeting with the
commission at the end of January, wants to persuade it to grant
the sector full exemption from the indirect carbon costs
embedded in electricity prices.

LONDON (Reuters) – A new molecule has been detected in the earth’s atmosphere which could help produce a cooling effect, scientists said, but it remains to be seen whether it can play a major role in tackling global warming.

The molecule can convert pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, into compounds which can lead to cloud formation, helping to shield the earth from the sun, the researchers said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Leadership changes this year among some of the world’s heaviest polluting countries should not undermine progress towards setting up a new global legally binding climate deal by 2015, the United Nations’ climate chief said on Wednesday.

This year could see a sweeping change in national political leaders in large greenhouse gas emitters, including the United States, Russia, China and Japan, in elections or polls.

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Camco International
saw a 27 percent rise in the number of California
carbon credits issued in the second half of last year as
participants geared up for the start of the U.S. state’s
emissions trading scheme, the low-carbon project developer said
in a trading update on Tuesday.

As of Jan. 6, Camco had 356,061 California carbon credits
under management, compared to 281,061 on July 28, 2011.