On Friday, councillors on North Yorkshire County Council gathered to hear evidence about Third Energy’s planning application to frack for shale gas in Ryedale. If the application is approved, it will be a milestone for the industry, which has struggled to get off the ground in the face of heavy public opposition. So much evidence was submitted that the meeting will overrun into today. The Telegraph liveblogged and summarised Friday’s meeting. The Yorkshire Post explained what was happening and its significance. The Guardian, BBC and Press Association also covered the events.

Farmers in India have killed themselves instead of moving to urban shanty towns, as crops withered in a deadly India heatwave that has affected the country for weeks. Hundreds of people have died, and tens of thousands of small farmers have been forced to abandon their land. Dr Laxman Singh Rathore, director general of the India Meteorological Department, blamed the heatwave on climate change. The New York Times also covers the impacts of the Indian heatwave.

Hitachi has unveiled a construction consortium to build a £10bn nuclear power station in Wales that could rival the French-backed Hinkley Point C. The Japanese are partnering with US company Bechtel, but there are no British companies involved. The company has yet to agree on a financial subsidy arrangement with the UK government, and its reactor design is yet to be approved in this country. Nonetheless, it is aiming to have the 2,700MW reactors on stream by 2025. Separately, the Times reports that bidders are lining up to use the former nuclear power station in Snowdonia as a test-bed for a fleet of miniature nuclear reactors. Energy secretary Amber Rudd will notify bidders today whether they have been approved for the next phase of the competition.

The Independent has a news feature looking at the “historic turning point” earlier this month when coal usage in the UK fell to zero on a number of occasions. The article quotes Simon Evans, Carbon Brief’s policy editor: “Even last year, before the phase-out was announced, Government projections were expecting coal power to be very close to zero in 2025. Given recent coal plant closures, the UK might get there even sooner.”

A surge in solar and wind farms has driven down UK energy prices so much that power stations have started to pay for some of their electricity to be taken off their hands. On 8 May, a sunny Sunday when power demand was low and there was a glut of electricity, generators paid more than £30 per megawatt hours as prices briefly went negative, accord to energy data company Enappsys. Although negative prices have only occurred sporadically and for short periods, this is expected to become more common as renewable generation grows, according to the Financial Times.

A new study by Nasa looks at why ice cover in the Arctic has been melting, while Antarctica has seen an increase. The paper combined data on sea surface temperature, land form and ocean depth to study the physical processes on sea ice cover. It concluded that the topography of Antarctica and the depth of the ocean surrounding it influence winds and ocean currents, driving the formation of the Antarctic’s sea ice cover and helping to sustain it.

Donald Trump has revealed little about his personal views on climate change beyond a series of tweets, says the New York Times. But more clues about how he might shape climate and energy policy have emerged with a four-page briefing on energy policy prepared by Kevin Cramer, a Republican for North Dakota. This describes regulations that Trump could do away with if he were president, including the Clean Power Plan. Trump’s press secretary has said that the campaign “will have more to say on the topic soon”. He is scheduled to speak at an oil conference in North Dakota on Thursday.

The wildfires that have consumed over a million acres of land in Canada are costing oil companies as much as $50m a day in lost production, analysts have told Reuters. This is likely to lower revenue in the second quarter, they said. Alberta’s oil produced curtailed production by 5 May, and by 9 May more than one million barrels of daily oil output had been halted. Late on Friday, evacuation orders were lifted on two oil sites are rain and cold weather helped to damped the flames, Reuters reports separately.

Terry Macalister, the Guardian’s energy editor, looks at the recent surge of oil companies announcing low-carbon and renewable initiatives. Is this greenwash, or are companies like Shell, Exxon and Total really waking up to the threat of climate change, he asks. Or: “does it just make good business sense for Big Oil to do this at a time when oil prices are low, renewable projects look like steady long-term investments, and green businesses can be snapped up on the cheap?” He points out that some oil companies have invested a significant amount of money, such as Total on energy storage, while others are investing much smaller sums.

A feature in the New York Times looks at the impacts of climate change on the Colorado River and the West Canyon Dam. Once an attractive compromise, the dam is looking less viable as climate change is making the American West hotter and drier, meaning it stores less water even as the region is facing historic shortages. It is also generating less power. As a result, authorities are considering whether to decommission the dam.

Melting Arctic sea ice, particularly in summer, has the potential to open up shipping routes across the Arctic. A new study investigates the future viability of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the potential impact on international trade. The findings suggest that even under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, increases in international trade between Europe and Asia via the NSR will be very small. The large year-to-year fluctuations in sea ice, the Russian toll imposed for using the NSR, high insurance costs and few loading/unloading opportunities limit future use of the NSR, the researchers say.

Between 2005 and 2013, emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from human activities have increased by an average of 8% per year over western China, a new study says. The rate of NO2 growth during 2005–2013 reaches 11% per year over northwestern China, exceeding the rates over southwestern China (6% per year) and some well-known polluted regions in the east such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (5% per year) and the Yangtze River Delta (4% per year). The rapid NO2 growth is likely related to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, as well as relatively weak emission controls, the researchers say.