The environmentally friendly games. Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic Games organisers have signed a United Nations agreement pledging their commitment to protecting the environment. Under the agreement, the event promises to come up with ways to minimise the environmental impact of major events before, during and after the Games. Chief executive officer of Vancouver 2010, John Furlong, signed the agreement in New York with the United Nations Environment Program. On the official Vancouver 2010 website, Mr Furlong said to ensure the Games will be environmentally sustainable, the group will downsize some venues, outfit others with energy efficient LED lights and use green power. “The evolution of Olympic values from their initial focus on the practice of sport as a human right to where sport can play a key role in the development of humankind, is broadening the legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he said. — Gamebids.com

Green chocolate. Chocoholics can now defend their habit as environmentally friendly.  A new process developed by English firm Ecotec turns the by-products of making chocolate into an eco-friendly biofuel. — Reuters

Toxic news in WA. West Australian Newspapers’ printing press in Perth has been listed as a contaminated site. The Department of Environment found chemicals used in printing leaked into the soil and ground water at the Osborne Park site five years ago. The group’s chief cxecutive Ken Steike says the contamination is not a risk to staff. “The monitors have advised us there is no health risk nor indeed any environmental risk,” he said. The newspaper’s operations are opposite a protected wetland reserve, Herdsmen Lake. — ABC News

Dying for pollution in New Delhi. Over fifty thousand people are still dying in New Delhi each year due to air pollution, a study says. The report, by the Indian Centre for Science and Environment, says one thousand new cars are purchased every day in the capital, taking the air pollution above pre-2000 levels that annually caused over fifty thousand deaths. The study found New Delhi is on the verge of losing the gains it made by switching its city buses to compressed natural gas five years ago. — The Statesman