In short

>> China has rejected a recent report of the International Energy Agency that had said the country would overtake the US as the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter by 2008 (see 'Fast warming up', Down To Earth, April 30, 2007). In a statement, the head of China's Office of the National Coordination Committee for Climate Change, Gao Guangsheng, questioned the report's statistical veracity.

>> Following Australia, Canada has announced that it will ban the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012. The move came soon after one of its province Ontario announced a ban on incandescent bulbs by 2012. Meanwhile, the state assembly in the US state of California has also voted to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2012.

>> The World Bank has agreed to extend a US $360-million loan to Uganda for building the controversial 250-MW Bujagali hydropower station on the River Nile. The project that has been opposed by environmentalists will help close the country's energy gap, says the bank.