A national review prompted by severe flooding in recent winters anticipates 20-30% more extreme rainfall than observed in recent times, the Guardian reports. The research also found that 530 critical infrastructure sites, such as water and telecoms, are at serious risk from floods, each potentially affecting at least 10,000 people. The report commits £12.5m for new temporary defences, at strategic locations around the country. This means that the Environment Agency will have four times as many temporary flood barriers than in 2015, the BBC reports. The Environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom, said: “Last winter we saw just how devastating flooding can be. This review sets out clear actions so we are better prepared to respond quickly in the event of future flooding and can strengthen the nation’s flood defences”. The Times and the Financial Times also have the story.

The UK is set to miss a legally-binding EU target to generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources, due to slower than expected progress in delivering renewable heat and transport technologies. The report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee shows that while the UK is three-quarters of the way towards its 30% electricity sub-target and is expected to exceed it by 2020, it is not yet halfway towards 12% heat target and the proportion of renewable energy used in transport actually fell last year. Angus MacNeil, who chairs the committee, said: “The experts we spoke to were clear: the UK will miss its 2020 renewable energy targets without major policy improvements. Failing to meet these would damage the UK’s reputation for climate change leadership. The government must take urgent action on heat and transport to renew its efforts on decarbonisation.” Elsewhere, right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange described the government’s strategy for making the UK’s heating supplies green as a “colossal waste of money”, the Telegraphreports. Carbon Brief, the Times, the Guardian and Energy Live News also have the story.

Graphs charting a warming planet are “terrifying” says US president Barack Obama, in an in-depth interview on climate change secured by the New York Times, during his visit to Hawaii. “What makes climate change difficult is that it is not an instantaneous catastrophic event,” Obama says. “It’s a slow-moving issue that, on a day-to-day basis, people don’t experience and don’t see.” The interview takes a look back at the climate successes and failures during Obama’s presidency, including the failure of the cap-and-trade bill in his first term, the dismal outcome of Copenhagen, ground-breaking negotiations with China, and the eventual success of the UN Paris climate conference last year. During his time in office, Obama says, a majority of US citizens have come to believe “that climate change is real, that it’s important and we should do something about it.” However, the interview highlights how he struggled to forge a consensus with the Republican party, some of whom view his implementation of a Clean Power Plan, to promote renewable energy and combat climate change, as unconstitutional.

Conservative former cabinet minister Lord Patten has accused the National Trust of “autocratic and out-of-touch behaviour” over its lobbying activities across a range subjects from climate change to fracking. Speaking during a debate on the role of charities and trade unions in a democracy, Lord Patten said: “I think the trust needs to be better regulated. The trust was set up by statute for the benefit of the whole nation and its citizens not just the executive and paid up members of the National Trust.” The criticism was rejected by Lord Harries, who said he was “deeply grateful” to the National Trust, and added: “It’s right the National Trust should also have an important point of view out of their own experience.” The Daily Mail and the Times also cover the story.

Plans to mine coal near a Northumberland beauty spot have been halted pending a public inquiry, the Financial Times reports. The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, want proposals to be scrutinised to see if they fit with climate change policies and with the government’s timetable to phase out coal-fired power stations. A decision to refuse the coalmine could reduce the likelihood of other coal mines being planned in Britain. The Times also covers the story.

Unspoiled lands are disappearing from the face of the Earth at an alarming pace, with about 10% of wilderness regions lost in the past two decades, according to new research published in the journal Current Biology. This is equivalent to an area double the size of Alaska, Reuters reports. The researchers mapped the world’s wilderness areas, excluding Antarctica, and compared the results with a 1993 map. “This is incredibly sad because we can’t offset or restore these places. Once they are gone, they are gone, and this has shocking implications for biodiversity, for climate change and for the most imperiled biodiversity on the planet,” said conservationist James Watson of the University of Queensland in Australia. The Washington Post and the MailOnline also have the story.

Britain’s native dormouse has declined by more than a third since 2000, with populations now restricted to the Welsh borders and southern England, a new report by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species has found. Evidences points towards a few key factors in their decline including the fragmentation of their habitat and vulnerability to changes in the weather, in particular wetter springs and summers, when foraging for food becomes harder. Warmer winters also interrupt successful hibernation, the BBC writes. The Times also carries the story.

Oil and gas executives and employees have given Clinton’s campaign and joint fundraising committee nearly double what they have donated to Trump’s, according to a new Wall Street Journal report, despite the fact that they usually give their money to Republicans.

Heat has been largely overlooked in energy policy debates for years, and yet the decarbonisation of heat is “absolutely fundamental to the achievement of wider decarbonisation goals”, argues Richard Howard, head of Environment and Energy at the thinktank Policy Exchange. Howard takes the reader through Policy Exchange’s new report on how to decarbonise domestic heating, which recommends improving energy efficiency, expanding the use of “greener gases” and rolling out heat networks to millions of homes.

We should first fix the “appalling” transport links to London airports, before we consider building extra runways, argues journalist Santham Sanghera in the Times. Responding to comments earlier this week that the government should abandon “the three Hs” (Hinkley Point, Heathrow expansion and HS2), in favour of the “three Gs” (investing in green energy, expanding Gatwick and building a great northern railway), he says: “Let’s face it, we can’t even build enough houses, let alone modernise rail. Frankly, any kind of decision on any one of the 3Hs or 3Gs within the next five years would count as incredible progress…personally, I reckon we should aim lower”.

Developing accurate predictions for how plants and animals will respond to climate change is essential for guiding conservation efforts and is one of the most urgent tasks for the coming decades, according to a new review. Current methods are falling short because they omit important biological mechanisms such as demography, dispersal, evolution, and species interactions. The biggest obstacle, say the authors, is a lack of data or proxies for data that are missing or difficult to collect. The paper suggests practical ways to fill the gaps.

A new review of how climatic conditions influence the nature of societies and the performance of economies details the many notable effects of climate on health, agriculture, economics, conflict, migration, and demographics. The paper outlines how temperature, in particular, exerts a remarkable influence over human systems, inciting aggression and violence, damaging crops, lowering human productivity and potentially triggering population movements. “Cracking the code” on when, where, and why adaptation is or is not successful will generate major social benefits, it concludes.