After the flurry of announcements and speeches by world leaders on day one at COP21 things settled down and got back to the hard business of the negotiations. Key to any deal is the legal status of each of its various component parts. The Guardian reports that the US president has made an “apparent compromise” by saying that the US now wants one major component of the deal – the periodic review of emissions reductions targets – to be legally binding. In China, Xinhua says that the talks have now entered the “stage of substantive negotiations”, It added: “The final draft was expected to be hammered out on Saturday. Based on that, ministers will make decisions on sensitive political issues.” Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Algerian co-chair responsible for producing the new negotiating text, told Climate Home that there will be “no surprises” in the new draft. However, the Financial Times sets out the five “biggest sticking points”, which include, “How soon should countries’ have to beef up their emissions reduction targets?” Meanwhile, writing in theHindu, Sujatha Byravan says that “India must resist the attempt by developed countries to dilute the concept of differentiated responsibilities”. Separately in the Guardian, Fiona Harvey reports of the “informal informals” – small ad hoc groups talking outside of official sessions, which “could be key to reaching Paris agreement”.

Prince Charles has expressed hope that politicians and businesses are starting to act on the need to protect forests. The Prince of Wales told a meeting at the Paris climate summit that attitudes were beginning to change, with forest protection initiatives being introduced. But he said too many companies still turned a blind eye to their commercial activities destroying forests. Nature says that forests were the theme of day two at COP21, noting that the Brazilian government announced recently that landowners cleared 5,831 square kilometres of forest in 2015, an increase of 16% over the previous year. “We have probably a new dynamic on deforestation,” says Brazilian environment minister Izabella Teixeira, “and we need to know what is happening.” BusinessGreen says corporates, such as Marks & Spencer, used the COP to sign a new pledge committing to prioritise the development of sustainable palm oil, beef, paper and other commodities, as “part of a major public-private partnership aimed at tackling deforestation”.

New research published by Oxfam shows that the richest 1% of the world’s population produces 175 times as much CO2 per person as the bottom 10%. The richest tenth of the world’s population produce half the CO2 emissions, while the poorest half generate just 10% of them, the report adds. “Rich, high emitters should be held accountable for their emissions, no matter where they live,” says Tim Gore, Oxfam’s head of food and climate policy. “But it’s easy to forget that rapidly developing economies are also home to the majority of the world’s very poorest people, and while they have to do their fair share, it is the rich countries that should still lead the way.”

Attempts to keep global warming under 2C will be “wildly off course if all planned coal fire plants are built”, reports the BBC. The Climate Action Tracker analysis says their construction would see emissions rise to be four times higher than is consistent with the 2C target by 2030. It adds that the building plans are in conflict with the carbon cutting agendas of countries such as India and China. “If all of them were to be built, they would emit 6.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2030,” said Dr Niklas Hohne, one of the research team. Phys.org and the Times also carries the story.

France plans to spend 2bn euros on renewable energy and other environmental projects in its former west African colonies and across Africa over the next five years, President Francois Hollande said at COP21 on Tuesday. One project, dubbed the “Great Green Wall”, was initially intended to create a barrier of trees reaching from the Sahel in west Africa to the Sahara in the east, but will now focus on creating pockets of trees to revive the soil.

According to a YouGov survey, British people are more likely than other Europeans to refuse to take a leadership role in any international agreement to tackle climate change. Of eight countries included in the poll, only Americans are more keen than Britons to see their government reject any agreement whatsoever – 16% compared to nine per cent. And according to a separate analysis of YouGov’s 73,000 “Profiles” completed online, 30% of British people are either fairly (21%) or very (9%) doubtful that man-made climate change even exists – despite the overwhelming scientific evidence. Asked what their greatest fears were relating to the possible effects of climate change, more Britons said they were concerned about the loss of wildlife “such as bees, insects, birds etc” (39 per cent) than short- and long-term impacts on humans.

Black, the former BBC environment correspondent, says that three numbers caught his eye on day one of COP21: “For clean energy, a doubling in governments’ R&D spend to $20bn, and further research billions from private investors such as Bill Gates through an new initiative called the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. And $500m from the World Bank and donor governments to create the Transformative Carbon Asset Facility, which will help developing countries implement schemes to incentivise emission cutting in areas such as transport and urban development. On the adaptation side, we saw $248m pledged from 11 donor nations to help the poorest countries prepare and adapt. And there’s a little more due on forests, too, we hear.”

The Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion and former party leader says that “when it comes to tackling climate change, as well as other global challenges, the UK’s membership of the EU means we’re at the top table”. She adds: “It’s difficult to see how we would effectively tackle air pollution from coal and cars, marine pollution, or climate change by going it alone.”

The Royal Society professor of earth sciences says that a planet designer “with a blank sheet” might decide that the best possible climate was a little warmer or colder than ours. But, he says, “change is what is difficult”: “In the past, when climate changed, species died out, evolved, or migrated to maintain a similar habitat or lifestyle, as did human populations. Now we are expecting a rather fast change, and there is no empty space for anything or anyone to migrate into.” He adds: “Some politicians are putting all their faith in one or two overconfident scientists who are sure we will experience the bottom end. This is simply wishful thinking, and risky.”

Hagel, the former US secretary of defence, says that the “military has defined climate change as a global threat multiplier that could exacerbate instigators of conflict such as resource disputes, ethnic tensions and economic discontent”. He adds: “Preparing for climate change is about risk—even if we do not understand every aspect of the scientific predictions, we know that the consequences of not acting may be significant.”

The climate sceptic columnist, normally found in the pages of the Sunday Telegraph rather than the daily, attempts to debunk “10 claims made by those gathered in Paris” and in doing so repeats claims he makes on a near weekly basis in his Sunday column.

Enhancing primary production has been suggested as a way to optimise carbon uptake and storage in marine ecosystems, lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. But a new study describes how alterations to food webs could interact with rising global temperatures and other environmental changes, and may actually produce the opposite of the desired effect.