<p>Last Wednesday, EU policymakers revealed a draft law designed to fight air pollution. The new law would institute revised legal limits on how much each nation can emit of a list of major pollutants and would establish measures to ensure that member states comply with existing limits. The legislation would also put new restrictions on emissions from medium-sized power plants, which in the past have escaped the limits imposed on larger plants.

<p>Despite conservationists' concerns, last Friday Australia’s environment minister, Greg Hunt, approved mining billionaire Clive Palmer’s China First coalmine. The mine, planned for Queensland’s Galilee Basin, will have the capacity to produce 40 million tons of coal per year, triggering an estimated 85.6 million tons of CO2 when the coal is burned. Approval for the project came with 49 conditions.

<p>More than 50 European and U.S. scientists have written to the president of the European Commission to urge him to go forward with a law that would label tar sands oil as 25 percent more polluting than other forms of oil. The law, which has been in limbo since it was approved by EU member states in 2009, has faced significant criticism from oil companies such as Total and BP. Canada—the world’s biggest producer of oil from tar sands—has headed the opposition to the law.

<p>More than 50 European and U.S. scientists have written to the president of the European Commission to urge him to go forward with a law that would label tar sands oil as 25 percent more polluting than other forms of oil. The law, which has been in limbo since it was approved by EU member states in 2009, has faced significant criticism from oil companies such as Total and BP. Canada—the world’s biggest producer of oil from tar sands—has headed the opposition to the law.