Voters in Switzerland have backed their government’s plan to ban new nuclear plants and provide billions of dollars in subsidies for renewable energy in a binding referendum, Reuters reports. They also plan to close existing plants after they have been in use for a maximum of 45 years. Switzerland relies heavily on hydroelectric power generation, but nuclear power stations account for about a third of electricity generation. Critics fear that it will lead to increased energy prices as the government tries to raise SwFr480 million (£380 million) a year for subsidies, the Times notes. The Financial Times also has the story.

Climate change is projected to reduce global production of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans by 23% in the 2050s, a new study says. The analysis examined the price and production of these four major crops from 1961 to 2013, and projected negative impacts “for all countries” by the 2050s – when the world’s population is projected to be 2 billion greater than today. “Rising temperature at the two extremes — minimum temperature in the case of rice and maximum temperature in the case of corn — are detrimental to production of these crops”, said lead author Mekbib Haile, a senior researcher at the Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn.

ClientEarth, a London legal NGO, has written to BP claiming the company’s forecasts for global oil demand are at odds with independent analyses and some industry rivals. The NGO warns BP and Glencore are exposed to investor lawsuits by making “bullish” forecasts about the world’s appetite for fossil fuels. “It matters to all of us that fossil fuel companies are realistic about the risks facing their business models,” said ClientEarth lawyer Alice Garton, continuing: “If BP and Glencore persist with bullish forecasts, and these are found to be fraudulent in the future, the only ones who will profit are the class action lawyers.”

A Chinese state-owned power giant is considering investing in Toshiba’s troubled NuGen project at Moorside, a £15bn nuclear plant planned for the Cumbrian coast. This interest will test the UK prime minister’s new hardline on overseas takeovers in energy, defence and telecoms, the Times reports.

Norway is repairing the entrance of a seed vault on an Arctic island, that is supposed to protect earth’s food supply in the event of a “doomsday” scenario. Water entered the tunnel entrance after warmer than usual temperatures caused a layer of permafrost to thaw, although none of the 5,000 species of dried or frozen crops were harmed. The vault was built on Svalbard because the permafrost was thought to be permanent. “Maybe something has changed in the permafrost, but we don’t know, and that is what the climate researchers are looking into. We have to follow them carefully”, government spokeswoman Hege Njaa Aschim told the BBC. Norway has announced new measures to protect the vault, including drainage ditches on the mountainside and waterproof walls in the tunnel itself. Coverage of the story also continued in Reuters and the Washington Post. The story was first broken by the Guardian last Friday.

Ben van Beurden, CEO of oil giant Shell, has warned that Donald Trump will put American companies at a disadvantage and weaken the US’s global standing if he pulls out of the Paris climate deal. “It would be unhelpful on a number of fronts”, he told the Financial Times at their Washington office, continuing: “With the US being the largest investment destination for a company like Shell, yes, I think I would regret having a lot of business here that potentially could be at a disadvantage because of [the] implications of that decision to pull out of Paris.” Other chief executives have been reluctant to challenge the US president publicly, the Financial Times notes.

New coalmines will leave more people in poverty, according to a new report by Oxfam, which attacks Australia’s ‘climate policy paralysis’ and urges it to promise no new coalmines and end public subsidies. The report notes that with most of the energy-poor households in developing countries beyond the reach of electricity grids, new coal-fired power plants won’t bring them energy. “The real cost of burning more coal will be measured in further entrenched poverty – through the escalating impacts of climate change and humanitarian disasters, increasing hunger and deaths and disease caused by pollution,” the report says. “Renewables are the clear answer to bringing electricity to those who currently live without it”.

Many local authorities are breaking the law by failing to report levels of air pollution, due to a lack of resources, according to documents obtained by DeSmogUK. Of the 77 councils they contacted, 59 had not made their findings available to the public. Mat Hope, the reporter who broke the story, said: “I think the councils themselves are doing what they can but with the current budget constraints it’s clear they are likely to struggle with the extra obligations under the new air quality plan.” The news was picked up by the Times and the Independent.

“Until recently, China and India have been cast as obstacles, at the very least reluctant conscripts, in the battle against climate change,” says an NYT editorial. “That reputation looks very much out-of-date now that both countries have greatly accelerated their investments in cost-effective renewable energy sources — and reduced their reliance on fossil fuels. It’s America — Donald Trump’s America — that now looks like the laggard.” The editorial mentions new analysis by Climate Action Tracker published last week at the UNFCCC meeting in Bonn. The paper argues that the progress shown by China and India are “a lesson here for the United States”. It adds: “The excuse given in every case [of Trump’s attack on Obama’s climate regulations] is that these rules would cost jobs and damage the economy — the same bogus argument once used by Vice President Dick Cheney to persuade President George W. Bush to renege on his campaign promise to combat global warming…Beijing and New Delhi — not, embarrassingly enough, Washington — are showing the way forward.”

Bloomberg explores how changing temperatures and geopolitics are affecting land within the Arctic circle, interspersed with data visualisations and stunning photos of the melt season. “This is a tale about oil and economics, about humanity and science, about politics and borders and the emerging risk of an emboldened and growing Russian empire”, Bloomberg writes.

A in-depth feature in the Telegraph takes a look at the rising prospects of the British offshore wind industry, amid a “precipitous fall in costs”. “The success of offshore wind is a welcome relief to the UK’s renewable industry, which has been battered by regulatory sucker punches in recent years”, Ambrose notes.

Energy columnist Nick Butler criticises the latest report from the Energy Transitions Commission, which describes how the transition to a low carbon energy system can be achieved. “The paper is undeniably worthy and well intentioned but its contents are so detached from reality as to be dangerous”, he argues, in particular its “sweeping assumption” that steps to prevent significant climate change can be done without disrupting the global economy. “The picture is complex and the chances of a neat global solution to the challenge of climate change are still low”, he says.

The long-term future of the global economy is green, argues Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer at the National Employment Savings Trust. And for millennials saving into pensions for the next 40 to 50 years, the global transition to a low-carbon economy is significant. We “need to plan ahead and prepare their portfolios for the evident investment risks and opportunities that climate change and the transition to low carbon represent”, he says.

Both atmospheric natural variability and anthropogenic factors contributed to the extreme heat experienced in the summer of 2013 across Central and Eastern China, according to a new study. The episode was associated with a high-pressure anomaly but human-caused climate change has substantially increased the chance of reaching such high temperatures as the region experienced that year. The exact contribution of human influence to the probability of such events depends on the selection of climate models, the paper notes.