The European Commission’s proposal for national emissions-reduction targets to 2030 is the first major piece of legislation since the UK voted to leave the EU, reports Reuters. The “bitterly disputed” national targets is a “test of the union’s cohesion”, it adds. Politico takes a similar line, saying the proposals received a “fiery blowback”. NGOs say the Commission’s proposals are not in line with the Paris Agreement, according to Climate Home. Carbon Brief explains the details of the proposals and analyses what would happen if the UK is no longer part of the targets. Carbon Pulsealso covers the plans. One academic tells Energy Live News the UK should prioritise climate change and its 2030 commitments during exit negotiations with the EU. Alongside proposals for national targets, the EU has also started work on stricter CO2 targets for vehicles, the Financial Times reports.

The Antarctic Peninsula, among the fastest warming places on earth last century, has since cooled due to natural swings in the local climate according to research covered by Reuters. Scientists say the respite from the thaw is likely to be brief, it adds. The cooling “doesn’t disprove global warming”, says the Washington Post. The cooling at Antarctica’s tip over the past 15 years is related to wind patters, explain the Guardian and New Scientist. The print Daily Mail says a “huge chunk of the Antarctic has shown no signs of warming” while the online version of the story says that the study only covered 1% of the Antarctic. Carbon Brief puts the new research in context, with the help of a range of climate scientists. Bloomberg also has the story.

Germany’s largest utility firm, Eon, is to float its power generation subsidiary Uniper in September, reports the Financial Times. The firm’s decision to split into two has been driven by Germany’s support for renewables, it says. Uniper will house conventional generation assets such as coal and nuclear, while Eon will retain renewables, networks and customer solutions, the FT says. RWE, another major Germany utility, is undergoing a similar split.

The World Bank is poised to back a new, more efficient coal-fired power station in Kosovo, reports Karl Mathiesen for the Guardian. The €1bn-plus project, which has strong US backing, “will lock the world’s second youngest country into a future powered by lignite – the dirtiest form of coal”, he writes.

Most new cars sold in the UK could be electric as early as 2027, according to Go Ultra Low, a government and industry-backed campaign. The group says its forecast would mean that all new cars and vans would be electric by 2040, reports the Telegraph. Some 3% of vehicles purchased in west London were hybrid or electric, it says, the highest proportion in the country.

This week’s passage of the UK’s fifth carbon budget and unveiling of national EU emissions reduction targets “provides a clear signal to businesses and investors that decarbonisation will continue”, writes James Murray in BusinessGreen. A host of policies designed to accelerate decarbonisation will be delivered between now and 2020, he adds.

New research carried out at a reef in Singapore in 2013 underscores the complexity in predicting coral susceptibility to future thermal stress. Species thought to be the most susceptible – Pachyseris and Podabacia – did not bleach, whereas 31% of Acropora and Pocillopora colonies experienced bleaching. A statistical model including genus, colony size and site provides a better explanation of observed bleaching patterns than any single factor alone and will facilitate more effective management, say the authors.

Glaciers in the Karakoram region of the Himalayas appear to have been stable or even gained mass in recent decades, despite glaciers retreating globally. This has led scientists to suggest the region is out of sync with temperature rise across the northern hemisphere as a whole – the so called “Karakoram anomaly”. Using tree rings, a new study reconstructs the temperature much further than has been possible before – extending back to 1575, and shows that Karakoram temperatures are in phase after all. This means the behaviour of the glaciers needs more investigation, say the authors.