German energy giant RWE saw its first quarter income fall by
more than a third as the country’s switch towards renewable energy
continues to “batter” the firm’s business model, the FT reports.
Germany’s second largest utility is blaming a “crisis in the
conventional electricity generation business” for the
decline.

Energy regulator Ofgem is introducing new rules to reduce the
risk of blackouts that will mean higher charges for some
electricity providers, the Telegraph reports. The rules will be an
attempt to avoid a “looming energy crunch” as old power stations
close. Ofgem is keen for new gas-fired power stations that can back
up growing numbers of wind farms, the paper says.

Conclusions in the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) were “diluted” under political pressure from
some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters reports the
Guardian. It says the IPCC summaries for policymakers were
“distorted” by political interests.

Two years of inaction on climate change has cost the world $8
trillion, reports New Scientist. It says a report from the
International Energy Agency found that it will cost $44 trillion to
keep global warming below 2°C. The figure is $8 trillion more than
the agency estimated in its 2012 report. We covered the
report, here.

Energy storage is increasingly necessary alongside huge
investments in intermittent solar and wind energy, says Radio 4’s
Tom Heap. He explores the options for saving excess energy for
later use including pumped hydro, liquified air, electrolysis of
water and heated gravel.

A novelist, a paleoclimatologist and an astrobiologist
reflect on the meaning and impact of long-term inevitable sea-level
rise from Antarctic ice sheet loss. Andy Revkin asks them how
humans are likely to deal with the problem, given the long
timescales involved.

Shadow energy and climate change secretary Caroline Flint has
backed the case for ‘green gas’, reports Business Green. In
a speechat the Gas Industry Awards
Flint backed a role for gas in the lower carbon energy mix of the
future. This should include shale gas, carbon capture and storage
and biogas, she said.

The best conditions for rooftop solar panels are associated
with “premium quality property” and could make solar subsidies the
preserve of the rich, argues Christopher Emmott in The
Conversation. But it doesn’t have to be that way, he says:
community solar schemes can bring local jobs and cheap power to
social housing.

Taking place in Exeter today, researchers will share their
perspectives on where climate science is at, and where it might go
next. The event will be live-streamed on this website.

Ocean-observing satellites and other ocean sensors suggest
that the natural climate cycle El Niño may be developing in the
equatorial Pacific Ocean, explains NASA’s Earth Observatory.
Conditions this May are similar to those of May 1997, a year that
brought one of the most potent and warmest El Niño events of the
20th century, it says.

Scientists have examined how scaling down projections from a
global climate model can be used to to fill in data-sparse regions
in Sub-Saharan Africa. They find a shift towards warmer daily mean
temperatures with a faster increase in warm than cold events.
Changes in annual precipitation and heavy rainfall events are
significant only in regions affected by the Sahel droughts of the
1970’s and 1980’s. J