Paris climate talks: Beside the headlines

Michael Bloomberg leads global push on corporate climate risks
US billionaire Michael Bloomberg will lead an unprecedented push for corporations worldwide to reveal their financial exposure to climate change to investors, a banking watchdog announced on Friday. The Basel, Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board, a watchdog set up to avert a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis sparked by the Lehman Brothers collapse, announced it would seek to draw up guidelines for companies to disclose the climate risks they face. A task force, launched on the sidelines of UN talks in the northern outskirts of Paris where 195 nations are trying to broker a climate-saving deal, aims to ensure companies around the world give investors clear, consistent information about the increasing financial risks they face from global warming.

India not ready to project when pollution will peak
India isn't ready to project when its annual greenhouse gases will peak, the country's lead climate negotiator said. "It is premature for us because of our lower economic development to make an accurate assessment of when the country can peak in terms of greenhouse gas emissions," the envoy, Susheel Kumar, told reporters in Paris on Friday. "When we develop further and our economy matures, maybe then we can make an assessment." India's efforts matter because the nation is the third biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, accounting for 6.1 per cent of global total. It's also the largest country that hasn't committed to begin reducing its pollution levels.

Who's the dumb one? Obama reacts to Trump climate criticism
President Barack Obama defended his remarks about the threat posed by climate change, saying Republicans, including US presidential candidate Donald Trump, were "the only people" disputing the gravity of the problem. At a news conference on Tuesday before leaving Paris, he likened global warming to the threat posed by terrorism and Islamic State and said both problems can be addressed by applying steady pressure and new ideas. Republicans seized on his comments as understating the threat of terrorism. Trump, front-runner to be the Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential election, told MSNBC that Obama's comment was the "one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard in politics." "Well, you know, Mr Trump should run back a tape or quote on some of the stuff he's said," Obama retorted, during an interview with CBS "This Morning" that was broadcast on Friday.