Lu Xuedu, influential vice-head of China’s National Climate Center and former member of the United Nations Executive Board responsible for approving Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, told a conference in Beijing that carbon transaction volumes within China were likely to remain low.

“The domestic market will probably remain small, because you just need to ask the simple question — Who will buy emissions in China?,” he said.

Since Kyoto Protocol does not compel China to cut its emissions, there are few domestic buyers or enterprises.

China has been a supplier rather than a buyer of carbon credits and remains a key player in the CDM and has been by far the biggest supplier of CERs on the world market, but developers have not been allowed to trade the credits domestically. Instead, a plethora of new environmental exchanges in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere have expressed hope that voluntary emissions markets will emerge to fill the gap. However, voluntaryvolumes have so far been negligible.

Residents of Nairobi celebrated the World Environment Day in a novel way. An eco-friendly brigade formed a human chain stretching over seven kilometers in a campaign to protect the endangered Nairobi National Park.

Anoop Shah, Chairman of Nairobi Greenline Committee, said, “The whole idea today is to tell the world we have had enough grabbing of land and Kenyans want to convserve their heritage." He said the joint project between Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers aims to create a 30-km long by 50-m wide forest of indigenous trees. The project will cost around Sh 40 million.

The European Commission has issued a final warning to UK over air quality breaches. It has threatened to take the UK to European Court of Justice.

The UK received its first warning in early 2009. It then tried to get a time extension for meeting the EU standards, but the request was denied. Janez Potocnik, EU’s Environment Commissioner said, "The Commission says high levels of PM10 may lead to serious health problems."

The government received a second and final warning from the commission after the levels of dangerous airborne particles, or PM10s, in London and Gibraltar exceeded EU limits.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) expressed disappointment over second and final written warning, since the issue of an extension of time was pending with the Commission.

US President Barack Obama announced on May 21 2010 a government push to boost auto fuel efficiency standards for model-year 2017 vehicles and beyond.

The efforts will include an order for environmental and transportation regulators to create the first-ever efficiency targets for medium and heavy duty trucks for model years 2014-18.

New fuel regulations completed in April this year would seek to extend federal fuel and emissions standards for vehicles sold in the United States beyond the 2016 timeframe.

Industry believes anything less than a fast and firm commitment from Washington would open the door to competing state standards that could vary from region to region, complicate product planning and add heavy costs.

There is reason to believe that the plan also would include support for electric vehicle development.

World Network of Biosphere Reserve (WNBR), a United Nations network created in an attempt to prevent the loss of biodiversity and promote sustainable development, has more than 500 sites in 109 countries. It has now been joined by biosphere reserves from Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

Kafa, an Ethiopian highland region which contains 50 percent of the country’s remaining Afromontane evergreen forest ecosystems and origin of the rare Coffee Arabic and Yayuin country's southwest, considered one of the world’s 34 vital yet threatened areas for biodiversity conservation and known for undisturbed natural forests and semi-forest systems, was included in WNBR.

Also joining the network is the Zambezi valley in Zimbabwe which contains riverine and terrestrial ecosystems unique to subcontinent. A dozen other sites were also added. The decisions were made at the five-day meeting of the International Coordinating Council of MAB held recently at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.

This year’s meeting coincides with the International Year of Biodiversity designated by the General Assembly to promote the protection of the planet’s species and habitats.

The recession in EU market is affecting the cost of reducing carbon emissions.

A report being prepared by European Commission will formally set out proposals for the EU’s carbon emissions reduction target to be upgraded. It will analyze the cost and benefits of moving the EU’s emission target from the current goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels by 2020 to a new 30 percent target.

Connie Hadegaard, the European Commissioner for climate change, said .“With business as usual and the 20 percent target we will not see a substantially higher price of carbon,.."

EU member states have been split on the proposal to upgrade the target, with the bloc previously agreeing that it will only move to the 30 percent goal if other large emitters adopt similar targets.

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