Households have spent £180m inAir pollution is a more immediate threat than climate change to the nation’s rare and endangered plants as high levels of nitrogen let certain species like nettles run wild, a study shows. A report by the Plant Link UK network, backed by organisations including Plantlife, the National Trust, Woodland Trust and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, found that 90% of heathlands, acid grasslands and other sensitive habitats in England were suffering because of nitrogen emissions from fossil fuels and fertilisers. Across the whole of the UK, the figure was 63%. The story is widely covered, including by the Independent and Telegraph. three years on backup power capacity that was never used, according to a new report from the Energy and Climate Change Intelligence Unit (ECIU). The report found that power stations put on standby since winter 2014 by the National Grid were never used. It has raises concern government may have over-invested in securing the energy system to allay unfounded fears of imminent blackouts, reports BusinessGreen. The thinktank called the fears overblown, and said they have lead to “excessive spending” to create an insurance policy against a risk which had not materialised, reports The Telegraph. A new scheme is set to be introduced this winter would see the annual cost jump to £387m, reports The Guardian, though MPs are currently preparing to debate what can be done about rising energy bills. The Times also carries the story. The news comes as a report in the Financial Times describes discussions between Google’s DeepMind and the National Grid to use artificial intelligence to help balance energy supply and demand in Britain. “t would be amazing if you could save 10 per cent of the country’s energy usage without any new infrastructure, just from optimisation” Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s chief executive told the Financial Times.

Air pollution is a more immediate threat than climate change to the nation’s rare and endangered plants as high levels of nitrogen let certain species like nettles run wild, a study shows. A report by the Plant Link UK network, backed by organisations including Plantlife, the National Trust, Woodland Trust and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, found that 90% of heathlands, acid grasslands and other sensitive habitats in England were suffering because of nitrogen emissions from fossil fuels and fertilisers. Across the whole of the UK, the figure was 63%. The story is widely covered, including by the Independent and Telegraph.

In a frontpage story, the Telegraph attacks the UK’s foreign aid spending on “climate change projects”. It says that “serious questions” are raised over hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money being “wasted” on climate change projects such as an Ethiopian wind farm and Kenyan solar power plant. It adds: “A Telegraph investigation shows little benefit so far from a £2 billion foreign aid programme to tackle climate change that was established eight years ago.” It quotes three different people attacking the spending. All three are based or linked to one London address – 55 Tufton St, home to climate sceptic lobby groups, such as the Global Warming Policy Foundation and Taxpayers’ Alliance.

The troubled £2bn privatisation of the Green Investment Bank has already cost at least £1m of taxpayer money in consultancy fees, official documents have revealed. Ministers have promised that the sale of the bank, which has invested in green projects from offshore windfarms to energy-saving street lights, will deliver value for taxpayers’ money. An announcement on the sale to Australian investment bank Macquarie was expected in January but has yet to materialise amid strong political opposition. Now it has emerged in newly published documents that last September officials authorised £1m in consultancy fees for the sale.

The rate of warming in the world’s oceans from 1992 was almost twice as great as the warming rate from 1960, according to a new study. The findings mean the world’s oceans are warming 13 per cent faster than scientists previously thought. Writing in the Guardian, study co-author John Abraham outlines the new strategy used by the paper used to improve upon understanding of ocean heating. “This kind of knowledge and understanding has profound consequences,” he writes. Carbon Brief also took an in-depth look at the study.

BlackRock Inc, which wields outsized clout as the world’s largest asset manager, planned on Monday to put new pressure on companies to explain themselves on issues including how climate change could affect their business as well as boardroom diversity. The move by BlackRock, a powerful force in Corporate America with $5.1 trillion under management, could bolster efforts like climate-risk disclosure practices developed by the Financial Stability Board, the international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.

The fallout continued over the weekend following cuts last week to the Environmental Protection Administrator (EPA) and its new chief Scott Pruit’s comments that carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of global warming. The Hill reports the EPA’s phones were ringing “off the hook” in the wake of the remarks. Inside Climate News points out the agency’s funding would fall to its lowest point since the Ford administration, long before demands from Congress and the public expanded the scope of the agency’s missions. Meanwhile the head of an EPA programme tasked with protecting minority communities from pollution and climate change resigned on Friday in protest at Trump’s plans to cut EPA funding and support. “‘The upcoming choices you make will have significant impacts on the public health and environment of our country” Mustafa Ali said in a letter tendering his resignation. The administration is now expected to turn its attention to unravelling the Clean Power Plan, reports the Guardian. However a report in Bloomberg argues bringing jobs back to levels anywhere near the sector’s heyday may be a promise impossible to keep.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at an observatory in Hawaii hit a new high, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported on Friday. Levels jumped by 3 parts per million (ppm) between 2015 and 2016 and have “surged” by 6 ppm over two years, the NOAA said – a level of growth unseen in the Mauna Loa observatory’s 59-year history. The agency called “a real shock to the atmosphere”. Climate Central also ran the story.

Evans-Pritchard spent last week in Houston at the CERAWeek energy conference and has written a feature explaining why many of the leading fossil fuel companies and trying to drive down the cost of “extracting CO2 from hydro-carbon energy”. He says: “The goal is some sort of ‘Manhattan Project’ to safeguard the long-term survival of their companies. ‘We can’t just keep our heads in the sand,’ said Bob Dudley from BP.” Contrary to widespread belief, the top executives are going out of their way to praise the findings of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ‘I have read all the IPCC reports. We understand the risks associated with fossil fuels, and we think we can help mitigate those risks through technology,’ said Darren Woods, the new chief of ExxonMobil.” Meanwhile, in the Observer, Adam Vaughan says that “when Shell sold most of its Canadian tar sands operations last week, the Anglo-Dutch oil company took a modest step towards making good on its promise to be part of the solution on global warming, rather than the problem”. In the Times, Robin Pagnamenta, says that Trump “may prevent sands of time running out for Canadian oil”.

Grantham and White, both at the Boston-based asset manager GMO, say “there is no doubt that this [US] administration will affect climate-change mitigation”, but there stress “there are reasons to be sceptical that the climate sceptics can do much to slow down the global effort to address climate change”. They add: “With or without support from the current US administration and despite formidable pushback from the fossil fuel industry, we believe the world will continue to mobilise to head off this very grave threat, and investors like us will be hunting down investment opportunities that benefit from these efforts.”

Heavy rainfall events have been linked with gastrointestinal illness (GI), as surface runoff can flush microbiological contaminants in raw water. A new study analyses the effect on residents of New Jersey in the US between 2009 and 2013. The results show that GI hospitalisations are associated with heavy rainfall events during warm months for surface water systems, community water systems, private wells.