Carving up the nuclear spoils: The Government gave the green light yesterday for the construction of the first new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK for more than two decades. The move sparked howls of protest from opponents of the controversial energy source, but also set in motion a fresh round of frenetic deal-making between companies which now hope to cash in on the multibillion-pound initiative. In a speech to the Commons yesterday, John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, used hot-button issues like our dependence on foreign gas and global warming to explain the Government’s new Energy Bill that puts nuclear power at its heart. Independent

Green campaigner uses shame tactics: For a company, a brand matters the most. Environmentalist Ma Jun, who is well aware of the dictum, has used it to pressure polluters to mend their ways. He created a website to name and shame companies, and even local governments, that pollute the environment. On Saturday, the 39-year-old was selected as one of 50 people – including four Chinese – who could save the planet by The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, because of his green efforts in the past decade. “The award was a surprise to me, and the honor belongs to our team,” said Ma, who in 2006 set up the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization with five staff members. China Daily

A carbon dividend?: In the last year, the political winds on climate change have shifted dramatically. A cap on the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is now widely seen as inevitable. But that just leads to another huge debate, over how the required reductions will be achieved. And into this debate comes an interesting new idea, a carbon dividend. Business Week

How green are the world’s banks?: Some of the world’s top financial institutions are starting to think of green as something other than cash. They are adding chief environmental officers, committing themselves to sustainable-energy projects, and reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions. In a sense, many of them are going from wingtips to green sneakers. Turning the bankers into budding Al Gores has significance because of their impact on financing and investment, not to mention that they have considerable real estate holdings. On Thursday, a new analysis of the top 40 financial institutions found that while no one will mistake the money powerhouses for the Sierra Club, many of them are making “encouraging progress.” Christian Science Monitor

Beijing’s blue skies ‘suspect’: With the Olympics just seven months away, a US environmental expert has cast doubt on Beijing’s claims that it has significantly improved the number of its “blue sky days”. He has accused city authorities of cheating by adopting easier targets and using monitoring stations in less polluted areas. Steven Andrews, a Washington-based environmental consultant, said that from 1998 to 2006, Beijing’s Air Pollution Index was compiled from data from seven monitoring stations in the city centre. In 2006 the city dropped two monitoring stations from its pollution calculations — and added data from three monitoring stations in less polluted areas. The Age