Ten commercial airlines from India and China have failed to submit their carbon dioxide emissions data for 2011 to Brussels, the European Commission said on Tuesday 15 May. Should the airlines miss a new mid-June deadline to submit these figures, EU member states could decide to penalise these companies, according to the bloc's top climate official.

Following three years of negotiations, members of the co-ordinating body for global food security efforts have agreed on a new set of voluntary guidelines aimed at bringing responsible governance to large-scale land acquisitions, which have become increasingly common as a result of the 2007-2008 food crisis. The Rome-based Committee on World Food Security (CFS) announced the new guidelines on 11 May.

As climate change negotiators settle into their familiar roles at their first major meeting since COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, climate watchers will have their eyes fixed on the 14-25 May UNFCCC gathering in Bonn, Germany to see how the tenuous December deal - struck by sleep-deprived negotiators at the eleventh hour - is settling in six months on. With continued economic hardship among Annex I (developed) countries, this year's Bonn meeting will be a telling barometer for what to expect when parties meet in Doha this November for COP 18.

EU agriculture ministers meeting yesterday in Brussels roundly criticised proposals from the European Commission that would condition farm subsidies on new 'greening' measures from 2014 onwards, in a setback for environmental groups that have called for farm support to be refocused on delivering public goods.

The degree to which countries can help support their burgeoning renewable energy sectors was again the subject of debate at the WTO this week, with Canada defending itself at a second dispute settlement hearing. Japan and the EU have brought two separate cases - DS412 and DS426, which are being heard together - against Canada over local content requirements in the province of Ontario's feed-in tariff scheme.

The WTO's highest court ruled on Wednesday 16 May that the US "dolphin-safe" label violates WTO law, marking another step in a decade-old dispute between the US and Mexico (DS381). Notable is the landmark finding that a non-binding label can be a prohibited technical regulation - a point that could have ramifications for consumer labels addressing anything from organic food to fair trade.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG has formally lodged a challenge against a landmark Indian ruling that allowed a domestic generic drug-maker to produce a low-cost version of an anti-cancer drug for the Indian market. The appeal was filed on Friday 4 May with India's Intellectual Property Appellate Board.

The EU's controversial decision to include aviation under the bloc's emissions trading system (ETS) has been dubbed a "deal breaker" for global climate talks by India's environment minister, Jayanthi Natarajan. While the minister is India's lead negotiator at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks, it is not clear if her comments reflect official government policy.

Tensions continue to run high over the inclusion of aviation in the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), after Indian government officials confirmed last Thursday that New Delhi would be asking its airlines not to participate in the scheme. Meanwhile, the trade group representing the largest US airlines is now calling upon the White House to pursue a case against the Brussels plan at the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The US Commerce Department will begin imposing duties on solar panel imports from China, after finding that Chinese solar manufacturers receive unfair government support. Though the announced duties were far below the complainants' requests, the decision is still expected to increase trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have already been running high in recent weeks.