Energy taxes in developed economies are not sufficient to reduce energy use, improve energy efficiency and drive a shift towards low-carbon sources, according to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The study examined taxes on energy use between 2012 and 2015 in 42 OECD and G20 economies, which represent around 80% of global energy use and carbon emissions from energy use. The OECD found that almost all taxes are too low to help combat global warming, compared to a benchmark level of 30 euros per tonne of CO2. ““A bird’s eye view of effective taxes per tonne of CO2 across all countries reveals that there is hardly any change in the tax rates on emissions outside the road transport sector”, the report concludes. “Energy taxes are failing to attain their potential contribution to reaching economic, social and environmental policy goals,” said Angel Gurria, the OECD’s secretary general. Coal, which accounts for almost half of carbon emissions in the 42 countries, goes untaxed in many countries, Reuters reports.City AM also has the story.

A tanker has made the crossing of the Arctic during the winter without an icebreaker for the first time, as global warming causes the region’s ice sheets to thin. The ship, carrying a cargo of liquefied natural gas made its way from South Korea to the Sabetta terminal in northern Russia in December, and from there sailed on to France. The Independent describes the record as a “significant moment in the story of climate change in the Arctic”. Shipping companies have been investing in ships that are able to break through thinning polar ice, as the northern sea route is considerably shorter for many trade links between Europe and Asia.

The world’s largest banks are failing to take climate change seriously, City AM reports, according to new research by Boston Common Asset Management. The research surveyed 59 international banks, and found that only half have done a scenario analysis for if the world warms by more than 2C, as requested by Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England. Just 46% of the banks have set explicit targets to promote environmentally friendly schemes. And more than three in five banks have not restricted their financing of coal. Lauren Compere, managing director at Boston Common Asset Management commented: “Investors want to see much wider implementation by banks of climate risk assessments or climate scenario analysis if they are to align their businesses with the Paris Agreement.” Bloomberg has also analysed the findings.

US President Donald Trump has endorsed raising the government’s gasoline (petrol) tax by 25 cents a gallon, in a meeting with lawmakers yesterday. Democratic Senator Tom Carper, who attended the meeting, said in a statement: “To my surprise, President Trump, today in our meeting, offered his support for raising the gas and diesel tax by 25 cents a gallon and dedicating that money to improve our roads, highways, and bridges”. The White House did not confirm that Trump has backed the tax hike, but an official commented: “The gas tax has its pros and cons, and that’s why the president is leading a thoughtful discussion on the right way to solve our nation’s infrastructure problems”.

A combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing is threatening the krill population in Antarctic waters, a new study warns. This could have a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators: the penguin population could drop by almost a third by the end of the century due to changes in krill biomass. Published in the journal Plos One, the report predicts that climate change could reduce krill size by up to 40% in some areas of Antarctica’s Scotia Sea, causing a drastic reduction in predator numbers.

Even if humans manage to meet the temperature target set forth in the Paris climate change agreement, record-breaking weather events will become increasingly common around the world, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances. The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to 2C, but the actual national pledges to cut emissions would probably lead to 3C of warming, the LA Times reports. In this case the plant would see “substantial and widespread increases in the probability of historically unprecedented extreme events”, the affects of which will be seen “across human and natural systems, including both wealthy and poor communities”, the researchers write.

Scientists at Dartmouth College have provided an explanation as to why the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States are not conforming to climate change patterns, the Mail Online. The researchers found that a jet stream is causing a ‘warming hole’, which causes lower than average temperatures, depending on the season. The research explains: “Overwhelming scientific evidence has demonstrated that our planet is getting warmer due to climate change, yet parts of the eastern US are actually getting cooler…During the winter and spring, the US warming hole sits over the Southeast, as the polar vortex allows arctic air to plunge into the region. This has resulted in persistently cooler temperatures throughout the Southeast.” The report continues: “After spring, the US warming hole moves north and is located in the Midwest.”

A draft United Nations report on the 1.5C warming limit, expected to be finalised in October, was published by the website Climate Home on Tuesday. The report suggests that the world will likely cross the threshold of 1.5C of warming in the 2040s, and that “this will be exceedingly difficult to avoid”, the Washington Post reports. Global temperature could cool again if CO2 is somehow removed from the air later this century – but this would be difficult to achieve at the vast scales required, the report warns. Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C is “crucial to small island nations worried about rising seas, and other nations particularly vulnerable to warming”, the Post adds. News coverage of the story also continues in the Hill.

Speaking at an event held yesterday in London, Prince Charles appears to have made a dig at US President Donald Trump. The Prince of Wales was discussing the urgent need to unite in order to protect the world’s coral reefs against the combined threats of climate change, pollution, overfishing and plastic, and commented that ‘apart from one or two outposts’ the world is trying to prevent climate change. Donald Trump has previously described global warming as a ‘hoax’. The Times and the Sun also covered the story.

Andrew Freedman explains why the “zombie” question of what the planet’s “‘ideal temperature'” will be in the future, which gets asked “again and again”, isn’t the right question to focus on. He explains: “Climate scientists say that it’s not so much the exact global average surface temperature in 2100 that makes the most difference for whether certain species will survive global warming or if Miami will be inundated by rising seas. Instead, the rate of change is what is so important”. The feature also consults Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief’s US analyst, on the subject: “In the past, climate usually changed slowly over thousands of years; today we are on track to add warming equivalent to the difference between the middle of the last ice age and today during a single century. The rate of change can make adaptation difficult, particularly for the natural world”.

“With between 5 billion and 7 billion square metres of glass surface in the United States alone, solar windows would offer a great way to harness the Sun’s energy”, write two scientists from the University of New South Wales. The researchers, who have recently published research “showing how to make solar panels that still let through enough light to function as a window”, explain that there is a “trade-off between absorbing light to turn into electricity, and transmitting light so we can still see through the window”. Creating semitransparent solar cells that are able to depict colours accurately is also a challenge. “If science can solve these issues, the large-scale deployment of solar-powered windows could help to bolster the amount of electricity being produced by renewable technologies”, they conclude.

The journal Climatic Change has published a special issue on “Benefits of Reduced Anthropogenic Climate changE” (BRACE). Involving more than 50 scientists from 18 institutions, the BRACE project aims to further understanding of how impacts vary across levels of climate change by carrying out a consistent set of analyses. This special issue includes 20 papers covering physical impacts on the climate system, health, agriculture, and coastal regions (from tropical cyclones), and methodological issues related to climate model simulations.

The combination of commercial fishing and climate change means seabirds in the North Pacific are increasingly eating squid rather than fish, a new study suggests. Researchers analysed a dataset of North Pacific seabird tissues to obtain a metric of the diet of eight species of central North Pacific seabirds from 1891 to 2016. The results show that five of eight species are eating prey that is lower down the food chain (and none higher), which suggests “multiple species of fish-consuming seabirds may track the complex changes occurring in marine ecosystems”, the researchers conclude.

A new study compares likely increases in extreme weather events under current national commitments to reduce emissions in the Paris Agreement with those if global warming is kept below 2C. Emissions consistent with national commitments are likely to cause a more than fivefold increase in warmest nights over 50% of Europe and more than 25% of East Asia, and a more than threefold increase in wettest days for more than 35% of North America, Europe, and East Asia. Keeping warming to 2C largely reduces the area experiencing more than threefold increases in extremes to less than 10%, the study finds, but “large areas…still exhibit sizable increases in the probability of record-setting hot, wet, and/or dry events”.