The Danish chair of the UN talks on climate change, Connie Hedegaard, today stepped down and was replaced by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Draft-II surfaces amid reshuffle

Business Standard

&ldquo;There has never been a United Nations climate conference, be it the one in Bali or Poznan, that has been as disastrously organised as this one in Denmark,&rdquo; fumed Sunita Narain, the director of an Indian NGO, the Centre for Science and Environment.

UN's lack of organisation lets down thousands in Copenhagen

Tuesday was crunch time at the UN climate conference here, with some heads of state and government already beginning to fly into the Danish capital for the final leg of the fortnight-long negotiations. A flurry of closed door meetings between key players tried to iron out differences but as of this evening, there were scant signs of any breakthrough in the deadlocked talks.

Jairam battles to keep India out of emission cuts

India and China have gone into a huddle over the possible existence of a Danish text, which the rich nations may wield at the climate change talks.

China, India in a huddle over Danish draft

The day after tens of thousands of protestors took to the street to express frustration over the deadlock at the ongoing United Nations climate negotiations, a lull hung over this city, with the conference site, the Bella Centre, closed to business. Yet, it was the kind of lull that holds within it the promise of an impending storm.

Half time in Copenhagen shows unclear horizon

Struggling to bolster its claims of leadership in the fight against climate change, the European Union has announced a commitment of &curren;2.4 billion (Rs 13,760 crore) annually between 2010 and 2012 to help developing countries adapt to the effects of global warming.

EU heads commit Rs 13,760 cr aid for LDCs

As the first week of ongoing climate change negotiations in Copenhagen draws to a close, attention will partly be deflected south to Brussels, where European Union leaders are meeting on Thursday and Friday to thrash out differences on climate policy, ahead of a final push to secure a global agreement on the issue.

EU leaders' side summit may not change much

Maybe not, but pluralistic values are struggling with popular suspicion of Islam.

Is Europe giving up toleration of diversity?

For six years I had lived in Beijing, the constantly churning capital of a dynamic country on the ascent. But I was now to move again, this time to Brussels, the bureaucratic centre of old world Europe. There were many counts on which this was a change I wasn&rsquo;t looking forward to. But the one positive I did anticipate was an escape from the paroxysm of construction that was emblematic of Beijing&rsquo;s remorseless embrace of modernity.

Ghosts of Beijing lurk in Brussels

Climate change to top India-EU summit agenda on Friday.

Stronger strategic ties elude India, EU

Cycling around Surat in the mid-1960s, Dilip Mehta, a gangly teenager learning the ropes of the diamond trade, had little inkling of the globe-trotting road that the stones would take him on. It would be a fairy-tale-like journey that would see this college drop-out from Mumbai appointed a Baron by the king of a faraway country called Belgium. But this was no fairy tale.

Rosy Blue rules the world of glitter

Europe&rsquo;s deepest recession since World War II officially ended on Friday, as data showed the European Union was growing once again, following five straight quarters of contraction.

EU grows out of recession

Architects and the structures they design pivotal in climate war.

Glass fronts and future shock

With thousands of jobs across Europe at stake and the spectre of an internal subsidy race that would threaten the hard-fought internal market of the European Union (EU), the General Motors&ndash;Opel saga saw another twist in the tale this week, with Brussels stepping in to play referee.

GM-Opel's threatened loss of jobs strains EU principles

More than eight years after the idea was first mooted, Europe has finally got a President. Leaders of the 27 members of the European Union (EU) picked Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as their choice for the post, late on Thursday evening. Baroness Catherine Ashton, currently the EU&rsquo;s trade commissioner, was nominated High Representative for Foreign Policy, another new charge.

Belgian PM is named as EU's new president

The European Union is holding its collective breath going into Thursday, when a conclave of the heads of its 27 member-states is expected to decide once and for all on the first ever European president.

Europe's new President this week, but no one's sure of outcome

India and the European Union (EU) have begun discussions to resolve the ongoing dispute over the seizure of Indian generic drugs consignments in transit at European ports. Lutz Guellner, spokesperson for the European Trade Commissioner, told Business Standard that a meeting of the EU-India Joint Customs Cooperation Committee held in New Delhi on Thursday proved &ldquo;constructive&rdquo; with an &ldquo;open discussion of the issues&rdquo; taking place.

No cure in sight for India-EU drug seizure controversy

With less than two months to go for the climate-change summit in Copenhagen, India has resolved to re-brand itself as a deal-maker.

Pallavi Aiyar: Constructing a winning narrative

The public discourse on climate change has tended to frame the issue as a tradeoff between development and greening; as a choice between generating wealth and creating a less carbon-intensive environment.

Green technologies can be profitable, say global CEOs

A Johnson &amp; Johnson subsidiary has developed chemicals that can protect monuments.

Big Pharma cures for ailing heritage

What do the world&rsquo;s highest wind turbine, the Paris metro and a sweaty Delhi resident sheltering under a ceiling fan have in common? The answer lies in an Indian company that has in a period of four years transformed itself into a transnational entity to be reckoned with: Crompton Greaves.

Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar

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