Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has warned China that the EU could penalise cheap imports from high carbon-emitting countries in order to defend European companies that are obliged to meet strict environmental standards.
In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Mr Sarkozy urged China to shoulder its environmental responsibilities as a global economic power […]

If you sit down and enjoy a glass of wine tonight with your evening meal, you can be thankful that your car does not run on the stuff. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president said yesterday that that record crude prices are actually cheap — compared with wine.
Chavez, a price hawk in OPEC who governs over some […]

Australia’s prime minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has moved swiftly on his election to make climate change a priority by holding meetings with government officials about signing Kyoto. His predecessor, John Howard, refused to sign it.
Rudd has also confirmed he will attend the forthcoming UN climate summit in Bali and said he had already discussed Kyoto ratification […]

Statoil, the Norwegian national oil company, has begun a two-year drilling programme in Arctic waters to determine the potential of Norway’s share of one of the world’s few remaining unexplored oil prospects.
It also hopes to co-operate with Russian companies such as Gazprom to find oil and gas further into the Arctic, including areas disputed between […]

Last week we blogged how over half the rigs in the North Sea failed safety checks.
As if to highlight the problem, a major evacuation operation was launched yesterday after a fire broke out on a remote North Sea oil platform. Ninety of the 159 people on board the Thistle Alpha platform, 120 miles north-west […]