US:Ten of the United States's biggest corporations are joining environmental groups to put pressure US president George Bush and Congress to take urgent action to address climate change.
The United States Climate Action Partnership, which includes General Electric, BP, Alcoa, Dupont and Duke Energy, will call for a national limit on carbon dioxide emissions that would lead to reductions of 10-30 per cent over the next 15 years.
The move comes as preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US government body, suggest that concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas believed to cause global warming, rose at record levels during 2006 - the fourth year in the last five to show a sharp increase.
Administration spokesman Kent Laborde told The Irish Times that complete figures for 2006 would be available in April.
"There is a trend and there's no mistaking that . . . We do know that this is the highest that it's been so it deserves continual monitoring," he said.
Norway's Institute of Marine Research says that parts of the North Atlantic are setting winter heat records, allowing species like swordfish and jellyfish to thrive beyond their normal ranges. Off New York this week, rescuers guided eight dolphins into open water after they became stranded in a shallow cove, apparently because unusually warm waters meant fish on which they feed were staying closer to the coast.
A UN panel of 2,500 scientists is expected to report next month that it is "very likely" that human activities are the main cause of warming in the past 50 years, strengthening a conclusion in their last study in 2001 that it was "likely".
Although the Bush administration rejected the Kyoto protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions and an emissions trading system, many US executives believe that growing evidence of global warming will eventually lead to regulation in the US.
Eager for more certainty for future investments, the coalition wants to establish a market-based emissions trading system as soon as possible.
In a press conference on Monday, a day before Mr Bush delivers his state of the union address, the group will also call for measures to discourage building new coal-fired power plants that cannot easily capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr Bush is likely to call in his speech for more use of renewable fuels, but will probably stop short of proposing a national emissions trading system.
Congressional Democrats are determined to move faster to address climate change and house speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week that she wanted to create a special committee to draft a bill on global warming by July. She said the committee would hold hearings and recommend legislation on how to reduce greenhouse gases.
"I promise to do everything in my power to achieve energy independence . . . and to stop global warming," she said.
However, Ms Pelosi's plan drew criticism from energy and commerce committee chairman John D. Dingell, a Michigan congressman who has long fought efforts to tighten the Clean Air Act in ways that could add significant costs for the US car industry.
The House of Representatives this week abolished tax breaks for oil companies, promising to invest the extra revenue in research into renewable energy.