Mexico's lower house passes climate change law

Mexico is one step closer to having a comprehensive law on climate change after its lower chamber passed the General Law on Climate Change late yesterday.

Mexico's house-passed General Law on Climate Change puts in place an important framework for emissions reductions from critical sectors and establishes key authorities and institutional structures. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which overwhelmingly passed an earlier version.

China to tax carbon emissions by 2015

China looks set to impose a direct tax on its largest greenhouse gas emitters by 2015, according to reports in state media.

Proposals for an environmental tax are being reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and are expected to come into force before the end of the 2011-2015 five-year plan, the state news agency Xinhua reported today, citing government sources.

World: 10 reasons renewable energy may beat the projections

Five percent? That's the EIA's projected global increase in renewable energy generation by the year 2035. You'd think that nearly 30 years of technological, business and environmental inroads would make a bigger dent in the world's future energy mix.

Aren’t we supposed to be living the solar dream by then? Won’t we be driving to the beach in algae-powered vehicles? Won’t we all revel in our views of majestic wind turbines? The utopian vision of our energy future may not exist in our lifetimes, but it has to have a better outlook than the one released this week.