A majority of global investor heavyweights now recognise the financial risks of climate change, according to a the results of a global index by the Asset Owner Disclosure Project (AODP), that ranks the performance of the world’s largest 500 asset owners. It finds that “the scales have tipped” as 60% of asset owners are now taking some action, but warns there is still “enormous resistance” to managing climate risk. The AODP’s chairman, John Hewson, said asset owners tended to have a “herd instinct” and many people saving for retirement haven’t focused on the risk of a climate-induced financial crisis. Bloomberg New Energy Finance also carries the story.

Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order today that will review US national monuments created in the past 20 years with the aim of of rescinding or reshaping some of the them, as part of a push to reopen land to drilling, mining and other exploits, Reuters reports. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will consider monument designations at up to 40 sites. “I am not going to predispose what the outcome is going to be,” Zinke said. Sites include the Grand Staircase and the Bears Ears monument, both in Utah, that cover millions of acres of land overlying minerals, oil and gas. Utah’s governor opposed the designation of Bears Ears, saying it went against the wishes of citizens eager for development. The move comes despite the fact that polling shows that majorities of Americans agree with the designation of large amounts of public land as national monuments, Think Progress reports. The Hill, the Washington Post, the New York Times and Politico also have the story.

US energy secretary Rick Perry has said that the US should stay in the Paris climate accord but renegotiate it, at a Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference in New York yesterday. “I’m not going to say I’m going to go tell the president of the United States, ‘Let’s just walk away from the Paris accord’…But what I am going to say is, I think we probably need to renegotiate it”, he said. He said that the US and China are making a real impact on emissions but alleges that France and Germany are not doing enough. “The fact is [Germany’s] emissions have gone up because they are using more coal, and they are using coal that is, you know, not clean technologies”, Perry argued, continuing: “My point is, don’t sign an agreement and then expect us to stay in an agreement if you are not going to really participate and be a part of it.” Bloomberg New Energy Finance also has the story.

Rising ocean temperatures drive more intense and longer lasting outbreaks of algal blooms, that can strangle marine ecosystems and devastate coastal economies. Although the link has long been suggested, the new research is the first time this link has been established at an ocean scale. Algal blooms can occur when changes in water conditions lead to a huge growth in the number of a particular species of algae, and can produce toxins that kill marine life. The researchers used detailed data on sea-surface temperatures to “model trends in the growth rates of the algae species and the periods when blooms occurred from the early 1980s into the twenty-first century”, Nature writes.

Scientists at the University of Sydney are examining the possibility of “enlarging and brightening” the clouds around the the Great Barrier Reef in order to save it from bleaching, by cooling the water below it, the Telegraph reports. Cloud brightening was first proposed as a way to address global warming by British physicist John Latham almost 30 years ago. Daniel Harrison, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney, said that early evidence suggests that it is a “plausible” solution to the problem of mass bleaching that is occurring with growing intensity across the reef. “If we can make just a little bit less heat over the reef for a few months during say an El Nino year, when it’s at most risk of getting bleached, we should be able to cool the water a degree or two, which is enough to prevent most of the damage,” he said.

The Arctic is experiencing a profound shift to a new state as it breaks temperature records and ice melts, with implications that will be felt around the globe, according to the latest update to the Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic survey. It compiles the collective knowledge gained from many types of studies in recent years, and was produced by more than 90 scientists. The new survey shows that sea levels may rise an additional foot on top of previous efforts if nothing is done to curb carbon emissions. Climate Denial Crock of the Week also has the story.

A major new report released yesterday by the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) argues that “by focusing on delivering clean power and electrification, governments, investors, and businesses can grow economies around the world while remaining on a pathway for limiting temperature increases to 2C”, BusinessGreen writes. “What has happened over the last seven or eight years is that the price of wind, solar and batteries has come down far faster than most people had dared hope, and that is great news”, said Lord Adair Turner, who chairs the ETC, meaning that it is now both technically and economically possible for the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2040. Energy Live News also has the story.

Almost half of the largest US companies have set clean energy targets for themselves, according to a new report from by WWF, Ceres, Calvert Research & Management and CDP. Many are finding that clean energy is cheaper as well as more sustainable, Bloomberg reports – about 190 Fortune 500 companies collectively reported about $3.7bn in annual savings. “We’re not talking about anecdotal information anymore…We’re talking about large, large savings”, said Marty Spitzer, a WWF senior director of climate and renewable energy.

The UK government’s plans to cap energy prices have won the backing of independent supplier Ovo Energy, the Times writes. Their chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick argues that the proposed regulated cap on expensive standard tariffs would impel the Big Six to become more efficient and “separate out well-run companies from badly run companies in a way competition just isn’t doing”. The plans have otherwise have faced a fierce backlash from major suppliers.

“Our obsession with cutting carbon emissions has had terrible consequences”, claims Times columnist Alice Thomson, citing air pollution exacerbated by a shift towards diesel, and expense for consumers. She describes the Climate Change Act as being “the root of many of these misguided policies”, and agrees with Nick Timothy, who is Theresa May’s joint chief of staff, who has described it as a “a monstrous act of national self-harm”. Carbon Brief has written an explainer on the Climate Change Act, whose economic benefits are likely to outweigh the costs of meeting it.

Richard Howard, head of energy and environment at Policy Exchange, a right-leaning think-tank, takes an in-depth look at the prospect of a cap on energy bills in the UK, which Theresa May has indicated will appear in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. “Our view is that implementing a relative price cap is significantly more attractive than an absolute price cap”, he writes. “It is consistent with the Prime Minister’s philosophy of intervening in dysfunctional markets, but does so in a way which preserves a competitive energy market.”

For the first time, three record hot years have now occurred in a row. The years 2014, 2015 and 2016 sequentially set new global heat records, explains a new study. The authors suggests that neither was this period preceded by a “slowdown period” nor does it, in itself, provide statistical evidence for an acceleration of global warming. Rather, the data are fully consistent with a steady global warming trend since the 1970s, superimposed with random, short-term natural fluctuations.