Hay fever affects 18 million people in the UK, but a new
study suggests a warming climate means worse may be on the way. The
culprit is the common ragweed, an invasive species that’s expanding
across Europe, which means up to 12 times as much of its potent
pollen.

Do people across Britain think differently about climate
change? Or does the UK speak as one voice? Data on regional
attitudes to climate change is pretty thin on the ground, but
Carbon Brief takes you through the information that exists from the
UK and further afield to unpack this intriguing story.

Featured on the front page, The Times reports the past
12-month period has been the warmest on record, and temperatures
this year have set a record for January to April, at 0.68C above
normal. With other milestones being broken round the world, The
Times asks Prof Adam Scaife at the Met Office whether this means
the end of the slowdown in global surface temperature rise. “The
pause may be over but we can’t say that for sure after only two
years of data,” he says. “We need a few more years of global
temperature data.”

Climate change could help a notorious invasive weed known to
trigger severe allergy attacks to spread and bring misery to hay
fever sufferers, experts have warned. Ragweed is native to North
America but has been spreading rapidly across warmer parts of
Europe. It is still rare in the UK, but researchers predict by 2050
it could be scattering pollen throughout much of Britain and
northern Europe. Ragweed is already the biggest cause of hay fever
in the US, reports The Daily Express, who put the story on
their front page. The Guardianalso cover the
research, and you can read Carbon Brief’s coverage here.

UK shale explorer Third Energy has applied to frack for gas
near the Yorkshire town of Malton, the second company to seek
permission to drill in Britain. The group has applied to North
Yorkshire county council to frack an existing well at Kirby
Misperton, near to theme park Flamingo Land. Local planning
officers will take up to 13 weeks to decide on their
recommendation, followed by a decision from the
council. The Guardianalso covers the story.

World leaders missed the perfect opportunity to tackle
climate change during the global economic crisis, according to
economist Lord Stern. The economic and technological conditions
during the financial crisis would have made progress on climate
change easier, had politicians seized the opportunity, says Stern.
He also criticises an “anti-science wing” of the Conservative party
for putting the brakes on progress.

In an interview with The Guardian, Shell’s chief executive,
Ben van Beurden, predicts the global energy system will become
“zero carbon” by the end of the century, with Shell obtaining a
“very, very large segment” of its earnings from renewable power. He
also endorses warnings that fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned
unless some way is found to capture their carbon emissions. On
Shell’s planned Arctic oil exploration, he says some of the
opposition was “emotional and difficult to engage with”, but the
decision was taken on rational grounds of assessing the technical
risks. Meanwhile, The Financial Timessays Shell is
ready to seize its Arctic drilling chance, but it also
reportsthat oil production before
the 2030s is unlikely because of the difficulty in securing
environmental approvals. Lastly, Reutersreports that a group of 18 mostly
Democratic US senators have urged the Obama administration to stop
Shell’s preparations for oil exploration in the Arctic.

Insurance company Axa says it will remove £355m of coal
investments from its portfolio. The company has also pledged to
triple its investments in green technologies and services to more
than £2 billion by 2020 and provide investors with more information
on the risk to its investments from climate change.RTCC, Reutersand Business Greenalso have the story.
Meanwhile, The Financial Timesreports that
chief executives of US public pension giants, Calpers and Calstrs,
have urged G7 finance ministers to back a firm goal for cutting
greenhouse gas emissions at the climate summit in Paris in
December.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been
urged by Green MP Caroline Lucas to “come clean” over its
decision-making process for an underground gas storage facility in
Lancashire. DECC had previously stated the decision rests with
their Secretary of State, which is now Amber Rudd, but they have
now said it is not part of her brief. The company behind the
proposed facility, which has been subject to a 12-year planning
dispute, is represented by a lobbying company headed by Amber
Rudd’s brother, Roland.

The United States, China, India – together with the European
Union – will shape the future of the planet, says former Australian
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The success of climate negotiations in
Paris in December will hinge on the how these parties collaborate
on climate action, says Rudd. He also argues that any climate
change agreement must ensure that countries actually implement the
emissions cuts they commit to.

Nick Butler asks whether Germany can still claim to be an
environmental leader while still burning more coal than any other
developed country apart from the US. Germany is committed to an
80-95% cut in emissions by 2050, but emissions have grown in the
last three years, and Germany has installed more than 10GW of new
coal-fired capacity since 2011, Butler says. The decision on what
happens to coal is a crucial test of will between two of the key
forces in German society – the green movement on one side and
industry and the unions on the other, Butler argues.

This pursuit of fossil fuels under UK seas and soil is
rooted in centuries of Treasury control of Whitehall, says Juliette
Jowit in The Guardian. From George Osborne downwards, ambivalence
on climate change means the Treasury has tried to water down carbon
reduction targets, supported new airports and roads, frozen or cut
support for renewable energy, and even blocked research into the
impacts of climate change on the UK economy, she says.

A new paper explores the role of “echo chambers” in climate
politics in the US, during a particularly active period when
legislating carbon dioxide emissions had passed through the House
of Representatives and was being considered by the Senate. This
leads to some observations about the relationship between science
communication and policymaking at the elite level, say the
researchers.

Would it be feasible to geoengineer the climate by injecting
sunlight-reflecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reduce coral
bleaching? A new paper finds that stabilising ocean acidification
at 2020 levels until a time when technology is up to the task of
negative emissions could “buy the reefs time” and reduce the risk
of global bleaching.