Oil companies must pay for spills

The Filipino Government has introduced a law which will require all major companies which ship oil through the island nation's waters to pay into a fund that can be used to tackle future spills. (EDIE)

The Oil Compensation Act has been seen largely as an acknowledgement of criticism over the government's slow response to a huge spill of the coast of Guimaras last year, the worst in the country's history. The spill occurred when an oil tanker sank off the coast of the idyllic island last August, causing extensive damage to both the sensitive environment and the livelihood of local fishermen.

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G8 make historic climate deal

World leaders will work with the United Nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions in a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2009. The agreement was sealed at the G8 summit on the Baltic coast, and importantly has the buy-in of the world's largest polluter, the United States, as well as the other members Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. However the historic agreement falls short of setting hard targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as wanted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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China unveils climate change plan

Country vows to 'blaze new path to industrialisation' and invest in green energy, without committing to emissions targets.

A pond filled with dead fish on the outskirts of Wuhan, in Hubei province. About 125,000kg of fish have reportedly died in China in the last three days due to water pollution. Photograph: Reuters

But in a blow to efforts to tackle global warming, the world's second biggest producer of greenhouse gases refused to accept binding targets for emissions, saying wealthy developed nations must take the bulk of the responsibility for the problem.

The announcement of the 62-page action plan appeared aimed at deflecting criticism ahead of the G8 plus six summit in Germany this week and a series of key international meetings on the environment.
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