New species in New Guinea, first biofuel flight and other green stories of the week

(AFP PHOTO / WWF / HO)

Some of the major green and environmental stories of the past week (June 25- July 1), including the first scheduled flight using bio-fuels, Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power, and the discovery of over 1,000 new species in New Guinea, are rounded up below.

Biofuel flight ­- airline KLM operated the first scheduled flight using bio-fuels on June 29; the flight left Charles De Gaulle in Paris and landed at Schiphol in Amsterdam. ( Flight Global)

Breeding bees - two universities in Canada are attempting to create a new ‘stronger' type of honeybee in order to combat the recent decline in bee numbers occurring around the world. ( AFP)

Danish wind power - Denmark aims to increase its wind power capacity to 42 percent by 2022, according to an advisor for the Danish Energy Authority. ( Treehugger)

Extreme weather - scientists from around the world are to form an international alliance to investigate the link between extreme weather and global warming as they believe the correlation between the two can "no longer be ignored." ( Independent)

Future of natural gas - internal emails from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that researchers believe that the amount of available natural gas, which has been billed as the fuel of tomorrow, has been overestimated. ( New York Times)

Microsoft, Google - both of the software giants announced this week that they will begin shutting down their online home energy management systems - Microsoft's Hohm and Google's PowerMeter. ( Earth Techling)

New Guinea - more than 1,000 new species were discovered in and around New Guinea between 1998- 2008, according to a WWF report released earlier this week. ( CBS news)

Nuclear phase-out - Germany's coalition government announced this week that it plans to phase out all of the country's nuclear power plants by 2022. ( BBC News)

Polar bears - Polar bears are to remain on the list of threatened species due to the disappearance of their habitat, ruled a court earlier this week. ( Mother Nature Network)

Willie Soon - the American climate change skeptic, who denied health risks associated with coal, received funding from oil and coal firms including those related to the Koch brothers, revealed an investigative report. ( Reuters Africa)