An old rift between rich and poor has reopened in UN climate talks as developing countries look for ways to make developed countries accept responsibility for global warming - and pay for it.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged governments to put forth more ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions, saying "current pledges are simply inadequate".

Russel Norman was heckled in Parliament this week when he used the opportunity to express NZ's sympathy for the Philippines to deliver a harangue on the perils of climate change.

Misery united Parliament yesterday - until politics intervened, writes Audrey Young on Greens co-leader Russel Norman's climate change speech.

A curious feature of the climate change debate is that if I know your politics I can predict your views on global warming. This makes no sense.

Much of northern New Zealand, including Auckland, and parts of the South Island would be almost wiped out by rising sea levels if all the world's ice melted.

Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage, industrial and agricultural waste enters the world's waterways, writes Sam Judd.

A recent discovery that agricultural practices help form clouds could change the way we see New Zealand's environmental performance.

Ice levels in the Southern Alps dropped by almost 15 per cent in the past four years, new research from climate scientist Jim Salinger shows.

Rodney Hide looks into climate change.

For a man profoundly worried by the unsustainable track the world is on, Sir Jonathon Porritt is remarkably cheerful.

The Government's refusal to do much of anything to curb New Zealand's emissions is as economically myopic as it is morally contemptible.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released the most comprehensive ever study on global warming, prepared by more than 200 scientists over two years.

A damning international report on mankind's role in climate change should be a wake-up call for urgent action, New Zealand environmentalists say.