Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for a 40% cut in car emissions by 2030 with an interim target of 20% by 2025. The vote was carried 389 to 239. British Conservative MEPs voted against the 40% goal despite a government instruction, seen by the Guardian, that welcomed the proposal as being in line with UK policy. The target is more rigorous than the 30% cut proposed by the European Commission and the 20% requested by industry, the Reuters. The legislation will now be considered by EU ministers, ahead of negotiations between the Commission, Parliament and Council – known as the Trilogue – to finalise the new rules, notes BusinessGreen. Germany and a handful of eastern European countries back the 30% cut, while a block of more than half of the member states want a reduction of 40% or more. Documents seen by EurActiv suggest that the Austrian presidency of the EU is going to put 35% overall cuts on the table. Meanwhile, the Times, BBC, Guardian, iNews and Metro all report that UK prime minister Theresa May has confirmed the government will freeze fuel duty for the ninth year in a row.

France’s nuclear regulator says that EDF’s flagship European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) nuclear plant at Flamanville might need further work due to the faulty weldings that have already delayed the project. In July, EDF said there would be delays and cost overruns due to problems with weldings. While around 50 have been repaired, the regulator has suggested that another eight that may need additional work. The regulator was sharply critical about the way EDF has handled the problem, reports Reuters, warning that “the problems with the weldings show that EDF has failed to properly oversee certain activities on the Flamanville reactor construction site”. The Flamanville plant is one of three being built in Europe using next-generation EPR technology – the other two being the Olkiluoto project in Finland and the UK’s Hinkley Point. The Timesalso has the story. Meanwhile, Reuters also reports that France’s new long-term energy plan, expected this month, will “adopt a go-slow approach to reducing its reliance on nuclear energy, with a focus on cutting carbon emissions” – according to industry sources.

Commercial fishing will be banned across much of the Arctic under a new agreement signed yesterday in Greenland, closing down access to a vast area that is opening up as sea ice extent declines. The moratorium on Arctic fishing, signed by nine nations plus the EU, will safeguard an area about the size of the Mediterranean for at least the next 16 years. While no fishing currently takes place in the area, it is likely to become more attractive to commercial fleets in future years, as climate change causes fish stocks including cod and halibut to move further north as lower latitudes warm.

Several outlets report on the meeting in South Korea this week as officials work to finalise and approve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) special report on 1.5C. “I think many people would be happy if we were further along than we are,” Jonathan Lynn, the IPCC’s head of communications, tells the Washington Post. “But in all the approval sessions that I’ve seen, I’ve seen five of them now, that has always been the case. It sort of gets there in the end.” In comments obtained by E&ENews, the US and other countries took issue with 66 elements of the draft summary report prepared by scientists. For example, the US argue that the report focuses too much on sustainable development, which is “beyond the mandate given the authors of the report and beyond the mandate of the IPCC itself.” Matt McGrath of BBC News has an interview with Dutch scientist Dr Heleen de Coninck, one of the co-ordinating lead authors of the report. Both the summary and full report will be made publicly available on Monday, notes the Ecologist. And EurActiv says that EU environment ministers will refer to limiting global warming to 1.5C when they meet on 9 October, a day after the release of the 1.5C report. Meanwhile, analysis by PwC suggests that no single country in the world doing enough to cut carbon emissions in line with targets set out in the Paris Agreement, reports BusinessGreen, and BBC News reports that WWF Scotland has urged the Scottish government to up its ambition on climate change by committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

The first commercial flight to use jet fuel partly made from recycled industrial waste has landed at Gatwick. The Virgin Atlantic plane, travelling from Orlando to London, was powered by a new blend of normal jet fuel with 5% ethanol produced from waste gases. The biofuel, produced by start-up firm LanzaTech, is certified to make up as much as 50% of a plane’s total fuel supply, reports the Press Association. The company claims it could eventually supply about 20% of the aviation industry’s fuel, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by “at least 65%”. LanzaTech is aiming to open three UK plants by 2025, producing enough fuel to fly all Virgin Atlantic’s UK outbound flights in a 50/50 mix.

Conservative politicians have expressed fears about their party’s support for fracking amid suggestions the policy could cost them the next election. At a fringe event examining the Conservative case against fracking, MP for North East Derbyshire Lee Rowley said: “We cannot go from the level of objections that we have had with one well to hundreds of them and not expect a political impact”. Rowley told the Independent that “It could change the outcome of any election – local and national – the reality is that people don’t like fracking and are demonstrating their dislike of it through the planning system, and they may start demonstrating their dislike of it through the voting system”. At a separate event discussing the UK’s “clean growth revolution”, James Heappey, the Conservative MP for Wells, reiterated concerns about the government’s plan to fast-track fracking, saying: “I wonder if we should look again at fracking”.

Saudi Arabia’s oil output reached record levels as the kingdom moved to increase supply to compensate for the loss of Iranian oil due to US sanctions. Speaking at an energy conference in Moscow, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al Falih said oil output had reached 10.7m barrels a day, the joint highest level on record. The news follows an earlier exclusive in Reuters that Russia and Saudi Arabia struck a private deal last month to raise oil output and ease rising prices – and informed the US before a meeting in Algiers with other producers. In related news, Reuters also reports that Russia is setting records in gas pipeline exports despite US pressure on Europe to reduce imports.

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy and writer Mark Bailey mark the 60th anniversary of NASA by looking at how it has monitored the health of the planet over the past six decades. “Very early on, NASA uncovered two important truths,” they write: “First, that our planet was the only one in our solar system with an environment capable of supporting human life and, therefore, extraordinarily unique. And second, that Earth’s environment was fundamentally fragile”. But now “NASA now finds itself in the odd position of monitoring a developing planetary crisis that President Trump himself has dismissed,” they warn.

In a comment piece re-posted by Climate Home News, Todd Stern – former US Department of State special envoy for climate change and chief climate negotiator under President Barack Obama – warns of the risk of “backsliding toward the firewall” that separated developed and developing countries in the 1990s. The Paris Agreement “succeeded by changing the paradigm of climate diplomacy”, says Stern, “continuing to assure developing countries that their priorities for growth and development would be fully respected”. But as negotiators thrash out the technical details of the Paris Agreement, some countries want to put in place different requirements for developed and developing countries for reporting the information “needed to make their national [emissions] targets understandable”, writes Stern. “Establishing two separate sub-regimes for developed and developing countries…is no answer and would violate the letter and spirit of the Paris Agreement,” Stern says, and countries “will need to work together constructively to find solutions to problems like these if the upcoming climate conference in December is to succeed”.

Warmer springs as a result of climate change may not necessarily boost the growth of plants later in the year in northern ecosystems, research finds. Using a mix of satellite and field data, researchers studied plant cover across the northern hemisphere from 1982-2011. They find that that roughly 15% of the total study area of about 41m square kilometres exhibits negative effects to warming and that roughly 5% exhibits positive effects. The differences are likely to be driven by variation in seasonal rainfall, the researchers add.

A new research letter presents “mounting evidence” that seaweed – also known as macroalgae – plays a significant role in marine carbon storage. At present, the main sources of carbon stored in marine environments, which is known as “blue carbon”, come from seagrasses, saltmarshes and mangroves. However, “while much more work is needed, the available information suggests that macroalgae [also] play a significant role in marine organic carbon storage,” according to the research.