17 leading scientists have published a statement outliningeight “essential elements” for a UN climate deal in Paris.The Guardianhighlights their demandthat 75% of known fossil fuels must stay in the ground, whilethe Independentleads with theirwarning that there is a one in 10 chance that temperatures couldrise to 6C by 2100. The BBCfocuses on their remark thatthe Paris meeting is the “last chance” to address climatechange. Carbon Briefhas also looked at thestatement.

A report from HSBC concludes that the risk of stranded assetshas already become a reality for certain coal projects, and willstart to affect more high carbon investments as clean technologyadvances. “If this trend continues or were to acceleratedramatically, this would trigger an economically drivendecarbonisation of the power sector,” it says.

The Obama administration has released its first everQuadrennial Energy Review, which calls for major changes to the USelectricity grid to accommodate more renewables. It also citesthreats to the US ageing energy infrastructure, including “moreflooding, faster sea-level rise, and increasingly powerful stormsfrom global climate change”.

Beijing’s smog problem improved sharply during the firstquarter of this year, according to data collected by Greenpeace.The group attributes this to government measures to curb airpollution coming into effect. It notes that many other big citiesregistered a similar drop in pollution, but Reutersadds that the issue maymerely be shifting west, with provinces such as Henan, Hubei, Hunanand Sichuan now among those with the worst PM2.5 levels in thecountry.

The Welsh Assembly will vote today on whether to impose amoratorium on opencast mining in Wales – a move which could place asignificant amount of Wales’s fossil fuels beyond reach. Activistsincluding Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben have written a letter inthe Guardianin support of themoratorium.

An interactive map charts the variety of opinions on climatechange across the US. Developed by researchers at Yale University,it maps belief in manmade climate change according to states, localcommunities and congressional districts, highlighting thegeographical diversity across the nation.

US climate envoy Todd Stern has encouraged Canada to take amore proactive approach to tackling climate change. Speaking at theMajor Economies Forum, Stern said that Canada should “be stronglike Mexico”, which has already submitted its emissions reductionplan for post-2020 to the UN.

Yeb Sano, who shot into the limelight at the 2013 UN climatetalks, announces his decision to step down as Climate ChangeCommissioner of the Philippines. He will join faith activist groupOurVoices as leader of the People’s Pilgrimage. The climate-themedworld tour will culminate in a 1,500km walk from Rome to Paris.

Andrew Simms responds to the news that the killing ofenvironmental activists increased by 20% in 2014 over the previousyear. The work of these community-based activists is in sharpcontrast to the “air-conditioned, lacking natural light” atmosphereof the UN climate negotiations, he writes, adding that governmentshould be monitoring and protecting those who put their lives onthe line to defend the natural world.

A new study based on a thousand years of temperature recordssuggests global warming is progressing at the rate of a moderateemissions scenario. Researchers developed a statistical model toreplicate natural variations in climate as well as the long-termtrend. The results suggest periods of faster and slower temperaturerise in past decades are more in keeping with a ‘middle-of-the-roadscenario’, but this could change in future, the researchers say.

Earthquakes in Texas between 2013 and 2014 were most likelycaused by fracking, a new study finds. Findings from a seismicmodel suggest that injecting and extracting high volumes of watercreated pressure changes significant enough to trigger earthquakes.A series of North Texas earthquakes over the last seven years haveall occurred in areas developed for natural gas extraction, thestudy notes, before which the last recorded tremor in the area wasin 1950.