The UK is well on the way to a new era of subsidy-free renewable energy projects that will largely kill off prospects for new gas power stations, according to industry analysts speaking in Oxford yesterday. The falling cost of wind and solar projects combined with advances in battery storage technology will unlock about £20bn of investment in the UK between now and 2030, Aurora Energy Research said. Onshore wind and solar will both be viable without subsidies by 2025 in the UK, it added. The Times also reports the story, adding: “[Aurora] predicts that solar farms capable of generating up to 9 gigawatts and onshore wind farms with a maximum output of 5 gigawatts are likely to be built on this basis by 2030. The prediction is likely to further increase pressure on nuclear developers to show they can be cost competitive.” At the same event in Oxford, UK climate and energy minister Claire Perry announced a formal review of the capacity market for “later this year”, reports BusinessGreen. It says: “She suggested the review would look at ‘key questions’, such as the penalties regime, contract lengths, alignment with the ambitions set out in the government’s Industrial Strategy, whether or not to open up the auction process to new technologies such as renewables, and how the system could better work in tandem with battery storage and demand balancing services.” Separately, BusinessGreen reports that the UK government has launched a call for evidence on its plans to phase out high-carbon fossil fuel heating systems, such as coal fires and oil burners, over the next decade.

A group of prominent climate sceptics have tried to “insert their views into an unusual science tutorial” held in a US federal court by offering “friend of the court” amicus briefs that promote their views that run contrary to the prevailing mainstream consensus. The group includes climate sceptics such as Willie Soon, Christopher Monckton, Steven Koonin and Richard Lindzen. InsideClimateNews says: “It’s not clear whether U.S. District Judge William Alsup — who called the hearing as part of a case in which the cities of San Francisco and Oakland are suing fossil fuel companies over climate change-related costs — wants to drag such voices into the fray. He set up the hearing in a way that either side in the case may call expert witnesses if they wish.” Associated Press says that “legal observers say they have never heard of a court holding a tutorial on climate change, and they are eager to see how the oil companies explain global warming”. Vox and the Guardian both publish answers to the judge’s eight “basic questions about climate change”.

Yesterday a judge adjourned a permission hearing on a challenge to the government’s long term emissions goals, reports BusinessGreen. It says: “The government will have to provide a fuller explanation as to why it is yet to strengthen the UK’s long term emissions targets for 2050 and beyond, after a judge ruled a second preliminary hearing is required to assess the merits of proposed legal action.” A Campaign group called Plan B and group of 11 individual claimants have launched a legal challenge against the government arguing that as a result of the Paris Agreement ministers should strengthen the Climate Change Act’s long term target to cut emissions 80% against 1990 levels by 2050. “In a surprise development [Justice Nicola Davies] ruled the issues under discussion were so complex that a longer full day permission hearing would have to be scheduled. She also called on the independent Committee on Climate Change to provide a more detailed explanation of its position on whether current targets should be strengthened as soon as possible.” BusinessGreen carries a separate article asking: “Is there a legal case for setting more ambitious UK carbon targets?”

Last year was the second hottest worldwide on record, just behind a sweltering 2016, with signs of climate change ranging from wildfires to a thaw of Arctic ice, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Thursday. The European Union monitoring centre is the first major international weather agency to report on conditions in 2017. Last year was slightly “cooler than the warmest year on record, 2016, and warmer than the previous second warmest year, 2015”, it said. Meanwhile, insurers are set to pay out a record $135bn to cover losses from natural disasters in 2017, according to the world’s largest reinsurer, the New York Times reports. Munich Re of Germany said overall losses came to $330bn, when uninsured damage is included, second only to 2011. Meanwhile, insured losses were at their highest ever at $135bn, the reinsurer said, Reuters reports. “Although individual events could not be linked directly to climate change, global warming is playing a role. Munich Re said it expected more frequent extreme events in the future.”

The Times reports that Glencore, the Switzerland-based FTSE 100 mining group, is poised to acquire two Australian coalmining projects from Rio Tinto for $1.7bn, “strengthening its position in the coal industry as others quit in response to environmental concerns”. Both projects are in Queensland, Australia’s main coal-producing region, where Glencore already operates a string of mines. Reuters also carries the story. The Times article also reports that Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore’s chief executive, has said that China’s growing dominance over the world’s supply of cobalt, used in the batteries of electric vehicles, is a threat to western car makers.

The biggest eaters of burgers, steaks and ribs contribute the largest hunk of diet-related greenhouse gas emissions in the US, according to a new study that examined individual eating habits across the country. New research from the University of Michigan and Tulane University finds that 20% of American eaters accounted for nearly half of total diet-related emissions – and that their diets were heavy on beef. The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found that if those people consumed fewer calories and shifted to a more moderate diet with less beef, that could achieve almost 10% of the emissions reductions needed for the US to meet its Paris Agreement targets.

Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, says “too many centre-right politicians have dismissed environmentalism as a left-wing cause”. She continues: “While issues like Brexit and Russian poisoning occupy our attention in the here and now, the impact of climate change is continuing to wreak devastating damage to the way we live…Too often, the political right has dismissed ‘green’ issues as something which need only concern those on the opposite side of the fence. Whatever the reason, however, Conservatives must not allow the environmental cause to become ghettoised only by professional environmentalists.” Davidson then offers ways the Conservatives can do more: “Firstly, by respecting the science. Because the science is unequivocal. Human activity is leading to a warming of the atmosphere. Climate change is real. And with social media platforms fanning the flames of conspiracies and lies, it is all the more important to say it. And secondly, Conservatives need to show a lead in tackling climate change and environmental damage at home.”

Roberts looks back over the past decade to the moment when “a group of researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) noticed a funny-looking shape in their modelling”. He explains that they noticed that large-scale deployment of solar power had a peculiar effect on the electricity “load curve” which looked like the back of a duck: “The duck curve has become a serious threat to solar and a shared obsession among the clean energy community. If it doesn’t get solved, things could get ugly…Luckily, solutions to the duck curve abound — all kinds of options for making the grid more flexible and softening the peaks and ramps.”

The average US diet demands 4.7kg of CO2 and 25.2MJ of non-renewable energy per day, research finds. A new study focussing on the self-selected diets 16,800 US citizens finds diets rich in meat and dairy come with the highest emissions and energy demands. However, beverages also played a significant role in determining emissions, the study notes.

The adoption of improved management practices and technologies could help smallholder farmers across the world to cut their emissions, a new study suggests. Previous research suggests that, in order to meet growing needs, total food production and the amount of land cultivated will need to increase by 2050. However, this may lead to a large rise in emissions associated with agriculture. The new study, which uses modelling, finds that adopting more efficient farming practices could allow smallholder farmers to cut their rate of emissions per hectare of land.