A Greenpeace advert opposing fracking has been banned by theAdvertising Standards Agency (ASA) for claiming experts agreed thatthe process would not cut energy bills. The national press ad hadsaid: “Fracking threatens our climate, our countryside and ourwater. Yet experts agree – it won’t cut our energy bills.” Thepro-fracking Labour peer Lord Lipsey brought the complaint,reported the Mail. Greenpeace produced quotes from 22energy experts, including academics, to support its case that billswill not fall. It also cited comment made by Ed Davey in aninterview with Carbon Briefin March that claimsby Tories that fracking would massively reduce prices and transformthe economy were ‘ridiculous’. But, reported the Guardian, the ASA ruled that such viewswere not “universally accepted” because, in part, David Cameronbelieved otherwise. The Telegraphalso carries the story.

A study by the Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) of five of thelargest pure-play US exploration and production shale oil and gascompanies finds that should oil prices fall much lower, manycompanies may need to restructure their debt or credit. This willbe compounded because companies’ hedging positions “decline orexpire altogether in 2016”, CTI says.

China will expand its bans on coal burning to includesuburban areas as well as city centers in efforts to tackle airpollution, says the National Energy Administration. Detailing itsclean coal action plan 2015-2020, the NEA said it would promotecentralised heating and power supply by natural gas and renewables,replacing low quality coal.

The European Union has agreed a deal to start reforming theEU Emissions Trading System from January 2019. The outline legaltext paves the way forward for the so-called Market StabilityReserve, which would take away some of the glut of permits that hasdepressed prices on the world’s biggest carbon market.

A popular scientific instrument used to measure methane leaksfrom oil and gas operations severely underestimates emissions undercertain conditions, a preliminary study found. The results couldhave major implications for federal policies as the Obamaadministration moves to regulate methane from the natural gasindustry.

There was less ice in the Arctic this winter than in anyother winter during the satellite era, scientists at the USNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Tuesday.The announcement was consistent with previous predictions that theArctic would have entirely ice-free summers by 2040, they said in abriefing to the media on the state of climate trends in the northpole.

Two influential investment industry figures – David Blood,former head of asset management at Goldman Sachs, and HowardCovington, onetime chief executive of New Star Asset Management -are separately touring the City of London challenging fund managersand pension trustees to adopt radical new approaches to investmentsin some of the world’s largest fossil fuel extractors.

Scientists have found a 200-year lag time between pastclimate events at the poles. The most detailed Antarctic ice coreprovides the first clear comparison with Greenland records,revealing a link between northern and southern hemisphere climatechange. Scientists writing in Nature found that abrupt and largetemperature changes first occurred in Greenland, with the effectdelayed about 200 years in the Antarctic. It is the first timeresearchers have been able to pin down the timing of these eventsduring the last Ice Age.

Dawkins, who once travelled to the Arctic ice sheet with MarcCornelissen and Philip de Roo, two missing climate scientists,remembers her time working with them. The two men were on aresearch expedition to collect ice samples, but have not been heardfrom since last week and are now presumed drowned.

The environmental community in Britain is vast, notes Burke.It has 4.5 million members, 13% of the population. But it hasconsistently punched below its weight. “It is now time for us toask a different question. What can the environment do forBritain?…We need to be talking about making savings safe from achanging climate. Our economy will grow and become more competitiveif it is resource-efficient and low carbon.”

Should campaigners be publishing in more local languages, orpushing for climate change to be taught at school? A panel ofcampaigners share their suggestions for the best ways to promotepositive action.

Using satellite data, a digital elevation model and GoogleEarth imagery, a group of researchers has developed a new glacierinventory of Asian mountains. The inventory includes a total of87,084 glaciers, covering more than 90,000 square kilometres – avaluable tool the researchers hope will provide new opportunitiesto study Asian glaciers in future.

Previous studies have linked the fall of the Mayancivilisation with climate change, but there have beeninconsistencies between the paleoclimate and archaeological data.Now a new analysis suggests a series of droughts between 800 to950CE were most severe in areas that saw the strongest societalcollapse.