Last week diplomats completed the latest round of UN talks
on climate change, intended to whittle down a draft text into
something that could form the basis of a UN climate agreement this
December. After two weeks of negotiations the text now stands at 85
pages, but the final deal signed in Paris is expected to come in at
around 15 pages, so progress might seem minimal. But behind the
scenes, trust between parties is growing. Simon Evans and Sophie
Yeo report from Bonn.

Coal, currently the world’s leading source of electricity,
would take second place to renewables within 15 years if current
climate pledges are met according to a new International Energy
Agency report. Energy firms are making a “major fatal error” if
they assume they won’t be affected, IEA chief economist Fatih Birol
tells the Financial Times. He tells theGuardianthat the industry will
only change if governments show they are serious about tackling
climate change. Bloomberg reports the IEA’s finding that fossil
fuel subsidies are in places 16 times higher than carbon
prices. Reuterssays the IEA thinks the
world is off course against the 2C climate goal. RTCC, Carbon Pulseand Business Greenalso have the story.

Pope Francis will call on all people to be “stewards of
creation” on Thursday in what Reuters calls “the most feverishly
awaited papal encyclical in decades”. Mail Onlinesays the pope will call
for a “revolution of hearts and minds to stop climate change and
global inequality”. The Timessays he is “ready to
tackle climate change deniers. The New York Timessays he may find
wariness among some US bishops. In a second articlethe NYT says the
pope’s message will explore climate’s effect on the world’s
poor. The Telegraphsays the pope will
appeal to non-Catholics to heed his climate warning.
The Guardiancalls it an “explosive
intervention” that will “transform [the] climate change
debate”. Geoffrey Leanasks how green the
man in white really is.

Talks on phasing out export credit guarantees for coal have
ended in stalemate, Reuters reports. The 34-nation Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development has been trying to end the
support for coal for a year, it says, but Japan has led calls for
more time despite signing up to a G7 pledge on fossil fuel
subsidies last week. The G7 declaration was a “ray of sunshine”,
despite being partially symbolic, writes the FT’s Isabella Kaminska.

Protestors against BP sponsorship wrote messages in charcoal
on the floor of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on Saturday, reports the
Guardian. Last week the Royal Opera House saw activists unfurl a
banner and break into song at a performance of La bohème, reports
the Financial Times. It says the stunts are
part of what is expected to be a summer of disruption planned by
divestment activists.

China is expected to publish its official UN climate pledge
on Wednesday, reports RTCC. Chinese premier Li Keqiang repeated the
outlines of the pledge including a peak in emissions by 2030 or
before, in remarks published in his government’s website, RTCC
says. Reutersalso has the story. In
a comment piecefor the Guardian,
George Monbiot argues we should stop using China as an excuse to do
nothing on climate change.

The co-chairs of the UN climate talks insist significant
political advances were made last week in Bonn, reports Pilita
Clark. With just 10 more formal negotiating days before crunch
talks in Paris, others say debate must move beyond procedural
matters. Trust improved during two weeks in Bonn, reports Megan
Rowling for Thomson Reuters Foundation.
RTCCruns down the nine things we
learned at Bonn while ClimateWire’sLisa Friedman
explains five lingering questions hanging over the talks. The
Carbon Tracker Initiative’s Anthony Hobley asks what success at
Paris will look like in a comment for Business Green.

Norwegian scientists have seen polar bears eating dolphins
for the first time, reports AFP. They believe global warming may be
behind the change, with new species finding their way to the bears’
northern habitat earlier in the year. Two nearly ice-free winters
in the Norwegian Arctic could have attracted the dolphins north,
say the scientists.

Tackling the threat of catastrophic climate change “cannot
rely on wind and solar power alone but requires multiple changes,
including a shift within fossil fuels away from coal towards gas”,
says a Financial Times editorial. Curbing China’s coal consumption
is the single most important step to take, it says. A separate
piece in theFT’s Lex columnsays coal is “dirty
and unpopular – but not worthless”. It says coal is the “most hated
commodity in the world” but that demand for the black stuff is not
going to disappear. “Money will be made in coal – just not quite
yet”, it concludes.

One of the key elements for tackling global warming, carbon
capture and storage (CCS), should account for a fifth or sixth of
net carbon reductions by 2050, writes Nick Butler. He outlines five
steps that must be overcome for CCS to achieve “all that its
proponents believe”.

The oil industry is used to cautious, long-term evolution so
the speed of its European arm’s recent move to take a joint stand
on climate speaks volumes, write Ron Bousso and Dmitry Zhdannikov.
BP, Shell, Total, Statoil and others will jointly publish a report
ahead of the Paris climate summit highlighting the transition to
“lower carbon energy”, by which they mean gas.

Will the divestment movement change the world’s relationship
with fossil fuels, asks BBC social affairs reporter John McManus,
in a critical look at the past and possible future of the growing
movement for change. If the divestment campaign has grown even
larger by November, activists could steal a march on politicians in
Paris, he writes.

The UK’s onshore wind industry is under threat from
Conservative manifesto pledges to halt the spread of new windfarms,
but do people actually dislike them asks the Guardian’s Zoe
Williams. She talks to the developers behind a windfarm near
Swindon and meets locals to hear their views on the
scheme. The Sunday Timessays up to 30
proposed Scottish windfarms are at risk from Conservative plans.

A rift in the Larsen-C ice shelf grew rapidly during 2014
and is likely in the near future to generate the largest calving
event since the 1980s, according to research. The scientists say
the ice front is at risk of becoming unstable when the calving
event occurs, perhaps leading to a new minimum area for the
Antarctic ice shelf.

The retreat of sea ice is already raising winter
temperatures in the Arctic. A new paper looks at how the seasonal
cycle in the Arctic Ocean is likely to change in a warmer world,
concluding that the range of surface temperature experienced over
the year may exceed 10°C by year 2300 under a high emissions
scenario.