A Texan couple have won a landmark lawsuit against energy
company Aruba Petroleum. Lisa and Bob Parr successfully sued the
company for $3 million after a judge ruled that they were exposed
to gases and industrial chemicals from fracking sites near their
home. The ruling is being hailed as a victory for the anti-fracking
movement.

Countries are finding areas of agreement that should lead to
some sort of international deal to curb emissions by the time they
meet in Paris in 2015, Germany’s environment minister says. She
also believes a number of big players including the US, EU and
China should be ready to submit emissions reduction pledges by
March 2015 at the latest.

The new European Commission president, Jean Claude Junker,
has set out his stall on a range of energy and climate issues. He
supports a 30 per cent energy efficiency target, 10 per cent higher
than the current goal. He also calls for a stronger energy union
between member states, with a greater number of interconnectors to
support increased renewable generation.

Warmer winters could be responsible for growing numbers of
reindeer in the Arctic, the Times says. The population has
increased in parallel with winter warming in the past 35 years,
growing from an average of around 600 animals in the early 1980s to
just over 1,300 this year, according to new research.

Lots of stories today looking at what the cabinet reshuffle
could mean for the UK’s climate and energy policy scene. Two allies
of the chancellor, Matt Hancock and Amber Rudd, have been appointed
to the Department of Energy and Climate Change suggesting the
Treasury is attempting to tighten its grip on the policy area, the
Telegraph says. Hancock’s first task will be to sell the UK’s shale gas
resourcesto a private sector that has so far proved
reluctant to invest, another Telegraph article says.
The Guardianis concerned Hancock will oppose
renewable energy development, as he signed a letter (along with 100
of his colleagues) calling for onshore wind subsidies to be cut. It
also expresses concern over the green credentials of the new
environment secretary, Liz Truss, who followed the party line in
calling for green levies to be cut last October. Truss will hope to
be more popular than her predecessor, Owen Paterson,
Channel 4 Newssays. While
“loathed” by environmentalists and animal lovers, farmers and
fishermen may miss the man who regularly fought their corner,
Channel 4’s report says. But if Paterson was largely unpopular
within his policy arena, the same cannot be said of climate
minister Greg Barker, who leaves his ministerial post to advise the
prime minister on environmental policy in the runup to the
election. BusinessGreensays a fond farewell
and recaps some of his successes – from the Green Investment Bank,
to launching the Renewable Heat Incentive. Another popular minister
to lose his post was David Willets, the science and universities
minister. New Scientistwonders if his
replacement, Greg Clark, will be able to juggle the portfolio while
continuing in his role as cities minister. We’veprofiledall the main
players.

Research by the Department of Energy and Climate Change seems
to show that people concerned about climate change use more
electricity than those who are not concerned. But the results may
be skewed by the age of the respondents, the Mail points out. Older
people tend to use the least electricity, and are also the least
concerned about climate change. Once this group is removed from the
dataset, there is a weak correlation between people’s attitudes to
climate change and electricity use. So in answer to the headline’s
question – probably not.

The UN’s Green Climate Fund has been given a boost with
Germany pledging $1 billion last Monday. The UN will hold a first
pledging conference for potential donors in the second half of
November, before the UN climate conference in Peru. The fund aims
to help poor nations pursue clean development and adapt to climate
change impacts, including more floods, droughts, heatwaves and
rising sea levels.

Australia’s carbon tax was given a week’s stay of execution
last Thursday. Now, its time seems to be up. While repealing the
tax could give Australian businesses a short term boost, it leaves
them vulnerable to changes in regulation if a strong international
deal on climate change is agreed in December 2015, a University of
Melbourne professor argues.

InsideClimate has put together an interactive timeline of the
Koch brothers’ involvement in extracting oil from tar sands. The
brothers have had a hand in the industry for over 50
years.

Extreme rainfall in the Philippines has increased by 4.3
percent per one degree rise in average temperature, a new study
shows. This trend – plus seasonal ups and downs in line with the El
Niño Southern Oscillation – need factoring into adaptation
strategies to lower the impacts of extreme rainfall events, say the
authors.