Loss of ice cover in the Arctic could result in more droughts in California, according to a new study published in Nature Communications by US federal researchers. The study by atmospheric scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory finds sea-ice loss in the Arctic could trigger atmospheric effects that drive precipitation away from California. Using complex new modelling, the study found this could diminish precipitation over California by as much as 15% within 20 to 30 years, reports the LA Times. “This has the potential to make a drought very similar to the one we had in 2012 to 2016,’ said Ivana Cvijanovic, an atmospheric scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The recent five-year drought cost California’s farmers billions of dollars in lost production, reports the Daily Mail.

Some 11 oil firms applied for stakes in exploration blocks off Norway in its 24th oil and gas licensing round, down from 26 companies that sought drilling permits in the previous round in 2015, the country’s energy authorities said on Tuesday. Companies seeking to gain new acreage for oil and gas exploration off Norway include Statoil, Aker BP, Lundin Petroleum, Shell, OMV and Centrica. Meanwhile, Statoil has finally given the go-ahead to a much-delayed but crucial oilfield in the Norwegian Arctic, reports the Financial Times. Russia also took a step closer to becoming the world’s largest exporter of shipped gas with the start of a £20bn project in the Arctic circle, the Telegraph reports.

The world’s largest asset managers have failed to back motions seeking greater climate change disclosure at America’s biggest utility groups, the Financial Times reports. Vanguard, BlackRock, BNYMellon and Invesco all voted against resolutions aimed at forcing the companies to report on how efforts to keep a global temperature rise to below 2C will affect them, according to campaign group Preventable Surprises.

An area of protected land larger than California could be at risk from fossil fuel development, as the Trump administration looks to ramp up drilling on federal lands, a new investigation by Unearthed has found. The report also reports new comments from Trump administration energy advisor, Vincent DeVito, saying the government is focusing on opening up more lands “than ever before” to energy development. Meanwhile former President Obama on Tuesday warned that the climate is “changing faster than our efforts to address it”, reports CBS News. Speaking at the North American Climate Summit in Chicago, Obama also said it is “difficult to defend” the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, reports the Hill.

The UK’s largest bioethanol producer has blamed government inaction on boosting the use of biofuels for transport for the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds to investors. Vivergo, owned by Associated British Foods, said it had been forced to shut down, though it will retain its 150 workers at its plant in Hull for the time being. Mark Chesworth, the firm’s chief executive, said the £350m facility was built to meet expected demand for biofuels in regular petrol and diesel but that in the absence of policies supporting biofuels, the market has not materialised. Carbon Brief wrote an in-depth piece on the challenge of using biofuels to cut transport emissions earlier this year.

Rail companies could cut their costs by millions of pounds a year by installing trackside solar panels to power electric trains, according to a new report from Imperial College London’s Energy Futures Lab and charity 10:10. Installing solar farms and batteries alongside lines also could provide the extra energy needed to power more carriages on busy routes that otherwise would require prohibitively expensive upgrades to electricity networks. The study found it would be commercially viable to meet 10% of the power required for traction on Britain’s electric railways by installing solar arrays without any subsidy.

An ad for BMW has been banned for falsely claiming that its i3 is a zero-emissions “clean car”. Advertising watchdog the ASA said: “Because cars which used petrol cannot be described as ‘zero emissions’ or as a ‘clean car’ and it was not clear from the ad that the claim was in relation to the electric battery model only, we concluded that the claims were misleading.” It added that consumers would understand the claim that the car “helps to give back to the environment” to mean that owning and driving the car had a net benefit on the environment over its full life cycle, which it ruled was misleading.

Thousands of animal species are at critical risk of going extinct due human activity including climate change, unsustainable farming and fishing methods, according to the latest “red list” released by non-profit the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN]. Craig Hilton-Taylor, who heads the group’s red list unit, said species were going extinct at a faster rate than at any time in human history.

Now is an interesting moment for Trump, who must now decide whether to stand up for his stance on climate change and the Paris agreement, write Michael Morell, deputy director and twice acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Benjamin Haas, a former intelligence officer in the Army. “Congress has now joined the critique of Trump’s views [on climate change] — at least indirectly — by passing legislation affirming its belief that climate change is a national security threat.” … “To continue disregarding the perils of climate change would be an affront to the professionals whose assessments strongly suggest that he should act otherwise. It would also eschew his presidential responsibility to prevent and confront national security threats in good faith.”

What Bitcoin’s creators might not have accounted for is how much of an energy suck the computer network behind bitcoin could one day become, writes Eric Holthaus for Grist. Digital financial transactions come with a real-world price: the tremendous growth of cryptocurrencies has created an exponential demand for computing power. “Simply put, bitcoin is slowing the effort to achieve a rapid transition away from fossil fuels,” he argues. “What’s more, this is just the beginning. Given its rapidly growing climate footprint, bitcoin is a malignant development, and it’s getting worse.”

“Despite its new post-Trump role as the world’s de facto climate leader, China’s overall agenda could scarcely be described as green,” writes Bill Laurance a professor at James Cook University in Australia, in The Conversation. While many observers of China’s escalating global program of foreign investment and infrastructure development are “crossing their fingers and hoping for the best” a close look reveals that China’s international agenda is “far more exploitative than many realise, especially for the global environment,” he argues.

Solar radiation management (SRM) refers to a group of technologies – all of which remain hypothetical – that aim to reflect more sunlight away from the Earth in an attempt to dampen climate change. As interest in SRM continues to grow, it could become necessary for the world to quickly develop a plan for global governance of any such technologies, a new report says. The research outlines four key governance objectives and proposes three specific policy interventions for the near-term governance of SRM technologies. The researchers say: “We build from existing literature to argue that SRM governance must simultaneously: guard against the risks of uncontrolled SRM development; enable potentially valuable research; build legitimacy for research and any future policy through broad public engagement and ensure that SRM is only considered as one part of a broader mitigation agenda.”