There are enough fossil fuels buried in the ground to melt the
whole of the Antarctic ice sheet – should we choose to burn them,
according to new research. This “mind boggling” finding shows that
our actions now have the power to change the face of the planet for
tens of thousands of years to come, lead author Dr Ricarda
Winkelmann tells Carbon Brief: “To put it bluntly: if we burn it
all, we melt it all.”

Catch-up on the climate and energy policies ofJeremy Corbyn,
the new Labour party leader. Last month, Carbon Brief produced a
grid of the policy positions of all the leadership
candidates.

Scientists expect global temperatures in 2015 and 2016 to reach
record highs, largely down to the strong El Niño
underway in the Pacific Ocean, according to a new report from the
Met Office. Natural cycles in the Pacific are reversing, which is
likely to see the speed of warming pick up pace. But changes also
afoot in the Atlantic could favour cooler, drier summers in the
northern Europe, says

A new “blockbuster” study finds that burning all the world’s
fossil fuel resources would raise global temperatures enough to
eliminate the Antarctic ice sheet. The process would likely take up
to 10,000 years but we would be committing ourselves to more than
50 metres of sea-level rise, enough to submerge major cities from
Shanghai to New York, says

In a fresh blow to the renewable energy industry, the UK
government has rejected a proposal to build a wind farm off the
coast of Dorset, after complaints that it would “industrialise and
irrevocably damage” the views from the coastline. This is despite
evidence to suggest tourism was unlikely to be affected and an
offer from the project’s developers, EDF and ENECO, for a £15m fund
to offset any losses. The decision that the project would harm
views from Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and England’s only
natural UNESCO World Heritage Site comes after an unusual
recommendation from the independent Planning Inspectorate three
months ago to refuse the application, says the FT.

Energy experts are warning that Britain’s creaking electricity
system could be pushed close to breaking point within months with
new gas-fired power stations not being built fast enough to plug
supply gaps, reports the FT’s energy editor. Adams cites figures
from the investment bank Jeffries, which suggest that for 2016-17
just 53 gigawatts of capacity will be available to meet forecast
peak demand of 56 gigawatts.

The founder of chemicals giant Ineos says shale offers Britain
cheaper energy and insists it could reinvigorate his native north
country. Commenting that a lot of the opposition is based on
hearsay and rumours, Ratcliffe says: “‘One thing I’m sure about,
you can’t have an energy policy that means you can only have a bath
when the wind blows.”

Nick Butler catalogues the delays to the “long-planned and
much-postponed Hinkley Point nuclear power station” and asks
whether new MInister of State in the Department of Energy and
Climate Change, Andrea Leadsom, can use her authority to force “a
better bargain for energy consumers by negotiating a new and
improved deal with the owners.” One thing she can influence is the
price, says Butler, pointing to

Former Secretary of State for Business, Lord Hutton, makes the
case for new nuclear in the UK, saying it’s “crucial” to move
swiftly forward with Hinkley and other projects currently going
through the regulatory process. “While we’ve seen a welcome
expansion in renewables, these are intermittent and cannot fill the
gap alone. Unless we have new nuclear, we’re going to lose a vital
source of reliable, secure low-carbon electricity.” With the costs
of Hinkley often unfairly coming under fire, nuclear needs to be
part of the solution to the energy challenge the UK faces, Hutton
concludes.

A new study that looks at how temperature trends in different
parts of the world have contributed to the slower pace of global
surface warming in since the last 1990s finds that it has been
largely driven by a pronounced Eurasian winter cooling trend. This
cooling arises from natural variability not Arctic sea ice loss,
say the authors, though the reduction in sea ice may increase the
chances of an extreme Eurasian winter cooling
trend.