A climate negotiator representing Saudi Arabia has warned
that “pressure from environmentalists to end fossil fuel use and
the possibility of a climate deal that calls for zero emissions by
mid-century could get in the way of progress” on securing a global
agreement to cut emissions. Oil producers should receive help to
diversify their economies, Saudi Arabia has argued. Saudi is in
arace against timeto cut reliance
on oil, the Financial Times suggests. Meanwhile poorer countries
have called for ore money to be made available to pay for the
damages of climate change,the Financial Times reports.

At climate talks in Lima, the EU has been pushing for any
global climate agreement to include a mechanism allowing countries
to challenge the policies of other nations, causing disagreement
with other delegates, including the US and China. “The dispute has
big implications for the deal in Paris, which could either be a
patchwork of purely national offers to fight climate change beyond
2020, or one where countries and outside observers including green
groups are able to challenge and influence the scope of national
pledges.” John Kerry, the US secretary of state,will attend the talkslater this
week.

Oil giant Shell tells RTCC that it doesn’t see a future in
which the world limits warming to less than two degrees as
politically or socially possible. The oil company’s own scenarios
of the future see much higher levels of warming by the end of the
century, as well as a continued role for its products.

Australian researchers say they have created a solar panel
that can convert 40 per cent of the sun’s energy into electricity.
The innovation uses currently commerically available solar
technology and should, the researchers say, further reduce the cost
of generating power from the sun.

Lord Stern has said that global commitment to sustainable
development is more important than securing a binding global treaty
on climate change. The intervention reflects concerns that
insistance upon any global climate deal being legally binding may
mean that no deal can be agreed. Negotiators are trying to “hammer
out” the form any agreement should take in Lima, the BBC says.

The European parliament has proposed a car emissions target
of 68g-78g of carbon dioxide per mile by 2025. But France and
Germany want the 2025 proposal to be pushed back to 2030. A 95g
target must be implemented by 2021.

Faced with a falling stock price and an uncertain future, US
coal giant Peabody is trying to position itself as a “friend of the
global poor”, writes Grist’s David Roberts. The company has
employed PR firm Burston-Marsteller to devise a campaign to achieve
this goal, but “Peabody is doing nothing on energy poverty but
shilling for coal”, Roberts says. According to research from
analysts at campaign group Carbon Tracker, electricity from coal is
significantly more expensive when there isn’t easy access to an
existing electricity grid – a situation that many in poverty find
themselves in.

Morocco and Mexico have both received over half a billion in
climate finance, according to a new report by the Overseas
Development Institute. Half of climate finance over the past ten
years has gone to just ten countries.

“There is no doubt that the 2 °C target has its
shortcomings”, writes climate scientist Alice Bows of the Tyndall
Centre. “…but the risks of jettisoning it now are too great for
the planet and society to bear. Instead, scientists should learn
from [criticisms of the target] to give more nuanced, transparent
and honest – and therefore more effective – policy advice.”

A new paper concludes that the 2012-2014 drought in
California was the most intense in the region for at least 1,200
years. But the Guardianreportsthat a new study says it is
natural variation in the climate and not manmade global warming
that is driving it. A wider view of the literature suggests that
climate change is a factor, this author suggests.

Replacing old coal-fired power plants with new natural gas
plants could cause climate damage to increase over the next
decades, new research suggests. Using natural gas as a bridge to
near-zero energy generation will only result in fewer carbon
emissions in the short-term if their methane leakage rates are very
low and the new power plants are very efficient. But natural gas
plants would help reduce other types of air pollution and would be
better for climate in the long term, the researchers add.

A new study identifies early warning signals of circulation
patterns in the Atlantic Ocean shutting down. By simulating the
Ocean’s circulation in a highly complex model, the researchers find
that warning signals are present up to 250 years before the
circulation stops. This suggests that scientists could monitor the
real world circulation for the same signals, the study concludes.