The Chinese government has outlined a plan to get its citizens to halve their meat consumption. Dietary guidelines drawn up by the Chinese health ministry suggests that the population should consume between 40g to 75g of meat per person per day, in measures that are drawn up just one every ten years. The scheme is designed to improve public health, but could also provide a significant cut to emissions. If the guidelines are follows, CO2 emissions from China’s livestock industry would be reduced by 1bn tonnes by 2030, from a projected 1.8bn tonnes that year. The Telegraph also covers the news.

A plane powered by the sun, Solar Impulse 2, has set off from New York for the transatlantic leg of its record-breaking flight around the world, which is promoting renewable energy. Piloted by Bertrand Piccard, the flight is expected to take about 90 hours before landing in Spain. The voyage is the first solo transatlantic crossing in a solar powered airplane. The Mail Online and Reuters also cover the news.

Crop yields could fall within a decade without action to speed up the introduction of new varieties, thanks to climate change, according to a new study in Nature Climate Change. Scientists say that temperatures are rising faster than the development of crop varieties that might be able to cope in a warmer world, and that by the time these crops are developed they will face higher temperatures than they were developed to deal with.

Researchers have developed a model to predict how much wind energy China could generate by 2030. The new study, published in Nature Energy, suggests that, with reforms in the power sector, China could generate 11.9% of its primary energy demand from wind — a figure that could even jump to 14% with additional improvements in the flexibility of its coal power stations. The Guardian also covers the research.

Scientists in the US have sounded the warning over what is the “most widespread, largest bleaching event ever to occur globally”. The ongoing bleaching event began in 2014 and has killed more than a third of corals in some locations, and has covered a larger area than any other bleaching event. And according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there is a 90% chance of continued bleaching in many parts of the Pacific Ocean. The Washington Post, Associated Press and the Guardian also cover the coral problem.

In the US, the crop science division of the company Bayer has been forced to issue an apology after one of its tweets enraged farmers. The tweet in question referenced an article by Vox that suggested “going vegetarian can cut your food carbon footprint in half”. This prompted a wave of angry responses from farmers who would see their income hit by such a change, leading the company to repeatedly tweet out that they’d never meant to antagonise.

With the EU Referendum now just days away, EnergyDesk looks at the environmental credentials of the politicians who would be poised to take over the UK government in the case of a Brexit, starting with Boris Johnson, whom many predict would step in as prime minister. In particular, the article looks at their approach to fracking, and finds that they are in favour.

The EU has caused “acute failures” in British energy policy, according to Tony Lodge, author of the book ‘The Great Green Hangover’. Among these “failures” he includes the closure of the UK’s coal plants, which he says are causing a “looming energy crunch” (a claim Carbon Brief has examined in the past). Another comment piece by a pro-EU campaigner in the Financial Times puts climate change as a top priority for the UK’s future engagement with the EU.

A new study examines the potential role of natural variability in rapid Arctic sea ice loss, increased storm activity in the Atlantic and large-scale warming since the 1970s. The authors use climate models to show that shifts in the North Atlantic Oscillation can trigger changes in Atlantic ocean circulations which, in turn, could have contributed to the changes observed, especially since the late 1990s. But these patterns exist on top of the much larger contribution from human activity, the paper concludes.

A new study assesses the impact of meltwater from Greenland entering the ocean since the 1990s on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, concluding that it has induced a freshening trend in the Labrador Sea. The trend is smaller than the range associated with natural variability and, as such, has not yet had a significant impact. But the accumulation of freshwater may become big enough to have an effect in the coming years, the authors conclude.

Crop varieties that are better suited to new climate conditions – such as high temperatures, shorter crop duration and less time to accumulate biomass – are critical for future food production, according to a new paper. Climate projections can help provide target temperatures for breeding new crop varieties, although adaptation as well as mitigation will be needed to reduce some of the ill-effects.