New nuclear power in the UK would be more expensive than in
any other country, according to a report from the International
Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). Carbon Brief
investigates the details, with the government preparing to finalise
a £24.5bn deal for Hinkley C, the country’s first – and now further
delayed – new nuclear plant for a generation.

The first of a new generation of UK nuclear reactors will be
delayed beyond a planned 2023 opening, the Financial Times reports.
Talks continue between the state-backed firms from France and China
that will build the scheme, it says, with sides working towards
agreement when Chinese president Xi Jinping visits the UK in
October. The Hinkley C plant could now be overtaken by other
schemes, says The Telegraph. Shares in EDF fell 2.2%
as it also announced further delays and cost increases at its other
new nuclear scheme in France, Reuters reports. The Guardianalso has the
story. Carbon Briefreports that new
nuclear power in the UK would be the world’s most costly — a line
picked up by BBC Newsand the Today
programme.

Rich nations are said to be edging towards a compromise on
the thorny issue of climate-related loss and damage, reports the
BBC. A coalition including the US and EU “appears to have accepted”
the need to address it in the UN climate deal due to be sealed in
December, reports RTCC. BusinessGreenasks if Bonn could
deliver a “breakthrough” on the issue, with rich nations expected
to present their proposal later today. In two further
stories, RTCC reportsthat rich nations are
to unveil their climate finance package at a World Bank summit on 9
October and that G20 countries are being urged by campaignersto switch
fossil fuel subsidies into climate finance.

As UN climate negotiations continue in Bonn this week,
various angles are emerging from the talks. Reuters reports
comments from UN climate chief Christiana Figueres that recent
financial woes in China need not cast a “dark cloud” over climate
efforts. Bloombergreports on discussions
around a potential long-term climate goal. A comment piece
for Gristexplains “how India can
increase the chances of success” in Paris.

Chancellor George Osborne is putting tens of billions of
investment in renewables at risk with a “disastrous..short term,
unimaginative, inward approach” to energy policy, says former
energy and climate secretary Ed Davey. In his most unbridled
comments yet since losing his position and his seat at the
election, Davey also says an Osborne prime minister would want to
scrap the Climate Change Act.

More than half of major business leaders surveyed by
consultancy PwC are steering investments to act on climate change,
reports RTCC. BusinessGreenasks if they are
making emissions cuts a board-level priority. The Guardian and its
blogs carry three related stories: on food firms “ignoring their biggest climate
impacts”; on ExxonMobil having its “head in the sand”and on rising
pay for fossil fuel bosses that “may spell trouble for the
climate”.

In an interview with RTCC, UN climate chief Christiana
Figueres assesses progress towards a planned climate deal in
December. Brazil and India will soon submit climate pledges to the
process, she says, but the aggregate of all pledges will be
insufficient to avoid 2C of warming. Efforts will need to continue
in a “multi-decadal process” of rising ambition, she
says.

Ice conditions in the northwest passage – a potential
shopping route through Arctic waters that links the Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans – must still be considered severe, despite recent
warming, a new study finds. Ice thickness surveys conducted between
2011 and 2015 show thicknesses between 1.8 and 2.0?m in all
regions. Thick ice more than 100?m wide and thicker than 4?m
occurred frequently, the researchers say.

Sub-Saharan African has significant untapped potential for
hydropower, but lacks regulations that consider climate change in
project planning, a new study says. Hydropower is the energy source
most likely to be affected by climate change because of its impacts
on the quantity and timing of rainfall, the researchers say. The
study puts forward a framework for including climate impacts in
future schemes.

Yields of maize and wheat in southeastern US were,
respectively, 13% and 6.5% lower per degree of average temperature
rise through the 20th century, new research suggests. Using weather
records for 1900-2000, scientists modelled crop yields during
‘neutral’, ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ periods. The results suggest that
summer crops were particularly sensitive to changes in temperature,
while winter crops were sensitive to changes in carbon dioxide
levels in the atmosphere, the study says.