New York Times

The vast amounts of food lost to spoilage and insects in poor countries, and simply tossed in rich ones, also represent an enormous stream of wasted water, according to a new report that calls for big improvements in a world heading toward 9 billion hungry, thirsty mouths.

The Globe and Mail

The cold climes of the Arctic are fast becoming an international hot spot. Faced with melting ice floes opening up navigable waterways, tantalized by the dream of untold resource riches in the northern seabed and spurred on by a gaggle of commentators calling on countries to assert their sovereign rights in the name of their “national interests,” governments of the circumpolar region are engaging in a competitive scurry to plant flags, bolster their military presence and engage in disputatious legal wrangles.

CBC News

Hundreds of negotiators are gathering in Ghana’s capital to resume talks on a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires.

The weeklong conference began Thursday in Accra, with more than 1,000 delegates in attendance.

Talks in the city located in Ghana’s south will focus on pushing developing countries to join the fight against rising greenhouse gas emissions, but come at a difficult time, when many of the world’s poor are more concerned with the cost of food and fuel.

The Globe and Mail

The equivalent of 412 billion barrels of crude lies tantalizingly beneath the pack ice and frigid waters of the Arctic, making it the largest source of untapped oil on the planet, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Service.

Democracy Now

In Japan, world leaders at the G8 summit have announced they would work toward cutting carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050. The White House hailed the declaration as a major step forward, but environmental campaigners criticized the lack of a commitment to midterm targets. Global warming ties into other big themes, such as soaring food and fuel prices, being discussed at the three-day summit. We go to Hokkaido to speak with Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South.

Globe and Mail

Hopes have dimmed for stronger action on climate change – a central goal of this week’s G8 summit in Japan – with countries such as the United States and Canada resisting calls for the group to set hard midterm targets for reducing emissions.

There’s a sense here that, besides some modest steps, leaders are already looking beyond this summit to next year’s UN climate-change talks, and the successor to U.S. President George W. Bush.

Environmental groups and European groups had called for the G8 to set midterm targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020.

“A five-day round of United Nations climate change negotiations kicked off in Bangkok Monday, opening the first steps to implement the Bali Roadmap adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference on the Indonesian island resort last December.”

The European Commission has joined the Methane to Markets Partnership, an international group consisting of 20 national governments aimed at promoting methane-capture technologies.

An International Carbon Action Partnership has been signed by European countries, US states, Canadian provinces and New Zealand in an attempt to combat climate change by creating an international carbon trading market.

The new International Clean Technology Fund aims at helping developing nations access and improve the use of clean energy technologies. The United States will try to persuade more countries to donate to this fund at the Group of Seven economic chiefs meeting.