London mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a set of proposals for tackling the capital’s dirty air, timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Clean Air Act. The proposals are now open for consultation. They include a £10 emissions surcharge — the “T-charge” — on top of the congestion charge for pre-2005 vehicles that do not meet emissions standards from 2017. He also confirmed his intention to introduction the planned Ultra-Low Emission Zone a year early in 2019, among other initiatives. Energy Desk, the Guardian and the Evening Standard also cover the story.

Tory leadership candidate and energy minister Andrea Leadsom has vowed to continue with the UK’s commitments to tackle climate change and decarbonise the energy supply. She said that decarbonisation was “not some abstract regulatory requirement” but an “essential responsibility we hold towards our children and grandchildren”. The Guardian says that her comments are significant as many in the Brexit camp have made abandoning the EU’s plans on emissions a keystone of their platform. Meanwhile, DeSmog UK has looked at which people with a history of climate scepticism are backing which candidates.

In the UK, it is random shifts in Atlantic storm tracks that will determine whether summers are hot and sunny or cool and wet, according to a new study published in Nature Geoscience. The research differentiates between the general rise in summer temperatures as a result of rising greenhouse gases, and how this warming translates down to regional and local impacts. “The position of the storm track coming in over the Atlantic and hitting Europe is not related to the climate forcing factors such as greenhouse gas emissions and solar variability,” said lead author Dr Mary Gagen from Swansea University.

After the resignation of the UK’s EU Commissioner Jonathan Hill in the wake of Brexit, David Cameron has said he wants the UK’s next seat on the Commission to have the environment portfolio, according to EU officials. But to fulfil this request, Juncker would have to reshuffle roles and take this portfolio away from the Maltese commissioner who currently holds it.

The government has withdrawn a subsidy offer for an £800m gas-fired power station in Manchester, after the developers failed to win funding for the scheme. The Trafford plant was the only large gas-fired power station to have won financing under the government’s capacity market scheme, and was set to receive a subsidy of about £30m a year for 15 years under the scheme. The decision represents a blow for this policy, according to the Times. Reuters also covers the story.

Climate change means that mussels could no longer be able to be farmed by 2100, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University. Ocean acidification seriously affects the mussels’ ability to cling onto rock, say the scientists, which they must do for anywhere between six and 12 months while they grow to a marketable size. Within 85 years, the coastal regions where mussels currently thrive will be so acidic that nearly half will be unable to cling on long enough to be farmed, says the study.

In an interview with ClimateWire, US Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing says that there will be much continuity in US climate policy regardless of the outcome of the Trump vs Clinton election in November, which takes place at the outset of this year’s UN climate negotiations. “No matter who is president, it’s going to be part of what they have to deal with,” he said, while acknowledging that the messages from the two likely candidates had been very different so far.

A number of scientists who were responsible for giving academic insights to the COP21 French presidency and negotiating team look over some of the issues in the Paris Agreement, and in particular the 1.5C goal that was part of the final text. For scientists, this target “offers contradictory perspectives” that could divide the scientific community, yet accept that including it was also an ethical decision.

Ed King, the editor of Climate Home, writes a sketch based on the events at a meeting of the climate sceptic lobby group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which took place in Westminster this week. At the meeting, the law professor giving the talk based his analysis on an old draft of the text. “All nodded with appreciation as David Campbell, a professor at Lancaster University, revealed he did not know how to download the latest version of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement,” King quips.

Warming sea surface temperatures could affect the size and weight of Atlantic cod, a new study says. The researchers project changes in cod weight between 1985–2004 and 2081–2100, assuming the ocean warms in line with a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario. The findings suggest Atlantic cod weight will increase in the Barents Sea, but decline at the southern end of their range off the coasts of Europe and North America. In addition, southern spawning areas may disappear as a result of warming conditions, the study says.

A new study links Europe’s summer heatwave of 2015 to exceptionally cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in a region of the North Atlantic Ocean. The researchers find that the cold SSTs were primarily caused by changing wind patterns in the previous two winters, combined with the re-emergence of cold ocean water masses. Similar cold Atlantic SSTs were also present before the most extreme European heatwaves since the 1980s, the paper says, indicating that it is a common factor in the development of these events. The researchers call for an urgent assessment of the impact of ocean drivers on major European summer temperature extremes.