In an interview with the FT, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has warned that the Paris climate change deal is “definitively not going to be a treaty”. He said it would contain measures that would drive a “significant amount of investment” towards a low-carbon global economy. But he stressed there were “not going to be legally binding reduction targets like Kyoto”, a reference to the 1997 Kyoto protocol, a UN climate treaty that had targets for cutting emissions that countries ratifying it were legally obliged to meet. The FT explains: “Privately, EU officials acknowledge the Obama administration is eager for a deal in Paris, but not one containing new, legally binding measures because these would strengthen arguments that the agreement needs approval from a hostile US Senate, which must ratify all treaties. To that end, negotiators are trying to craft an agreement that satisfies all sides, possibly by making its rules and procedures legally binding, but not the actual targets in many of the climate pledges that nearly 160 countries have made this year for the deal.” Meanwhile, Associated Press has interviewed Al Gore, the former US vice-president, who says he’s “optimistic” about the Paris deal: “In 35 minutes, Gore – portrayed by critics as a preacher of doom and gloom – uses versions of the words ‘optimistic’ or ‘hopeful’ or ‘positive’ at least 16 times.” Gore says: “There really is a wave in corporate America moving rapidly toward a low carbon economy.” Separately, Climate Home and Reuters both report on the how experts say the “deal must unlock private funding for forests”. Climate Home also reports on the news that “Climate vulnerable governments urge all countries to make tough CO2 cuts”. And Climate Central says that the “Paris pact may hinge on the ‘Loss and Damage’ dispute”.

Twelve and a half thousand new homes and businesses face being swept into the sea because builders are ignoring planning guidance not to locate them in vulnerable coastal areas in favour of sea views, The National Trust has warned. The conservation charity said it could no longer “hold the line” and prevent rising sea levels destroying properties and parts of England’s coast. TheTimes says the trust’s new report “condemns coastal local authorities that continue to allow homes to be built in areas at risk from a rise in the sea level of up to a metre predicted by scientists by 2100 because of climate change”. The BBC also has the story.

The government gives the fossil-fuel industry nearly £6bn a year in subsidies, almost twice the financial support it provides to renewable-energy providers, according to new research. A study by the Overseas Development Institute think-tank challenges the popular conception that green energy such as wind and solar power requires disproportionate taxpayer support. Britain gave an average of £5.9bn worth of subsidies a year to fossil-fuel firms such as BP and Shell in 2013 and 2014, most of it in the form of tax breaks to help boost declining North Sea production, according to the institute. Reuters reports the ODI’s wider findings that the “G20 spends four times more on fossil fuel output than on renewables”: “The G20 spent an average $78bn on national subsidies delivered through direct spending and tax breaks in 2013 and 2014…A further $286bn was invested in fossil fuel production by G20 state-owned enterprises. Related public finance was estimated to average a further $88bn a year.” EnergyDesk also carries the story.

Coal isn’t going anywhere, according to the chief executive of the World Coal Association (WCA), who said “sensible” investors should keep their money in the fossil fuel and avoid “political” moves to divest. He told the Guardian that the energy world’s centre has moved to Asia, where coal will be burned for many more decades as developing nations seek an “affordable, reliable and accessible fuel”. He added: “There is an assumption we can get rid of coal and that is how we can solve the climate problem. But coal plays a critical role in the world’s energy mix and is going to for a very long time to come. All sources of energy will increase, but coal isn’t going anywhere.” Separately, the Guardian reports that the proposed Carmichael coal mine in Australia “will create annual emissions similar to those from countries like Malaysia and Austria and more than New York City”.

The UK’s plans for closer power and gas links with continental Europe would get a boost under a new list of priority projects to be published next week, as part of a drive for a single European Union market for energy supplies. The list of Projects of Common Interest, seen by Reuters, includes a first grid link between Belgium and Britain, being built by British power grid operator National Grid and Belgium’s Elia, as well as power and gas links between Ireland and Britain.

Ahead of Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK today, the Guardian reports that experts have said that “India’s growth in emissions could tip the world over the threshold to dangerous climate change”. The paper cites a new study from the London School of Economics. “If India’s plans to burn coal go ahead, it will make it hard for us to make the two degree target,” said Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham institute on climate change and the environment, at LSE. “The chances are growth will be lower, but it’s hard to imagine we’ll get down to a pattern consistent with two degrees.”

Friends of the Earth will officially warn the government it risks legal action unless a “credible plan” is urgently introduced to ensure the UK meets it 2020 renewable energy targets. The environmental campaign group said it plans to write a “formal legal letter” to the government outlining its concerns, following revelations senior ministers expect the UK to miss its legally binding target to source 15 per cent of its energy needs from renewables by 2020. EnergyLiveNews also carries the story. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, has said that the Treasury is endangering community renewables.

Energy companies E.ON and SSE have given their support to the National Grid, after it pledged to secure sufficient power supply to avoid blackouts over what some forecasters predict will be one of the most severe winters ever recorded, reports the business pages of the Guardian. A spokesperson for SSE said: “Security of supply is a matter for the government and National Grid – they have a range of tools at their disposal and as we saw last week they’ve worked. SSE plays its part by keeping its plant in good working order so they are ready when grid need them – and we let them know in good time when they are under maintenance. In addition we’ve recently brought back our Keadby gas-fired plant in Lincolnshire and we’re increasing the flexibility and capacity of Peterhead Power Station in the north of Scotland.”

In a speech to the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has issued a call for conservative leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to play a leading role in global efforts to tackle climate change, arguing action to curb carbon emissions is completely in line with conservative values, even if it is impossible to be 100% certain about the scale of environmental threats such as climate change.

The former executive secretary of the UNFCCC says that Paris should have three core elements to achieve a successful agreement: “The first is to agree on a process to review the adequacy of commitments and their implementation…The second is to reach a compromise deal on finance…The third is to regularly review the process itself to think about how the international community can deliver on implementation.”

No one who works in the renewable energy sector will be in the least bit shocked by the revelation this week that the government admits the UK is set to miss its legally-binding target to secure 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020, writes Murray. “Disappointed, yes. Angry, perhaps. But shocked, not so much. The reality is that [industry groups] have been privately and publicly warning the target was at risk, primarily as a result of the difficulties of delivering renewable heat and transport technologies…It smacks of a high risk and costly strategy that will see significant economic opportunities forgone.”

The author of Mermaids in Paradise argues that the US president should heed the call of “more than 400 groups and scientists” and “use his authority to keep federal fossil fuels in the ground”. She adds: “No one in the ‘Keep It in the Ground’ movement was suggesting the immediate cessation of fossil fuel extraction — merely an end to new leases on federal public lands. Existing leases, stretching decades into the future in some cases, already cover some 67m acres of public land and ocean — 55 times bigger than Grand Canyon National Park — whose fuels contain the potential for up to the equivalent of 43bn tons of carbon dioxide pollution.”

A new Nature study examines how sensitive different marine species around the world are to climate change, based on how much above or below their local environmental temperature they can survive – known as their thermal niche. The authors combine this knowledge with scientists’ projections for ocean warming to predict species loss from different habitats over the coming century. Carbon Brief highlights one of the main maps from the research.

A major new study reviews current scientific knowledge on tropical cyclones and climate change, concluding that most models predict a decrease in the global frequency but an increase in the intensity. Coupled with high sea levels, storm surges and heavy rainfall, this poses a risk to heavily populated coastal cities and deltas. The paper also explains how a lack of good data in the past has hampered detention of long term trends, despite a better understanding of the underlying theory.

Melting snow provides communities with a vital water source but while a number of studies point to climate change as a possible disruption to this supply, the specific areas most at risk haven’t been identified, according to new research. Notwithstanding some uncertainty in their projections, the authors report that 68 basins in the northern hemisphere, covering a population of more than 300 million people, will see a shift from sufficient rainfall runoff to insufficient in the coming century.

The journal WIRES Climate Change has a comprehensive review of all the factors that shape peoples’ perception of climate change – an update to a similar study five years ago. The authors examine the effect of, among other things, personal experience of extreme weather, local warming or cooling, the language used to describe the phenomenon, gender, age, nationality and political leaning.