The World Bank has unveiled a new project to promote the use of clean energy in developing countries, where it argues that up to 40 billion dollars a year is needed to cover the costs of adapting to projected climate change.

BP and Exxon both make top ten worst companies in 2005, according to Multinational Monitor.

Celebrated UK green activist and Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, today argues that “This is embarrassing, but I've become a fossil fuel supporter”. He argues: “I find myself at odds with almost everyone, by deciding, at the worst possible moment, that in one respect at least our battle against climate change depends on neither nuclear power nor renewables, but on a fossil fuel”.

With the melting of the ice after eight months, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant is set to enter a crucial offshore construction phase in the development of its $20bn [£11.2bn] oil and gas programme. Wildlife campaigners say the price of the pipeline could be the extinction of a species of whale.

Campaigners, including WWF, are demanding that Shell abandon its plans to begin the work, claiming the company has failed to persuade an independent panel of scientists that its activities will not harm a critically-endangered population of western grey whales. The cetaceans are due to arrive in their breeding grounds when work

Renewable energy sill only accounts for 14 percent of the energy consumed in the world today, according to new figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA). This compares to six percent for nuclear power and a massive 80 percent for fossil fuels.

Climate change has brought about a rapid and dramatic shift in Britain’s landscape, according to a new report published today. Rising temperatures have allowed species such as orchids and ferns to flourish in the north, while other species retreat to cooler conditions on high land and mountainsides.

As crude-oil prices hit record highs, US congressional leaders are planning to ask President Bush to order an investigation into possible price gouging by oil companies.

Are the blues really becoming green? After his dog-sleigh ride to see melting glaciers in Norway yesterday, UK Conservative leader David Cameron, called for international targets to cut carbon emissions, as well as his support for a levy on carbon use.

Britain’s most prestigious scientific body, the Royal Society, has drawn up plans to fight renewed attempts by sceptics and industry-funded lobby groups to derail international action on climate change.

BP's pipes in Alaska might be leaking like a sieve, but its coffers are nice and healthy. North Slope crude oil closed above $70 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday – on the back of concerns about Iran and tensions in Nigeria. It was only in May 2004 that the price hit $40 a barrel for the first time. Five months later it topped $50. In August 2005 it broke $60. Now it's beyond $70. Any bets where it will stop?