<p>China's Industrial Bank Co. signed an agreement with the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange to finance the city's planned carbon emissions market. China, which has pledged to reduce carbon output by as much as 45% of 2005 levels by 2020, plans to launch a carbon trading pilot program in Shanghai in 2013 and to expand it nationally by 2015. The Industrial Bank will provide liquidity and supervise trading funds for the exchange's platform.

<p>The European Union (EU) refused last week to change its airline carbon emissions plan despite opposition from the United Nations aviation body. Starting January 1, the EU will charge foreign and domestic airline carriers for their carbon emissions, and the EU is already defending its decision in court. Last Wednesday, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) released a declaration with the backing of China, the United States, and 24 other nations saying that the directive was "inconsistent with applicable international law." U.S.

<p>Belgium's main political parties have committed to a plan to shut down the country's three oldest nuclear power reactors in accordance with its 2003 nuclear exit law. The shutdowns are set to take place by 2015, but are conditioned on finding enough alternative energy sources for the 5,860 megawatts that will need to be replaced. The Belgian government first passed a law in which all seven reactors were to be eliminated by 2025, but the law was never implemented before the breakup of the federal government in 2010.