Reuters

Solar power should become a mainstream energy choice in three or four years as companies raise output of a key ingredient used in solar panels and as China emerges as a producer of them, according to a report by an environmental research group. By Timothy Gardner

Drenching rains fell across most of Australia's parched southeast on Friday, with the best falls in a decade in some areas, delighting farmers who have endured seven years of drought. By James Grubel

The Clinton Foundation and Microsoft Corp. Thursday announced a partnership to develop new technology tools to help large cities create, track and share strategies to reduce carbon emissions. By Daisuke Wakabayashi

The ocean around Japan has warmed up faster than elsewhere in the world over the last hundred years partly because of global warming, Japan's Meteorological Agency said on Tuesday.

The surging fuel ethanol industry will gobble up 27 percent of this year's US corn crop, challenging US farmers' ability to satisfy food, feed and fuel demand, the US government said Friday. By Charles Abbott

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to repair strained ties with Russia, said on Monday she did not like its rhetoric towards Washington but said there were no grounds for talk of a new Cold War. By Arshad Mohammed

California's tallest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, may lose nearly all its snowpack by the end of the century, threatening a water crisis in the nation's most populous state, a leading scientist and Nobel laureate said. By Leonard Anderson

Birds, whales and other migratory creatures are suffering from global warming that puts them in the wrong place at the wrong time, a UN official told 166-nation climate talks on Monday. By Alister Doyle

Italy is likely to double a capacity target for growing the wind energy sector as it aims to meet European Union goals for boosting renewable power, the Italian industry ministry's energy expert said on Monday.

The White House rejected on Friday what it called "high cost" scenarios to tackle global warming that were spelled out in the latest report by a United Nations panel on climate change.

Governments meet in Bonn from Monday to seek ways to fight global warming, with the U.N.'s top climate official warning there is "no excuse" for inaction after bleak new forecasts. By Alister Doyle

To coral reef-driven tourism industries like those of the Cayman Islands, there could be a greater cost in ignoring climate change than fighting it. By Shurna Robbins

High in the Himalayas, the isolated mountain kingdom of Bhutan has done more to protect its environment than almost any other country. By Simon Denyer

France recorded its hottest April in almost 60 years and parts of the country have not had any rain for 30 days, weather forecaster Meteo France said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of landless Guatemalan laborers clustered in drought-prone hamlets could face a hunger crisis if corn prices rise further, the United Nations says. By Mica Rosenberg

Australia faced an "unprecedentedly dangerous" drought and unless rain falls within weeks irrigation will be cut to the nation's food bowl, Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday. By Rob Taylor

Global warming activists planned to ski down a Wyoming glacier, hike to the Hollywood sign and fan out across New York's financial district on Saturday to call for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. By Deborah Zabarenko

Surging use of cars and planes will push up greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades, making the transport sector a black spot in a fight against global warming, according to a draft U.N. report. By Alister Doyle

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported to be released tomorrow must spur the international community into action, says CARE International UK.

U.S. climate scientists say drop is a sign of greenhouse warming. By Timothy Gardner

In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a U.S. government agency has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. By James Vicini

Global warming could cause more hunger in sub-Saharan Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, a draft UN report due on Friday warns. By Alister Doyle

Scientists who advise the United Nations about climate change will issue a report in Brussels on Friday, the second of four this year outlining increasing risks from global warming.

One in 10 people in the world, mostly in Asia, live in coastal areas at risk from rising seas and more powerful storms that may be caused by global warming, an international study showed on Wednesday. By Alister Doyle

Australia's lingering drought, one of the worst on record, has produced a first-ever official declaration that all agricultural land in the southeastern state of Victoria is in drought.

India's demand for coal may exceed two billion tonnes a year by 2031-32, up from about 460 million tonnes a year now according to the minister for coal, Dasari Rao.

The world is pouring money into the battle to slow climate change but doing too little to help the poor adapt to it, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Tuesday. By Jeremy Lovell

Global warming could cause severe food and water shortages for millions of people by 2100 and trigger a melt of polar ice that could keep ocean levels rising for centuries, a draft UN report shows. By Alister Doyle

An area of forest twice the size of Paris disappears every day although the rate of global deforestation has started to slow, according to a United Nations report issued on Tuesday. By Robin Pomeroy

The hottest winter in two centuries in Italy, below average rains in Hungary and a shortage of snow in the Greek mountains make the outlook for grain crops in southern Europe this year decidedly patchy, farming sources say. By Julia Hayley