ENERGY: Clean, Green Goo to Power Engines

Stephen Mayfield, the recently appointed director of the University of California at San Diego's Algae Biotechnology lab, is taking on a Texas-sized challenge - giving birth to a nascent alternative energy industry.

AFGHANISTAN: Black & Veatch’s White Elephant in Kabul

In a secluded valley a few miles from Kabul's international airport, Caterpillar turbines custom-built in Germany and giant transformers flown in from Mexico hum away at a brand-new power plant.

ENERGY-DENMARK: Samso Island, Beyond Fantasy

On the Danish island of Samsø, a model of energy self-sufficiency, even cow's milk helps reduce emissions of climate changing gases.

ECONOMY-US: “Green” Jobs Should Be Black and Brown Too

The Barack Obama administration's drive to promote a "green" economy is not working in the interest of poor people in the United States, especially those who belong to minority communities, according to a new study by a leading think tank.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Africa Told ‘Stop Playing the Victim’

Critics of carbon trading, a strategy meant to combat global warming, say the buying and selling of carbon credits is being exploited.

ENERGY-SPAIN: Windfall for the Grid

Wind energy notched up a new record in Spain on Sunday, when it generated 53 percent of total electricity demand nationwide for part of the day, according to official figures announced Monday.

CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Too Little, Too Late for Copenhagen?

The momentum that U.S. climate change legislation has picked up in recent weeks will not be enough to get it through prior to the Copenhagen climate talks that kick off Dec. 7. It has also come at a steep price for those most committed to seeing such legislation pass.

MIDEAST: Israelis Show the Light to Palestinian Herders

Hundreds of impoverished Palestinian herders and farmers living in caves and tents in a remote area of the Palestinian West Bank have been provided free electricity due to the ingenuity of two Israeli physicists.

ENVIRONMENT: Rethinking Jobs for a Sustainable Economy

The possibility of environmental catastrophe has led many leaders, scholars and average citizens to reconsider an economy based on constant growth. It is becoming clear that people, especially in the United States, will need to consume less in the way of natural resources to avoid planetary peril.

CLIMATE CHANGE-BOLIVIA: Climbing a ‘Dead’ Glacier

The rapid disappearance of glaciers and the subsequent exhaustion of water sources are pushing indigenous communities in the Bolivian highlands even further into poverty, Bolivian experts told IPS, adding that an increase in awareness about climate change is desperately needed.

CANADA: Ontario Aggressively Woos Green Power Investors

A "feed-in tariff" offering guaranteed premium prices for electricity from wind, solar, biomass and other green sources promises to attract large-scale international investors and developers, especially those aiming to erect wind turbines, to Canada's most populous province.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Budgeting Environmental Justice

There is a consensus that industrialised nations are mainly responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. It should be equally clear that such responsibility should have political consequences. But it isn't.

TRADE: What Will China’s Legacy in Africa be by 2049?

With its recent history of tremendous economic growth, China has a few lessons to teach Africans. But African governments should be vigilant in ensuring that their countries also reap benefits from their relations with China.

ENERGY: World Bank Looks for the Cleaner Way

With new energy and environment strategies in the pipeline, the World Bank and its critics are going head to head on issues of fossil fuel funding and clean energy. The Bank will now call in outside experts to ensure that its coal power financing is justifiable, but critics would prefer it to go for truly clean energy.

MIDEAST: ‘France, U.S. Pushing Arabs Into Nuclear Race’

The decision by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to build nuclear reactors has unleashed frenetic, politically backed competition between giant corporations from France, the U.S., Japan and South Korea to win contracts estimated at more than 40 billion dollars.

VENEZUELA: El Niño Dries Up Water, Power, Food Supply

The guanábana (soursop) trees in Victoria Martínez's small orchard have yielded none of their delicious fruit this year, which she blames on the scarcity of water, a problem as annoying as the power blackouts at her house close to Tocuyito, a sun-baked town 120 kilometres southwest of the Venezuelan capital.

MOZAMBIQUE: Watching the Water Flow Away

Less than 100 kilometres from the second-largest dam in Africa, women walk with their babies strapped on their back, water pails balanced on their heads.

CLIMATE CHANGE: How Eco-Friendly Is Natural Gas?

Natural gas, a non-renewable yet plentiful energy source, is being promoted by the gas industry as part of the solution to climate change. But experts say that its contribution to global warming is only slightly less than that of coal and oil.

CANADA: Govt Threatens Tar Sands Activists with Anti-Terror Laws

The provincial government in Alberta, Canada is threatening to unleash its counterterrorism plan if activists continue using civil disobedience to protest the tar sands, Canada's fastest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics

The capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, is a dubious method of effectively reducing the pollution that causes global warming, experts warn.

AFRICA: "Grasp the Benefits of Trade with BRIC Emerging Markets"

While economists at a prominent South African bank are excited about burgeoning investment by Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) in Africa, they are vague on the question of the extent to which it will benefit the majority of Africans. Ensuring this, they believe, is the responsibility of African states themselves.