A new draft for a global climate change agreement will be released this afternoon, France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius has said. Leading country blocs offered their full backing to the announcement. But much work remains if delegates are to reach a deal by Friday – nations “must first resolve a handful of decades-old disputes that have blocked the path to the first truly universal climate pact”, writes AFP. “You are finally starting to see the really hard bargaining and arguing that has to happen. It is a good thing, because otherwise they would still be standing their positions,” said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute. The topics of historical responsibility and differentiating between developed and developing countries remain thorny issues, as Carbon Brief explained earlier this week.

A ‘high ambition’ coalition of more than 100 countries, secretly formed six months ago, are pushing for a legally binding global and ambitious climate deal at Paris. The alliance consists of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, the US and all EU member states. However, clear dividing lineshave emerged between this new grouping and the fast-expanding economies of China, India, Brazil and South Africa. The Hindustan Times said that rich nations were trying to “divide” the poor, but the G-77 and China group “hit back saying that the developed countries need to fulfil their commitment on climate finance before putting new conditions on climate finance”. China has been accused of “blocking progress” at the climate conference, the Financial Times reports. The Wall Street Journal and the BBC also have the story.

The Met Office has issued two new severe weather warnings for heavy wind and rain covering large parts of northern England and Scotland. The region finds itself again braced for extreme conditions after being battered by storm Desmond over the weekend. More than 5,000 households forced from their properties are to be given temporary relief from council tax, says The Telegraph.The Guardian reports comments from environment secretary Liz Truss, conceding that government spending on flood defences may not be enough to protect people from extreme weather. Both Truss and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have linked the heavy rain and flooding to what we can expect from climate change, says BusinessGreen. Meanwhile, a UKIP candidate muses on whether the arrival of Syrian refugees is to blame, reports the Independent. Another storm is expected to sweep in today, with things calming down by the end of the week, says The Express.

An undercover investigation by Greenpeace has revealed how two academics at leading universities in the US agreed to accept payment to write reports in favour of coal use in developing countries. Talking to Greenpeace investigators posing as consultants to Middle Eastern and Indonesian fossil fuel companies, Prof William Happer of Princeton University and Penn State’s Prof Frank Clemente also suggested the source of funding for the reports need never be made public. The email exchanges also shed light on the process of “peer review” employed by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Lord Lawson’s climate skeptic lobby group in the UK. Despite Matt Ridley – an advisor to the organisation – describing a recent report as “thoroughly peer reviewed”, Happer explained the process consisted of members of the GWPF’s advisory council and other selected scientists reviewing the work, rather than presenting it to an academic journal. Happer told the undercover reporters: “I would be glad to ask for a similar review for the first drafts of anything I write for your client. Unless we decide to submit the piece to a regular journal, with all the complications of delay, possibly quixotic editors and reviewers that is the best we can do, and I think it would be fine to call it a peer review.” DeSmog has more on the story. And you can read scientists’ responses to some of Matt Ridley’s other climate change claims in Carbon Brief’sannotated transcript from a recent interview with the BBC’s Roger Harrabin.

The US secretary of state has said governments face a tough fight in the 72 hours remaining to try and reach a global climate deal in Paris. But he voiced some optimism: “I think a consensus is slowly being built…I think there is a growing feeling of possibility”. The challenge of reaching an agreement has now been handed off from negotiators to ministers and cabinet officials like Kerry. Elsewhere Time reports that Washington “would like to see signatories come back to the drawing board every five years beginning as soon as 2020”.

Denmark, the UK and Sweden have topped an annual table of countries combating climate change, compiled by green groups Germanwatch and Climate Action Network. They analysed progress in the 58 countries producing more than 90% of energy-related CO2 emissions. The Times also has the story.

President Obama has talked about climate change with at least three world leaders in the last four days as international negotiations continue in Paris, the Hill reports, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. “Both leaders emphasized their personal commitment to secure a strong climate change agreement this week”, the White House said in a press release. Obama alsospoke to Brazilian president Dilma Rouseff on Monday. Scientific American also has the story.

One of the world’s largest oil producers is getting in the way of a deal and making implausible objections, according to delegates and campaigners. “Anything that would increase ambition or fast forward this energy transition that is already taking place is something that they try to block”, said Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network. Sputnik also has the story.

The American rejection of climate action is based on suspicion of big government, writes Naomi Oreskes. But free markets will not solve climate change by themselves, she argues. History shows that government is also needed to kick-start major technological innovations of the scale required to solve climate, or to create new policies like the introduction of a carbon tax.

Unprecedented is a much overused word, says the Independent’s environment columnist and former environment editor, Michael McCarthy. But for the rainfall that has hit the Lake District and much of Cumbria it seems entirely appropriate for once. An inch more rain fell in 24 hours than the previous record of 12.36 inches at Seathwaite in Borrowdale in November 2009. McCarthy says: “Welcome to the future of Britain, ladies and gentlemen. It’s very, very wet.”

If global average temperature rise hits 2C, China would see extreme hot summers occurring at least 80% of the time, a new study suggests. Researchers quantified future changes in the frequency of extreme hot summers across China – where June-August average temperatures exceed 90% of summers between 1971 and 2000. The proportion of China where extreme hot summers become the norm would rise from ~15% with a 0.5C increase in global temperatures, to ~97% with a 2.5C rise, the study also finds.

We can expect lower rates of winter sea ice loss in the Arctic over the next 5 to 10 years than were observed in the late 1990s, a new study says. Using observations and model simulations, the researchers find that variations in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) would mean less ocean heat is transported towards the Arctic from the tropics in the short-term. Although the long-term trend will still see large reductions in Arctic sea ice, there may be sea ice growth in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic in the coming years – particularly in the Barents Sea region, the researchers say.