C3 News Digest - Feb 1, 2012

Cool pick of the week: A U.S. map of planting zones for gardeners has been revised to reflect warming temperatures.

Coal's grip on U.S. power seems to be slowly slipping. As a result, carbon emissions will decline over the next two decades, according to new government data.

The federal government has ended its ecoENERGY retrofit program two months earlier than planned, but there are still provincial rebates available. 

Nova Scotia is offering substantial subsidies to community-based projects to help reach its provincial target of 40 per cent renewable energy by 2020. Retrofitting energy-inefficient buildings and improving transit would also create jobs in B.C., these writers say. 

U.S. President Barack Obama outlined his vision for clean energy and energy efficiency in his 2012 State of the Union address. The U.S. is finally starting to focus on thermal energy, this story says.

In a warming world, we need to focus on agricultural adaptation to keep ourselves fed, this writer says. The recent UN climate change talks in Durban may have produced a useful roadmap after all, some key officials believe.

Britain's first assessment of its likely climate change effects include rising sea levels, more frequent droughts and fewer cod. Singapore is taking steps to protect its coastal areas from rising sea levels.

In some parts of Canada, an electric car can cut a driver's fuel bill by some 80 per cent. Here's a detailed look at why owners of the Chevy Volt shouldn't get range anxiety.   California has passed anti-smog regulations requiring 15 per cent of all vehicles sold by 2025 to have zero emissions.