Since 2000, drier conditions have limited the amount of
carbon dioxide absorbed by the Amazon rainforest, a new study
shows. Rainfall has decreased by up to 25 percent across a vast
swath of the southeastern Amazon over the last 14 years, according
to the new satellite analysis. Dry years can lead to huge carbon
losses, Climate Central reports. During a severe drought in 2005 –
an El Niño year – the Amazon lost an estimated 1.6 gigatonnes of
carbon, slightly less than Russia’s annual carbon dioxide
emissions, it says.

The first bits of coverage of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) meeting to finalise its synthesis report
emerged yesterday. Reuters says the report will say climate change
will have “serious, pervasive and irreversible” impacts on human
society and nature. Climate Progressrounds up what
countries want the report to contain – mainly for it to be written
in plain English, with an emphasis on the impacts of climate
change. The IPCC’s chair said this latest instalment of the its
major climate research review completes the “roadmap” for a new
global deal, due to be agreed next year, RTCC reports. He also urged negotiators
to remain hopeful of such a deal, despite scientists warning that
time is running out, AP reports.

The Australian Academy of Science says the government’s plan
to protect the Great Barrier Reef is “inadequate”. Although a
recent government assessment found climate change is the leading
threat to a declining reef, the Australian Academy of Science
states there is “no adequate recognition” in the 2050 plan of the
importance of curbing greenhouse gases. The academy says the
government needs to recognise it cannot protect the reef in the
long-term without cutting its carbon dioxide emissions.

Energy and climate secretary Ed Davey has called the EU’s new
2030 policy framework “probably the most significant environmental
agreement that a British government has ever been involved in.” A
Polish official tells the Guardian that “good working relations”
between Britain and Poland were key to sealing the deal. The deal
has been criticised for conceding too much to Poland. But Davey
maintains it represents a significant step on the road to a new
global climate deal. Meanwhile, the prime minister says the
decision to avoid binding “diktats” to increase national renewable
energy generation will prevent costs “piling up”, BusinessGreen reports.

Renewable energy has grown 19 per cent a year in developing
countries over the past six years, a new study has found.
Renewables grew 13 per cent in OECD countries over the same period,
it shows. From China to Belize, the study shows 55 countries added
142 gigawatts of new renewable energy generating capacity – more
than the total current capacity of France – between 2008 and 2013.

A nuclear plant in Satsumasendai in Japan is set to be
restarted, three years after the disaster at Fukushima sparked a
nationwide shutdown. Japan has been forced to import expensive
fuels such as liquefied natural gas to fill the gap left by its
nuclear capacity, which previously supplied 30 per cent of the
country’s power. The plant is likely to come online some time next
year. Over at the Energy Collective, energy policy
commentator Robert Wilson looks at the risks of nuclear power.

An opinion piece in the New York Times argued that climate
policies that involved planting trees were “high risk” and a bad
investment. A University of Washington scientist says this isn’t
the case. While we can’t “plant our way out of the problem”,
maintaining healthy forests can “keep carbon out of the atmosphere,
keep the land surface cool, and play a critical role in providing
habitat, maintaining biodiversity, and other good stuff for
people”, she argues.

The shale revolution has resulted in a stark contrast between
those states that produce more energy than they use, and those that
are net consumers. 37 states used more energy than they produced in
2010, the latest data available, relying on some combination of
interstate commerce or imports to meet the shortfall, Reuters
reports. The major producers – perhaps unsurprisingly – generally
have healthier economies, the data shows.

“Climate sceptics often claim that recent icy winters show
that global warming is not happening. New research suggests the
opposite is true”, says the teaser to Geoffrey Lean’s latest
Telegraph column. Scientists say melting Arctic ice affects the jet
stream, which in turn holds weather patterns in place for longer,
increasing the chance of longer cold winters. Lean talks to a range
of scientists that say that despite its counter-intuitiveness, cold
winters are evidence global warming is happening. We covered the
study, here.

Communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles has
just halted his 50th wind project. His actions are just one example
of a Conservative politician making a political football out of
wind, says Polly Toynbee. The party will pledge to remove subsidies
to wind in its election manifesto, she says, as a sop to UKIP and
the climate skeptic elements of the party. Yesterday, right-leaning
thinktank the Adam Smith Institute released a report claiming
windfarms could never be relied onto provide the
UK with power.

Low oil prices lessen rogue states’ political influence and
lower consumer bills, right? Maybe, says a University of Washington
professor, but it also has a downside. Depressed oil prices can
lower investment in innovation, and catalyse political instability
in already tense parts of the world, he argues.Gristsays it has another negative:
more petrol is burned, which is bad for the climate.

A new study updates estimates for current and future natural
and human-caused emissions of nitrous oxide, the third most
important greenhouse gas. The largest human sources are agriculture
(66 per cent), energy and transport (15 per cent) and biomass
burning (11 per cent). Business-as-usual scenarios suggest nitrous
oxide emissions could double by 2050.

A new £97 million supercomputer will cement the UK’s position
as a world leader in weather and climate prediction, says the Met
Office. The supercomputer will enable hourly forecast updates and
provide very high detail weather information for precise
geographical areas. The world-leading High Performance Computer
(HPC) will help the UK to predict disruptive weather events such as
flooding, strong winds, fog and heavy snowfall more effectively.