ClimateWire

• ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: Calif. dairy farmers give manure digesters 'another whirl'

  New manure digesters, used to convert methane from manure into electricity, have been developed that no longer emit the smog component nitrogen oxide, but persuading dairy farmers to try out the technology will be difficult.

• SOCIETY: U.K. prime minister devises £1 million 'Britain's Got Talent'-style innovation challenge

  The U.K. government has announced a £1 million (.57 million) prize for the idea that solves "the biggest problem of our time," Prime Minister David Cameron said.

• WATER: U.S. Water Alliance's Grumbles discusses cap-and-trade proposal for watershed protection

  What are the politics and economics of water quality trading programs? During today's OnPoint, Ben Grumbles, former assistant administrator for water at U.S. EPA and now the president of the U.S. Water Alliance, explains why he believes water quality trading could be a productive solution to watershed protection. He discusses the key sticking points behind these proposals and previews an upcoming dialogue between policymakers, industry and regulators on the issue. Today's OnPoint will air at 10 a.m. EDT.

• NATIONS: Latin America has renewable energy but lacks policies to use it -- study

  Latin America and the Caribbean could meet 100 percent of their electricity needs with renewable energy, a new Inter-American Development Bank study finds.

• ADAPTATION: Cities worldwide prepare for climate change

  Cities and coastal areas around the world are getting their act together in preparation for the effects of climate change.

• BUSINESS: Boston group shifts from 'Big Dig' to lowering commercial carbon emissions

  In Boston during the 1990s and 2000s, downtown business and property owners openly worried that the decades-long Central Artery/Tunnel project would suck the economic life out of the central city as noise, dust and daily traffic disruptions turned sections of the city into a dysfunction junction. Intent on having their voices heard by state transportation planners and city officials, a handful of property owners created a nonprofit organization called A Better City, whose charge was to keep Boston's business community from being buried by the "Big Dig."

• PEOPLE: Climate expert takes on new Calif. job with adaptation focus

  A climate change expert has been named to the California Natural Resources Agency, where she'll work in part on adaptation planning.

• RISK: Army Corps chief suggests U.S. needs stronger levees as climate changes

  The commander of the Army Corps of Engineers said the agency might need to strengthen its levee designs as flooding from higher sea levels and storm surge grows, a move that could overhaul building benchmarks used by the federal government for decades.

• NATIONS: Climate-related challenges expected to grow in Australia, but many still question the science

  Australia's Climate Commission, an independent group that advises the nation on climate change, has issued an update to its 2011 "The Critical Decade" study. This report will probably be its last major public statement if the Coalition prevails in the coming September election because Tony Abbott, the opposition leader, will likely get rid of the commission if he is elected.

• TRANSPORTATION: Aviation has greatest climate impact of all travel choices -- study

  Airplanes are some of the most efficient vehicles in existence, but in accounting for climate impacts they produce, a new study found air travel has the biggest climate impact per distance traveled of all long-distance transportation modes.