Sacramento Bee: A new study has found that California wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than previously believed largely through the post-fire decay of dead wood, a finding that is raising questions about how effective the state’s forests are at storing carbon and slowing global warming. The study by Thomas Bonnicksen, a retired forestry professor at Texas A&M University, found that four major wildfires – from the Fountain fire near Redding in 1992 to the Angora blaze at Lake Tahoe last year – …

Reuters: Norwegian oil and gas group StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it was ready to work with new Canadian rules on carbon dioxide emissions at its planned oil sands venture in Alberta. Last year StatoilHydro bought 257,000 acres of oil sand leases in Alberta’s Athabasca region for about $2 billion as part of a long-term effort to diversify production away from aging North Sea oilfields, where output is in decline. Its 10,000 barrels per day pilot …

Toronto Star: Plans to replace Ontario’s coal-fired generating stations will get a boost worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government’s climate change plan, Environment Minister John Baird said yesterday. If Ontario Power Generation doesn’t cut greenhouse gas emissions from Nanticoke and its three other coal plants, it will be able to spend the resulting penalties on new nuclear or natural gas stations, or on major renewable energy projects, Baird said in an …

Reuters: European Union leaders will set a tight timetable this week for adopting ambitious energy policy reforms and measures to fight climate change despite some sharp differences over how to achieve those goals. They will also endorse calls for a global voluntary code of conduct for sovereign wealth funds and for more transparency in financial markets in response to the credit crisis which is set to crimp economic growth in Europe this year. At a summit on Thursday and Friday, the 27 …

Asia News: The international commitment of Indonesia - repeated just recently in December, at the climate conference in Bali - to contain deforestation and reduce carbon emissions is not being translated into concrete actions. On the contrary: the government is liquidating the patrimony of the archipelago’s forests to mining companies for a few rupiah. The denunciation comes from a few groups for the protection of the environment. They accuse the recent presidential decree 2/2008, by which Jakarta …

Toronto Star: A guideline will be drawn up for state governments to ensure conservation and sustainable use of Peat Swamp Forests (PSF) based on the findings of the five-year Peat Swamp Forest Project, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry secretary-general Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin said. "The aim of the guideline, which includes a comprehensive long-term plan until 2020, is to encourage state authorities to manage PSF through informed decisions in managing the forests," he said at the Symposium …

Macau Daily Times: China said on yesterday its battle to rein in soaring greenhouse gas emissions has received a boost from an unexpected source — the nation’s controversial family-planning policy. Since its adoption in the late 1970s, the so-called "one-child" policy has averted the births of more than 300 million people, who would have emitted an additional 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, a government environment report said. If true, the figure would represent more …

Economic Times: The developed world should go on a climate change diet rather than lecture China over its rising greenhouse gas emissions, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Wednesday. Yang told reporters that China’s per capita emission of the gases linked to global warming remained less than one third the average in developed countries. "It’s like there is one person who eats three slices of bread for breakfast, and there are three people, each of whom eats only one slice. Who …

Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlined his vision yesterday for fighting climate change in Canada, saying the federal government’s new regulations can work in co-operation with provincial initiatives, including British Columbia’s new cutting-edge carbon tax. "Contrary to some commentary, the national plan and British Columbia’s plan complement each other," he told more than 600 people at a lunch organized by the Business Council of British Columbia. "The B.C. …

Associated Press: China insisted that developed countries were chiefly responsible for global warming, saying Wednesday that critics of the country’s soaring emission levels must also factor in its massive population. "Climate change is mainly attributable to long-term emissions by developed countries in the past and their current high per capital levels of emissions," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters at the annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s …