Weekly wrap: UN prepares for 150-nation Paris deal inkfest
This week’s top climate politics and policy stories. Sign up here to have our Friday briefing sent to your inbox
Renminbi power: Will China’s wallet shape the planet?
China has big financial firepower. It must channel it towards low carbon through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to lead from the front on climate
Oceans warming too fast for Great Barrier Reef – study
Corals survived bleaching in the past as gradual warming gave time to adapt. That’s not so certain in the future
Drought stumps Indian cricket league
Thirteen games to be moved from Maharashtra state next month due to severe dryness, judge rules
Panama to deliver climate plan at Paris signing ceremony
Central American state will deliver belated plan at UN signing ceremony diplomat says, leaving six holdouts remaining
North Korea set to sign Paris climate deal
Pyongyang neglected to submit UN climate pledge, but will formally back agreement at 22 April ceremony
IMF: Oil price crash delays clean energy transition
NEWS: Cheap fossil fuels could thwart development of renewables, says global lender in economic outlook
Apple has ‘strongest climate policy’ of business world
NEWS: Tech titan scores first ‘A’ in NGO ranking and is commended for use of renewable energy and green advocacy
Scientific consensus on climate change still ‘overwhelmingly high’
NEWS; Review of influential 2013 paper that produced ‘97%’ figure reaches same conclusion: ‘the level of scientific agreement is overwhelmingly high’
Are small nuclear reactors a clean energy solution?
NEWS: Nuclear companies meet to discuss licensing the controversial modular reactors set to cost billions of dollars and be built near towns
Latin America regional bank to scale up climate investments
NEWS: Inter-American Development Group aims to double spending on green projects to US$4bn a year by 2020
Save the Children: Ethiopia ‘deeply affected’ by climate change
NEWS: Famine-hit country faces worse drought in future, warns aid chief and former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Islands of Gauguin, Robinson Crusoe could become parched paradise
NEWS: Climate change could aggravate water shortages in three-quarters of world’s small islands by 2050, researchers warn
Gulf states win concessions in HFC phase-out talks
NEWS: Hot countries offered four-year grace period to comply with rules to replace potent warming gases in air conditioning
Top money managers, ratings agencies scanned for climate risk
NEWS: NGO to rate exposure of ‘whole investment chain’ to perils of warmer planet to protect retirement savings
Renewable power installations grew 8.3% in 2015 – IRENA
NEWS: Solar and wind farms muscled out fossil fuel-fired plants as preferred form of new power generation in 2015, says clean energy body
Countries inking Paris climate treaty to break 34-year UN record
NEWS: More than 130 are set to sign the agreement in New York on April 22 showing ‘high level of engagement’ on climate
Emerging powers to sign Paris climate deal on 22 April
NEWS: Brazil, China, India and South America RSVP for UN ceremony and pledge to ratify emissions-cutting treaty as soon as possible
Big oil spent $115m ‘obstructing’ climate laws in 2015, NGO says
NEWS: Lobbying spend of Shell, Exxon Mobil and trade groups estimated in transparency effort
Vietnamese celebrities oppose coal plants in striking photo campaign
PICTURES: Popular artists don gas masks in posters, warning: ‘Don’t let coal pollution destroy your life’
Aviation talks face headwinds on rich-poor compromise
NEWS: As at the international climate talks, getting a compromise between rich and poor over airline emission cuts is proving tricky for UN negotiators
21 countries show how to grow GDP while cutting emissions
NEWS: Much of Europe and the US has ‘decoupled’ economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions since 2000
Super CO2-sucking crops could save the world from starving
NEWS: Plants genetically modified to thrive in hotter temperatures and increased carbon dioxide could cut fertiliser use and raise yields to reduce food shortages
For Myanmar, temptation of cheap coal ‘hard to ignore’
NEWS: Big expansion of coal power on track as Aung San Suu Kyi forms first civilian-led government in over 50 years