Feature Article

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.

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected the food ministry’s suggestion that 25 per cent of wages under the rural employment guarantee programme be paid in foodgrains. Food minister K V Thomas had written to Ramesh early April, suggesting that part of the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) be paid in kind.

Fossil fuel combustion and fertilizer application in the United States have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle, with serious effects on climate change. The climate effects can be short-lived, by impacting the chemistry of the atmosphere, or long-lived, by altering ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we develop a coherent framework for assessing the climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen emissions, including oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, and nitrous oxide (N2O).

The teeming millions on foot and pedal are powering mobility in Indian cities. Their numbers exceed those who use cars. Yet they are victims of policy neglect. The result is high number of road accidents. Improving public transport systems and road design will encourage more people to walk and cycle. But are cities prepared to make this transition? There is a change of trend in certain pockets of India where communities are organising themselves to assert their right to walk and cycle. These zero carbon emitters have checked the country’s pollution from soaring.