Scotland unveiled its new Climate Change Plan yesterday, setting out how the country will achieve a 66% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2032. The plan – an obligation under Scotland’s 2009 Climate Act – builds on a draft first set last year. The plan aims to cut transport emissions 37%, increase recycling by 70% and cut emissions from buildings by 33% . However, the plan faced criticism for scaling back some of the original intentions put forward in early versions. “Previous ambitions included the aim for 80% of Scots to be living in low-carbon homes in the next 12 years, but this has been revised downward to 35%. Cuts to emissions from agriculture have also been lowered, from 12% to 9%,” reports the Scotsman. ReNews, the Aberdeen-based Evening Express and STV News also cover the new plan. Scotland also released its yearly transport statistics yesterday, which showed bus passenger numbers have fallen by 10% over five years while car and cycle use has grown, reports the Times. Buses were the only transport to experience a drop in use since 2011-12. Just 31% of journeys to work were made by active travel or public transport, the same level seen in 2004, reports Holyrood. Emilia Hanna, air pollution campaigner for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “The upcoming Transport Bill must make it possible for local transport authorities to have greater control over bus operations so that buses can play their vital role in reducing air pollution and climate emissions.” The BBC and the Scotsman also have the story.

Fijian diplomat Nazhat Shameem Khan left her role as chief climate negotiator on Wednesday, midway through the country’s presidency of UN climate talks, Climate Home News reports. Shameem Khan will be replaced by Luke Daunivalu, Fiji’s deputy permanent representative to the UN. Prime minister Frank Bainimarama’s office gave no reason for the personnel change, but the Fijian government thanked Shameem Khan in a statement for her contributon. It added: “Ambassador Daunivalu is a qualified replacement and I am confident that the leadership and teamwork he will bring to the role of chief negotiator will strengthen our campaign for maximum ambition and maximum climate action all the way to COP24 [UN climate summit in Poland] and beyond.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has confirmed his strategy for next two decades towards ensuring transport in UK capital is zero emission by 2050, BusinessGreen reports. Setting out the 25 year strategy, Khan said his ambitions is for 80% of all journeys in the city to be taken on foot, bike or public transport by 2041. The plan brings together details on major transport schemes planned over the next two decades, and promises investment in cycling lanes, tube trains and new green buses and taxis.

If California were to eliminate even half of its oil production, it could cut global carbon dioxide emissions by 8 million to 24 million tons per year, a new report from the Stockholm Environment Institute says. This ie equivalent to as much as 5% of the state’s overall emissions. The authors argue that attacking fossil fuel production at the wellhead is necessary if California is to help meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. “You could in theory [keep fossil fuel reserves in the ground] by reducing demand for fossil fuels,” said Peter Erickson, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute and co-author of the report. “But it’s not happening fast enough, so that creates a need to limit the supply of fossil fuels.” Carbon Brief reported in 2016 from a conference looking at the different ways fossil fuel supply could be constrained from a supply side. Meanwhile, Think Progress reports on a new study which found climate change could wreak havoc on California’s major crops by the end of the century.

Public investment in warm homes in England has been cut by 58% since 2012, according to a new report from energy think tank E3G. The drop in investment happened when David Cameron’s government ended all taxpayer-funded energy efficiency programmes in England and halved the UK-wide obligation on energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency improvements, reports the BBC. The report shows Scotland now spends four times as much per citizen as England on energy efficiency. The report said 9,700 of the average 32,000 excess winter deaths each year are estimated to be linked to living in cold homes. England has the second worst record on cold weather-related deaths out of 30 European countries, it said.

Despite the wintry weather in cities across Europe this week, in some places snow is actually getting rarer, writes Chris Fawkes for BBC Weather. Fawkes details how increasing global average temperatures are affecting snowfall, noting that the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has found evidence that in the UK the number of times snow is observed in a year has reduced. “The Met Office Regional Climate model simulation has shown this trend of decreasing days of winter snow in the UK will probably continue,” he writes. Separately, the Guardian has a Q&A on “What does all this snow mean for climate change?” covering the Arctic heatwave and the polar vortex. It says: “The polar vortex is one of the world’s climate regulators. Any weakening would accelerate ice melt and add to instability and uncertainty. It could also trigger the release of methane – a very strong greenhouse gas – trapped in the tundra.”

“Anyone who tells you that dealing with climate change is simply a matter of sweeping away the obstructionism of oil companies is living in a dream world,” writes Robert J. Samuelson, an economics columnist for the Washington Post. Instead, he argues, the real obstacle is our vast dependence on fossil fuels. Samuelson looks at figures from BP’s recent Energy Outlook 2018, which lays out a future scenario where electric cars make large advances, there is a continued boom in solar and wind power, and electric utilities continue to switch from coal to gas. “Against this backdrop, you’d expect significant progress in curbing greenhouse gases. Not so. Just the opposite: Total use of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) is projected to increase almost 20 percent between 2016 and 2040.” Carbon Brief covered BP’s report, which included several scenarios dependent on different policy outcomes, when it was released last week.

Mike Atherton, the former England cricket captain turned sportswriter, uses his column in the Times to ask his readers to consider the struggles some cricket grounds are facing with extreme weather: “How far the issues faced at Worcester and Cape Town are different sides of the same coin, and whether things are getting worse as a result of man-made climate change, is a matter for the scientists not sports columnists. Whatever the consensus, though, it is clear that the game needs to wake up belatedly to its relationship with the environment that sustains it.” He adds: “Two weeks ago, a report by The Climate Coalition suggested that, of the turf sports, cricket and golf were the most vulnerable. Of all sports, I would suggest that cricket has a unique relationship with the environment; even the great players must submit to the conditions in front of them…It’s a slow awakening, but the game is gradually coming to terms with its responsibilities and its impact on the environment in all its guises — travel, energy use, sustainability and waste.”

Protecting the health and productivity of our oceans remains one of the biggest challenges facing humanity in the coming century,” writes Richard Unsworth from Swansea University and director of charity Project Seagrass. “The future of our climate and food supply depends on it.’ However, he argues, much of our efforts are currently misplaced.”If we are to protect many of the important roles the oceans play we need to take up the cause of seagrass meadows – some of the most important, vulnerable and ignored ecosystems in the world.” Among other things, seagrasses are major carbon stores, he says, and damaging seagrass directly releases carbon dioxide stores into the atmosphere.

“Anyone kept awake at night by climate change-fuelled existential crises won’t have welcomed the news that a ship has just sailed through the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route without an icebreaker – the first time this has happened in winter,” writes Jessica Brown in the Independent. “And anyone kept awake by nightmares of nuclear dystopia won’t be too thrilled to learn that melting ice has stirred fears of geopolitical fallout over territorial disputes.” Brown goes on to detail how as global warming continues to melt Arctic ice at an unprecedented rate, scientists have predicted that European shipping will be able to reach Asia 10 days quicker by the middle of the century. “All this increases the potential for territorial ambitions to become problematic,” she writes. However, Klauss Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway University, argues that melting ice doesn’t always equate to increased accessibility. “It’s far too simplistic to say that the sea ice is retracting, and therefore access into the Arctic is going to be easier,” he says.

The structural complexity of a coral reef is more important for protecting islands against sea level rise than height, a new study finds. Structural complexity is linked to overall general health of a coral reef. “Our results highlight that maintaining the structural complexity of coral reefs is key to ensure coastal protection on tropical coastlines in the future,” the researchers conclude.

The proportion of the global population exposed to sea level rise in 2300 could greatly depend on climate action within this century, new research suggests. Using modelling, the researchers find that, if global warming is limited to 1.5-2C above pre-industrial levels, around 1.5% of the global population will be exposed to sea level rise by 2300. However, if the world does not attempt to combat climate change, this figure could rise to 5.4%.

Current plans to increase resilience to climate change in Bangladesh may not adequately consider the unique vulnerabilities that women face, a new study argues. “These vulnerabilities culminate in a gendered experience of climate stress, where some groups of women are more likely go without education, food and access to good quality water,” the researcher says.