Investors need more information about the risks companies face from global warming so they can fund development of the new technologies that are needed to control climate change and mitigate its effects. This is the view of an international “task force”, chaired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, which has developed recommendations over the last year based on the idea that markets need more and better data to respond to the challenge of climate change. The task force was appointed by the Financial Stability Board, an arm of the G20 industrialised nations and led by Bank of England governor Mark Carney. The Financial Times adds: “The task force wants companies’ financial reports to include a discussion of the impact of both specific climate change scenarios and the carbon-reducing policies which are designed to combat them. Although the FSB cannot force companies to adopt the recommendations, it hopes that they will become common practice across a wide range of sectors.” The New York Times says that the guidelines are “unlikely to be readily adopted by the oil and gas companies that they most target”, adding that “critics say that volatile oil prices and uncertainty over what regulators might do make predicting the value of oil reserves extremely tricky”.

The global reaction to Donald Trump selecting climate sceptics and fossil fuel industry executives to his cabinet continues. Erik Solheim, UNEP’s executive director, has told journalists in Indonesia that he is “concerned that some elite American politicians deny science”, adding, “you will be in the Middle Ages if you deny science”. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Sally Jewell, the current US Interior Secretary, has told scientists gathered at the AGU conference in San Francisco that “if you see science being ignored or compromised, speak up”. The Wall Street Journal reports that at the same conference, Jerry Brown, California’s governor, has said that “if Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite. We’re going to collect that data…We’ve got the scientists, we’ve got the lawyers and we’re ready to fight.” FiveThirtyEight reports on a demonstration at AGU where scientists were “dressed in prop lab coats and carrying signs reading ‘Science Is Real'”. The Washington Post carries a quote from the Trump team seeking to distance itself from news that a request had been sent around the Department of Energy demanding a list of people who’d worked on climate change or attended UN climate conferences. “The questionnaire was not authorised or part of our standard protocol,” Trump’s transition team said in a statement. BBC News says that, in Canada, “guerrilla” archivists are assisting a rushed effort to preserve US government climate data. It adds: “Environmentalists, climate scientists and academics are collaborating to protect what they view as fragile digital federal records and research. They want the data saved before Donald Trump takes office.” Climate Central explains “why it matters” that scientists save such data: “There are plenty of ominous signs that climate science will be under assault in the coming four years.”

DeSmog has revealed the attendees at a meeting of prominent climate sceptics in Washington DC this week. Readfearn says: “A key figure picked to prepare the federal environment agency for life under a Donald Trump administration has met in Washington D.C. with some of the world’s most notorious and longest-serving climate science deniers. Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), was picked by the now President-elect to lead the Environmental Protection Agency “transition team” back in September…Ebell has spent two decades trying to undermine the science linking dangerous climate change to fossil fuel burning.” But a Facebook post by one attendee – a far right Australian politician – has revealed some of the other attendees, which include people who have a long history of attacking climate scientists, such as Marc Morano, Steve Milloy, Chris Horner and James Delingpole.

Giant “rivers in the sky” – that can carry up to 15 times the amount of water in the Mississippi River – can virtually wipe out species when they dump vast amounts of rain over a short period, causing some of the world’s worst floods, according to new research. And, the Independent adds, the problem is set to get worse because of climate change, scientists warn. The MailOnline says the research, carried out by University of California, Davis and the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, or NERR, documents the mass death of wild Olympia oysters in 2011.

Energy suppliers have been named and shamed by Ofgem over high prices, with Npower charging families on its standard tariffs £261 a year more than those on its best deals. The Telegraph reports that, according to Ofgem data, about 20m households are languishing on the 11 biggest suppliers’ standard variable tariffs for dual fuel (both gas and electricity), despite all of the companies offering other deals that are significantly cheaper. The regulator hopes the publication of the data will encourage customers to shop around and switch to cheaper deals. The Times and BBC also carry the story.

The president-elect has appointed oilmen, bankers, generals and anti-government ideologues, says the Guardian: “The first threat from the new appointments is that it is Team Corporate America. The new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is one of the biggest oil moguls on the planet, chief executive of ExxonMobil, friend of Vladimir Putin and the Middle Eastern petrolocracies. The new energy secretary, Rick Perry, is an oilman and a climate change sceptic. Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a body he would like to see closed down, holds those prejudices even more strongly. This will be a pro-carbon, pro-drilling and anti-climate change administration like no other.” In the Independent, Hamish McRae argues that “Donald Trump may not care about climate change and renewable energy now, but the global economy will force him to”.

The NYT columnist slams Trump for his appointments to date: “There is actually something ‘prehistoric’ about the cabinet Trump is putting together. It is totally dominated by people who have spent their adult lives drilling for, or advocating for, fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal…It is inexcusable not to sit down with our own government experts at NASA and NOAA for a briefing before you appoint flagrant climate deniers with no scientific background to every senior environmental position…For an administration that lost the popular vote by such a large margin to suddenly take the country to such extreme positions on energy, environment and foreign policy — unbalanced inside by any moderate voices — is asking for trouble, and it will produce a backlash.”

ClientEarth’s Josh Roberts argues the European Commission’s Clean Energy Package is far from perfect, but still has the potential to unleash a new wave of technological transformation: “Newly proposed rules could allow fossil fuel generators to hoodwink consumers out of their money for at least another decade. In a market that is already saturated with energy production, this will lock in dirty energy and distort markets, preventing the right signals being sent to businesses and consumers – that they should become active in the market themselves.” Earlier this month, Carbon Brief published a summary of of the so-called “winter package”.

Forests of seaweed in the Arctic can help protect marine life by reducing ocean acidity, a new study suggests. By conducting field tests in two communities of kelp forests on Greenland’s coast, the researchers show that long days of sunlight in summer promote uptake of CO2 by the kelp, thus increasing the pH of the water. As Arctic vegetation is expected to expand under future warming and sea ice loss, kelp forests may become a growing refuge for marine life during the summer, the researchers conclude.

A new paper analyses what the Paris Agreement means for the trajectory of adaptation policy at both international and domestic levels. The Agreement takes a significant step forward in strengthening the focus on adaptation, the researchers say, by calling for stronger commitments from states, and outlining mechanisms for assessing progress. These factors, among others, contribute to making the Agreement a milestone in ongoing efforts to make adaptation an equal priority with mitigation, the researchers conclude.