There has been no significant change in climate science,
international or European Union policy that would justify
slackening the fourth carbon budget, according to areportfrom the committee on climate
change. The fourth carbon budget sets emissions targets for
2023-27.

The amount of tax David Cameron has to pay on his subsidised
utility bills at Downing Street went down this year, according to
the front page of the Daily Mirror. The article mentions that
MPs voted down a Labour’s proposal to freeze energy bills
yesterday.

In a speech this morning, Nick Clegg will call on David
Cameron to hold his nerve on climate change. The speech includes
labelling the prime minister’s recent scepticism about renewable
energy “economic myopia of the worst kind” and accusing some senior
Conservatives of acting as “climate change deniers”.
Fiona Harvey and
Damian Carrington, The Guardian

Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the
Conservation of Energy, wrote to Energy and Climate Change
Secretary Ed Davey yesterday to warn that the review of the Energy
Company Obligation (ECO) scheme is having a “devastating” impact on
its members as orders from the energy companies dry up.

The world is spending half a trillion dollars on fossil fuel
subsidies every year, according to a new report from the Overseas
Development Institute. The report says rich countries are spending
seven times more supporting coal, oil and gas than they are on
helping poorer nations fight climate change.

Hitting energy and environment targets for 2030 under
discussion in the European Commission would save up to 35 billion
euros ($47 billion) per year in health costs as air pollution
declines. The numbers are from a draft Commission assessment of the
impact of 2030 goals expected to be announced early next
year.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard criticised the
“alarmist conclusions” reached on global warming before delivering
a lecture to the climate skeptic Global Warming Policy Foundation
on Tuesday. In the lecture he accused some scientists of pursuing a
“nakedly political agenda” on climate change, according to
the Times.

Research by EnergyDesk indicates the government’s Carbon
Price Floor will raise a total of £8.7bn from consumers within five
years. But the scheme is unlikely to reduce emissions significantly
until after 2020, according to industry sources.

New evidence suggests drilling sumps – used to store waste
from the process fossil fuel extraction – are affecting aquatic
wildlife. In the Canadian Arctic where permafrost is thawing under
global warming, contaminated water from the sumps is seeping into
surrounding soils and water systems.

New research indicates that between 2000 and 2011, the
productivity of ecosystems in China declined – meaning they locked
up less atmospheric carbon than usual. The authors link this to a
number of drought years, during which plant productivity
fell.