DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) – The world’s three biggest polluters China, the United States and India refused to move toward a new legal commitment to curb their carbon emissions Tuesday, increasing the risk that climate talks will fail to clinch a meaningful deal this week.

The European Union is leading efforts to keep alive the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legal pact to tackle climate change, with a conditional promise to sign a global deal that would force big emitters to change their ways.

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 6 (Reuters) – The European
Union’s highest court is expected to give its final ruling on
Dec. 21 on a European law that would force all airlines to pay
for their carbon emissions, an EU source said on Tuesday.

The ruling was previously expected early next year.

“It will be on December 21 at 1100 CET (1000 GMT),” an EU
diplomatic source said at United Nations’ climate talks in
Durban, South Africa.

DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) – Cash raised by the shipping industry’s efforts to cut carbon emissions might be directed to developing countries to help them tackle climate change, a draft document seen by Reuters showed at United Nations climate talks on Tuesday.

The text proposes that money raised by “specific actions” to reduce emissions from maritime bunker fuels, which may be designed and implemented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), could be distributed to developing countries and used to finance climate adaptation through a Green Climate Fund.

DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) – Economic crisis and the top three polluters China, the United States and India, loomed as obstacles to a new global deal at the start of a second make-or-break week of U.N. climate talks in the South African city of Durban.

After a first week of preliminary discussion, serious doubt hangs over the future of the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period on tackling climate change expires at the end of next year.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Shares in firms set up to
profit from efforts to curb pollution traded near all-time lows
on Tuesday as the collapse of the carbon emissions market they
depend on raised concerns about their future.

London-listed Trading Emissions Plc and Camco
International back projects, often in poorer
countries, that are aimed at cutting greenhouse gases.

LONDON (Reuters) – Climate negotiators meeting in South Africa this week face fresh worries over saving the planet from global warming now that a ton of carbon trades at the price of a pizza.

A European steel plant producing a ton of steel pays as little as $12 for the resulting carbon emissions, spelling trouble for Europe’s carbon emissions trading scheme, the world’s largest.

LONDON (Reuters) – European Union carbon permits and U.N.-backed credits collapsed to record lows on Thursday, extending this week’s sharp price slide as fears of a slowing economy sapped demand in the markets that are heavily supplied with emissions units.

It was also a signal that market participants are losing confidence in the flagging EU carbon market, the world’s biggest cap-trade scheme, traders and analysts said.

LONDON (Reuters) – European Union carbon permits and U.N.-backed credits collapsed to record lows on Thursday, extending this week’s sharp price slide as fears of a slowing economy sapped demand in the markets that are heavily supplied with emissions units.

It was also a signal that market participants are losing confidence in the flagging EU carbon market, the world’s biggest cap-trade scheme, traders and analysts said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise more than forecast to between 6 billion and 11 billion tons above what is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report showed on Wednesday.

The gap between countries’ emissions cut pledges and what is needed to remain under what scientists say is the limit to avoid devastating effects of global warming has widened since its 2010 estimate of 5-9 billion tons as new data emerged, UNEP said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise more than forecast to between 6 billion and 11 billion tons above what is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report showed on Wednesday.

The gap between countries’ emissions cut pledges and what is needed to remain under what scientists say is the limit to avoid devastating effects of global warming has widened since its 2010 estimate of 5-9 billion tons as new data emerged, UNEP said.