Arctic scientists discover new global warming threat as melting permafrost releases millions of tons of a gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide

Unions welcome an apparent shift away from Conservative thinking. Chancellor calls for tighter regulation to protect banking system

The renationalisation of the electricity and gas industry was put back on the Labour agenda for first time by an ex-minister and a union chief today in the wake of rises of up 35% on fuel bills and soaring profits by utilities companies.

Governments need to show the same boldness to intervene in the markets to kickstart a move to a low-carbon economy as they did when they helped the banks stave off financial crisis last week, a leading academic has demanded.

The number of top 500 global firms reporting their carbon emissions reduction targets to the investment community has fallen, but climate change is still rising fast up the corporate agenda, a new report claims.

One of Gordon Brown's pet energy projects - to build up to a dozen pilot plants to capture and store carbon dioxide as power stations burn coal to generate electricity - would require EU subsidies of as much as €10bn (£7.9bn) over the next few years, it emerged yesterday.

Business in the Community is holding a conference in London today with over 170 high-level business delegates, to show that far from neglecting community investment in a downturn, companies should see it as an opportunity to check what they already have in place.

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Business in the Community is a unique movement of over 750 of the UK's top companies committed to improving their positive impact on society.