There is extensive coverage of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and particularly its two most high-profile speakers: US president Donald Trump and climate activist Greta Thunberg. According to BBC News, Trump used his speech to decry climate “prophets of doom” and call for a rejection of “predictions of the apocalypse”, stating that the US would defend its economy. Neither Trump nor Thunberg mentioned each other by name, but the Swedish climate activist criticised politicians and business leaders in the audience for what she said were their continued “empty words and promises”. The US president also said his country will join the “one trillion trees initiative” launched at the event, which has chosen sustainability as its main theme, Reuters reports. Another piece in Reuters notes Thunberg’s “apparent rebuke” to this planting pledge, as she warned that planting trees would not be enough to tackle climate change. The Financial Times notes that she had taken to the stage shortly after Trump, only to tell attendees that her warning last year that “our house is on fire” had achieved nothing, with CO2 emissions around the world still rising. Climate Home News reports that Thunberg told those gathered at Davos: “The fact that the USA is leaving the Paris accord seems to outrage and worry everyone and it should. But the fact that we are all about to fail the commitments you signed up for in the Paris Agreement doesn’t seem to bother the people in power even the least”. In another piece, the website reports on her remark that the world has “just eight years left” to avert severe warming. MailOnline reports on 1,200 climate protesters marching on Davos “to shame leaders for failing to protect the environment”. The Guardian has a piece looking at what Trump’s tree-planting pledge might actually mean in practice. BBC News has video clips of the speeches made by both Trump and Thunberg. The New York Times has a full transcript of Thunberg’s speech.

Speaking to Reuters at the forum in Davos, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said a ruling earlier this week concerning the status of those fleeing climate-related disasters meant the world needs to prepare for a surge of “millions” of refugees. Another piece in Reuters covers a report issued by insurance broker Aon which concludes the last decade was the most expensive for natural disasters.

Meanwhile, Axios has an “exclusive” story reporting on US Republicans’ “new push on climate change — an effort to reassure voters they care about the problem after a decade of dismissing it”. It says the plans include a focus on “trees, plastics and favourable tax policy”.

Coverage continues of the wildfires burning across Australia and the role of climate change in driving them. Several publications have picked up on an announcement from Australia’s biggest mining company, BHP, that coal output was down at one of its large mines due to smoke from the country’s ferocious wildfires. The New York Times notes the “irony” that the fires are “a crisis fed by climate change, which is caused in no small part by the burning of coal”. The Financial Times reports the company said production at its New South Wales Energy Coal division fell 13% in the final three months of 2019 compared with the same period last year due to poor air quality resulting from fires, as well as a decision to produce less of the lower-quality coal favoured by Chinese consumers.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that, in comments that are “likely to stoke public anger”, controversy-mired prime minister Scott Morrison said removing flammable vegetation is as important as cutting Australian emissions to prevent future bushfires. When asked about Trump’s comments at Davos about “prophets of doom”, former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull – whose government faced criticism for lack of climate action – described the US president as the world’s “leading climate denier”, according to the Guardian. Other pieces for Reuters covering the bushfires include a piece on the potential economic impact of fire-afflicted consumers spending less and another on the harm to a “sanctuary for rare bee species”. The Guardian reports that “leading UK climate scientist” Prof Sandy Harrison has used the Facebook page of the MP Craig Kelly – who the paper describes as “a serial denier of climate change” – to correct his “blatant misrepresentation” of her study concerning the 70,000-year history of bushfires in Australia.

Chief economist for the Australia Institute Richard Denniss writes in the Guardian that Morrison’s framing of climate policies around protecting coal workers is a “cruel hoax designed to conceal inaction”. Meanwhile, a comment piece in the Wall Street Journal states “there is no climate policy (short of geoengineering to block a portion of sunlight reaching the earth) that would stop Australia’s fires or prevent them from recurring”.

The first stage of a four-part climate assembly will begin in Birmingham on Saturday, the Financial Times reports. The process will involve 110 British citizens, reflecting the make-up of the UK population, gathering “to thrash out solutions for reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050” and produce a series of non-binding recommendations for parliament. The Times lists rationing flights, taxing meat and forcing the installation of hydrogen boilers as some of the questions being considered, and notes that the creation of an assembly was one of the demands of protest group Extinction Rebellion. The Guardian mentions similar assemblies that have taken place in France and Ireland, adding that, as well as four experts participating in the assembly, a panel of advisers from industry and NGOs have helped provide the questions on which members will be asked to give their views.

Coinciding with this launch, a number of UK regional and local newspapers today feature climate change prominently in their coverage and on their frontpages. Manchester Evening News features a carbon footprint calculator on their website and Wales Online has a piece “debunking” myths about climate change. According to Business Live, the push has come after media giant Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror) brought together “its network of websites and newspapers to encourage readers to #Do1Thing to help tackle the climate crisis”.

Meanwhile, BBC News covers a new report from University College London which concludes new housing developments in the UK are set to be dominated by roads. “The report comes after a government poll suggested 76% of people think that for the sake of the environment, everyone should reduce their driving. Just two years ago 63% held that opinion, suggesting that public concern is on the rise after media coverage of climate change and air pollution from vehicles,” the piece states. Another BBC News story reports on comments by a researcher that the Lake District is suffering from soil erosion at a “dramatic rate” due to extreme weather caused by climate change stripping the fells.

In an “exclusive” story, Reuters reports that incoming chief executive at BP Bernard Looney “plans to expand the company’s climate targets and is considering overhauling the structure of the oil and gas major in one of the biggest shake-ups in its 111-year history”. It cites “four sources with knowledge of internal discussions with the new CEO”, who say the new chief intends to adopt broader targets that will likely include cutting emissions from fuels and products sold to customers, rather than just from BP’s own operations. This could lead to the company “selling its most carbon-intensive businesses such as oil and gas fields in Angola and Canada”.

The Guardian also reports that Lloyds is set to “halve the amount of carbon emissions it finances through personal and business loans by 2030”, in a move the paper says has been welcomed by campaigners.

With the World Economic Forum underway, several publications have comment pieces focusing on the events in Davos and their implications for climate change. An editorial in London’s Evening Standard says that, despite US president Donald Trump’s climate scepticism, with the presence of activist Greta Thunberg, flights to the summit being offset and a push for companies present to commit to net-zero emissions there are reasons to be optimistic about the meeting. “The danger is that too much of this turns out to be corporate window-dressing, rather than a sign of a lasting determination to address rising global temperatures in a meaningful way,” it notes. Alluding to events in Davos, Jeremy Warner, assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph, writes that world leaders will need to massively accelerate their response to climate change: “Optimists take the view that swingeing carbon taxes will not be necessary. The transition has already achieved an unstoppable momentum, they insist, that will soon render hydrocarbons uneconomic. I hope they are right, but suspect that the markets will need quite a bit of pushing yet before they fully take the leap.” A piece in the Financial Times by Adam Tooze says that “willing capital markets and cheap technologies will make climate change choices easier”, noting this “is a vision likely to appeal to Davos”. He concludes: “But 2020 may reveal whether hopes pinned on technology and markets will amount to a counsel of despair in the face of contentious politics.”. Meanwhile, David Von Drehle in the Washington Post calls for a “serious” climate plan, describing the Democrats’ proposed “Green New Deal” as “arguably…the right direction. But the route is incomplete”.

In an opening letter to mark the launch of Bloomberg’s new climate-focused online platform, Bloomberg Green, editor-in-chief John Micklethwait reflects on the decision. “Many would argue that climate change – and the transformation it is prompting in politics, business, technology and human behaviour around the world – is the biggest shift of our time. And yet there is no media brand that had become a symbol of that revolution.” According to BusinessGreen, which reports on the launch of “the latest addition to billionaire mogul Michael Bloomberg’s global media empire”, says Micklethwait hopes the new climate change-focused news service will “bring clarity and data where there is currently fog and fear”. Among the pieces featured on Bloomberg Green are articles about Spain shifting away from coal, Greta Thunberg at Davos and Australian wildfires causing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to double. Bloomberg climate reporter Akshat Rathi also has a thread on Twitter detailing some of the first stories to appear on the platform.

Having recently launched its year of “special coverage” of climate change, BBC News has a piece in which it answers to a range of readers’ climate-related questions.

Limiting global warming to below 2C could more than halve the future sea-level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet by 2100, when compared to a scenario where global emissions aren’t curbed, a new analysis finds. The research finds that, under a scenario where future greenhouse emissions aren’t limited (RCP8.5), the Greenland ice sheet could contribute 89mm to sea-level rise by 2100. However, if global warming is limited to below 2C (RCP2.6), the Greenland ice sheet could contribute 31mm to sea-level rise by 2100.