The Scottish government announced yesterday a ban on fracking in the face of “overwhelming” public opposition to the controversial gas extraction technique. Energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said an immediate ban would be enacted by using planning powers to extend the current moratorium “indefinitely”, removing the need for legislation. Wheelhouse told MSPs: “Let me be clear that the action is sufficient to effectively ban the development of unconventional oil and gas extraction in Scotland. The decision that I am announcing today means that fracking cannot, and will not take place in Scotland.” The minister said a public consultation on the issue received more than 60,000 responses, an “overwhelming” 99% of which were opposed to fracking. Opponents raised concerns over the impact on health and the environment, while supporters focused on the economic benefits and said regulation could mitigate any adverse effects. The BBC, Guardian, Independent and Express are among the many publications reporting the news. The Daily Telegraph says the Scottish government has “dashed Ineos’ plans to become Britain’s biggest shale gas player”. The Times says that the SNP has been accused of ignoring its own scientific research. It quotes Tom Pickering, operations director for Ineos Shale: “The decision has certainly not rested on science, as they said it would. The argument about climate change doesn’t stack up. We know we will continue to use gas, importing it produces more emissions than if you produce it from beneath your feet.” The Times carries a separate article on the history of the fracking debate in Scotland and a range of views. The Financial Times says the “green lobby celebrate but [the] decision could face legal challenge from shale companies”. Carbon Brief has updated its recent detailed Q&A on “the return of UK fracking and what it could mean for the climate”.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will propose repealing the Clean Power Plan – the Obama administration’s centrepiece regulation to fight climate change – and plans to solicit input on a rule to replace it, according to an EPA document seen by Reuters. The decision marks the agency’s first formal step to sweep away the rule intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants, after Donald Trump signed an executive order in March launching the EPA’s review. Reuters adds: “The EPA document, distributed to members of the agency’s Regulatory Steering Committee, said the EPA ‘is issuing a proposal to repeal the rule’. The agency now intends to issue what it calls an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit input as it considers ‘developing a rule similarly intended to reduce CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel electric utility generating units’.” The Clean Power Plan was challenged in court by 27 states after Obama’s administration launched it in 2015. It is currently suspended by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which set a deadline of Friday for a status report from the EPA on how it plans to proceed.

Solar power was the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide last year, outstripping the growth in all other forms of power generation for the first time and leading experts to hail a “new era”, reports the Guardian. Renewable energy accounted for two-thirds of new power added to the world’s grids in 2016, the International Energy Agency says in a new report, but the group found solar was the technology that shone brightest. The Guardian adds that the IEA predicts that solar will dominate future growth, with global capacity in five years’ time expected to be greater than the current combined total power capacity of India and Japan. Carbon Brief also reports the news and has all the need-to-know details from IEA’s forecasts.

Even if the Paris agreement to limit the global temperature rise to below 2C is met, summer heatwaves in major Australian cities are likely to reach highs of 50C by 2040, a study published on Wednesday warns. Researchers led by the Australian National University in Canberra used observational data and simulated climate models to assess future extreme weather events in New South Wales and Victoria. The lead author of the study, the climate scientist Dr Sophie Lewis, said Sydney and Melbourne could expect unprecedented summer temperatures of 50C under two degrees of global warming. The Mail Online also reports the study’s findings. The Guardian carries an accompanying opinion article by Dr Mark Monaghan, a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia, who says that “we can expect a very significant impact on our public health system…These are challenges that require immediate, mid and long-term solutions, challenges that we need to see taken seriously by the government of the day.” The Sydney Morning Herald carries a supportive piece by Judith Ireland saying that Dr Monaghan’s comments are “stating the completely and massively obvious”.

The UK government is likely to scrap the complex funding arrangements used to prop up the development of Hinkley Point C after an energy minister admitted the deal is unlikely to be used for future nuclear projects, reports the Telegraph. Speaking on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Richard Harrington, who joined the Business and Energy department as a junior minister earlier this year, said nuclear “absolutely” had a role to play in the future energy mix, but appeared to bow to Hinkley’s critics by admitting the financing model was “unlikely” to be used again. Meanwhile, DeSmog UKreports that Michael Gove, the environment secretary, told the conference that said he is convinced “climate change is a danger”, but that efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions must not come at the expense of economic growth. In BusinessGreen, James Murray has an opinion piece titled: “I’m sorry, but we have to talk about Conservative climate sceptics.”

The Telegraph reports that commercial airliners will be buffeted by up to three times more turbulence in future decades, according to a new study led by Prof Paul Williams at the University of Reading. On some popular routes for UK travellers, such as transatlantic flights, instances of severe turbulence will increase by 180%, while over Europe the rate is set to worsen by 160%. The Telegraph says: “Scientists had already noticed that so-called clear-air turbulence (CAT) was on the rise, however the new study by the University of Reading is the first to come up with a comprehensive mathematical model predicting long-term global conditions. It estimates that by 2050 the rate of inflight injuries will have almost tripled in line with the increased volume of turbulence.”

Bloomberg reports that Saudi Arabia has received offers to supply solar electricity for the cheapest prices ever recorded, marking the start of a $50bn program to diversify the oil producer’s domestic energy supplies away from fossil fuels. It says: “The energy ministry said Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and Electricite de France SA bid to supply power from a 300MW photovoltaic plant for as little as 6.69736 halalas a kilowatt hour, or 1.79 US cents, according to a webcast of the bid-opening ceremony on Tuesday in Riyadh. If awarded, that would beat the previous record for a solar project in Abu Dhabi for 2.42 US cents a kilowatt-hour.” Bloomberg carries the views of Jenny Chase, chief solar analyst for BNEF in Zurich: “There is great pressure in the Middle East to come up with an impressive headline number, and these are becoming increasingly divorced from the reality of payments…I don’t think this is possible as an all-in price of electricity from a 2019 PV project, particularly given the rising cost of debt in Saudi Arabia.”

More than a third of British car-buyers would consider owning an electric vehicle, according to a new poll. Some 35% of respondents say they would “be happy to buy an electric car”, with more than half (51%) open to driving a hybrid model. Car classified ad website CarGurus commissioned the survey of 1,002 Britons who have bought a car in the past two years or are planning a purchase in the next 12 months.

The Scottish edition of the Times carries an editorial slamming the SNP’s decision to ban fracking in Scotland: “No one imagines that fracking is the solution to all Scotland’s future energy needs, but it may at least have played a useful part. As the country’s two nuclear power stations, at Hunterston and Torness, near the end of their productive existences, new forms of energy supply will be needed. Renewables must be a large part of this but, at present, they remain an inadequate replacement for coal, oil and nuclear energy. Fracking could have limited future energy imports and, consequently, helped to reduce carbon emissions. Cutting off this potential supply means that energy, whether nuclear or gas-powered, will have to be imported from elsewhere.” The Scotsman also carries an editorial. It says: “The Scottish Government now has to answer the question of how it will develop its energy strategy without fracking. It may fail this test, but a bigger failure would have been to ignore public opinion.”

Laura Round of the Bright Blue thinktank writes in the Times that the Conservative Party is grappling with an important question: “how can it attract younger voters?” She says that rebranding isn’t needed. “What they are in need of are fresh, positive and concrete policy ideas. Bright Blue’s latest polling with YouGov reveals what the policy priorities are for younger voters under the age of 40. The data reveals some uncomfortable truths for the Conservative Party. Although the top policy issues for the general population – when asked what issues they want senior politicians to discuss more – include immigration, crime and Brexit, those voters who are aged 40 or under are actually keen for senior politicians to speak up on, in order of priority, health, climate change and education. Housing, which is often and understandably cited as a crucial policy area for younger voters, is actually fourth and Brexit comes eighth. Strikingly, the top issue for 18- to 28-year-olds is climate change.” She concludes: “Being vocal on climate change and the environment, alongside embracing rather than rejecting social liberalism, is crucial to re-establishing support among younger generations for the Conservative Party.”

Buzzfeed has published analysis showing how a now-notorious Mail on Sunday article published in February, which was recently ruled to be “significantly misleading” by the UK press regulator, spread unchallenged across conservative media, particularly in the US. Buzzfeed found: “The story, published on February 4 and updated on September 16, has received more than 211,500 shares, likes, comments, or other interactions on social media… Another 159 stories repeated the original’s claims and linked back to it, and received about 540,800 shares or interactions. This includes coverage from conservative news giants such as Fox News, Breitbart, Daily Caller, and National Review, as well as by climate skeptic blogs. In contrast, 66 online articles and posts questioned or debunked the story’s claim in the intervening months. These were shared or engaged with about 199,100 times, or about one-quarter as much as the bogus stories.” One of the debunking article was Carbon Brief’s own factcheck published within five hours of the original Mail on Sunday article going online. Meanwhile, Eos carries a feature under the headline: “Rise of distorted news puts climate scientists on their guard.” It continues: “Wary of misleading coverage, some climate researchers are avoiding publicising results. Others prepare countermeasures to anticipate and combat skewed media reports.”

Some of the busiest international airspace could see an increase in clear air turbulence (CAT) by as much as several hundred percent because of climate change, a new study finds. Building on earlier research focusing on transatlantic flights, the researchers use climate model simulations to study CAT changes by 2050-80 for eight geographic regions, two flight levels, five turbulence strength categories, and all four seasons. Severe CAT is projected to double over North America, the North Pacific, and Europe, the study finds, with severe CAT over the North Atlantic becoming as common as moderate CAT has been in the past.

Media coverage tends to portray indigenous peoples as victims and “harbingers” of climate change, a new study says, but lacks discussion of colonialism or marginalisation in their vulnerability. Focusing on eight newspapers in Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, the researchers examine articles published between 1995 and 2015. Indigenous and traditional knowledge is widely discussed in the media stories, the researchers say, but “principally as a means of corroborating scientific knowledge, or in accordance with romanticised portrayals of Indigenous peoples.”

Extreme rainfall events across central India have increased threefold between 1950 and 2015, a new study finds. The rise in these events is caused by increasing variability of the low-level monsoon westerly winds over the Arabian Sea, which drives “surges of moisture supply” towards the central Indian subcontinent. In turn, the increasing variability of these westerlies is linked to rapid surface warming of the northern Arabian Sea and the adjacent northwest India and Pakistan, the researchers conclude.