Buzz over biochar. In the last several years — as world leaders have continued to debate how to stem the consequences of global warming — an ancient farming method has begun to gain traction with scientists as a possible new-world solution for climate change. [News Source]

Selling Americans on a ‘green-collar’ economy. Van Jones may have one of the hottest assignments in the Obama administration -- selling the notion of a new "green-collar" economy -- but in a country burdened with a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, it's not easy. [News Source]

Tripling funds for energy efficiency programs urged. Wisconsin should explore tripling state funding for energy efficiency programs to $350 million a year because the payoff would be nearly $1 billion a year in energy cost savings for consumers, a new study by the Energy Center of Wisconsin recommends. [News Source]

Change favours coffee pest. Climate change could have a devastating effect on coffee production within the tropics. [News Source]

House’s global warming bill: $8B. It will cost nearly $8 billion over the next decade to pay for the expanded federal bureaucracy needed to combat global warming under a bill passed by the House of Representatives, a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says. [News Source]

Geoengineering schemes under scrutiny. Geoengineering — the deliberate manipulation of climate to counteract global warming — might not be taking off just yet, but the push to fund more research into it is increasing. [News Source]

Affordably green. The idea that green buildings make financial as well as environmental sense is central to California's global warming fight. [News Source]

Climate change skeptics uniting in Springfield, MO. Ron Boyer believes climate change skeptics have gotten a raw deal — in some academic circles, in Congress and certainly in the press. [News Source]

Mixed reactions to Alberta hydro power project. Utilities Ltd. president Nancy Southern has a dream to wean Alberta off the two coal-fired plants her company's Atco subsidiary owns in eastern Alberta. She wants to replace them with green power from hydroelectric facilities on the Slave River and other northern rivers. [News Source]

New figures show India emissions a fourth of China. India contributes around five percent to global carbon dioxide emissions, a new government report showed on Tuesday, but is still only about a quarter of the emissions of China and the United States. [News Source]

Duke’s China initiative fits with national efforts. Duke Energy's initiative with China Huaneng Group aimed at cooperation on carbon reduction and energy efficiency takes place as the United States and China look to break their deadlock on climate-change issues. [News Source]