A “radical breakthrough” in tackling climate change has been made after scientists found to a way to turn CO2 into rock, the Independent reports. Researchers pumped a CO2 and water mix 540m underground and into volcanic rock, at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant, where reactions with the minerals in the basalts convert the CO2 to a stable chalky solid. The project promises a cheaper and more secure way of burying CO2 from fossil fuel burning underground, where it cannot warm the planet. Lead author Dr Matter told the Guardian that the sole thing holding back CCS was the lack of action from politicians: “The engineering and technology of CCS is ready to be deployed. So why do we not see hundreds of these projects? There is no incentive to do it.” The BBC, Inside Climate News and the New York Times also cover the new research.

Air pollution has become a major contributor to stroke for the first time, with dirty air now responsible for almost one in three strokes, according to a worldwide study published in the journal Lancet Neurology. Microscopic particles, much of which are generated by diesel exhausts, have been shown to cause clotting, which can lead to a stroke. Elsewhere, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that air pollution, from sources including cars and heavy industry such as coal-fired power plants, has become a “terrifying” problem, set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths a year around the world in the next four decades, with the economic costs are likely to rise to $2.6tn, the Guardian reports. The Times also carries the story.

An international team of scientists has found that man-made climate change nearly doubled the likelihood of last month’s devastating French flooding, in a rapid, but not peer-reviewed, analysis. The World Weather Attribution team’s calculations found that global warming increased the chances for the Loire river basin flooding by 90% and the Seine river basin by 80%, compared to a world with no man-made climate change. Parts of France got three months of rain in just one month, much of it in just three days. Carbon Brief also covered the research.

Jobs lost as a result of the downturn in the UK oil and gas sector could top 120,000 by the end of this year, according to trade group Oil & Gas UK. It said that the industry would support about 330,000 UK jobs this year, down from 450,000 in 2014. The global price crash has taken a high toll on the ‘supermature’ North Sea basin which has some of the highest costs and lowest production levels in the world, the Telegraph reports, as companies like Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron have cut jobs and spending.

Global warming is having such a dramatic impact in the Arctic that it has created a “feedback mechanism”: as temperatures rise, melting ice is replaced by open water, which absorbs more sunlight. This phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, has been predicted, but now scientists have evidence that it is happening in Greenland, iNews reports. The researchers also found that rising temperatures are slowing the jet stream, further exacerbating the problem. The Washington Post also takes a look at the weird behaviour of a “loopy and wavy” jet stream, that seems to produce more stuck-in-place weather conditions.

Stocks in Danish energy group Dong Energy jumped 10% as the leader in offshore wind farms pulled off the world’s biggest stock market listing so far this year, the Financial Times reports. Once focused on oil exploration, it now has three-quarters of its capital tied up in offshore wind farms. “No doubt there is significant global investor interest in green energy,” said Henrik Poulsen, Dong’s chief executive. The Telegraph also has the story.

British sovereignty in respect of energy and climate change policy has been expanded by its EU membership, argues Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at UCL, in BusinessGreen. Outside the EU, “The UK will either exist in an energy isolation that is both more expensive and less secure than being part of the internal energy market, or it will be a second-tier member of that market, bound to accept the rules made by EU members but having no influence over how they are agreed”, Ekins writes. For example, new interconnectors would be lower priority and almost certainly more expensive, he says.

Atmospheric CO2 injected into volcanic rock as part of a pilot project in Iceland was almost completely mineralized – or converted to a solid – in less than two years, a new study shows. The paper describes the “CarbFix” project, in which CO2 was injected into wells at depths of 400-800m at a geothermal power plant. The researchers found 95% of the CO2 converted to carbonate rock within two years, reducing the risk of it leaking back out into the atmosphere. The paper concludes that the results “demonstrate that the safe long-term storage of anthropogenic CO2 emissions through mineralization can be far faster than previously postulated”.

In addition to achieving major decisions on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, the 2015 Paris Agreement also initiated a process to “establish a global goal on adaptation”. In this Policy Forum article, researchers discuss three key challenges around the development of a global adaptation framework within the UNFCCC: “defining a global goal, identifying tracking criteria, and anticipating political barriers”. A major underlying condition is that the framework must make sense from both a negotiation and a scientific perspective, the researchers note.