The largest ever wind turbines will be used at the Dogger Bank offshore windfarm in the North Sea over the next few years, the Guardian reports. According to the newspaper, millions of British homes will be powered using wind turbines with blades more than 100 metres long by the early 2020s. Reuters notes that Paris-based GE Renewable Energy had been selected as the preferred turbine supplier for the offshore wind project being developed by SSE and Equinor. The site will use GE’s Haliade-X turbine, which has a capacity of 12 megawatts and is therefore the world’s most powerful turbine, it continues. The windfarms will have a capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, capable of powering 4.5m homes a year, roughly 5% of the UK’s electricity generation, according to the Independent. The news sites also quotes Paul Cooley of co-developer SSE Renewables, who says “this pioneering low carbon technology…will play a central role in helping the UK become carbon neutral by 2050”.

Meanwhile the Financial Times reports that investors who predicted a shift from fossil fuels to clean energy “are being richly rewarded” as solar and wind stocks outperform oil and gas “by a widening margin this year”. Specifically, it notes that the iShares Clean Energy exchange-traded fund has risen by 32% this year, while the oil-dominated Vanguard Energy ETF has risen by only 1%. BBC News reports on the UK’s shift away from coal, as one of the nation’s last remaining coal-fired power stations at Cottam in Nottinghamshire was switched off. [See Carbon Brief’s coal phaseout tracker for more details.]

Finally a piece in the Conversation by fusion energy PhD student Thomas Nicholas warns that the Conservatives’ funding pledge of £220m for nuclear fusion reactors to provide clean energy “by 2040” is “wishful thinking”. “Although additional funding is welcome news to fusion researchers like me, it isn’t an effective response to climate change,” he notes, explaining the technology still needs a lot of development.

Government data has revealed the death toll resulting from the monsoon rains and flooding that has struck India in recent months, Reuters reports. According to the news outlet, the worst-hit regions are the northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, where 144 people have been killed since last Friday, adding to the total of over 1,600. The Washington Post reports that India’s weather department said the nation had received the heaviest monsoon rainfall in 25 years. Reuters notes that the event has already delivered 10% more rain than a 50-year average, and is not expected to retreat until after early October, over a month later than usual. While flood prevention and forecasting systems are lacking, the total flood prone area in the country has increased in recent decades due to “deforestation, degradation of water bodies and climate change”, the news service reports. An editorial in the Times of India says the flooding “sounds a warning bell to all Indian cities”. Noting that “no one…is spared the horrors that can come visiting,” it continues: “There is a need to intensify our efforts towards climate change mitigation but the preoccupation of nations with walling off borders, raising tariff barriers and reluctance to offer climate finance and share technology doesn’t inspire confidence”. A piece in the Hindustan Times agrees that the extreme weather is a “stark reminder of climate change and its implications”.

Half way around the world, Reuters reports that Hurricane Lorenzo has struck the mid-Atlantic island chain of the Azores. Both the New York Times and the BBC have recently run pieces noting that Lorenzo has already broken the record for the strongest storm this far north and east in the Atlantic. “The relationship between hurricanes and global warming is complicated, but there is a consensus that human-driven climate change is making hurricanes more intense,” the NY Times notes.

Energy regulator Ofgem has announced that four energy suppliers must pay £14.7m towards the Renewables Obligation within a month, or face losing their licences, according to the Press Association. Robin Hood Energy, Toto Energy, Gnergy, and Delta Gas and Power did not meet the original deadline at the start or September for payments that buy Renewable Obligation Certificates, it says. These certificates demonstrate to Ofgem that the companies are funding renewable schemes to help shift the UK away from fossil fuels, PA notes. [The Renewables Obligation is now closed to new entrants, having been replaced by Contracts for Difference.] The piece quotes Mary Starks, executive director of consumers and markets at Ofgem, who says failure to make these payments “undermines the integrity of the schemes and is unacceptable”. The Guardian reports that Robin Hood Energy alone, which is owned by Nottingham city council, had not passed on £9.5m in these renewable energy subsidies “after collecting them from customers through their bills”.

Meanwhile, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell confirmed to the Financial Times that he would “abide by the democratic wishes of the party” and push ahead with plans to nationalise Britain’s six largest energy suppliers. This comes after a vote to do just that at the party’s annual conference in Brighton last week.

The New South Wales government in Australia is considering legislation that could help usher in new coal mines in the state by making it harder for planning authorities to rule them out on climate change grounds, the Guardian reports. According to the paper, the move comes after projects were rejected or limited in decisions that referenced the impact of “scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions”, which are emissions released once coal has entered the market, including overseas. Planning minister Rob Stokes said it was “not appropriate for state governments to impose conditions about emissions policies in other countries,“ the Guardian notes. Meanwhile, Guardian polling finds that 70% of Australians think prime minister Scott Morrison should have joined other world leaders attending last week’s UN climate summit in New York.

Yet another Guardian piece reports on a new paper [covered in the climate science section below] looking at the amount of CO2 being absorbed and emitted by Australia’s mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows every year.

After last week’s UN Climate Action Summit in New York that “ultimately failed” to deliver sufficient action from world leaders, Ed King from the Global Strategic Communications Council considers seven lessons that can be taken away from the event. He notes that the outcomes feel especially “bleak” in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest oceans and cryosphere report [covered in-depth by Carbon Brief]. However, he attempts to draw together some key messages that can be taken away from the summit regardless. “I’m open to being accused of naivety or forced-optimism, yet I feel there are lessons and positives from the last week that we’d do well not to ignore,” he writes. Among these messages are the “lack of vision” from oil and gas majors, the need to rely less on politicians and the potential use of trade – perhaps in the form of a carbon border tax – to drive down emissions. He also emphasises the importance of the UK delivering on its net-zero target and delivering a successful COP26 in Glasgow next year. “This is a negotiation we all have a stake in, and one where unlike Brexit, there might actually be light at the end of the tunnel,” he concludes.

A piece in Bloomberg considers why Americans are finally responding to climate change news, despite the evidence for the phenomenon being in place for decades. “What’s noticeably changed is the way Americans are reacting to the news – taking these forecasts seriously, and recognising that this isn’t only about polar bears, but about them,” writes columnist Faye Flam. According to Flam, the change in polling results on climate “wasn’t the amount of evidence but a shift in political forces and some changes in the way scientists learned to make their case”. She notes the importance of discussions around natural disasters in making the case for climate change, and the fact scientists are “unabashedly giving statistical evidence”. “Believing in the problem isn’t enough to spur action, but it’s a vital first step. Many people are now clamouring for action, thanks in part to the popular notion that the next 11 years are critical for minimising the impacts of global warming. It’s a nice, manageable number – a short enough window to be challenging but long enough to seem doable,” she notes.

Australia accounts for 5-11% of the all the carbon stored in “vegetated coastal ecosystems” – which include tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrasses – around the world, a new study says. The researchers conducted the “most comprehensive [assessment] for any nation to-date” into blue carbon storage and potential in Australia. The findings show that potential CO2 losses from these ecosystems amounts to 2.1-3.1m tonnes of CO2 per year, which would increase the annual CO2 emissions from land use change in Australia by 12-21%. The assessment “demonstrates the potential of conservation and restoration of VCE to underpin national policy development for reducing greenhouse gas emissions”.

Warmer and drier conditions over the last century have caused a “collapse” in the numbers of birds in the Mojave desert, a new study suggests. The research explores the “thermoregulatory costs” for 50 bird species to keep cool, finding that “probability of persistence was lowest for species occupying the warmest and driest sites, which imposed the greatest cooling costs”. “Birds with the greatest water requirements for cooling their body temperature experienced the largest declines,” the study finds, while “large-bodied carnivores and insectivores were especially vulnerable to cooling costs because they obtain water primarily from their food”.

A new study analyses the rainfall series from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, which is “one of the longest known single site instrumental records in the southern hemisphere, spanning over 176 years”. The researchers identify “a positive rainfall trend during the first 60 years (i.e., 1841-1900), which thereafter changes to a long‐term (1900-2016) negative trend, but incorporating a shorter 40 year significant positive trend between 1930 and 1970”. The analysis also reveals “significant negative rainfall trends…for the months of March and October, and for the spring season (from September to November)”, the researchers say.