BBC News is among a number of outlets reporting a new study which has found that the world has “seriously underestimated” the amount of heat soaked up by our oceans over the past 25 years. BBC News says: “Their study suggests that the seas have absorbed 60% more than previously thought. They say it means the Earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than estimated. This could make it much more difficult to to keep global warming within safe levels this century.” The Washington Post describes the study in Nature as “startling new research”, saying the “findings mean the world might have less time to curb carbon emissions”. It adds: “In the scientific realm, the new findings help resolve long-running doubts about the rate of the warming of the oceans before 2007, when reliable measurements from devices called ‘Argo floats’ were put to use worldwide.” The New York Times says that the “study, led by Laure Resplandy, a biogeochemical oceanographer at Princeton University, found that between 1991 and 2016 the oceans warmed an average of 60 percent more per year than the panel’s official estimates”. Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief’s US analyst, has tweeted that he is “a bit skeptical of takes in the Washington Post that [the study] would imply higher sensitivity/lower carbon budgets”. Meanwhile, MailOnline reports that separate teams of scientists have reported this week that “glaciers at the North and South Poles are shrinking at an ‘unprecedented’ pace”.

Prof David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, has called the Irish government’s failure to take more effective measures to address climate change “a breach of Ireland’s human rights obligations”. The Irish Times says it is a “landmark intervention” by a UN human rights expert in an Irish environmental law case. Boyd said: “There is no doubt that climate change is already violating the right to life and other human rights today. In the future, these violations will expand in terms of geographic scope, severity, and the number of people affected unless effective measures are implemented in the short term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect natural carbon sinks.” He added that the Irish government “has clear, positive, and enforceable obligations to protect against the infringement of human rights by climate change”. The Irish edition of the Times says Boyd’s comments were part of a legal submission in support of a High Court challenge by an environmental NGO to the state’s plan to tackle climate change.

Reuters reports that “Angela Merkel’s CDU and its Social Democrat (SPD) partners have agreed to keep their promise to speed up the expansion of renewable power installations, ending months of wrangling”. It adds: “Renewable energy is one of the most important drivers of Germany’s plans to become a low-carbon economy, part of the country’s commitment to help to combat global warming. As part of these efforts, the German government agreed in January to plan for additional tenders for 4 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaics and 4GW onshore wind as well as an unspecified offshore wind energy contribution in 2019 and 2020, on top of regular tenders. This was designed to help to achieve a renewables rate of 65% in the power mix by 2030 compared with 36% now, among many other measures. The additional renewables capacity would reduce Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions by 8-10m tonnes a year.”

The UK government has rejected Cuadrilla’s request to relax rules on earthquakes caused by fracking despite claims that the limits could prevent it testing the UK’s shale gas potential, reports the Times. The paper adds that Cuadrilla has already twice fallen foul of the rules over the past week, with tremors measuring 0.8 and 1.1 magnitude. Speaking at an event yesterday, Claire Perry, the energy minister, said that the current restrictions were “entirely appropriate” during the initial testing phase. The Times says she added that the government would need to review the limits if the industry got to an “operational state”. However, she continued: “It would be a very foolish politician who would do things that would be considered to be relaxing regulatory standards when we are trying to reassure people about safety.”

The Guardian reports that 15 environmental protesters, who blocked the roads outside the Houses of Parliament in the first stage of an “escalating campaign of civil disobedience”, have been arrested. The newspaper says: “More than 1,000 people from the newly formed Extinction Rebellion group issued a declaration of rebellion in London’s Parliament Square on Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency. The group, that included families, pensioners and teenagers, then sat down in the road blocking traffic at one of London’s busiest intersections for more than two hours…Wednesday’s protest was due to be a symbolic start to a campaign of civil disobedience that organisers say will bring large parts of London to a standstill next month.” Speakers included George Monbiot, Caroline Lucas and Green MEP Molly Scott Cato, who had earlier written an article in the Guardian explaining the protest.

In a feature for the Guardian, Emily Holden concludes that the Democrats are “wary of wading into a tough political fight, despite an intensifying environmental crisis”. She adds: “Democrats don’t have a plan to address climate change comprehensively – or even to a significant degree – if they regain control of the US government in the near future, despite criticising Republicans as the party of pollution…If Democrats win back the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections, their strategy is to hold oversight hearings on Donald Trump’s environmental rollbacks and pursue more incremental and popular measures, according to close observers and a senior Democratic aide. Environmental advocates hoping progressive politicians will lead efforts to save the planet may be shocked to learn there’s no wide-ranging strategy or headline-grabbing legislation waiting to be unveiled – even if Democrats take the White House in 2020.”

An editorial in the Guardian argues that “the EU – and Britain – ought to act to save the planet from Jair Bolsonaro, whose policies will accelerate climate change, not curb it”. It adds: “Mr Bolsonaro says he will not scrap the Paris climate agreement, where Brazil set itself ambitious climate targets, as long as he gets assurances that his country would not cede sovereignty to native tribes or international jurisdiction over the Andes mountains, Amazon rainforest and Atlantic Ocean. This is a contradiction that will prove impossible to resolve: Mr Bolsonaro’s policies will help pave over the rainforest – with new highways and dams promised in the Amazon basin – and make it all but impossible for Brazil to reduce its carbon footprint…With the US administration run by climate-change sceptics and China tacking away from its green stance, Europe must take a lead. The EU has a hand to play with Brazil. Deforestation is largely driven by demand for land to grow soybeans – exported to feed livestock – and to expand cattle farms. The EU is the biggest foreign investor in Brazil.” Meanwhile, Climate Home News has a feature asking whether – with Bolsonaro in, Merkel out – is “the Paris climate gang is breaking up”?

In this first of a new series of DeSmogUK articles called “Just Transition, from Fossil Fuels to Environmental Justice”, the website looks at the “history of energy in Fife and begin to mine the prospects for a more sustainable future to meet our climate crisis”. Why start in Fife? “In 2002, the Fife mine that was still powering Scotland’s last coal-fired power station at Longannet flooded. Its closure brought to an end 500 long years of underground labouring for coal in Scotland. In Fife in particular, an early starter in the industry, silent monuments to the dirty, dangerous work of extraction dot the landscape.”

France24 reports that Brazil’s new far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro will merge the environment and agriculture ministries, “a move activists have warned could imperil the Amazon rainforest”. Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro’s likely chief of staff, told journalists yesterday that “agriculture and environment will be in the same ministry”. Bolsonaro, who is backed by Brazil’s powerful agro-industrial lobby, had already floated the idea in the past, saying, “Let’s be clear: the future ministry will come from the productive sector.” BBC Newsreports that a former environment minister has tweeted that the move is “tragic”. Marina Silva tweeted: “This disastrous decision will bring serious damage to Brazil and will pass on to consumers abroad the idea that all Brazilian agribusiness survives thanks to the destruction of forests.” Carbon Brief has recently updated its in-depth profile of Brazil.

New data on the increases in ocean heat content over recent decades suggest that “ocean warming is at the high end of previous estimates”. The researchers use measurements of atmospheric oxygen and CO2 – levels of which increase as the ocean warms and releases gases – as a “whole-ocean thermometer”. The results show that, between 1991 and 2016, the ocean may have gained around 62% more heat than estimates in the fifth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The new estimate would also push up the lower bound of equilibrium climate sensitivity from 1.5C to 2C.

A new study investigates how extreme summer weather events could be affected in future by warming from CO2 emissions and cooling from air pollution. The research focuses on the influence of “quasi-resonant amplification (QRA)” – a phenomenon whereby large meanders in the jet stream lock in place, trapping weather systems between them. The projections suggest that QRA events are likely to increase by around 50% this century under business-as-usual CO2 emissions. This increase could be as much as a near tripling of events, the researchers note, but some models do show a decrease because of the cooling effect of aerosols.