The UN climate summit has ended with delegates taking very different views on how much it has achieved.

Western delegates said progress here had been encouraging, but environment groups said rich countries had not shown enough ambition.

Developing nations were angry that more money was not put forward to protect against climate impacts.

The meeting is the halfway point on a two-year process aimed at reaching a deal in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.

After Poznan, eyes are turning to Copenhagen

As envisaged at last year's conference in Bali, that agreement is supposed to have two major elements - an expanded Kyoto Protocol-style deal committing industrialised countries to deeper emission cuts in the mid-term, perhaps by 2020, and a longer-term agreement encompassing all countries.

more...

A new The Economist's Technology Quarterly is out now with many interesting articles on various modern energy initiatives:

• Monitor : Fresher cookers : Technology and development: The humble cooking stove is being overhauled around the world with the help of “user focused” design

• Monitor : How green is your network? : Environment: Telecoms firms are reducing the power consumption of their networks, for economic and environmental reasons

• Monitor : Green iron : Environment: Treating industrial wastewater with scrap iron can be a cheap and effective way to reduce pollution from factories

• Monitor : And the winners were... : Innovation awards: Our annual prizes recognise successful innovators in eight categories. Here are this year’s winners

• Rational consumer : Small is beautiful : Computing: Netbooks are small computers that are cheaper and lighter than full-scale laptops. They have their merits—but do not ask too much of them

• Space solar power : Let the sun shine in : Energy: Satellites that beam solar power to earth have often appeared in science fiction. Will they ever become reality?

• Case history : Wind of change : Energy: Wind power has established itself as an important source of renewable energy in the past three decades. The basic idea is ancient, but its modern incarnation adds many new high-tech twists

• Clean technology : Masdar plan : Energy: Wind power has established itself as an important source of renewable energy in the past three decades. The basic idea is ancient, but its modern incarnation adds many new high-tech twists

more...

After three years of improvements, deforestation in the Amazon is increasing again, according to the Brazilian government.

Satellite images indicate that nearly twelve thousand square kilometres of land has been cleared within a year, an area the size of Lebanon.

See the video commented by Vanessa Heaney on BBC website.

Exponential online growth is 'not sustainable', say scientists

The internet will become a major consumer of power in the years ahead, creating an 'energy bottleneck' that could mean price increases and service slowdowns.

In a world-first model of internet power consumption, University of Melbourne researchers have identified the major contributors to Internet power consumption as the take-up of broadband services increases.

New services such as high-def video on demand, real-time web gaming, P2P networking, video conferencing and tele-working will increase demand for bandwidth.

more...

The European Commission last week released a detailed set of benchmarks to guide IT managers toward the most energy-efficient practices as they build new facilities or upgrade existing data centres.

Part of the EC's Joint Research Centre, the Institute for Energy unveiled its "Code of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency" last week to help move public- and private-sector data centres toward the most efficient energy use possible.

Among the goals of the code of conduct are to "develop and promote a set of easily understood metrics to measure the current efficiencies and improvement going forward"; to raise awareness among managers, owners and others to help them understand the importance and benefits of energy efficiency in data centres; and the development and promotion of new, energy efficient technologies; and set efficiency targets for owners and managers of data centre facilities.

more...