China's central government plans to spend 170 billion yuan ($27 billion) this year to promote energy conservation, emission reductions and renewable energy, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website on Thursday.

The ministry said China plans to promote more use of energy-saving products and low or no-emission power generation such as solar and wind. It also wants to accelerate the development of renewable energy, as well as energy-saving technologies, such as electric and hybrid cars.

Germany has asked for discussion on deeper EU carbon emissions cuts to be put on the agenda at a meeting of environment ministers in June, EU sources said.

If agreed, a more ambitious target could help to spur the European Union's carbon market, which has sunk to record lows.

Previous debate of bigger carbon cuts, however, has been difficult, with coal-reliant Poland objecting that they could damage its economy.

The United Nation Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) has projected the economy of Pakistan to grow by 4 per cent during the year 2012. According to a report launched by ESCAP on Thursday, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Pakistan is projected to grow by 4 per cent in 2012 which is an improvement from 2.4 per cent growth in 2011.

The ongoing rapid industrialization of the world's advanced developing economies means global emissions of heat-trapping gases will by the end of the decade exceed safe levels by far more than previously expected, according to a report published Friday.

The report from PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said global greenhouse gas output will be at least 50.9 billion tones of CO2 equivalent a year by 2020, 2.5 billion higher than it estimated in 2010, and some 7-11 billion tones beyond levels needed to prevent runaway climate change.

The Annual Plan for 2012-13 for Haryana was today finalised at Rs 26,485 crore, which is a handsome 30 per cent hike over last fiscal’s plan of Rs 20,358 crore. This was announced after a meeting between Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The infant mortality rate in Pakistan is very high and there has been no decline in malnutrition rate in children under the age of 5 over the past 30 years, health specialists agreed on Sunday.

They were speaking at a dialogue forum on 'Political Parties & The Health of People of Sindh Election 2013' organised by Pakistan Medical Association.

Women's Action Forum, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Reproductive Health Network, Aurat Foundation, People Health Movement, Ahung and Shirkat Gah collaborated in this regard.

Unless there is a fundamental shift in the mindset away from one which separates the rural from the urban, Indian planning cannot address the challenges of urbanisation in our present stage of development. This column typically presents case studies of urban transformation to show the good work that is going on in the cities and towns of India.

The per capita energy use in South Asia remains the lowest among all developing regions even after an increase of 51 per cent from 340 to 514 kilograms of oil equivalent between 1990 and 2009, reveals new statistics released by the World Bank on Friday.

But the structure of fuel use is also changing, and South Asia now relies more on fossil fuels and less on combustible renewables and waste, according to the World Development Indicators (WDI-2012).

The World Bank (WB) has allocated an unprecedented amount of $1.8 billion for Pakistan’s development projects, mainly in energy sector, in the current year, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said after holding a meeting with World Bank Vice President Isabel Guerrero on Friday.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman also attended the meeting during the IMF-WB annual spring gathering of economic leaders from across the world.

Asia's rapid growth is leaving millions behind, causing a widening gap between rich and poor that threatens to undermine the region's stability, according to a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

"Another 240 million people could have been lifted out of poverty over the past 20 years if inequality had remained stable instead of increasing as it has since the 1990s," said ADB's Chief Economist Changyong Rhee.