The Senate voted yesterday to confirm Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and senate aide, to be deputy administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Senators voted 53-45 to make Wheeler the second-in-command at EPA, just below Administrator Scott Pruitt. Wheeler was a chief of staff to Republican Senator James Inhofe, who rejects mainstream climate science, for more than 12 years, says Reuters. Wheeler worked at the EPA more than two decades ago, notes the Washington Post, and for the past nine years has been a lobbyist for a variety of companies, including America’s largest coal mining company, Murray Energy. Wheeler not only “shares the deregulatory zeal of Scott Pruitt” says the New York Times, “but also his doubtful view of climate science”. But where Pruitt is a “Washington outsider caught in a swirl of controversy over his costly first-class travel and security spending”, Wheeler is “viewed as a low-key insider with years of Washington experience in the art of pursuing policy change while avoiding public distraction”. InsideClimate Newsand Think Progress also have the story. Meanwhile, EPA chief Scott Pruitt is still under pressure, reports The Hill, with an approval rating that has dropped to 29% in new polling figures. Pruitt is the focus of two articles in the Washington Post. The first reports that a former senior aide to Pruitt has given congressional investigators a detailed list of what he describes as Pruitt’s wasteful spending and unethical behaviour, while the second says that two senators on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have asked EPA’s inspector general to investigate why Pruitt has been using four different EPA email addresses since taking office. In addition, a series of emails released to Unearthed under a freedom of information request has revealed that senior EPA agency officials thought Pruitt spread “very troubling” and “inaccurate” information when criticising former President Obama’s reform of emissions standards for cars. Pruitt’s actions at the EPA have now triggered half a dozen investigations, notes Vox. Nevertheless, Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Dlouhy writes that Pruitt’s job looks safe for the time being. “One factor working in Pruitt’s favour is that Trump is unlikely to get anyone like him through the confirmation process again,” she says. And an article on FiveThirtyEight argues that even if Pruitt is sacked, “Trump will still find ways to annoy liberals and delight conservatives on environmental policy”. Finally, Reuters reports that President Donald Trump said yesterday he would sign a memorandum ordering the EPA to cut more regulations on manufacturers.

The shipping industry is set to agree to its first global emissions target, with a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to 2008 levels by 2050, reports the FT. The measure is expected be formally adopted today by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which would mark the first time that shipping has adopted an emissions plan. The final deal is much weaker than had been wanted by delegations, such as the European Union, which had called for a cut of at least 70%. To meet the 50% cut, shipping groups said that heavy investment in new fuel types would be essential, and that marginal improvements in efficiency would not be enough. At the meeting this week, the IMO has also ordered a technical group to assess the impact shifting away from heavy fuel oil in Arctic waters, reports Climate Home News. The Economist looks at the negotiating positions of some of the key countries involved, and Carbon Brief published an in-depth primer on the talks last week.

National Grid has warned that it will take a £140m hit to its profits this year from the cost of fixing storm damage in America. The company, which runs electricity and gas networks in the UK and the US, suffered damage to its infrastructure in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York as a result of storms Quinn, Riley and Skylar last month. However, the blow will be “largely offset” by a £60m boost from changes to finance costs and a lower US tax charge of 24%, reports the Press Association. The Independent also has the story.

New targets for boosting the volume of biofuels used in the UK each year will come into force on Sunday. Changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation will increase the UK’s renewable fuels target from 4.75% to 9.75% in 2020, before rising again to 12.4% by 2032. The new standard, first announced in September, is expected to result in around 6% of renewable energy in the overall transport fuel mix, up from around 3% today. Meanwhile, in the US, President Trump has signalled his support for changing a biofuels policy that currently limits the percentage of ethanol used in summer months, reports The Hill. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump promised that the administration would allow E15 fuel – a mixture that’s 15% ethanol – to be sold year-round. Reuters also has the story.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will break off a foreign trip to hold an emergency meeting with the premiers of two provinces locked in a worsening dispute over an oil pipeline. In 2016, the federal government approved plans by Kinder Morgan Canada to almost triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to the west coast. But the British Columbia government argues they should make the final ruling because of the local risks of a spill. Trudeau cut short his trip in order to invite Alberta Premier Rachel Notley – who backs the pipeline – and British Columbia Premier John Horgan to try and break the deadlock. It is the first time in decades that different levels of government in Canada have argued so openly over resources, notes Reuters. Elsewhere, Reuters also reports the US Coast Guard shut a 10 mile stretch of the Mississippi River in New Orleans yesterday after a vessel spilled oil into the river.

Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate have been retired as hurricane names in the US following the devastating hurricane season in 2017. The World Meteorological Organization’s Atlantic regional agency removed the names since using them again would be insensitive, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. The names will be replaced by Harold, Idalia, Margot and Nigel, which will first appear in the 2023 approved list of storm names, the agency said. Carbon Brief covered the impacts of both Harvey and Irma when they struck last year.

“The world’s dinner tables are seeing the impact of climate change,” write Bloomberg reporters Agnieszka de Sousa and Haley Warren. “As cold regions become warmer, and warm places hotter still, farming and fishing are shifting,” they say. “An evolving climate means big changes for people who grow, catch and rear for a living, and everyone else who buys and eats what they produce”. The article maps out some of the winners – such as wheat yields in Russia and lobster catches off the coast of Maine – and losers – such as coffee farmers facing pests and diseases and summer storms leading to grape rot in the Champagne region of France.

While the challenge of tackling climate change tends to focus on immediate action, “we have to keep an eye on the future”, writes Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for Climate Home News. The Paris Agreement itself “is itself a global strategy for the longer term”, she says, and its temperature goals reflect “a vision of society we want for the future”. In partnership with the World Resources Institute and United Nations Development Programme, the UNFCCC is launching “Long-term Climate Strategies”, Espinosa explains. This will “provide nations and stakeholders with a library of value resources to help develop long-term climate strategies and ensure they are successfully implemented.”