News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health and welfare in a decision that could eventually lead to new emissions regulations.

The so-called “endangerment finding” announced by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is necessary to move ahead on new emission standards for cars, while potentially opening up large emitters such as power plants, crude-oil refineries and chemical plants to limits on their output of carbon dioxide and other gases.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled its first draft of a retooled Federal Crop Insurance Program designed to push private insurers to spread coverage for farmers more evenly across the country as well as cut government spending on the program.

DuPont Co. (DD) pushed back its timelines for the North American release of its Optimum GAT corn and soybean seeds, which have a special herbicide tolerance and provide high yields, though one analyst suggested the impact on the chemical giant will be muted in the short term as the technology wasn’t expected to be meaningful
for a number of years.

Farming practices that capture carbon and store it in agricultural soils offer some of the most promising options for early and cost-effective action on climate change in developing countries, while contributing to food security, FAO said in a policy brief prepared for the Copenhagen summit. Yet agriculture has been largely excluded from the main climate financing mechanisms under discussion in Denmark, the agency said.