There is widespread coverage of new research published in the journal Nature Communications, which, according to the Financial Times, shows that global CO2 emissions fell by 8.8% in the first half of the year as a result of the coronavirus crisis. The FT says the 1.6bn tonne reduction is estimated “based on analysis by more than 40 scientists of real-time data including electricity consumption, flight information and industrial output”. Reuters says the 8.8% reduction is the “biggest drop for a first half-year period”. The Independent says the drop in emissions is larger than that during the second world war and the Sydney Morning Herald says there was a faster fall “than at any time on record”. The new research, published earlier this year in preprint form, is in line with Carbon Brief analysis published in April and other studies on the emissions impact of the pandemic. Meanwhile, New Scientist has a feature under the headline: “How the coronavirus has impacted climate change – for good and bad.” In related news, Reuters reports that the pandemic has seen falling sales of off-grid solar products due to falling incomes in developing nations.

A new study suggests that restoring natural landscapes damaged by human exploitation can be one of the most effective and cheapest ways to tackle climate change and boost dwindling wildlife populations, the Guardian reports. The newspaper continues: “If a third of the planet’s most degraded areas were restored, and protection was thrown around areas still in good condition, that would store carbon equating to half of all human caused greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution.” The research, published in the journal Nature, suggests that the changes would also prevent about 70% of predicted species extinctions, the Guardian says, adding: “Scientists from Brazil, Australia and Europe identified scores of places around the world where such interventions would be most effective, from tropical forests to coastal wetlands and upland peat. Many of them were in developing countries, but there were hotspots on every continent.” Study author Bernardo B N Strassburg tells the New York Times that land restoration is “one of the most cost effective ways of combating climate change…and it’s one of the most important ways of avoiding global extinctions”. The newspaper notes that 30% of the world’s farmlands could be returned to nature “while preserving an abundant food supply for people and while also staying within the time scale to keep global temperatures from rising past 2C, the upper target of the Paris Agreement”. The Independent and InsideClimate News also have the story. (See the “new climate science” section below for more about the study.)

Several US publications cover the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which, according to Associated Press, shows that the world saw record-breaking heat in September. The newswire adds that there is “nearly a two-to-one chance that 2020 will end up as the globe’s hottest year on record”, according to NOAA scientists. Axios says the seven warmest Septembers globally have occurred consecutively over the past seven years, with the top 10 all having been recorded since 2005. The Hill says the NOAA figures are “in line with similar findings from the EU’s climate change service”, published earlier this month. Yale Climate Connections also has the story. Separately, the Guardian reports on new research showing, according to its headline, that the “[t]emperatures of [the] deepest ocean [are] rising quicker than previously thought”.

The European Union is considering binding standards limiting emissions of methane during oil and gas production, Reuters reports. It says the EU methane strategy, published yesterday, has “a clearer commitment than previous drafts, which shied away from methane limits on gas consumed in Europe”. The newswire adds that any legislation flowing from the strategy would “follow an impact assessment involving international partners”. Climate Home News says the strategy could mean a “crackdown on methane leaks from imported oil and gas” and adds that while this could “put pressure on suppliers like Russia and Algeria to stop polluting gas leaks and venting”, the strategy “lacks detail”.

Separately, the Washington Post and Reuters report the findings of a satellite study, by data firm Karryos, showing the number of large methane leaks from the oil and gas industry rose by nearly a third in the first eight months of the year.

Meanwhile, in other EU news, Reuters reports that a summit of EU leaders this week will discuss the bloc’s new climate target but is not expected to agree a deal. Reuters also reports that the bloc has set out plans to “launch a wave of green building renovations across Europe to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help people struggling to pay energy bills”.

US president Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, has “refused to say whether she accepts the science of climate change”, Associated Press reports, under questioning from Kamala Harris. The newswire reports that Barrett said she would not offer an opinion on what she called “a very contentious matter of public debate”. AP adds: “Scientists say climate change is a matter of established fact and that the damage is mostly caused by people burning oil, gas and coal.” The Independent, DeSmog, Vox and the Hill all report Barrett’s comments.

Several UK newspapers cover an announcement by National Grid, which operates the country’s electricity system, saying that supplies will be tight over the next few days after what the Guardian describes as “a string of unplanned power plant outages and unusually low wind speeds”. The Times quotes National Grid’s statement saying: “Unusually low wind output coinciding with a number of generator outages means the cushion of spare capacity we operate the system with has been reduced. We’re exploring measures and actions to make sure there is enough generation available to increase our buffer of capacity.” The paper also quotes an independent analyst saying there should be “enough capacity to avoid a stress event”, despite the warning. The Daily Telegraph reports the news under the headline: “Lack of wind sparks National Grid energy alert.” The paper makes several references to “low wind levels” as being behind the problem, despite also quoting National Grid’s statement mentioning “a number of generator outages” that have contributed to the situation. Separately, BusinessGreen reports that a new 1,000 megawatt electricity interconnector linking the UK and France has been completed and will soon enter testing.

There is continued coverage of the news that half the corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have died over the past 25 years, according to research in which, says the Times, includes a “warning that climate change is destroying the world’s largest living structure”. Reuters says the researchers “fear the loss caused by frequent bleaching will compromise [the reef’s] ability to recover”. It quotes Prof Terry Hughes, one of the study authors, saying “the resilience of the reef, its ability to bounce back from recurrent mass bleaching events, has been compromised”. The New York Times, the Guardian and Axios all have the story.

BloombergNEF’s Vandana Gombar has a Q&A with India’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar, in which he says that his country will “not yet” raise its pledge under the Paris Agreement. Javadekar is quoted saying: “We are one of the few countries walking the talk. On the issue of raising ambition, I don’t think it is the right time to do anything like that, because we first want to know what other countries are doing. Every climate action has a cost. The cost is ultimately born by the common people. The raising of ambition or ratcheting up will arise only after the global stocktake in 2023.” In answer to a question about how solar is now cheaper than coal, Javadekar says: “I differ here because even today, the absolute coal consumption of US is more than India. Many countries are exporting coal. Why don’t they stop export of coal? Coal will be used all over the world and for the near future, it doesn’t go away. We are on course with new clean technologies, and with new cleaner coal, we are going to achieve our targets much before 2030.”

In a letter to the Guardian, a group of European ministers and the EU commissioner for international partnerships call on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to foster a green recovery. They call for the two bodies to deliver on a series of measures, including “phas[ing] out investments in coal, oil and gas, while redirecting funds to green jobs and access to renewable energy”. They add: “We need to remove fossil fuel subsidies, while strengthening social safety nets. Climate and social criteria must be integrated in our economic stimulus packages.” Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that the European Central Bank is to consider using climate risk when buying corporate bonds.

The Guardian’s world affairs editor Julian Borger has a feature on the upcoming US election, saying “this time there are two issues of existential importance to the planet – the climate crisis and nuclear proliferation – on which the two presidential candidates could hardly be further apart”. Politico looks at “how Biden would use trade agreements to fight global warming”. And the New York Times has a “field guide” to the election and climate change. Carbon Brief is maintaining a grid tracking the climate and energy statements made by the US presidential rivals and their teams. Reuters reports that Trump has “bashe[d] Biden on fracking” in recent campaigning.

New research explores how “extensive ecosystem restoration” could help tackle the twin problems of climate change and declining biodiversity. Using satellite data, the researchers map where lands have been converted from natural ecosystems to croplands or pasturelands and identify “priority areas for restoration” and their costs and benefits. The study finds that “restoring 15% of converted lands in priority areas could avoid 60% of expected extinctions while sequestering 299 gigatonnes of CO2 – 30% of the total CO2 increase in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution”. (Carbon Brief’s climate science contributor Dr Zeke Hausfather points out on Twitter that 299 GtCO2 equates to around 15% of human-caused emissions as around half of global emissions are absorbed by the land and ocean.) An accompanying News & Views article says that the work is “particularly laudable for linking perspectives on ecosystem restoration to bridge the domains of biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation”. However, it adds, “challenges remain in further linking such prioritisation to other key drivers and pressures, and other types of action beyond restoration”.

A new study asks why the record for the lowest summer minimum for Arctic sea ice extent in 2012 has not yet been broken. After four new records between 2000 and 2012, no new records have been set “owing to an abrupt atmospheric shift during each August/early-September that brought low sea-level pressure, cloudiness, and unfavourable wind conditions for ice reduction”, the study says. “While random variability could be the cause,” the researchers say, “we identify a recently increased prevalence of a characteristic large-scale atmospheric pattern over the northern hemisphere”. They add: “This pattern is associated not only with anomalously low pressure over the Arctic during summer, but also with frequent heatwaves over East Asia, Scandinavia, and northern North America, as well as the tendency for a split jet stream over the continents.” As Carbon Brief reported, this year’s Arctic sea ice minimum was the second lowest on record.