Thirteen environmental and justice groups walked out of the UN climate talks yesterday in protest at the “lack of progress” in tackling the climate crisis.

More than 800 people from organisations including WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and 350.org, with the slogan “Polluters talk, we walk” stuck to their clothing (pictured), left the Warsaw National Stadium in Poland, where the UN COP 19 talks are being held.

They said developed countries have “blocked progress on cutting emissions and providing finance” for those impacted by climate change.

Although no deal is expected at the conference, they are meant to lay the foundation for a new agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emission in 2015.

In a joint statement, the groups said the climate conference is on track “to deliver virtually nothing”.

They added: “At the Warsaw Conference, rich country governments have come with nothing to offer. Many developing country governments are also struggling and failing to stand up for the needs and rights of their people. It is clear that if countries continue acting in this way, the next two days of negotiations will not deliver the climate action the world so desperately needs.

“Therefore, organisations and movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks. Instead, we are now focusing on mobilising people to push our governments to take leadership for serious climate action.”

More than 9,000 representatives from around 195 countries gathered in the Polish capital for a two-week conference working towards curbing rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The UK, US and Norway have pledged a combined total of $280 million (£173m) to help protect forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The announcement was made at the COP 19 climate change conference in Warsaw. The money will go towards the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes – a new partnership between the public and private sectors.

The fund is part of the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) programme and is also being supported by the World Bank.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: “This century, tree cover the size of Greenland has been destroyed by logging, fire, disease and storms. We have the opportunity now to pull forests back from the brink – reducing emissions and safeguarding the wildlife, agriculture and other livelihoods that depend on the forests.”

Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank said: “The fate of the climate, forests and agriculture are bound together. If agriculture and land use change continue to produce up to 30 per cent of global greenhouse gases, this will mean further disaster and disruption from climate change. That’s why the new BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes is so important.”

The Energy Secretary Ed Davey has said Britain will join the US in agreeing to end support for public financing of new coal-fired power stations abroad.

Mr Davey made the announcement at the UN’s climate change conference in Warsaw.

He said: “It is completely illogical for countries like the UK and the US to be decarbonising our own energy sectors while paying for coal-fired power plants to be built in other countries.

“It undermines global efforts to prevent dangerous climate change and stores up a future financial time bomb for those countries who would have to undo their reliance on coal-fired generation in the decades ahead, as we are having to do today.”

He said exceptions should be made in some cases – for the very poorest countries where there are no alternatives and to take account of new technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage.

But he added: “Developing countries will soon find solar and similar energy technologies will become cheaper not just cleaner.”

The US and Britain will now work together to drum up support for the policy from other countries and multilateral development banks.

Friends of the Earth Climate Campaigner, Asad Rehman said: “Ending support for new overseas coal-fired power stations is certainly a welcome step but if the Coalition really wants to show climate leadership it must pull the plug on its backing for more gas and oil at home.

New cash to fund research into lowering the costs of capturing carbon dioxide from power plants has been announced by the United States.

Its Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $84 million (£52.3m) to 18 projects in a bid to limit emissions from new and existing coal-fired power plants.

Projects being funded include $12.8 million (£8m) to test carbon capture technology for use in commercial projects such as enhanced oil recovery and $8 million (£5m) to  improve the efficiency of getting power from coal.

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said: “The projects announced will focus on the next generation of carbon capture technologies – helping to drive down the cost, increase efficiency and ensure America’s continued international leadership in combating climate change.”

Coal and other fossil fuels still provide 80% of the energy in the US. The Obama Administration has invested $6 billion (£3.7bn) in clean coal technologies to date.

Last month the DOE announced grants totalling $60 million (£37.2m) to drive affordable and efficient PV technologies.

US negotiators have been told to oppose calls for a separate mechanism to pay for climate change ‘reparations’ at the UN climate change talks in Warsaw, according to an internal State Department memo seen by The Hindu.

The issue has been pushed up the agenda by the destruction caused in the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan. The Filipino negotiator Yeb Sano has been fasting since Monday when he made a heartfelt speech to the summit calling for action. He said he won’t eat again until there is real progress.

During the speech he said: “Loss and damage from climate change is a reality today across the world. Developed country emissions reductions targets are dangerously low and must be raised immediately but even if they were in line with the demand of reducing 40-50% below 1990 levels, we would still have locked-in climate change and would still need to address the issue of loss and damage.”

The leaked State Department cable suggests the US is largely keen to steer clear of the topic: “It’s our sense that the longer countries look at issues like compensation and liability, the more they will realise this isn’t [a] productive avenue.”

The memo said although the US was “strongly in favour” of setting up an “institutional arrangement” for climate change compensation, it should be brought under the adaptation ‘pillar’ of the convention.

It said the country was opposed to creating a new third pillar on top of adaptation and mitigation as it would: “lead the [convention] to focus increasingly on blame and liability, which in turn would be counterproductive from the standpoint of public support for the convention.”

Japan is drastically scaling back its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The new target for 2020 – 3.8% below 2005 levels – comes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster forced the country to turn to fossil fuels. It replaces the nation’s initial ambitious goal to slash emissions by 25% from 1990 levels.

Considered to be the fifth largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, Japan’s decision to back away from its previous target could set back UN talks to tackle climate change.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary is said to have told reporters the previous target was “unrealistic”. He said: “Our government has been saying … the 25% reduction target was totally unfounded and wasn’t feasible.”

The UK Government said the news is “deeply disappointing”.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey believes Japan can be persuaded “to change her mind again to resume her leadership role in the world on climate change”.

He said: “This announcement runs counter to the broader political commitment to tackle climate change, recently reaffirmed by G8, as well as the enhanced ambition we have seen from the world’s major emitters.

“We urge the Government of Japan to reassess this decision and increase the target in the near future as it clarifies its future energy policy.”

Japan has however reaffirmed its long term emissions reduction target of 80% by 2050.

The former Prime Minister of Australia has complained of “bullying” in the debate about climate change.

In a speech in London last night John Howard, the ex-leader of the Australian Liberal Party who led the country from 1996 to 2007, criticised the “religion” of climate change and suggested it was morally wrong for “wealthy” Western countries to dictate what energy sources developing countries can use.

Giving the fourth annual lecture for Global Warming Policy Foundation, a group sceptical of manmade climate change, Mr Howard said: “There has been bullying in this debate. I find particularly offensive use of the word ‘denier’. We all know what that means.”

Describing himself as an “agnostic” on the issue, he referred to some advocates of climate change mitigation as “zealots” for whom “the cause has become a substitute religion”.

He suggested there’s been a “shift” in the debate of late: “The global financial crisis has mugged the global warming debate with a heavy dose of reality…”

He also cast doubt on the likelihood of a global agreement on emissions such as a new Kyoto Protocol any time soon: “The key globally is the attitude of the US. What’s happened with shale is very significant. I don’t think they were ever going to enter a world agreement. I think we’re further away – further than a few years ago – from compact between USA and developing nations on global warming.”

Asked if the UK should follow Australia and scrap green taxes to lower bills, Mr Howard said drily, “You’re inviting me to do an Al Gore.”

He said energy prices in Australia weren’t quite as heated an issue as in the UK currently but claimed scrapping the carbon tax had been a key issue which helped fellow Liberal party man and new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott gain power earlier this year.

Governments around the North Sea need to “develop a shared CO2 storage infrastructure” if Europe is to meet is climate change targets and achieve a low carbon economy.

That’s according to a report released by Scottish Carbon Capture Storage (SCCS) to coincide with a meeting of European Parliament’s Environment Committee in Brussels this week to coincide with a parliamentary debate on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) policy.

The report says CCS is the only solution to greenhouse gas emissions for a number of industrial sectors such as cement, chemicals and iron and steel.

It sets out a five-year roadmap for creating the “many gigatonnes of CO2 storage capacity needed by Europe’s power and industry sectors” and makes a number of recommendations for EU policy makers.

At the top of the list is creating a “strategic vision” for CCS by setting targets in the 2030 framework, which should “place CCS equally alongside actions to support renewable power generation and energy efficiency.”

It also calls for investment in CCS to be incentivised using both the ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’, adding “CCS cannot be solely supported by the weak investment signal from the EU’s Emissions Trading System.”

The report says countries bordering the North Sea need to focus on developing “six pre-commercial operational CO2 storage sites” and prove the availability of at least one to two gigatonnes of “bankable storage capacity” in order to demonstrate the viability of the North Sea for CO2 storage.

Professor Stuart Haszeldine, SCCS Director said: “The deployment of CCS on industrial CO2 sources and power generation is essential if Europe is to meet its long-term climate change objectives, retain jobs and improve low-carbon competitiveness. But CCS is impossible without the availability of CO2 storage. The recommendations set out in our report identify how Europe can unlock the North Sea as a shared CO2 storage resource.”

An Energy and Climate Change Committee was recently told DECC needs to stop treating CCS as ‘an option’.

It’s not just grand old buildings and estates the National Trust is keeping an eye on: it seems the organisation has the whole world’s health in its sights.

The Trust – which looks after places such as Lyme Park in the Peak District (pictured) – yesterday launched a new carbon cutting network of bodies including fellow defender of the country house English Heritage, backed by sustainable energy charity Ashden and green power firm Good Energy.

Also joining the Fit for the Future Network are a number of landowning groups, sustainability experts and charities including the Landmark Trust, the Crown Estate, bird protection group RSPB, the Youth Hostel Association and lifeboat charity RNLI.

The groups will learn from each other and share ideas about how to reduce their carbon footprint.

The National Trust’s new Director General, Dame Helen Ghosh – who recently got into hot water when she didn’t dismiss the idea of fracking on the group’s land, something she has now ruled out – said climate change is a “serious issue for us all”.

She said: “As a conservation charity, it’s also unacceptable that our energy costs could increase by millions of pounds over the next decade. To tackle these issues, we’ve set ourselves ambitious targets to use 20% less energy, halve our fossil fuel use and generate 50% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020. But, like others, we need support to achieve these targets.”

Members have been invited to make pledges to work together to reduce their carbon footprint.

Howard Richings, Head of Estates Management at RNLI, has pledged to “share practical solutions” from renewable energy projects, such as solar PV and water source heat pumps that are expected to save the charity £100,000 in the next year.

Mr Richings said: “The RNLI sees great value in belonging to the network and learning from the lessons of others – the more people who join the better.”

The National Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, 742 miles of coastline and hundreds of special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting public views and opinions on its Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans – which includes adapting to increased extreme weather, floods and droughts and preventing pollution.

It aims to integrate climate adaptation planning into its programmes, policies and rules to ensure its work continues to be effective even as the climate changes.

The draft plans are in support of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan announced earlier this year.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said: “To meet our mission of protecting public health and the environment, EPA must help communities adapt to a changing climate. These Implementation Plans offer a roadmap for agency work to meet that responsibility while carrying out President Obama’s goal of preparing the country for climate-related challenges.”

The public review will last for around two months. Earlier this year the EPA published new standards to cut carbon emissions from new-built power plants in the nation.