Five EDF board members have filed a legal challenge against the state-owned utility, which they hope will annul its decision to approve the Hinkley C power plant. The board voted 10 to 7 in favour of the £18bn project last month, but now five of the opponents are saying that the decision was not valid because chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy did not tell them that the UK government planned to delay its decision on the plant — a factor which they say could have influenced other board members. All five represent the EDF unions. The Telegraph and the Guardian also have the story.

Barry Gardiner, the Labour shadow secretary for energy and climate change, has urged Theresa May to ratify the UN climate deal agreed in Paris last year. China and the US are expected to ratify this week ahead of the G20 meeting, but Gardiner points out that the UK has not even started the process. “It is clear that delayed ratification risks sidelining the UK’s soft influence on this defining security issue of the 21st century,” he says. 55 countries representing 55% of emissions are required to ratify for the agreement to come into force.

President Obama has highlighted his achievements on climate change during a 10-day trip to Nevada, putting climate change front and centre of a journey that will soon take him to the G20 summit in China. The White House has not yet confirmed reports that the US will ratify the Paris Agreement there, but the Hill points out that the president has taken numerous opportunities to “victory lap” on the environment during his travels. Reuters reports on another opportunity taken by Obama to highlight climate progress in Hawaii.

The British government should take a tougher stance against Volkswagen following its emissions fraud, according to a report by the Environmental Audit Committee. “There’s been a worrying inertia from ministers in tackling the VW scandal and they should decide whether to take legal action,” said Mary Creagh, chair of the committee. The committee scrutinises the government, but its recommendations are not legally binding. The report also recommended an increase in the use of electric cars and a reduction in air pollution from transport. BusinessGreen also covers the story.

Héla Cheikhrouhou, former head of the Green Climate Fund, has said that the fund needs more projects in order to bring about a low-carbon transformation. “Now our rules are very broad… the net that exists is very wide, so anything goes,” she said in an interview. Money spent through the GCF must have a “transformational impact”. Cheikhrouhou said that agencies need to “make a bigger effort to bring us things that are not just ready and have been lying around for a while”.

More than 3,500 churches across Britain have switched their electricity to renewables or are planning to do so, according to data released on Thursday. This includes the majority of Salvation Army sites, a third of Quaker meeting houses and about 2,000 churches belonging to 16 Catholic dioceses. This is a small proportion of the 50,000 Christian churches across the UK. The Financial Times also covers the news.

First came the “viral spiral”. Now climate scientist Ed Hawkins has created another climate change graphic, this time a series of 167 maps, which altogether show how the world has warmed since the 1850s. Climate Central looks at how the maps were put together, and what they show about the planet.

Michael Liebreich and Angus McCrone of Bloomberg New Energy Finance predict a bright future for the electric car. But complex shifts like this would be always have knock-on effects to other industries, they argue. The flip to a new way of transportation will also impact sectors such as the electricity system, oil companies and road infrastructure.

A new study examines what the presence of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in a world committed to limiting climate change to 2C means for fossil fuel use, carbon prices and food prices. Widespread adoption of the technology allows the continued use and export of fossil fuels, the study finds, and reduces the upward pressure on food prices by lowering carbon prices and reducing the total biomass demand in climate change mitigation scenarios. Nevertheless, the authors warn many technical and institutional challenges need to be addressed before BECCS can be deployed at scale.