IBEC, the group that represents Irish business, has welcomed the announcement by Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan’s of a roadmap for the development of Ireland's national climate policy response.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s announcement of a firm timetable for the adoption of national policy and legislation on climate change has been widely welcomed, even by his critics.

Former president Mary Robinson said she was “heartened” by the interest in climate change after more than 50 people had to be turned away from a public lecture on the issue in University College Cork last week.

Although it may still be officially winter, above-average air and soil temperatures have brought bird species ravaged by two consecutive cold winters bouncing back, while confused plants think it is spring.

It's the proof of what sunworshippers have long suspected - most months in 2011 were warmer than average, but the mercury levels failed to rise significantly during those all important summer months.

A commitment by Environment Minister Phil Hogan that the heads of a Climate Change Bill would be introduced before the end of this year has been welcomed by the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

Canada is to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the first nation to pull out of the treaty, the environment minister has said.

Nearly 18 million British people will experience more water shortages and 160,000 will be affected by coastal flooding by the end of the century if temperatures are left unchecked, according to new Met Office analysis.

The financial crisis has boosted Ireland’s ranking to 17th place among the 58 countries featured in the annual Climate Change Performance index compiled by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.

Come rain or shine, a new website showing the current weather conditions in Galway is now available to the general public.

Climate negotiators have agreed a pact that would, for the first time, force all the biggest polluters to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the action plan was not aggressive enough to slow the pace of global warming.

The Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change has confirmed that over 340 companies from 38 countries have now signed up to its latest Communiqué calling on the world's governments to take ambitious action to limit average global temperature increases to below 2°C.

Canada has confirmed that it will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol by the end of next year, although the move looks set to be overshadowed by fresh reports that China could agree to binding emission reduction targets as part of a new treaty.

China has raised the stakes in the game of 'climate poker' being played in Durban by affirming publicly - and for the first time - that it would be willing to sign up for a legally-binding international agreement to combat global warming.

The UN's climate chief has said she believes countries can snap the deadlock that has lasted for years and sign up to fresh and binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases, after a week of climate talks between nearly 200 countries.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has welcomed the fact that more than 18 countries - almost all of them major emitters of greenhouse gases - have passed climate change legislation, “coming to the negotiations ... from a very productive view”.