Representatives of the world’s largest economies continue their global warming talks today in Honolulu amid a growing acceptance that the next international climate treaty will not just be about overall limits on heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Yes, mandatory targets and timetables for emission reductions remain central to the discussions as United Nations officials, the European Union and environmental groups lead the charge to keep these in play.

But there’s also an increasing awareness that a different type of agreement is needed to address the climate problem among the world’s emerging economic powers, such as China and India, along with the world’s poorest nations.

The Senate Finance Committee approved an economic stimulus package yesterday that includes a one-year extension of tax credits for renewable electricity and energy efficiency projects.

But the addition sets up a possible fight with the House and President Bush, who agreed on a stimulus package last week and have urged senators not to make major changes that could bring the bill to a halt.

“While this is good policy, as were many ideas that brought forth by members of the House, it does not meet the requirement set forth by the Speaker: that items included truly be stimulus and also be timely, temporary and targeted,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Berkeley, Calif., officials this week released a plan to help the city meet a voter-approved mandate to reduce its greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050.

The plan would require homes and business to produce as much energy as they use, residents and workers to rely on public transportation, walking and biking and cars to run on alternative fuels and electricity. In addition, no waste would be sent to landfills and most of the food eaten in Berkeley would be produced within a few hundred miles.

Mayor Tom Bates called the plan a road map for any community wanting to help avert the potentially devastating consequences of global warming, and stressed that community cooperation is essential.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has launched a campaign aimed at winning over the necessary votes on a global warming bill slated for floor debate later this spring.

Boxer and committee allies have turned their attention in recent days to a number of senators who don’t typically work on climate change issues, as well as a half dozen or more moderate Republicans seen as potential supporters of a bill that sets mandatory limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

“It’s fair to say that the discussions have begun,” Boxer said through a committee aide yesterday.

The House yesterday approved, 261-122, a plan to create a 220-mile national historic trail in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

H.R. 1528, from Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.), would create the New England National Scenic Trail, the ninth federal scenic trail and the first designated since 1983

The New England National Scenic Trail would extend from Long Island Sound in Guilford, Conn., to Royalston, Mass., at the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. The 190-mile Monadnock, Metacomet and Mattabesett (MMM) Trail System would make up most of the national scenic trail. A 2006 National Park Service study recommended some changes to the MMM system that would add about 30 miles to the national scenic trail, for a total of 220 miles.

Severe winter storms in China have led the government to take emergency actions in an effort to avert a crisis, highlighting the weaknesses in the country’s energy policies.

Heavy snow killed 24 people in China since Jan. 10, according to the Xinhua News Agency. In response, the government has called for emergency cuts in energy supplies to manufacturing industries to ensure there was enough power to warm homes and keep hospitals, railways, broadcasters and the financial system operating.

Such moves could have broader impacts around the world, as shutdowns of aluminum-making smelters could put upward pressure on the world aluminum prices, and the suspension of coal exports, intended to speed supplies to domestic power producers, has also jolted world coal markets.

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Scientists fear that as global warming creates more hospitable conditions in Antarctica, invasive species will move in and disrupt life there.

“Antarctica is the last bastion of a pristine environment compared to the rest of the world,” said Dana Bergstrom of the Australian Antarctic Division, who leads an international research project titled “Aliens in Antarctica.” “It has been isolated by the southern ocean — people are starting to break that barrier.”

So far, invaders have been found on Antarctic islands ringing the continent, which have been getting warmer in recent decades. They get in partly because visitors’ clothes often contain seeds, spores or insect eggs.

President Bush broke no new ground in his final State of the Union speech last night but instead turned the spotlight on several ongoing campaigns, including negotiations over a new international global warming treaty.

Bush’s 53-minute speech in the Capitol included an overview of his controversial climate change policies plus a budget proposal that presumably will press for additional funding for a range of low-carbon energy sources, from nuclear power to renewables.

The president urged Congress to help him launch a three-year, $2 billion “international clean technology fund” that can help India, China and other developing countries gain access to American-made power supplies.

Warming temperatures and increasing storms are posing serious threats to Caribbean coral reefs and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said today. During the last 50 years many Caribbean reefs lost up to 80 per cent of their coral cover, according to the Paris-based agency, which noted that 2005 was especially disastrous for Caribbean corals.

Worldwide, nearly 500 million people depend on healthy coral reefs for sustenance, coastal protection, renewable resources, and tourism, with an estimated 30 million of the world’s poorest people depending entirely on the reefs for food.

Coral reefs are fragile ecosystems and current estimates suggest that nearly two thirds of the world’s coral reefs are under severe threat from the effects of economic development and climate change, such as coral bleaching, a direct result of global warming.