A national system of road tolls should be introduced to meet the estimated £170bn shortfall in fuel tax over the next 13 years, says a right-leaning think tank. Policy Exchange, which was co-founded by the Conservative minister Michael Gove, says that an increase in the number of electric cars will lead to a drop in sales of petrol and diesel, on which tax is paid. It adds that the government may have underestimated the cost to the Treasury of green cars by £23bn a year by 2030. The fall in the amount of income from petrol and diesel sales could be as high as £170bn between now and the end of the next decade, it estimates. The Financial Times explains: “The Office for Budget Responsibility, whose projections underpin government planning, says proceeds [from fuel duties] will increase from the current £28bn a year to £40bn by 2030. Yet, if Britain succeeds in meeting targets for reducing carbon emissions from road transportation, fuel duty revenues would be between £9bn and £23bn lower in 2030 than the OBR is assuming, according to Policy Exchange.” The Daily Telegraph and Press Association also carry the story. In a separate story about the same report, the Times says that “green cars should be subjected to far higher taxes because they are barely cleaner than conventional vehicles after accounting for the power needed to charge the engine”.

The UK’s ambitious target of slashing carbon emissions by more than half within 13 years is at risk because of government dithering on energy policy, industry professionals have warned. A survey by the Energy Institute, the professional body for the energy sector, has found that four fifths of its members believe the UK is currently on track to miss the 2030 goal. “The mood among our members is that energy policy is on pause and ministers need to hit the play button,” said Louise Kingham, chief executive of the Energy Institute. The Guardian says that among the list of stalled government decisions are the “fate of a multimillion-pound competition to build mini nuclear power plants and whether to strike a subsidy deal for a pioneering tidal lagoon at Swansea”. BusinessGreen says the survey reveals a majority of respondents regard Brexit as a cause for “material concern” over the potential impact on the energy system, while 60% fear a curtailment of freedom of movement will impact the availability of skilled workers.

France is to stop granting licences for oil and gas exploration as part of a transition towards environmentally-friendly energy being driven by Emmanuel Macron’s government, reports the Independent. Nicolas Hulot, the “ecological transition” minister, said a law would be passed in the autumn. “There will be no new exploration licences for hydrocarbons,” he told BFMTV. Macron is also planning a huge renovation programme for French homes to reduce energy consumption, cut carbon emissions, reduce energy poverty and create jobs. Macron and Hulot discussed renewable energy schemes and global warming with Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of his trip to France on Friday. France 24 reports that the Hollywood actor and former governor of California, joined politicians in Paris on Saturday to launch a global pact to protect the human right to a clean, healthy environment. “We already have two international (human rights) pacts…The idea is to create a third, for a third generation of rights – environmental rights,” said former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, who also presided over the Paris COP 21 conference on climate change. The Express reports that a video tweeted by Schwarzenegger showing himself with Macron was a “new snub” to Donald Trump over his stance on climate change.

Greater emissions reductions and delivering on the Paris climate agreement are now “the only opportunity” to save coral reefs the world over from decline, with local responses no longer sufficient, a report by Unesco has found. The first global scientific assessment of the impacts of climate change on the 29 world heritage-listed coral reefs, published on Saturday, found that the frequency, intensity and duration of heat-stress events had worsened with increasing global warming, with massive consequences for the 29 world heritage sites. Analysis of recent studies and newly-developed data from the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coral-reef watch showed that 13 of the 29 listed reefs had been exposed to levels of heat stress that cause coral bleaching, on average more than twice per decade from 1985 to 2013. The Washington Postis among the others carrying the story.

Only one in 20 pension schemes in Europe has taken steps to combat the risks of climate change, in spite of mounting warnings that global warming poses a serious threat to their investment returns. Mercer, the consultancy, found that just 5% of European pension schemes have considered the investment risk posed by climate change, after gathering information from 1,241 institutional investors across 13 countries that manage combined assets of about €1.1tn.

Vidal, the Guardian’s former environment editor, has produced a feature for Ensia, co-published by the Guardian, providing a “close-up look at seven regions poised to really feel the pain [of climate change] – and what they’re doing about it”: “Whether it’s faster-than-average warming, more vulnerable than average populations, or more severe than average drought, floods and storms, it’s clear that some places are being hit harder than others by Earth’s altered climate, and so face extra urgency when it comes to adapting to a new reality. But the bottom line is that climate hot spots intersect, and nowhere will we escape the changes taking place. What happens in the Amazon affects West Africa; the North American growing season may depend on the melting of Arctic ice; flooding in Asian cities affected by warming on the high Tibetan plateau. And urban areas ultimately depend on the countryside. We’re all in a hot spot now.”

Whether an old-school conservative or free-market radical, Fred Pearce sets out how to “convince the doubters” of the facts about climate change. For example, here’s his advice for convincing free-market ideologues: “Ask why markets don’t reflect the costs associated with climate change. Free markets need social and political stability, and so climate stability too. Big banks, insurance firms and oil companies have called for action on climate change. Government dilly-dallying is anathema to their bottom lines.”

Christian Aid’s Joe Ware has a suggestion for the Conservatives who he says “have a youth problem”. He says one “obvious” area for a youth movement is fixing the UK’s creaking energy system: “Clean energy is a market full of entrepreneurs, but government policy still favours big incumbents with dinosaur business models. Who is going to represent the young energy capitalists of the future? The Prime Minister has talked a lot about lowering energy bills, but she did so while banning the very cheapest form of new electricity generation: onshore wind…If the Conservatives are serious about intergenerational fairness, addressing climate change would be a good start. It is today’s young voters who will have to deal with the international and domestic consequences down the road. And it is something that Ruth Davidson, the Tories’ most impressive rising star, has long advocated for. The Conservatives need to regain the pragmatic approach which has served them so well in the past, and show a new generation of engaged voters that they embrace the modern energy systems of the future.”

Industrial and agricultural activity has led to large depositions of nitrogen in forest soils in many parts of the world. This nitrogen loading has resulted in elevated emissions of N2O and CH4, both potent greenhouse gases. A new study in China finds that the application of phosphorus to nitrogen-saturated forests resulted in a decline of both soil N2O and CH4 emissions. They suggest that phosphorus additions relieves nitrogen inhibition of CH4 oxidation and enhances nitrogen uptake by plants. This could provide a new approach to limiting greenhouse gas emissions from forestlands that have been driven by nutrient imbalances.

A new study in Nature Scientific Reports looks at the extent to which global declines in coral reefs are driven by local stressors such as runoff, fishing, and tourism vs. global climate change. They find that coral reef degradation is not correlated with human population density, suggesting that local factors such as fishing and pollution are having minimal effects compared to global warming. This means that local management alone cannot restore coral populations or increase the resilience of reefs in the face of climate change. It highlights the immediate need for drastic and sustained cuts in carbon emissions it the world’s coral reefs are to be saved.