Canada unveils its plans on meeting Kyoto targets (10.29)

Canada unveiled its plans on meeting the Kyoto targets and released estimated figures for fully implementing the Kyoto protocol, which means cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 240 megatons by the year 2012.

According to the figures, its plans taken to date have already cut emissions by 80 megatons, and a further 100 megatons would come from 20% in citizens' efforts to cut their use of energy, and 15% in cutting the industrial emissions. The remaining 60 megatons would come from exporting clean energy such as natural gas, but the Kyoto protocol makes no provisions for this and the European Union is opposed to the idea.

Greenpeace welcomed the Canada's plans, saying that it's an important step on the road of ratification, but opposition parties and several major companies opposed to the idea, criticizing of its deficiency on the investment plans.

UNEP's report on Asian Brown Cloud needs further research (10.29)

Shri T.R. Baalu, India's Union Cabinet Minister of Environment, stated that there is a need to conduct further experiments to assess the impact of climate change on the monsoons and the weather patterns since the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on the Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) cannot be taken as the sole conclusive evidence for judging the impact of the climate change.

New Delhi had taken serious exception to the UNEP report on ABC and its release at the beginning of the Johannesburg Earth Summit, as also on the eve of the COP-8 in New Delhi.

UNEP Director Klaus Toepfer has asserted that the report by his organization is "authentic" as it involves competent people drawn from the scientific community from different parts of the world. He has also said there is a need to go into the root causes of the formation of ABC through a separate study.