Peak oil demand could occur by the late 2030s, according to the BP’s latest annual energy outlook. The British oil and gas company has suggested that self-driving electric cars will cause a revolution in transport over the next two decades, which could cause demand for oil to peak in the 2030s. Demand for oil will also be affected by a worldwide plastic ban, the analysis says, according to The Guardian. The analysis finds that measures to reduce plastic waste could lead to 2m barrels per day lower oil demand growth by 2040. BP’s main forecast scenario suggests that oil demand for use in cars, trucks, power generation, buildings and industry will decline from 2030-40, with only demand for the “non-combusted” sector and non-road transport such as aviation, shipping and rail still growing after this time, The Times reports. The projections mark the first time that BP has shown oil consumption peaking in its long-term forecasts. However, the analysis expects the global demand for crude to grow for years before peak oil demand is reached. The new report is covered by The Telegraph, BusinessGreen and The Daily Mail.

For every five years in the present that we continue to delay strong climate action, the ocean could rise an additional 20cm by the year 2300, a new study shows. The research also finds that, even if the Paris goals are met, sea levels will rise between 0.7 and 1.2 meters in the next two centuries, Reuters reports. Early action to cut emissions would limit the long-term rise, which is likely to be driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica, the study adds. The Independent and Carbon Brief also cover the research.

The UK would be able to cope with further delays to the nuclear plant Hinkley Point, Business Secretary Greg Clark has told a House of Lords committee. He added that the government has no target for nuclear energy use in the future, according to The Telegraph. The 3.2GW nuclear plant is currently expected to start supplying power to the grid in 2027, a decade after the first start date proposed by EDF, the energy company behind the project. Speaking in front of a select committee, Clark said he didn’t have “a particular target for the contributions of nuclear”. “It continues to be our policy to seek a broad mix of different supplies of energy for the future,” he added. City AM also has the story.

Climate change could cause a larger rise in extreme events in European cities than previously predicted, a new study says. British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester could be severely affected by river flooding by 2050 due to climate change, according to the research published in Environmental Research Letters. The research, based on projections from climate models, also found that across Europe, both the number and intensity of heatwaves could rise with some regions experiencing an increase of up to 14C on previous maximum temperatures, The i newspaper reports. MailOnline also has the story.

A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, rollbacks proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, writes Oliver Milman in The Guardian. “The reversal of Obama’s environmental legacy has been spearheaded by Scott Pruitt, who heads the EPA,” he writes. “Ironically for Pruitt, who has touted a “back to basics” approach rooted safely within the confines of the law, this rapidly executed agenda has run into a thicket of legal problems, causing the administration to admit defeat in several cases.”

“Sometimes the future takes longer to arrive than you’d think,” writes commentator Hamish McRae in the Daily Mail. Writing on BP’s latest annual energy outlook, McRae says: “Even if the world’s car fleet has switched over to electricity by 2040, total oil demand would still be higher than it is today.” This is partly because, although renewable energy sources “are growing with astonishing speed and costs are plunging, the base from which they are rising is still very small,” he says. “There is a message here. The first part is that we will be a fossil fuel economy for a long time to come,” he says. “The second part is that precisely because we will be a fossil fuel economy we need to conserve energy in every way we can.”

A new study assesses the potential impacts of climate change on rice production in China. Using a regional crop model and input from 17 climate models, the researchers find that the “grain filling” stage of rice growth – where the rice ripens and matures – is likely to be shortened by 2-7 days in early rice and 10-19 for late rice through this century. Even with a boost from CO2 fertilisation, climate change could reduce rice yields by up to 11% in central China, the study notes. To help lessen these impacts, “early and single-crop rice should be planted earlier, and late rice planting should be delayed,” the researchers say.