The FT reports: “The US is to impose large import duties on
solar energy equipment from China and Taiwan, as a trade dispute
over green energy products deepens. The spat over Chinese state
subsidies to its solar power manufacturers is likely to raise the
cost of solar energy and comes as the price of fossil fuel
alternatives such as oil have slid in recent months.”

The Financial Times reports: “Climate change is very likely
to have helped make 2014 Europe’s warmest year since the 1500s,
scientists have found… researchers at Oxford university found
global warming had increased the risk of such a record being set by
at least a factor of 10.” The Guardian also has the story.

In a new study, computer modelling is used to assess the risk
of climate change-driven extreme weather leading to blackouts in a
series of American cities. New York City faces a severe risk of
blackouts due to climate change, the study warns.

Animals – such as squirrels – could be instrumental in
unlocking carbon from frozen ground known as permafrost, according
to new scientific research. Squirrels can warm the permafrost when
they build nests, which may lead to more carbon being released from
the ground. More research is needed into the issue, the researchers
suggest.

Next year, when Mitch McConnell takes control control of the
Senate, his first order of business will be to hold a vote on
authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, a new addition to the oil
pipeline running from Canada to the US. Last month, approval for
Keystone was one vote short, but newly elected Republican Senators
are expected to provide enough votes to pass the bill.

Peru may seek to extradite the Greenpeace campaigners accused
of causing irrevocable damage to the Nasca Lines world heritage
site, in a misjudged environmental protest. Officials have said
they would seek charges for “attacking archaeological monuments,” a
crime punishable by up to six years in prison. Greenpeace
apologised for the stunt last week and said it would take
responsibility for the consequences of its actions.

Campaigners have condemned the “banker-style” salary paid to
head of a company at the heart of the government’s flagship energy
efficiency scheme, which was bailed out in November with millions
of pounds of public money. Mark Bayley is the CEO of Green Deal
Finance Company, set up to aggregate loans for the “green deal”
scheme to help households install new insulation and boilers.

The Guardian’s political editor reports on comments made by
David Cameron to a committee of MPs: “David Cameron claimed on
Tuesday the public was “fed up” with onshore windfarms and said the
country did not need any more subsidised turbines on land now that
the energy source was capable of providing 10% of UK energy.” This
is despite polling showing that wind power enjoys high levels of
popularity with the British public.

Investment in nuclear is rising fast, but it’s small, local
organisations that will be soaking it up, argues Derek Allen. With
the majority of the UK’s existing plants due to close by 2030, “we
are entering a new dawn”. What many people might not realise is
that, in future, the majority of nuclear innovation will come from
small and medium-sized businesses.

Blamed for rising bills, some politicians are increasingly
intent on reining back the renewables industry. It needs to take a
fresh approach if it is to win public support and reach it’s full
potential, says OVO Energy’s Jessica Lennard.

The Green Climate Fund Fund has succeeded in reaching its
target to mobilise at least $10 billion for climate adaptation for
the next 4 years, with last minute pledges by several countries
including Australia and Belgium. Yet that is just the beginning,
argues Adis Dzebo. Money on its own is not enough as countries need
to learn how to use finance more efficiently and transparently.

As a glacier’s sliding speed increases, the bed beneath the
glacier can grow slipperier, promoting still faster glacier flow, a
new paper suggests. The research uses data collected from a newly
constructed ‘Sliding Simulator’ to investigate glacier sliding. The
researchers say including this effect in efforts to calculate
future increases in glacier speeds could improve predictions of ice
volume lost to the oceans and the rate of sea-level rise.

The warm and wet winter of 1997 prompted climatologists to
dub it the “El Niño of the century”. Earlier this year, climate
scientists thought the coming winter might bring similar extremes,
as equatorial Pacific Ocean conditions resembled those seen in
early 1997. However, the signals weakened by summer, and the El
Niño predictions were downgraded. In this study, scientists use
simulations to examine the differences between the two years.

Scientists have invented highly effective carbon-trapping
‘sponges’ that could be used to trap carbon dioxide before it
releases into the atmosphere. While standard methods of carbon
capture are plagued by toxicity and inefficiency, a research team
has invented a stable, dry white powder that captures carbon
dioxide even in the presence of moisture.