Five major banks and insurers have agreed to adopt a new framework that will guide the sector toward addressing and managing climate change across their products and services.

The telecommunications giant sent a comment letter to the agency to establish itself as a stakeholder as the EPA considers whether to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A range of business and public interests voiced support and opposition during the public comment period, which ended Friday.

Some large United Kingdom businesses are reportedly trying to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to avoid being named and shamed by the government ahead of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, a new cap-and-trade system that begins in 2010.

New vehicle emissions rules for the European Union stalled after the governments couldn't agree on penalties for carmakers who miss their CO2 targets.

The mayors of Savannah, Ga., Lake Placid, N.Y., and Redondo Beach, Calif., have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their cities 7 percent below 1990 levels, pushing the number of mayors committing to meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol past 900.

A group of California businesses and trade associations on Thursday threw their support behind the state's climate change regulations, arguing the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions amount to an enormous economic opportunity.

The companies joined Ceres to create Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy, a coalition that will flex its muscles for aggressive new environmental policies in eight areas, such as robust renewable energy requirements, an auction-only cap-and-trade and the elimination of federal subsidies for fossil fuels.

The project will store more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide some 11,000 feet underground in an attempt to assure that the greenhouse gas can be transported, injected and stored underground safely, economically and permanently.