UPDATE: Our hopes have been dashed as China has announced it has no plans to cap their carbon emissions but will instead seek to lower the carbon intensity [search] of its economy. This is the same lame U.S. policy. The number 1 and number 2 carbon polluters in the world are increasingly international pariah states.

Japanese media reports that China will soon commit to “participate proactively in talks on an international framework to fight global warming from 2013”. This could include negotiated participation in mandatory greenhouse gas emission cuts including carbon dioxide. China will soon be the largest producer of greenhouse gases, yet China has not been obligated under Kyoto [search] to make carbon cuts. This was negotiated as a matter of equity, acknowledging that developed countries were responsible historically for most emissions and developing nations deserved more time to lift living standards before also capping their emissions. Despite major disparities in per capita emissions [search] between the U.S. and China, President Bush has used this as justification for America’s refusal to participate in Kyoto. Well maybe, just maybe things will change as China now appears set to bear “its share of responsibility in fighting global warming”. The formal announcement may come as part of broader agreement between China and Japan, who are expected to reach a 10-point environment preservation and energy-saving agreement. As recently as November, China rejected proposals to revise Kyoto that would have obligated it to reduce its output of greenhouse gases. China’s policy turn around indicates its increasing concern with the serious deterioration of its environment that has accompanied its economic growth. Should China indeed agree to carbon and other greenhouse emissions cuts, the United States’ and Australia’s refusal to participate in Kyoto, and engage in good faith in ongoing climate negotiations, will be revealed to be the selfish, self-serving and deadly policy it is. The Earth’s future depends upon China following through on this pledge.

Global climate change will drastically reshape grain, oilseed and other crop production, but exactly how that will happen remains unclear.

ENN rounds up the most important and compelling environmental news stories of the week. In the news May 7th – 11th: The shrinking Dead Sea, a new carbon-trading scheme, Wal-Mart tests solar, Uganda fights bulldozers, and much more.

Bottled water, the world’s fastest growing beverage, carries a heavy environmental cost, adding plastic to landfills and putting pressure on natural springs, the author of a new report said Thursday.

Federal wildlife biologist Mike Coffeen is ecstatic these days. His efforts to save North America’s fastest mammal — the endangered Sonoran pronghorn — are succeeding beyond expectations.

The tide is turning as fish stocks in Asia have declined by 70 percent in the past 25 years, says Stephen Hall, head of WorldFish, a non-profit research body based in northern Malaysia.

The Saemangeum land reclamation, completed on the west coast last year and covering about 400 square kms (155 sq miles), has removed one of the largest feeding grounds on the Yellow Sea for 400,000 migratory birds who pass by a year, Birds Korea and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSBP) said.

Even slowing the amount of clearing of tropical forests could significantly cut the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, international experts say in a new study.

Democratic-controlled Washington stepped in to help save Chrysler nearly 30 years ago when the automaker was on the verge of bankruptcy due to lackluster sales of its fuel-thirsty vehicles.

A planned cull of thousands of near-starving kangaroos in Australia’s capital on Monday had animal rights activists warning of protests to save the animals.