Britain’s carbon emissions have sunk to the level last seen in 1890 – the year before penalties were first awarded in football, the BBC reports, citing new Carbon Brief. analysis of government energy figures. CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels fell by 2.6% in 2017, mainly driven by a 19% decline in coal use. Oil and petroleum use increased slightly, though not enough to offset the falls in CO₂ associated with other fuels. The drop last year in CO2 emissions follows a larger 5.8% fall in 2016, which saw a record 52% drop in coal use, first reported by Carbon Brief last year.

The Treasury has announced a tax exemption worth £1,550 for black cabs to switch to greener vehicles will come into force this April, a year earlier than initially planned. It will apply to new cabs worth more than £40,000. Figures from the Treasury show each vehicle switching to a zero-emission car would save around seven tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and £400 a month in fuel costs. BusinessGreen also has the story. Meanwhile, the Times reports that Jaguar Land Rover, the biggest carmaker in Britain, has delayed plans to build a new electric car factory in the UK until it has more information on trading conditions after Brexit. And the Guardian reports on a new government announcement to review the law before the arrival of self-driving cars on UK roads.

Scottish climate change secretary Roseanna Cunningham yesterday defended the decision to reduce Scotland’s target to have 80% of domestic buildings’ heat supplied using low carbon technologies by 2032 to just 35%. She told MSPs at Holyrood the decision had been taken in response to independent advice that the original target was not credible. Carbon Brief covered Scotland’s new climate plan in detail after it was released last week.

The sudden removal of Fiji’s chief negotiator Nazhat Shameem Khan last week, despite praise for her leadership, revealed a rift between the Geneva-based diplomat and capital Suva, reports Climate Home. In interviews with Climate Home News, insiders said Khan had increasingly objected to the prominent role a group of Australian and European consultants had within Fiji’s presidency of the UN climate talks. “In the world of [UN climate negotiations], to see a small island state in the presidency being closely managed and controlled by consultants from developed countries is not good for trust and goodwill,” a source from the Fijian delegation told Climate Home News. “But [the consultants] refused to take a back seat and we had difficulties in relation to this.”

French hydropower firm CNR has said it plans to sharply increase its solar and wind capacity to compensate for lower water levels on the Rhone river, due to its exposure to the impacts of climate change. The Rhone is one of Europe’s biggest rivers but also one of the most exposed to climate change, since it is fed mainly by Alpine glaciers, which are shrinking due to global warming. “Scientists say the Alps’ glaciers could disappear by the end of the century. That does not mean they will, but we must act responsibly,” CNR CEO Elisabeth Ayrault told Reuters on the sidelines of a briefing for energy reporters.

The Arctic just finished its warmest winter on record, and sea ice hit record lows for this time of year. nNw US weather data showed there was plenty of open water where ocean water normally freezes into thick sheets of ice. “Scientists say what’s happening is unprecedented, part of a global warming-driven vicious cycle that likely plays a role in strong, icy storms in Europe and the US Northeast.” The Guardian and the New York Times also carried the AP story. Earlier this week Carbon Brief published an explainer looking at the role of climate change in the unseasonably warm conditions in the Arctic in recent weeks. A separate MailOnline story cites a warning from Nasa that permafrost in the northern tip of the Arctic contains tonnes of trapped carbon set to be released in the next few decades due to rising temperatures. The researchers, led by the Nasa Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena in California, the were surprised to discover that the northern region will melt before the area further south.

A cross-party group of MPs have signed an early-day motion that says “coal can be, and should be, part of that UK low carbon energy generation mix beyond 2025”, DeSmog UK reports, effectively signals their opposition to the government’s plan to phase out coal power by 2025. 18 MPs initially signed the motion, though two have since asked to have their signatures removed after being alerted to the motion by DeSmog UK, saying they were added in error. The motion was proposed by Labour MP Ronnie Campbell, a pro-Brexit, former coal miner, and 11 of his party colleagues have also signed. This goes against party policy however: Alan Whitehead, shadow minister for energy and climate change, told DeSmog UK that, “Labour strongly believes that coal should be completely phased out by 2025.”

“Each summer, residents of the Swiss Alps make their way through the mountains to the edge of the famous Rhône Glacier, writes Harvey in a feature looking at how far technology can be used to protect the planet’s glaciers. “There, fleecy white blankets in hand, they cover up the ice. They’re trying to reflect the sun and prevent the glacier from melting.” While protecting glaciers using technology will only prove useful for so long, some scientists hope that stopgap measures could buy a little time for the world’s ice, she writes. Recent proposals to protect the Arctic and Antarctic meanwhile include the use of giant pumps to refreeze vanishing Arctic sea ice and building huge mounds on the seafloor to try to prevent warm water from melting glaciers.

Backyard soils can lock in more planet-warming carbon emissions than soils found in native grasslands or urban forests like arboretums, according to new research published on Tuesday by Carly Ziter, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Ms. Ziter studied the powers of yards by knocking on doors in Madison and asking residents to let her sample their backyard soil. … The study showed that the soil in forest ecosystems was best at absorbing water. But soil on open and developed land – like golf courses and backyard lawns – was better at absorbing carbon.”

Divestment of portfolios from fossil fuels is more complex than it first appears, writes Toby Heaps, CEO of financial information products company Corporate Knights. “But one thing is worth noting in the first instance; so-called ‘fossil free’ indices do not perform worse than portfolios invested in coal, oil and gas.” If anything, says Heaps, the opposite is true, citing the MSCI ACWI ex Fossil Fuels Index as performing better than both the S&P Global Oil Index and most individual oil majors. There are two arguments fundamentally different in nature which have developed the interest in shedding fossil fuel stocks developed, he adds: putting pressure on fossil fuel companies due to concerns over the impacts of climate change, and the argument that holdings in fossil fuel companies are increasingly risky. “Some analysts now argue that examination of climate change or energy transition risks is part of fund managers’ fiduciary duty, especially in the pension sector.”

Drawing on recent and ongoing state-led relocation programmes in rural Africa and Asia, a new study assesses the advantages and disadvantages of resettling poor and vulnerable communities in response to climate change. The paper makes three main arguments: first, there is a need to uncover long-standing governmental perceptions of rural populations and how this affects state-led responses to climate shocks; second, it is necessary to develop a better understanding of human choice, volition and self-determination during resettlement; and third, more attention should be given to “how development narratives are generated, transmitted and internalised during climate-induced relocations”.

A new study says it has identified a way of improving the water use efficiency of plants without affecting how much CO2 they take up during photosynthesis. Scientists have field-tested tobacco plants that “upregulated” the expression of a protein called photosystem II subunit S (PsbS), finding that they lost on average 25% less water than wild-type plants. Since the role of PsbS is universal in green plants, this manipulation should be effective across all crops, the researchers say, providing a potential solution to meeting growing food demand in a warming climate.