Latest climate change news
Weekly wrap: Saudi reforms as fossils feel the pressure
This week’s top climate politics and policy stories. Sign up inside to have our Friday briefing sent to your inbox
Aid slump for world’s poorest is bad news for climate fight
ANALYSIS: New figures from OECD show that while overall aid funding is rising, help for the 48-strong Least Developed Countries is dropping
Brazil faces human rights probe over Amazon hydropower dam
NEWS: Regional commission forces official response to alleged abuses at Belo Monte hydro plant in Para state
The Anthropocene: Are humans causing a new geological epoch?
ANALYSIS: Researchers argue greenhouse gases, waste and nuclear fallout are making their mark on rocks, but they still have to convince the traditionalists
US hit by multiple billion-dollar weather disasters in 2015
NEWS: Costly floods and droughts roiled states in 2nd hottest and 3rd wettest year on record, says NOAA
Oil giant Saudi Aramco considers selling shares
NEWS: Public offering would make world’s largest oil producer more transparent, says Saudi Arabia deputy crown prince
Climate denial is alive and kicking say scientists
NEWS: Study mines 16,000 documents from conservative thinktanks for insights into how they “manufacture doubt” on climate change
TransCanada sues Obama over Keystone XL block
NEWS: Tar sands company seeks US$15 billion damages for ‘arbitrary and unjustified’ decision to reject Canada-US oil pipeline
India coal imports down 34% in December
NEWS: Delhi’s strategy to boost domestic production paying dividends in blow to world’s top coal exporters, but overall coal use set to soar
Drought has hit global cereal crops harder since 1980s
NEWS: Extreme weather is increasingly affecting agricultural production, study reveals, with biggest losses in developed countries
Oil lobby prepares to sway US presidential race
NEWS: American Petroleum Institute chief Jack Gerard backs ‘voter education campaign’ that emphasises role of fossil fuels, slashing clean energy regulations
Vladimir Putin’s global warming fix: Carbon nanotubes
NEWS: Super-strong carbon nanotubes could transform materials like steel and plastics to slash carbon pollution, claims Russia
Drought is killing millions of trees in California
NEWS: California’s drought has already imperilled many of its trees, and within 80 years climate change could destroy the evergreen forests of the entire US southwest
California massive methane leak by numbers
BLOG: A bust SoCal well in Aliso Canyon is spewing natural gas into the air, in the biggest point source of pollution in the state
Arctic methane emissions ‘greater’ than previous estimates
NEWS: Methane, a key greenhouse gas, is released from Arctic soils not only in the short summer period but also during the bitterly cold winters
How Russia and neighbours could go 100% renewable by 2030
NEWS: Researchers argue Central Asia could become highly energy-competitive in a green economy, with investment in a super-grid
No hiding for polluters as carbon-tracking satellite numbers rise
NEWS: China primed to launch two carbon-tracking probes in 2016, but global data coordination needs improving says head of European Space Agency
US government sues Volkswagen over emissions cheating allegations
NEWS: Carmaker faces potential fines of US$90 billion for manipulating tests, under civil case brought by Justice Department
Obama urged to block future Arctic oil drilling
NEWS: Five-year offshore oil plan set for approval later this year, which a future president would find hard to overturn
Bangladesh coal power plans stall
NEWS: Local sources blame bureaucracy for slowdown in programme to triple power generation and reduce dependence on gas