The past 20 years account for half of the increase in ocean heat content that has occurred since pre-industrial times, a new study has found. “Ninety, perhaps 95 percent of the accumulated heat is in the oceans,” Peter Gleckler, the lead author of the study, told the Washington Post. Since 1997, oceans have absorbed man-made heat energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded every second for 75 years, the Daily Mail reports. This big increase in the uptake of heat into the oceans concides with an apparent pause in surface warming. Most of the added heat has been trapped in the upper 2,300 feet, but with every year the deeper oceans also are absorbing more energy. “Knowing how much the ocean is warming and how fast and where are all important for knowing how much the atmosphere is going to warm and how much seas are going to rise,” NOAA scientist Gregory C. Johnson told Climate Central. The Times also has the story.

Iran announced its full return to the global oil market – after the lifting of US and EU sanctions – by ordering an immediate increase in production, the Financial Times reports. The head of Iran’s national oil company gave the instruction to increase output by about 500,000 barrels a day. Fellow Opec members warned that Iran risks prolonging the oil price crash, as the price of brent crude fell below $28 a barrel for the first time since 2003. The BBC and Reuters also have the story, while the Independent runs through the winners and losers from the oil price crash.

A windy year helped Denmark produced 42% of its electricity from wind turbines in 2015 according to official data, the highest figure yet recorded worldwide. If two large onshore windfarms at Anholt and Horns Rev 2 had not been out of action, wind would have made up 43.5% of total power, Energinet said. Denmark wants half of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, the Independent says.

Opec was on the verge of claiming victory over its rivals last night after its strategy of squeezing the shale industry by flooding the markets with oil appeared to be vindicated, the Times reports. The oil producer’s organisation said that falling prices would force lower production from its rivals by the end of this year, with North American producers particularly affected. The Daily Telegraphalso carries the story.

The Scottish Government is planning to reduce the funding on policies that help tackle climate change for 2016/17 by around 10% to £456.2 million, WWF analysis has revealed. It could also reduce funding for fuel poverty and energy efficiency by 13% compared to last year. Scottish Environment Minister Aileen McLeod said the budgets have been impacted by the UK Government’s energy policies.

President Obama’s plan to safeguard the nation from increasing flood risk due to climate change was quietly green-lighted by Congress last month. It marks one of the only actions Congress took on global warming in all of 2015. Flooding accounts for approximately 85% of all disaster declarations in the US.

Progress on decarbonising the economy is inevitable said the UN’s top climate official Christiana Figueres, in an interview at a clean energy summit in Dubai. Middle Eastern governments are accepting that fossil fuels’ days are numbered as leaders in the heartlands of hydrocarbons saw a clear business case to invest in cleaner energy. “They understand there is a shift – it has to be gradual but it is unstoppable,” she said.

In the wake of the December’s unprecedented weather we should reflect and wake up to the broader truth, writes Michael McCarthy, the Independent’s environment editor. The evidence that we are entering a new climatic age is in front of us, he says, and no longer just based on computer predictions.

How should we design climate policy under the risk of multiple ‘tipping points’ in the climate system, where there’s a risk the occurrence of one could increase the odds of another? A new study says accounting for the presence of such a ‘domino effect’ nearly doubles today’s optimal carbon tax and increases the cost of delaying optimal policy until mid-century by nearly 150%.

A new study investigates the benefit of stabilising emissions at a low level for how often different parts of the world experience extreme heat. If emissions stay very high, extreme high temperatures that currently occur about every 20 years will become the norm each year by the end of the century for more than half the land area, compared to between 10 and 25% under RCP4.5.