Last month was the joint-warmest September the world has seen since modern records began 136 years ago, according to Nasa. September 2016’s temperature was a “razor-thin” 0.004C warmer than the previous warmest September in 2014, making the result a statistical tie. It was 0.91C warmer than the average temperature for the month between 1951 and 1980. Nasa has also now established that June this year was not a record, after additional data from Antarctica lowered the June 2016 figures by 0.05C, putting it third behind 2015 and 1998. Overall, 11 of the past 12 months have set new records for highest average temperature. The new figures mean that Nasa has “all but declared this year to be the hottest yet recorded,” says the Guardian, although “final confirmation is likely to come early next year.” The MailOnline and Time also cover the story. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also released its temperature data for September, which puts 2016 narrowly in second place, 0.04C behind 2015, says Climate Central. This puts an end to the 16-month “hot streak” of record monthly temperatures, according to NOAA’s data, says USA Today.

A group of campaigners have filed a lawsuit against the Norwegian government over a decision to open up the Barents Sea for oil exploration. The group – which includes Greenpeace Nordic, Nature & Youth, indigenous activists, and the former director of Nasa’s Goddard institute for space studies, James Hansen – argue that awarding of new exploration licences in the Arctic breaches a constitutional right to a healthy environment, says the Financial Times. The group will seek to use last year’s Paris agreement on climate change to back their claim, arguing that Oslo is undermining its commitment to reduce emissions. “There is a growing movement that in order to limit climate change we need to keep large amounts of fossil fuels in the ground,” said Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace Norway. The ministry said the award of new licenses would not be unconstitutional and that there was broad political backing for the measures, reports Reuters. “It was done within applicable laws and regulations in line with well-established practice,” said a spokesman from the Oil and Energy Ministry. Climate Home and BusinessGreen also have the story.

The government will announce next week its decision on whether to favour expanding either Heathrow or Gatwick airport. The decision will not be taken by the full cabinet but by a sub-committee, chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May. The preferred scheme will then be subject to a “full and fair public consultation” before a final decision is put before MPs in the winter of 2017-18. The BBC’s transport correspondent, Richard Westcott, says he expects ministers “will plump for a third runway at Heathrow.” Reuters, the Telegraph, and the Guardian also have the story. Elsewhere, Climate Home reports on comments from the head of sustainability at International Airlines Group that airlines are unlikely to feel the bite from a new UN deal to limit their greenhouse gas emissions until the 2030s

Oil companies face a “resoundingly negative” threat from a sharp growth of electric cars, warns credit rating agency, Fitch. “Widespread adoption of battery-powered vehicles is a serious threat to the oil industry,” says their new report, which urges energy companies to plan for “radical change” spurred by new technologies that could arrive faster than expected. Although the report accepts it could take a long time for electric cars to become a disruptive force through mass adoption, it also says that the threat of electric cars could create an “investor death spiral” as nervous asset holders sell out of oil companies.

The global farming sector has a big role to play in curbing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to future climate change, the UN says. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says agriculture accounts for about a fifth of emissions, and is already being affected by the impacts of climate change – particularly in tropical countries. There’s a need for “major changes” to take place in the sector, says FAO director Rob Voss, who led the team that produced the FAO State of Food & Agriculture 2016 report: “If we continue along the present pathways then we will not be able to [deliver] food security around the world and we will not be able to stabilise the climate.”

Scotland’s nuclear power stations could be kept open beyond their current closure dates, a senior figure at EDF says. Paul Winkle, EDF’s Scottish business director, says the present closure dates for the nuclear stations — 2023 for Hunterston in Ayrshire and 2030 for Torness in East Lothian — represented his company’s best estimates, but that Torness in particular could be kept open for longer. While the Scottish government has has ruled out new nuclear power stations, a spokeswoman said that ministers would welcome any extensions, as long as these could be done safely.

The National Grid is to be guaranteed a minimum income of £1.3bn for building the world’s longest subsea power cable to import electricity from Norway. Energy regulator Ofgem announced plans to guarantee the Grid at least £53m annual revenues for 25 years in return for its 50% investment in the interconnector. The 450-mile cable from Blyth in Northumberland to Kvilldal in Norway is due to be built by 2021 and will be the first electricity link between the two countries.

On the question of whether to expand either Heathrow or Gatwick airport, “there is only one answer that doesn’t involve abandoning our climate change commitments and our moral scruples,” says Monbiot: “nowhere”. “In a world seeking to prevent climate breakdown, there is no remaining scope for extending infrastructure that depends on fossil fuels,” he argues. If the government approves the extra capacity, it “will discover that it’s incompatible with our commitments under the Climate Change Act.” This, Monbiot fears, would lead the government to “quietly abandon the commitments.” “It’s this simple,” he warns: “a third runway at Heathrow means that the UK will not meet its carbon targets. Hold me to that in 2050.”

“The oil price war may not be over but it looks as though fortunes are shifting,” writes Crooks. “The cut in Opec’s oil production announced by the ministers has yet to be implemented,” he says “but merely by agreeing they needed to pump less oil, the cartel conceded that its attempt to force rival producers out of the market is not working.” The rival in question – the US shale industry – “has ridden out the downturn in oil prices and over the summer has even started to expand again.” “Opec’s announcement is a sign that it has sensibly moved past hopes of crushing US shale production and is planning for coexistence, ” Crooks concludes: “It may be painful for some but it is unavoidable.”

It is sometimes argued that solar radiation management (SRM) could decrease the need for, and therefore the cost of, greenhouse gas emissions reductions. But the potential for savings is diminished by the substantial uncertainties, including the level needed and the timings for deployment and termination, according to new research. Even strong SRM wouldn’t negate the need for CO2 reduction altogether, the paper notes, because of the need to mitigate the effects of ocean acidification.

Detection and attribution (D&A) is the branch of climate science that quantifies the contribution of human activity to observed changes in temperature, rainfall, sea level and other variables. A new paper introduces the latest round of model studies dedicated to D&A. Among other developments, the experiments will feature a new subset of historical and future simulations with single forcings (ie. aerosols-only, CO2-only, solar-only), with the aim of better estimating the contribution of individual factors.