Creating a sustainable business is hard enough in the developed world. But in important emerging markets it can be more difficult still.

When Harish Hande set up India’s Solar Electric Light Company (Selco), in 1995 with the aim of providing cheap, clean solar energy to the nation’s rural poor, he quickly ran into a series of barriers.

Money was a big problem: India had few financial institutions willing to invest in renewable energy projects. He also needed to develop a method of distribution.

Apple has agreed to a jointly monitored audit of pollution controls at a supplier's factory in China, in what activists see as a breakthrough in their efforts to persuade the world's most valuable company to address environmental concerns.

A maker of printed circuit boards for the Silicon Valley company is due to be inspected in the next few weeks by auditors, with Apple and the China-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) jointly monitoring their efforts.

The future of Britain’s most productive working coal mine has been thrown into doubt by a breakdown in negotiations between its owner and the Union of Democratic Mineworkers over pay.

The “easy closure” of Daw Mill, near Nuneaton in Warwickshire, is among the options being considered, according to a letter to staff this week from Jonson Cox, chairman of UK Coal.

Libya’s new transitional government was only sworn in four days before the start of the UN climate summit in Durban on Monday.

But that has not stopped it sending a six-person delegation, whose members are telling anyone who will listen about Libya’s plan to rescue the world from the perils of climate change.

“With the help of the world we did mission impossible and got rid of Gaddafi and again, with the help of the world, we will do another mission impossible on global warming,” said Muftah Elarbash, the head of the delegation.

A flagship green climate fund aimed at channelling billions of dollars to help poor countries tackle global warming has been put on ice at the Durban climate summit as a growing number of countries bicker over how it should work.

Wealthy countries have promised to mobilise up to $100bn a year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle climate change. A significant portion is expected to flow through the fund but there have been tensions from the start over how much control donor and recipient countries should have over the fund.
More video

An initiative intended to create tens of thousands of jobs in projects to improve the energy efficiency of US commercial buildings is being launched by President Barack Obama, kick-starting an initiative first launched in the 1990s.

The administration has secured commitments from companies including General Electric, Alcoa, 3M and Cummins, the cities of Denver and Sacramento, universities and other groups to back two energy-saving initiatives valued at a total of $4bn.

The Brazilian government has ordered Chevron to shut one of its 11 production wells in an important offshore field where the company suffered an oil leak last month.

Chevron said the decision by the Brazilian regulator, the National Petroleum Agency, followed a safety audit last week of its Frade offshore oil platform amid reports the authorities were unhappy that the company did not report the presence of hydrogen sulphide in crude at the facility.

China and Brazil have warned that one of the world’s biggest carbon markets will be under threat if wealthy countries reject their demands for a new phase of the Kyoto protocol.

It is “inconceivable” that the $20bn UN-backed carbon offset market can continue unless countries agree to a second round of pledges under the Kyoto climate treaty after the first round expires in 12 months, China’s chief negotiator told the FT.
More video

Londoners will next year be drinking water from a desalination plant – a type of facility more commonly associated with the arid Gulf region – if the current dry spell continues, Thames Water has warned.

The company, which supplies water and sewerage services to 8.8m customers in the capital and along the Thames Valley, said it would activate its emergency plant based in Beckton to the east of the capital from the turn of the year if the current conditions persist.

The US is refusing to sign off on a flagship global climate fund, as already fraught negotiations intensify ahead of next week’s UN climate summit and carbon prices plummet to new lows.

It was already feared that souring economic conditions and next year’s US presidential election would make it difficult for the UN summit – which opens on Monday in Durban, South Africa – to make headway on a new global warming deal before the main provisions of the Kyoto protocol climate treaty expire at the end of 2012.