“Whatever happened to Mission Innovation?” asks Climate Home’s editor. This week we are set to find out as energy ministers gather in the Californian city for CEM7. Launched at the start of the 2015 Paris climate talks, the Mission Innovation initiative promised to unleash the financial and scientific power of the public and private sector on developing new forms of green energy, explains Ed King. “Governments including the US, UK, France, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India promised to double clean-tech research and development spending, taking it to around US$20 billion by 2020. At the same time Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Virgin’s Richard Branson swore to unleash a green energy ‘economic revolution’.” The CEM7 meeting in San Francisco is the “first real test of whether the world can deliver on the Paris deak”. In his New York Times Dot Earth blog, Andy Revkin examines the “value and gaps” in the “Big San Francisco Clean-Energy Conclave”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said that the world’s number one priority in tackling climate change must be to ensure that the buildings currently being constructed at an increasing rate in developing countries must meet higher standards of efficiency and safety. “This would be the single most important step I want governments to take, and they can take it tomorrow,” he said. Birol also highlighted the need to reduce emissions from transport around the world, calling for far greater investments in electric vehicles and public transport, particularly in developing countries. “Although there has been progress in electric cars, we are not there yet,” he said. In MIT Technology Review, Richard Martin argues that the new IEA report on technology innovation is “wildly optimistic”.

Glencore will close its Tahmoor coal mine in Australia by early 2019, the latest example of low coal prices decimating the sector. Glencore is one of Australia’s largest coal producers running 18 mines and employing some 7,650 workers. Last year Tahmoor produced 2.1m tonnes of metallurgical coal used in steel making. “The decision has been made as a result of continued low prices in global coal markets, which has meant the economic return from reserves still available at Tahmoor are not sufficient to warrant the investment required to mine them,” Glencore said in a statement.

Washington state regulators have unveiled an updated plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions from large polluters, the latest attempt by Governor Jay Inslee to push ahead with a binding cap on carbon emissions after struggling to win approval from legislators. Washington would join nearly a dozen states including California that have capped carbon pollution from industrial sources. The proposed rule requires large industrial emitters to gradually reduce carbon emissions over time. The rule would cover many industries, including power plants, oil refineries, fuel distributors, pulp and paper mills and others.

The devastating rise in Alaska’s wildfires is making global warming even worse than scientists expected, according to US government researchers. The sharp spike in Alaska’s wildfires, where more than 5m acres burned last year, are destroying a main buffer against climate change: the carbon-rich boreal forests, tundra and permafrost that have served as an enormous carbon sink. Northern wildfires must now be recognised as a significant driver of climate change – and not just a side-effect, according to the report from the US Geological Survey.

Hillary Clinton is pledging a massive increase in renewable energy production on federal land and water. The tenfold boost in electricity production from sources like wind, solar and geothermal is one of the top features of a conservation and public land agenda the Democratic presidential candidate rolled out on Wednesday. “Now, as we work to combat climate change and build America into the world’s clean energy superpower, our public lands can once again play a key role in unlocking the resources we need,” said Clinton.

The simplicity of not having to deal with the EU officials would be “desirable”, Drax chief executive Dorothy Thompson has admitted, despite insisting the company was “neutral” on Brexit. Mrs Thompson said the coal and biomass power plant company’s board had “a very long debate” about the UK’s membership of the EU before deciding on a position of neutrality. “We see clear advantages to being in the EU, but we also recognise the strength of the UK. I think that the advantage of the EU, the strongest advantage is from an economic point of view,” she told the FT Energy Transformation Strategies conference.

The Scottish parliament has voted narrowly in favour of a ban on fracking, after Scottish National party MSPs abstained following a debate that gave a strong indication of the changed nature of the new Holyrood chamber. Scottish Labour had tabled an amendment in support of a full ban as part of an environment debate headed by the new cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham. The SNP announced a moratorium on fracking in Scotland last January, but has stopped short of an outright ban to allow for further consultation and a public health impact assessment.

The new Philippine administration needs to review dozens of coal-fired power projects now underway or still on the drawing board as it seeks increased use of renewable energy, the country’s incoming economic planning chief said. “We need to revisit those projects and I think we probably should not push too many coal-fired plants because they are bad especially for communities where power plants are built,” President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s choice for economic planning minister, Ernesto Pernia, said. “We are supposed to gradually, in due time, move toward more renewable energy.”

The FT’s Lex column looks at the “cloud hanging over” China’s wind farms: “The National Energy Administration faces two big challenges. One is obvious: not even the all-powerful Chinese Communist party can make the wind blow. The other is that while regional networks are required to accept power produced from wind farms, some regional grids nevertheless refuse.” However, “After repeated warnings, the NEA this week required nine provinces with the highest curtailment rates to use an average of a fifth more wind power than last year.”

Looney question the oft-held view that tackling climate change in a modern democracy is too challenging. “Is it really necessary to choose between democracy and saving the planet? A comprehensive review of various countries’ progress towards environmental sustainability suggests otherwise. In fact, the case against democracy as a vehicle for environmental sustainability may be grossly overstated, based less on the actions of the world’s democracies as a whole than on the failures of a conspicuous few…Democracies are much more likely than authoritarian regimes to give environmental sustainability priority over either energy security or affordable energy supplies.”

ClimateWire’s feature follows “a group of environmental activists, a legendary scientist and a camera crew embarked on a quixotic rescue effort”. Their goal? “Saving Illinois nukes.” The article interviews James Hansen, Ken Caldeira and Mike Shellenberger, who are all pro-nuclear. But it also speaks to other scientists and campaigners who think renewables are a better bet for tackling climate change. The New York Times also carries a feature on the same subject.

Developing regions, such as Africa, south America, southeast Asia and the Middle East, are warming disproportionately fast, despite their historical roles in causing climate change being small compared to the US and Europe. A new paper takes a broad look at this mismatch and how the issues of national responsibility, cumulative carbon emissions and dislocated interests relate to the challenge of global climate mitigation.

The EU’s aim for interconnectors to operate with at least 10% of installed capacity in each country by 2020 may see carbon emissions increase, according to new research. Connections from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic would increase usage of carbon-intensive coal and lignite-based electricity production. While changes in carbon prices or renewable energy generation would alter the picture, the authors find that full compliance under current conditions would slightly increase carbon emissions in the EU.