Arctic Ocean melting fast, researchers say. In less than two decades, the Arctic Ocean could be all but ice-free all summer, every summer, and a swiftly melting North would have potentially devastating implications for the rest of the planet, British researchers say. [News Source]

Biofuels industry built from scratch. Though a long way from supplanting oil in motor fuels, start-ups have plants in place and are testing their production lines.“We’re so close, we can really touch this now,” said William J. Roe, head of Coskata, one of the startups. [News Source]

Climate scientists suggest revisiting Montreal Protocol. The 1987 Montreal Protocol has been extremely effective in reducing the world's output of gases that destroy the ozone layer. Now climate scientists say countries should add greenhouse gases that cause global warming to the existing Montreal Protocol. [News Source]

Cap-and-trade would slow economy. A bill that targets climate change through cap-and-trade would slow the nation's economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create "significant" job losses from fossil fuel industries as the country shifts to renewable energy, according to the Congressional Budget Office. [News Source]

Law change needed to cover climate refugees: lawyers. International law is unfit to deal with the millions of people expected to flee their home countries to escape droughts and floods intensified by climate change, a group of lawyers said on Thursday. [News Source]

Capturing the benefits of catching escaping methane. Acting quickly to stanch the loss of methane could substantially cut global warming in the short run, even as countries tackle the tougher challenge of cutting the dominant greenhouse emission, carbon dioxide, studies by MIT researchers suggest. [News Source]

Conflicting reviews on Canada’s emissions fight. The Alberta and federal governments will spend $779 million over 15 years to help kick-start a carbon-dioxide-capture project west of Edmonton -- the kind of effort that's been offered as the answer to international concerns over emissions from province's energy sector. [News Source]

EU attacks carbon border tax initiative. Europe’s environment chief has expressed reservations about a so-called carbon border tax – tariffs on imports from countries that do not sign up to a global climate change treaty. [News Source]

EU grapples with deforestation ahead of Copenhagen. European countries are still undecided on how to handle the thorny issue of deforestation under a new international climate change agreement, with national interests coming into play as EU ministers gear up for a series of meetings next week. [News Source]

US bids for bilateral climate change deals with China and India. The Obama administration is hoping to win new commitments to fight global warming from China and India in back-to-back summits next month, the Guardian has learned, including the first Indian emissions trading scheme. [News Source]

‘North Pole will become open sea.’ The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released Wednesday by a team of explorers who measured the thickness of the ice as they trekked through the the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic for three months. [News Source]