New York is suing the oil and gas firm Exxon Mobil, claiming that the company defrauded shareholders by downplaying the risks posed by climate change, according to the New York Times and other publications. The move, which follows three years of investigation, is the “most significant legal effort yet to establish that a fossil fuel company misled the public on climate change”, the New York Times says. The suit does not charge Exxon with playing a role in causing climate change, however, the newspaper notes. The lawsuit accuses ExxonMobil of telling investors that it was using theoretical prices for carbon in evaluating projects, ranging from $20 to $80 a ton depending on the country, when in fact it often used a lower price or no price at all, according to the Washington Post. The lawsuit also alleges that Exxon Mobil’s senior management was aware of these activities, says Nature News. BBC News reports that a spokesperson for Exxon responded to the claims saying the firm “looks forward to refuting these claims as soon as possible and getting this meritless civil lawsuit dismissed”. The complaint was filed in the New York Supreme Court by Attorney General Barbara Underwood, BBC News says. The Daily Telegraphadds that the lawsuit calls on court to prohibit ExxonMobil from any further misleading behaviour, in addition to paying out financial damages. Reuters and the Financial Times also have the story.

The Guardian reports that an island in Hawaii has been “washed away” by a powerful hurricane. East Island, a remote spit of gravel and sand that sat atop a coral reef, has vanished after being hit by Hurricane Walaka, an intense storm which stuck earlier this month. Scientists confirmed the island’s disappearance after comparing satellite images of the surrounding French Frigate Shoals, part of a large protected marine area in the north-western Hawaiian Islands, according to the Guardian. MailOnline also has the story. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that a category 5 typhoon has caused devastation in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Several publications cover a new report from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which assesses the need for “negative emissions technologies” – methods that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The New York Times reports that the panel urged the federal government to begin a research programme focused on developing such technologies. The move marks an “important shift”, the New York Times says. “For decades, experts said that nations could prevent large temperature increases mainly by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and moving to cleaner sources like solar, wind and nuclear power.” BBC News reports that several of the technologies are “ready to be deployed, on a large scale, right now”. These include boosting coastal stores of carbon, planting more trees and managing carbon storage in agriculture. MailOnline leads with the report’s recommendation to boost research into direct air capture, with the headline: “Giant fans that suck up greenhouse gases from the air must become commonplace across the US to fight climate change, report says.” NBC News and Vox also have the story.

The Financial Times reports that the US has given “a stark warning” to the UK about teaming up with China’s largest state-backed nuclear company on a range of new projects. Christopher Ashley Ford, the US assistant secretary for international security and non-proliferation, said there is evidence that the Chinese firm is “engaged in taking civilian nuclear technology and transferring it to military uses”. The firm, Chinese General Nuclear (CGN) is a partner on the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear project, among others, the FT reports.

The Trump administration has approved Hilcorp Energy’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, reports the Washington Post. This would be the first time oil is produced from federal waters in the Arctic. The Hill says the so-called “Alaska Liberty” project would not use a traditional mobile drilling rig like the ones common in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore drilling areas: “It would instead involve building a new nine-acre gravel artificial island about five miles off the coast to host the drilling. Four other oil and gas producing islands are nearby in waters that the state controls.”

“Like forensic detectives, climate scientists have developed a new array of tools in recent decades designed to skillfully calculate what the fingerprints of these [climatic] changes look like, and more important, how they differ from one another.,” says Dr Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “When this is all put together, the conclusions are inescapable: Without human activities the planet would not have warmed over the past century.”

“Countries that may not be thought of as climate leaders are emerging at the front-lines on responding to climate change,” writes John Abraham. “One great example is Iran. I have the fortune of performing water-use research with a number of scientists in Iran. And I can assure you they are thinking about, planning, and taking action to reduce the impacts of climate change and ecological destruction.”

Trees may be prevented in changing their range in response to climate change due to “local adaptation”, research finds. Local adaptation is a process by which species evolve adaptations that are beneficial in their local environment. “In trees, local adaptation can slow range expansion when climate change happens much faster than their ability to migrate,” the researchers say.