Attempts to create a new climate treaty failed in Copenhagen three years ago

China, India, South Africa and Brazil say a climate agreement expected to take effect in 2020 won't be a "new regime," potentially setting up a confrontation with the United States, which is seeking to eliminate a firewall in negotiations between developed and developing nations.

Right up to the last minute, the danger was that the Climate Change Conference in Durban would end in fiasco or in an agreement so vague as to be meaningless. Instead, when hopes of a global deal looked dashed, European nations – acting with a degree of unanimity over climate change that seems absent from their deliberations on the eurozone – pulled off an agreement that gives new cause for optimism.

UN climate talks stalled after a rebellion by developing states most at risk from global warming, forcing host South Africa to push the conference into extra time today in an effort to prevent the negotiations collapsing.

Countries were today locked in debate over whether to press ahead with a new legal climate treaty, as the latest round of UN global warming talks entered their final hours.

Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, was locked up yesterday, after a judge accused her of systematically disrespecting the court in a case against her that supporters say is politically motivated.

On 16 February 2005 the industrial nations responsible for 55 percent of the world’ emissions entered into an agreement to reduce them by 5.2 percent by 2012.

Barclays is one business which is attempting to reverse the trend towards Britain selling more companies than it buys. Yesterday it made a bid of £98m for a Swedish carbon trading company, Tricorona.

Developing countries today agreed to resume climate change negotiations in Copenhagen after a half-day suspension.

China will insist the main principles of the Kyoto Protocol are retained in any new global climate change pact, even though others are seeking to abandon them, a high-ranking climate official on Saturday.

Prime Minister seeks global coalition for change with US president-elect

First, the price of the EU's credit allowances crashed. Now shares in companies that trade in them are falling too. But getting polluters to change their ways will be a process of trial and error, says Mike Scott

There's no easy way to hear that your baby has Down's syndrome. But there's a lot doctors could learn about breaking the news.

Their backdrop showed a man relaxing in his bath, about to be rudely awakened by a plugged-in toaster falling from above. If only Fall Out Boy could have shown such spark.