Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fuel combustion rose by 3.2 percent last year to a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes, the IEA said in preliminary estimates released on Thursday.

China made the biggest contribution to the global rise, seeing its emissions increase by 9.3 percent, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said.

U.S. emissions fell 1.7 pct in 2011, mainly due to a switch to natural gas from coal in power plants and also a very mild winter that cut heating demand, the IEA said.

UN climate talks are going nowhere, as politicians dither or bicker while the pace of warming dangerously speeds up, one of the architects of the Kyoto Protocol said.
‘It seems to me that negotiations are returning to square one,’ said Raul Estrada, the ‘father’ of the world’s only treaty to specify curbs in greenhouse gases, as the first talks for a new global pact took place in Bonn.
In a telephone interview from Buenos Aires this week, Estrada defended his beleaguered accord and said efforts to engineer a replacement were in trouble.

Beijing’s public toilets must not exceed two flies, according to new standards handed down by zealous officials striving to clean up China’s notoriously filthy loos.

The unusual rule applies to lavatories in parks, railway stations, airports, hospitals, malls and supermarkets in the capital, said the Beijing News today.

More conventional demands from the municipal committee in charge of the image of the city include an order that there is no accumulation of urine or water in the capital’s public toilets and that bins aren’t overflowing.

At the Camp David meeting last week, G8 leaders agreed to act on climate change and air pollution by focusing on methane, black carbon (soot), and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs).

This is the logical follow up of a move in the same direction by the United States, China and other countries back to February. However, like the previous agreement, CO2 is still not mentioned.

The aforementioned greenhouse gases are much more potent but remain for much less time in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide

Europe yesterday warned at climate talks in Bonn that efforts to forge a new global pact to avert environmental disaster were in danger of floundering, and some pointed fingers at China.

Nine days into talks meant to set the stage for a United Nations gathering in Qatar in December, where countries must adopt an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, negotiators complained that procedural bickering was quashing progress hopes.

New standards for drinking water will come into force in China on July 1, with the number of quality indicators rising to 106 from 35. While that's almost on a par with the standards used in the European Union, some experts have raised concerns about the feasibility of the new system.

"There are about 3,000 water companies in China. Judging by their production technologies and their quality-testing facilities, most still have a long way to go before they can meet the new standards," said Li Fuxing, director of the Beijing Institute of Public Health and Drinking Water.

An aviation conference in Beijing on Wednesday saw leaders of the industry voice strong concern over a European Union (EU) plan to tax international airlines for carbon emissions, and an EU official signal a more flexible attitude from the bloc.

Chinese and US aviation authorities and industry associations reiterated opposition to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) at the 2012 China Civil Aviation Development Forum, urging the EU to take a global and comprehensive approach to the issue.

China's civil aviation authority on Wednesday reiterated its opposition to the European Union's imposition of an emissions trading scheme on global aviation, despite a threat from the EU last week to punish Chinese airlines for not cooperating.

As talks have so far proven futile, the parties involved expect that a framework of market-based measures, which will be submitted next year to the International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly for review, might put an end to disputes over the issue.

Pretrial discussions began on Wednesday in a rare public interest lawsuit whose plaintiffs include non-governmental environmental organizations.

The three plaintiffs — Friend of Nature, Chongqing Green Volunteers Union and the Qujing environmental protection bureau — exchanged evidence with Luliang Chemical Industry, the defendant, on Wednesday, said Chang Cheng, a program officer of Friend of Nature.

The exchange and discussion will last at least three days, Chang said.

The World Health Organization is expected to declare polio a global emergency after outbreaks in countries previously free of the disease.

The WHO wants to boost programmes in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only countries where the disease is still endemic.

It says tackling polio is "at a tipping point between success and failure".

India, once regarded as one of the most challenging countries, was declared free of the disease in February.