Renewable energy made up nearly nine-tenths of new power added to Europe’s electricity grids last year, in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels, reports the Guardian. “But industry leaders said they were worried about the lack of political support beyond 2020, when binding EU renewable energy targets end,” it adds. Of the 24.5GW of new capacity built across the EU in 2016, 21.1GW – or 86% – was from wind, solar, biomass and hydro – eclipsing the previous high-water mark of 79% in 2014. For the first time windfarms accounted for more than half of the capacity installed, the data from trade body WindEurope showed. Last month, Carbon Brief analysis revealed that the UK generated more electricity from wind than from coal in the full calendar year of 2016 – a first for the UK.

George David Banks, a former George W. Bush administration climate aide, is expected to join the National Security Council as an adviser to President Donald Trump on international energy and environmental issues, sources have told Politico. It says: “In that role, Banks would work with the State Department to help shape Trump’s approach to global climate change negotiations, including whether the United States should remain committed to the Paris climate agreement, which President Barack Obama championed.” The Wall Street Journal also carries the same news, adding that “Michael Catanzaro, a lobbyist at CGCN Group, is likely to be tapped to cover domestic energy issues…The appointments, which haven’t been officially announced, would mark the first formal positions in Mr. Trump’s White House on energy and environmental issues.” Catanzaro is a well-known lobbyist, says the WSJ: “As a registered lobbyist for CGCN Group, Mr. Catanzaro has represented a potpourri of oil-and-gas companies, including Devon Energy Corp., Koch Industries Inc., Halliburton Co., Hess Corp., NextEra Energy Inc. and Noble Energy Inc., according to lobbying disclosure forms. Mr. Catanzaro also represented industry trade groups, including the American Chemistry Council and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.”

The UK government has been accused of trying to kill off Britain’s solar energy industry just as it is about to become one of the cheapest suppliers of electricity – with no need for any kind of state subsidy, reports the Independent. It adds: “Amid ongoing concern about rising energy prices, the industry expressed disbelief that the Treasury is about to impose a swingeing business tax on firms with rooftop solar schemes, which could increase the bill by up to eight times. Domestic installations could also be hit by a VAT increase from five to 20%. And large-scale solar has been excluded from government auctions of contracts to supply electricity to the grid for the lowest guaranteed price, effectively a form of state subsidy. Representatives of the Solar Trade Association (STA) plan to meet Jane Ellison, the financial secretary to the Treasury, today in a bid to persuade the government to drop the business rate increase and to give the sector a “level playing field” with fossil fuels.” Meanwhile, BusinessGreen reports that a survey of executives at utilities, developers and energy operators “reveals more than 70% reckon renewables are reaching cost parity with fossil fuels”.

The fallout from the Mail on Sunday’s botched “expose” on climate science continues with the Independent reporting that the Sunday tabloid has been accused for using a “fake graph” for which it still refuses to correct: “The newspaper published a graph showing ‘flawed NOAA data showing higher temperatures’ alongside ‘verified Met Office data showing lower temperatures’. However the two sets of figures compared the temperatures to different baseline dates, a glaring and simple error that means they are not comparable in the way shown. When adjusted so they are comparable, the Met Office figures are roughly the same as the NOAA ones – as the Met Office itself confirmed.” Snopes has also published a detailed rebuttal of the article in which it introduces David Rose, the Mail on Sunday’s journalist, as “a longtime proponent of climate change conspiracy theories whose analyses the scientific community widely regards as flawed and deceptive”. Science also has a lengthy feature headlined, “How a culture clash at NOAA led to a flap over a high-profile warming pause study”.

An in-depth survey of more than 20,000 young adults aged between 15 and 21 revealed that the UK came 19th out of 20 countries for mental well-being. Only Japan scored worse. “It revealed that global terrorism tops the list for making the UK’s young most fearful of the future, with 83% highlighting that as their biggest concern,” reports iNews. “It is in contrast with the young people of China, 82% of whom listed climate change as their biggest worry for the future.” The Financial Times carries an article on the findings by Vikas Pota of the Varkey Foundation who says: “The old complaint that countries on the rise are too preoccupied with raising living standards to worry about climate change is not backed up by the data. Emerging economies are more concerned about climate change than many western countries. Nearly three-quarters of young Indians and two-thirds of Brazilians, Argentines and Nigerians list climate change as one of the factors that makes them most fearful for the future. As China has the largest carbon emissions of any country, it could matter that its young people are alone in regarding climate change as a greater global threat than extremism.”

Finch argues that while electric vehicles will form the cornerstone of the UK’s new industrial strategy, which will be good for lowering transport emissions, one further aspect needs consideration. “Whilst there will be a major transition towards electric vehicles in the next ten years, overlapping that will be a major transition towards autonomous (self-driving) vehicles (AVs) – and that could turn the economics of the industry upside down…The brutal truth is that we simply can’t specifically estimate how many individual AVs would be needed in the UK, but we can reasonably surmise that if the car club model is widely adopted, then the number of cars would plummet. All of a sudden, a cornerstone of our industrial strategy looks less secure.”

“Future generations – and how many of those there will be is open to debate – may look back on energy policy and wonder why this crop of human beings were such a selfish, foolish lot.” So opens the Independent’s editorial. It continues: “There is only so much Britain can do about the rest of the world, but this country ought to be able to get its own policies right, and things here seem to be going awry. We seem to be set on, in effect, subsiding some of the dirtiest sources of energy, such as natural gas from fracking, whilst abandoning incentives for some of the cleanest, such as solar power. And the latter is the most immediate concerns…Green energy is developing faster than the minds of Treasury officials seem able to comprehend, and it can make a disproportionate difference to the diversity and environmental soundness of how we fuel our homes and transport. It can also make for a greener Brexit.”

In a feature for Nature News, Rosen examines how researchers are look into the future of the Arctic for clues to save species and maybe even bring back sea ice: “Given the stakes, some researchers have proposed global-scale geoengineering to cool the planet and, by extension, preserve or restore ice. Others argue that it might be possible to chill just the north, for instance by artificially whitening the Arctic Ocean with light-coloured floating particles to reflect sunlight. A study this year suggested installing wind-powered pumps to bring water to the surface in winter, where it would freeze, forming thicker ice. But many researchers hesitate to embrace geoengineering. And most agree that regional efforts would take tremendous effort and have limited benefits, given that Earth’s circulation systems could just bring more heat north to compensate.”

Increases in drought over the next 30 years could triple the number of cases of West Nile Virus in regions of the US with low immunity, a new study says. The researchers analysed the drivers of epidemics in the mosquito-borne West Nile virus at national and state scales in the US over the last 15 years. They find that drought was the main climatic driver – rather than seasonal temperatures or rainfall – though it’s not yet clear how drought increases transmission of the virus.

A new study investigates the “subtle but important differences” between the 1997/98 and 2015/16 extreme El Niño events. For example, the western US didn’t receive the same above-normal rainfall during the 2015/16 El Niño as it did in 1997/98. Researchers conduct climate model simulations to identify how the different impacts of the two El Niños reflect fundamental differences in their underlying dynamics.

Concerns that sea turtles may go extinct because of warmer temperatures are currently unfounded, but may become important under extreme climate warming scenarios, a new study suggests. Sea turtles are more likely to be born female when incubated at warmer temperatures, leading to fears that, in future, only female hatchlings will be produced. But the new study shows that a larger proportion of female sea turtles is likely to help population growth by increasing the number of breeding females and hence egg production.