The fallout from the UK election on Thursday night has continued over the weekend, with various implications for the energy and climate. On Sunday evening came the cabinet reshuffle, which included a “shock” return to the front bench of Michael Gove as the UK’s new Environment Secretary, reports the Guardian. He replaces Andrea Leadsom, who was “shifted sideways” to become Leader of the House of Commons. During his time as an MP, Gove “has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change,” says the Independent. In 2016, Gove voted not to reduce the permitted CO2 emission rate of new homes, and as Education Secretary, Mr Gove attempted to remove climate change from the geography national curriculum but was forced into a climbdown, the Indy notes. Meanwhile, Theresa May has reappointed Greg Clark as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, says Reuters. Aa a long-standing advocate of action on climate change and a supporter of clean technologies, Clark is highly regarded within environmental circles, says the Independent, and “could be just the safe and competent, if rather boring, pair of hands.” Following the initial result of a hung parliament in the early hours of Friday morning, BusinessGreen collected reaction from industry, politicians, NGOs and campaign groups on what the results could mean for the green economy. At the same time, DeSmogUK looked at what the Conservatives winning seats north of the border means for Scotland, and Nature News spoke to scientists who hoped the election result would push the UK government towards a softer Brexit option that would help keep the UK’s place within EU science programmes. Later on Friday, the announcement came that the Conservatives would form a minority government with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland. The DUP’s 2017 election manifesto doesn’t contain a single mention of the terms “climate change”, “global warming” or “environment”, says DeSmogUK. (You can check for yourself using Carbon Brief’s manifesto tracker.) DeSmogUK also looks into the DUP’s lobbying to ensure Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK with no legally binding climate change targets, the bizarre actions of their former environment minister, Sammy Wilson, and the “cash-for-ash” controversy. And finally, Theresa May’s joint chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, resigned over the weekend and were replaced by Gavin Barwell, who lost his seat as an MP on Thursday. Nick Timothy previously described the UK’s Climate Change Act as a “monstrous act of self harm,” notes BusinessGreen, while Barwell has “voiced his support for the UK’s carbon targets and action on climate change”. The Independent discusses whether all these changes will affect the UK’s role as a global leader on climate change, and DeSmogUK summarises the “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for Climate Change” of the reshuffle.

Differences between the US and other leading economies over climate change remain wide and are not likely to narrow, according to environment ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries. Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 meeting between environment ministers and officials in Bologna, Italian Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said “Positions over the Paris accord are far apart … and will remain that way.” However, “Italy and the overwhelming majority of countries regard Paris as irreversible and non-negotiable,” he added, as reported by AFP. Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment Programme, said Sunday’s talks had underlined the “absolute determination” of the other six G7 countries to push ahead “whatever happens in the White House.” Scott Pruitt, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, attended the first few hours of the two-day summit before returning to Washington for a Cabinet meeting, reports the Associated Press. In a statement, the EPA said Pruitt had emphasised it was time to move forward and find ways to engage with other countries to protect and use US natural resources. According to Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Pruitt told delegates in the opening session that the United States wanted to continue making efforts in combating climate change. “He also mentioned he wants to engage with the [UN’s] Climate Change secretariat,” she said. Pruitt’s exit from the discussions may further impede plans by environment ministers at the two-day meeting, says Bloomberg. Delegates from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK are intending to issue a statement today on a range of green issues including climate change. Meanwhile, Reuters also reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking to bolster support among G20 members for tackling climate change ahead of a summit in Hamburg next month, while trying to avoid giving the impression she is rallying an anti-US alliance. Merkel told an audience in Argentina on Friday that as host of the G20, she would have to be up front about differences if all 20 countries failed to see eye to eye on climate and other issues. “There will be issues where not everyone gets what we want,” she said. At the same time, another Reuters piece says that Germany is teaming up with California to cooperate on tackling climate change, and Bloomberg reports that new French President Emmanuel Macron has “reached out to Germany to establish a common price floor for carbon dioxide emitted by power utilities.” Macron wants to revive a plan to set up a minimum price of 30 euros per tonne of CO2 emissions, about six times the current European level, a French official said, asking not to be named as the matter isn’t yet public.

The diplomatic stand-off between Qatar and its Arab neighbours has cost the UK two major gas deliveries this month, causing market prices to surge and raising concern that further price shocks could follow. Late last week, a pair of Qatari cargoes destined for the UK market were re-routed after Saudi Arabia and its allies severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed severe travel restrictions on the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar is the UK’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier. The dispute – centred on Qatar’s alleged support for extremist groups – is not seen as an immediate threat to UK gas supplies as Britain heads into the summer months, says the Financial Times. Nevertheless, “analysts say instability in the Middle East adds to factors which, taken together, raise long-term questions over UK energy security,” the FT adds.

Exxon Mobil has stirred up a row over how it accounts for climate change risks, dismissing accusations that it has misled investors as “reckless”. New York state’s attorney-general has opened a probe into the oil giant’s accounting policies, calling them a “sham”. Eric Schneiderman alleges that Exxon used two sets of books for evaluating climate risk – one set of numbers for describing the risks to investors and the other for internal business decisions, says Inside Climate News. In a brief filed with a New York court on Friday, Exxon Mobil Corp asked them to reject the allegations, reports Reuters, maintaining that they are “inflammatory, reckless, and false.” “No further evidence is required to establish the political motivation of the attorney general’s fruitless year-and-a-half long investigation pursuing his ever-shifting and unraveling investigative theories,” Exxon said, reports The Hill. Schneiderman’s office denied the allegations. “As detailed in our filing last week, the Attorney General’s office has a substantial basis to suspect that Exxon’s proxy cost analysis may have been a sham,” said a spokeswoman. “This office takes potential misrepresentations to investors very seriously and will vigorously seek to enforce this subpoena. We look forward to next week’s hearing.”

President Trump’s White House is reviewing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposals of what to do with former President Barack Obama’s climate change rule for power plants. The White House said that it received the proposed “review” of the rule on Thursday. The review is the final step before the EPA can release the proposal publicly and start the required process of accepting public comments. The Trump administration has not formally said exactly what it is proposing to change, though it is expected to seek a full repeal of the rule known as the Clean Power Plan. Meanwhile, New York State’s attorney general and 12 other state law enforcement officials have said they would mount a vigorous court challenge to any effort to roll back vehicle emission rules by the Trump administration, reports Reuters. In March, Trump ordered a review of US vehicle fuel-efficiency standards from 2022-2025 put in place by the Obama administration, saying they were too tough on the auto industry. And elsewhere, Reuters also reports that the US supported a global call to action by the UN to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine resources – even though it referenced climate change. The first UN Ocean Conference ended on Friday with the adoption of a Call to Action, which said: “We are particularly alarmed by the adverse impacts of climate change on the ocean.” “We recognise, in this regard, the particular importance of the Paris Agreement, adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” it added.

A multibillion-dollar bidding war for most of Rio Tinto’s Australian coal mines has broken out between China-backed Yancoal and Swiss commodities company Glencore. Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest miner, is exiting coalmining in Australia and said in January that it had agreed to sell its mines to Yancoal Australia for $2.45bn. But Glencore has “gatecrashed” the deal with a last-minute bid of $100m more, says the Financial Times. If Glencore’s offer is accepted it would see the London-listed company take control of a series of mines that produce high-quality thermal coal, most of which is sold under contract to power stations in Japan. Meanwhile, the FT reports that American giant Cargill has agreed to sell its North American power and gas trading business to Australian investment bank, Macquarie. This comes less than three months after reaching a deal to sell its oil business to the bank. And finally, a third FT article looks at how Australian businesses are “investing heavily in unconventional energy sources to manage soaring energy prices and power disruptions.”

While we “might appreciate a small cut in the price of petrol or gasoline at the pump” from the oil price fall over the past three years, it is “short-sighted” not to consider the impact of price changes on the supplying countries, writes Nick Butler in his FT blog. “The price fall has reduced the revenue of the Opec states by some $750m from the 2012 level — a fall of over 60%,” says Butler, but “none have fully adapted to that loss of income.” “The pain will be profoundly destabilising,” he warns. “At least five Opec states are at risk of very serious political and economic destabilisation, including major economies such as Venezuela and Nigeria.” “When problems are rapidly globalised through migration, terrorism and even health risks if key public services collapse, the deteriorating situation within Opec is all too likely to become our problem too.”

The Observer carries a wide-ranging interview with author Naomi Klein. whose new book, “No Is Not Enough”, “examines in detail both the phenomenon of Trump and how liberal and progressive forces might counter his reality.” Klein says she hopes the part of the book that will most resonate with her audiences is the “Leap” manifesto – “an integrated leap forward on climate action, racial justice, decent jobs”. These ideas are an extension of the theme of her last book, “This Changes Everything”, says the Guardian, which argued that a new progressive politics had to be built around a radical and sustainable green technology revolution and a rejection of fossil fuels.

New research finds that adding carbon released from thawing permafrost into an economic assessment of climate change raises the “social cost of carbon” by 10-20%, for a baseline scenario, and up to 220% with a more sensitive damage function. While the strength of the permafrost feedback is not perfectly understood yet, there is enough information to begin including it in integrated assessment models – in this case DICE. Not doing so would have important implications for meeting climate targets, say the authors.

Climate engineering has remained on the sidelines of the policy debate but will begin to receive more attention as the gap between the aims set out in the Paris Agreement and the pace of mitigation widens, according to new research. The paper proposes a new set of scenarios for the “previously exotic option” of solar geoengineering, including options for limited deployment. The authors say the new pathways are needed to better capture the risks and benefits of policy choices, at the same time as exploring the ethical, social, and political dimensions.