Australia may have repealed its carbon tax last year, but
thanks to new and improving schemes across the rest of the world,
the total value of carbon pricing systems rose to $50 billion.

A new study reveals that a region in the Himalayas could be
completely free of glaciers by the end of the century, suggesting
the basin could be highly sensitive to climate change.

David Rose, a journalist better known for his sceptical
articles in the Mail on Sunday, surprises with a long read in the
Guardian on the role of coal in India. The sheer size of the
country, which is determined to develop and believes it has a right
to exploit its fossil fuel reserves, has a global significance at a
time when IPCC scientists say the world should be adhering to a
strict carbon budget in order to avoid exacerbating climate change,
writes Rose. At the same time, India is aggressively pursuing solar
power.

In an apparent u-turn on a decision earlier this month not
to divest from fossil fuels, Edinburgh University has said it will
relinquish its shares in three of the world’s largest fossil fuel
companies in the next six months. The university did not name the
companies, but has promised to pull out their investments by
November.

Gambia, one of the world’s poorest nations, is working to
produce its intended contribution to the UN deal, despite being
responsible for only 0.05% of global emissions. Initial
consultations suggest the country might aim to reduce its emissions
by 25 to 30% by 2030 from 2000 levels. A government advisor says
that Gambia has a “moral obligation” to play its part.

David Cameron has appointed Camilla Cavendish, a Times
columnist known for her green views, to lead the Downing Street
policy unit. Environmentalists had already welcomed Cameron’s
choice of Amber Rudd to lead the Department of Energy and Climate
Change. Cavendish has previously argued that the world needed a
carbon tax and that renewable energy would boost the UK economy.

Without the Montreal Protocol, the UN treaty signed in 1987,
the hole in the ozone layer would have been 40% bigger by now, with
another hole opening up over the Arctic. These are the findings of
scientists at the University of Leeds, who simulated what would
have happened had the ozone-depleting substances not been banned.
An Arctic hole would have been large enough to affect northern
Europe, including the UK, they say.

Scientists are gathering ice cores from mountain glaciers
and sending them to Antarctica for storage. Concerned that climate
change could eradicate most mountain ice by the end of the century,
the “most reliable freezer on the planet” will ensure that these
Alpine and Andean samples remain safe. The ice cores from these
areas can help scientists understand how pollutants since the
industrial era have interfered with the climate.

A decarbonised world has become “irreversible, irrefutable”,
according to Christiana Figueres, the head of the UN’s climate
body, speaking at a carbon markets conference in Barcelona. This is
because of the speed at which businesses are working to tackle
climate change and efforts to put a price on carbon.RTCCreported Figueres’ comments
that fossil fuel companies should not be demonised in the fight
against climate change.

Democratic congressman Raúl M Grijalva argues in the
Guardian that the success of the conservation movement is
threatened by its lack of diversity, where Asian and Latino
families are unrepresented. He questions whether policy will
advance while the movement only seems to represent white, liberal
Americans – he says: “If lawmakers think you’re only speaking for a
small, unrepresentative minority, they won’t let you shape policy.”

As part of a CNN project on climate change and migration,
journalist John D. Sutter is travelling to the Marshall Islands,
which are in danger of being lost to rising sea levels. This
country, and other small island nations, face an existential threat
due to the carbon-heavy lifestyles in other countries, he says. He
will document what he finds using snapchat, which he calls “the
platform for disappearing stories”.

A new study sheds light on the stability of the Antarctic
ice sheet through an investigation into ice rises – points where
the seabed rises and makes contact with a floating ice shelf. The
researchers found that ice rises are formed during the transition
between glacial and interglacial periods. The ice rises pin ice
shelves in place, making them more stable and slowing down the flow
of the ice sheet into the ocean.

A study by scientists in Nepal, France and the Netherlands
suggests the glaciers around Mount Everest could be very sensitive
to climate change. The researchers developed a glacier model that
shows ice volume could shrink by between 70% and 99% by 2100.
Changes in glacier ice will impact the availability of water, with
consequences for agriculture and hydropower generation, the
researchers say.