In summing up the various environmental strands of yesterday’s budget, many papers focus on the chancellors support for the ailing North Sea oil and gas sector. The Independent says that George Osborne was accused of delivering a “climate-wrecking” budget after announcing plans to give the ageing industry £1bn of tax breaks – while promising just £730m to the fledgling renewable energy projects. The move was condemned by opponents to fossil fuels, says the paper. BBC News follows a similar theme, saying there was “anger” from green groups, adding there was a “mixed bag” of announcements on energy and climate, including “more support for a wealth fund for people living near shale gas sites; flood defence spending up £700m; freezing fuel duty; and tidying up a tangle of business taxes on energy – a measure welcomed by firms”. New Scientist also reports the dismay of climate campaigners, adding “on the plus side, the budget provides £50m for research into better energy storage technology”. The Guardian, Reuters, the Financial Times and Climate Home also lead their reports with the news of support for the oil and gas sector. Meanwhile, both the Times, FT and Independent report the announcement by the chancellor that spending on flood defences with increase by £700m over the next five years. Carbon Brief has summarised all the key budget announcements on energy and climate change.

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal mining company, has warned it may need to seek bankruptcy protection in the “starkest sign so far of the strain on the US coal sector after years of falling prices and intensifying competition”, reports the FT. Shares in the miner fell 46% on opening in the US after it said in a regulatory filing there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern. Peabody said it had not yet paid $71m of interest due on Tuesday on two of its bonds, triggering a 30-day grace period at the end of which the payments must be made to avoid default. The Guardian notes: “Collapsing demand has already led to three other major US coal producers, Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Patriot Coal, filing for bankruptcy protection in the last year. If Peabody Energy filed for so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next month it will be able to continue operating while it attempts to restructure its $6.3bn debts.” The Hill, Climate Home and Reuters also carry the story.

Following the Financial Times, which splashed with the story on its frontcover yesterday, a number of outlets report that the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that global CO2 emissions have failed to rise for a second consecutive year, even as the global economy has grown. Falling coal use in China and the US and a worldwide shift towards renewable energy have kept greenhouse gas emissions level for a second year running, notes the Guardian. “The figures mark the first period in 40 years that a halt or reduction was not tied to an economic downturn. The data does not account for pollution from transport or changes in land use,” says Climate Home. Carbon Pulse says that green groups welcomed the news, but warned against complacency.

Doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix to 36% by 2030 could save the world economy up to $4.2tn a year, research by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) showed on Wednesday. Renewable sources, such as wind and solar, accounted for around 18% of global energy consumption in 2014. Under existing national policies, the share of renewables is forecast to reach 21% by 2030. The report said the cost of doubling the renewable share by 2030 would be $290bn a year, but the annual net savings from reducing pollution and emissions on human health and agriculture would be between $1.2tn and $4.2tn. BusinessGreen also carries the news.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels this week will debate the Paris Agreement on climate change, a draft EU text showed, after officials previously said the migrant crisis had knocked it off the agenda. EU officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said European Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair the summit, had spent a week negotiating a compromise text that they believed the big member states would agree on. The text, seen by Reuters, “underlines the need for the European Union and its member states to be able to ratify the Paris Agreement as soon as possible”. It also says the EU is committed to a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions domestically by at least 40 percent by 2030, as agreed at political level in October 2014.

The Guardian’s head of environment offers a withering take on the budget: “Most fossil fuels must be kept in the ground if global warming is to be tamed, but Osborne renewed his zeal to squeeze every last drop out of the North Sea. The oil and gas industry’s pleading was rewarded with a £1bn tax break handout: it got the same in 2015 too. Overall, the Treasury looks likely to be paying the oil industry in the next five years, not the other way around, as crazy as that sounds. The UK is struggling to meet green targets, particularly in cutting emissions from transport. The answer, according to this budget, is to build more roads and freeze fuel duty as petrol prices plummet.” Carrington welcomes the extra spending on flood defences, “but finally realising this folly doesn’t really warrant huge praise.” He adds: “Energy efficiency programmes, which should always be the first choice in tackling energy and climate problems, are being cut 80% by Osborne.”

The editor of BusinessGreen is not impressed with Osborne’s budget: “In the wake of the Paris Summit and in a speech that promised to deliver for the next generation, this budget was one of those moments. Osborne could and should have offered clear and unequivocal support for the green economy that he will have to nurture and grow if he ever gets the top job. Instead, he muddied the water with a mix of green and dirty announcements. Again, the most depressing aspect of the whole affair is that anyone is surprised.”

Scientists have discovered an unexpected consequence of acidifying oceans – the suppression of sounds that marine organisms use to help orientate themselves, feed and escape prey. Researchers found that around ocean vents – naturally high in CO2 – and in lab experiments designed to mimic end of century ocean acidification, snapping shrimp made fewer snaps per minute and the noise became quieter. The “trend towards silence” could have pervasive consequences for marine ecosystems, say the authors.

A few decades of rapid economic growth in China have seen carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use grow dramatically. But new research suggests the country’s relative contribution to global climate change has remained surprisingly constant for the last 150 years – at around 10%. As well as rising CO2 emissions, China contributes a disproportionate amount to global aerosols, responsible for 28% of sulphate, 24% of nitrate and 14% of black carbon aerosols.