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China, South Korea lead in green tech funding

China may arguably be the world's biggest polluter, but it seems the country is also the most serious investor in green tech.

A third of its economic recovery package was spent on green-technology investment in the form of high-speed rail trains and infrastructure, wind energy, solar energy, and energy-efficient lighting. It equates to about 3 percent of China's GDP (gross domestic product), according to a new United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) book released Wednesday.

The UNEP book, "A Global Green New Deal: Rethinking the Economic Recovery," was published by the UNEP and Cambridge University Press (CUP). … Read more

U.N. climate talks end with bare-minimum deal

Reuters

COPENHAGEN--U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China, and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this...is an important beginning."

A long road lies ahead. The accord--weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the "political" deal many had foreseen--left much to the imagination.

It set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times--seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms, and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.

It held out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.

"This basically is a letter of intent...the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen--a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no guarantees.… Read more

Asus debuting family of thin, light laptops

Asus is the latest PC maker to hit the market with its own line of thin, light laptops.

The Taiwanese company revealed its new family of notebooks at a news conference in Taipei on Monday. The ASUS UnLimited, or UL, laptops measure less than 24.5 millimeters (one inch) thick and weigh anywhere from 3.3 to 4.6 pounds, depending on the model.

Asus boasts that the laptops can deliver up to 12 hours of life on a single battery charge. Users can switch video mode from the dedicated NVIDIA graphics card to the integrated graphics to save battery … Read more

Samsung announces flagship local-dimming LED-backlit LCDs

We've reviewed a few edge-lit LED-backlit LCDs from Samsung this year, but what home theater fans have really been waiting for is an update to last year's Samsung LN46A950, which uses local-dimming LED technology. The wait is over: Samsung announced on Thursday its flagship line of LED-backlit LCDs, the UNB8500 series, which uses local-dimming like last year's 950 series. Considering that we wrote last year's 950 series was "the peak of flat-panel LCD TV performance and picture quality," these will be highly anticipated TVs--but you'll pay a pretty penny for their state of the art, with prices starting at $3,600 for the 46-inch model. Let's check out the specs.… Read more

Sharp introduces new LED-backlit LCDs

Sharp's first line of LED-based LCD displays is called the LC-LE700UN series, and it's available in four screen sizes. Here's a quick look:

Models (availability, suggested retail price)

LC-32LE700UN (July, $1,100) LC-40LE700UN (July, $1,700) LC-46LE700UN (July, $2,200) LC-52LE700UN (July, $2,800)

Key features of the Sharp LC-LE700 series

1080p native resolution LED backlight 120Hz refresh rate and dejudder processing EnergyStar compliant Four HDMI inputs

The LE700 series, except for the 32-inch model, also features Aquos Net, Sharp's Internet-based service that features access to weather, stocks, and games, among others. The service, which was … Read more