The Guardian reports that ministers are expected to back the first generation of small nuclear power stations in the UK with tens of millions of pounds this week, in an attempt to give the UK a competitive edge on the technology and provide a new source of clean power. It adds: “Rolls-Royce and a host of US and Chinese companies have been lobbying and waiting for the support since George Osborne first promised them a share of £250m two years ago. Now, after industry frustration at huge delays to the government’s competition to find the best value ‘small modular reactor’ (SMR), funding to develop and test the power stations will be confirmed. The energy minister, Richard Harrington, is expected to announce support for the embryonic technology on Thursday, industry figures told the Guardian. The funding is likely to be up to £100m, one source said.” The Financial Times also carries the story, adding that “the government is expected to argue that nuclear power remains crucial to UK energy security and reducing carbon emissions. It will signal its continued support with a package of measures to bolster nuclear research and engineering, according to people briefed on the plans.” EnergyLiveNews reports that the Nuclear Industry Association says the nuclear sector contributed £6.4bn to the UK economy last year. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that “UK’s remaining coal plants line up for £200m last hurrah”, adding: “Over 10GW of power capacity from six coal-fired plants have pre-qualified for an auction early next year to clinch supply contracts for 2021 to 2022 which could be worth £200m. To date, through the auctions, held since 2014, more than £445m worth of contracts have been awarded to coal-burning power stations. If the next auction result is similar to previous year’s this amount will grow to £650m, according to analysts at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.” Separately, the Telegraph reports that steel-maker Liberty House is “to invest £700m in new ‘green steel’ strategy”. It adds: “The privately held business is expected to announce a £35m investment to expand its existing hydro power generation facilities around its aluminium plant at Lochaber, in the Scottish Highlands. Later this week a second deal to buy another green energy supplier is expected. Sources close to GFG said the goal is not only to gain control of its assets, but also staff who have extensive experience in rolling out renewable power generation projects.” Separately, the Times reports: “More new hybrid and electric vehicles will be sold than diesel cars in 18 months’ time, research predicts. Concerns about pollution and ‘toxic taxes’ are cited in an analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. The research was undertaken after figures showed that sales of diesels plummeted in the UK this year.” The Guardian has analysis showing that “electric cars already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel”. It says: “The researchers analysed the total cost of ownership of cars over four years, including the purchase price and depreciation, fuel, insurance, taxation and maintenance. They were surprised to find that pure electric cars came out cheapest in all the markets they examined: UK, Japan, Texas and California. Pure electric cars have much lower fuel costs – electricity is cheaper than petrol or diesel – and maintenance costs, as the engines are simpler and help brake the car, saving on brake pads. In the UK, the annual cost was about 10% lower than for petrol or diesel cars in 2015, the latest year analysed.”

Former President Barack Obama has lamented the lack of US leadership in the fight against climate change during a visit to Paris over the weekend. He made a veiled rebuke of his Republican successor’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. “I grant you that at the moment we have a temporary absence of American leadership on the issue,” Obama said, to laughter in the audience packed with French CEOs and former ministers. Meanwhile, in the US, the Senate narrowly approved a contentious tax bill which, according to the Hill, also includes a provision allowing two sales of drilling rights in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Guardian reports that “top US firms including Walmart and Ford oppose Trump on climate change”. It adds: “The big businesses he claims to champion are increasingly choosing to ignore the US president’s sceptical stance on climate change and press ahead towards their own environmental goals without him. Several of the country’s corporate giants, including Walmart, General Motors, Ford and Mars, appeared this week at the second annual Companies v Climate Change conference in Miami to showcase their progress and reinforce their belief that sustainability and other green targets can be achieved irrespective of the policies and purpose of the White House.” Finally, E&E reports that the EPA administrator Scott Pruitt “appears to be close to unveiling its program to question mainstream research on global warming, referred to as a ‘red team’ exercise”. It adds: “Pruitt could announce the red team within weeks, according to Bob Murray, a key ally of the administration and the CEO of Murray Energy Corp. The coal boss said in an interview at yesterday’s event that he has been personally pushing Pruitt to challenge the endangerment finding, the scientific underpinning for past and future regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.”

The FT reports that gas-supply shortages are hitting north and central China as Beijing tries to accelerate a shift away from coal rather than miss environmental targets this year. It says: “The situation has left some residents — mainly urban migrants on neighbourhoods ringing the cities — without heat as temperatures drop below zero. China’s emissions have fallen in recent years as a slowdown in economic growth hit heavily polluting industries in the north of the country. But an uptick in economic growth rates this year has caused emissions to rebound, forcing the government to strengthen measures designed to control pollution from coal use.” Meanwhile, Reuters reports that China’s central Shanxi province has introduced new rules curbing water use for steel, cement and aluminium production, adding that it is “another blow to sectors reeling from government-enforced output cuts…China has ordered steel and aluminium producers in 28 cities to slash output during winter as part of the country’s war against winter smog. Coal-rich Shanxi has vowed to cut its hazardous pollutant PM 2.5 concentration by 40% from October to March.” Separately, the FT reports that “range anxiety powers China to invest in electric car-charging points”. The FT adds: “China plans a total of 4.8m charging outlets and stations by 2020, a mammoth investment effort that was reiterated by the state council, China’s cabinet of ministers, last month. Getting to 4.8m will require a total investment of Rmb124bn ($19bn) according to analysts at Ping An Securities — and most, if not all, will be state money­. That is roughly the GDP of Cyprus.”

Climate Home News has interviewed Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister on the 10th anniversary of when he became the country’s leader. He reflects on the actions of the current leader Malcolm Turnbull, saying he “choked on climate change”. Rudd says he takes every opportunity to criticise the Australian government over its “inertia” on climate change. “I don’t know how those guys face their kids and grandkids in the morning. I really don’t. I just genuinely don’t.”

In an interview with the Radio Times, Sir David Attenborough has called on Donald Trump to ditch his planned withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. The legendary natural history broadcaster, 91, said he hoped Trump had seen the error of his ways since he announced the US would quit the 2015 deal. Trump believes the accord, which aims to slash global carbon emissions, is bad for the US economy and will quit it in 2020. He justified his decision by saying: “I was elected to ­represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris. Ahead of the final episode of Blue Planet II next Sunday, Sir David said: “Let us hope that Trump will eventually recognise that the Paris Agreement was not about Pittsburgh, or even Paris, but the entire planet. Never before have we been so aware of what we are doing to our planet – and never before have we had such power to do something about it.” The Independent is among the other publications also carrying the story. Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports that statements about climate change in Blue Planet II have been “fact-checked” by the BBC – and all passed. Attenborough says: “And the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of these increasing levels of CO2…This is manmade, beyond question.” The Sunday Times reports: “Such statements are understood to have caused some concern in the upper echelons of the BBC, where senior executives are scared of the hugely popular wildlife series appearing to become politicised. It is understood they ordered that the script be fact-checked, but all Attenborough’s comments were found to be based on solid scientific sources.”

BNEF’s chief editor says he’s skeptical of climate change and clean energy sceptics, for three reasons: “Their rhetoric tends to be overheated. They are often behind the curve with their facts and figures. And some of them are strangely relaxed about risk.” In turn, he examines the arguments made by Bjorn Lomborg, the Heartland Institute, Myron Ebell’s Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Global Warming Policy Foundation. McCrone concludes: “They do not all start from the same place – some are libertarian, some want to protect fossil fuel, some say climate change is a problem but wind and solar are not the answer. However, they generally end up by saying that their concern is for the economic interest of the ordinary person, or the poor. This stance is exposed to the spectacularly falling costs of wind and solar. It also begs the question of whether, like investors in collateralised debt obligations pre-2007, skeptics are too relaxed about risk.”

Dame Inga Beale, the chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, looks at the rising cost of “natural disasters”: “The Lloyd’s market has paid almost $2bn (£1.5bn) in claims for natural catastrophes so far this year. It could turn out to be one of the costliest years on record for natural disasters, a fact that will no doubt reinforce determination to tackle this growing problem. We know that the frequency and cost of natural disasters continues to rise, with direct losses over the past decade estimated at $1.4tn globally. Tackling a multi-faceted problem like climate change is only possible through collective action and collective responsibility. And I honestly think there’s more that the insurance sector could be doing.” Beale lists some of the ways the insurance industry can help, which includes looking at its investments decisions: “We have therefore decided to implement a coal exclusion policy as part of a responsible investment strategy for the central mutual fund that sits behind every insurance policy written by the Lloyd’s market.”

Extratropical cyclone activity over Eurasia has weakened in the past decade. Extratropical cyclones bring precipitation and hence supply fresh water for winter crops in the mid- and high-latitude regions of Eurasia. Any changes in extratropical cyclone activity over Eurasia in the future may have a critical impact on winter agriculture and the economies of affected communities. In this study, researchers investigated anticipated changes in extratropical storm activity by the end of the century through a detailed examination of the historical and future emission scenarios from six different climate models. A statistical analysis of different parameters of storm activity using a storm identification and tracking algorithm reveals a decrease in the number of storms over mid-latitude regions. However, intense storms with longer duration are projected over high latitude Eurasia. A further examination of the physical mechanism for these changes reveals that a decrease in the meridional temperature gradient and a weakening of the vertical wind shear over the mid-latitudes are responsible for these expected changes in storm activity.