The energy secretary, Ed Davey, has written to regulators
asking them to consider whether British Gas is unfairly profiting
from people’s gas bills. Davey said that if profit margins on gas
were reduced to the same level as on electricity, households could
save up to £40 a year on average. The Telegraph has
the letterin full.

The Energy Savings Trust has updated figures on how much
households could save by installing energy efficiency measures,
which the industry often uses in advertising. The Trust previously
said it was likely to reduce the amount it estimated households
could save in light of new government research. While that has
happened for some measures – such as installing wall insulation –
it has increased its estimate for other measures. The changes have
“mystified” green experts, the Guardian says.

The Prince of Wales has added his voice to those linking the
Somerset floods to climate change. He said the floods were “a
classic example of what happens if we pay little attention to the
accumulating impact of climate change on the larger
picture”.

The Met Office’s chief scientist says the recent storms and
flooding are likely to be linked to climate change. Speaking at the
launch of a new reportinto climate impacts,
Dame Julia Slingo said that while there was “no definitive answer”
to what caused the storms, “all the evidence suggests there is a
link to climate change”. She said the Met Office’s data showed the
recent weather was not “unprecedented”, but that it was
“exceptional”. The Timesalso covers the
story.

The European Commission has said it will rule whether the
UK’s new nuclear deal is legal by the end of the year. Last month
the commission called on the UK government to clarify why a new
nuclear plant needed government support in order to get
built.

A Guardian editorial says the recent extreme weather across
the globe should wake policymakers up to the reality of climate
change. It says that while “[e]xtremes are to be expected: any
average is the sum of accumulated extremes. What should trouble the
politicians is the apparent, and apparently inexorable, increase in
the severity and the frequency of extremes”.

Dana Nucitelli looks at the pacific trade winds study in a
bit more detail. He says the new paper adds to a body of research
showing the impact of shifting internal factors on global
temperatures. “The next piece of the puzzle will involve explaining
the cause of the dramatic, unprecedented trade wind acceleration”,
he says.

The Guardian’s environment editor says budgets cuts and a
climate skeptic environment minister are partly to blame for the
current Somerset floods. He says the government’s emergency efforts
are “too little, too late”.

Telegraph columnist, Geoffrey Lean, has some suggestions for
how the prime minister could help clean up the current floods and
prevent such a disaster in the future – including fighting climate
change.

Injecting aerosols into the stratosphere to encourage cloud
formation is one possibility for engineering the climate to bring
down temperatures. But how does the process fit in with different
visions of societal development, and how does that impact the
debate? A new study investigates.

Pacific trade winds picking up the pace could be playing a
key role in the slowdown in surface warming since 2000, by causing
the ocean to take up more heat than usual, according to a new
study.