A letter obtained via a freedom-of-information request by Unearthed shows the UK’s energy minister has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the seismic activity standards that have frustrated attempts to frack for shale gas. In a letter to Cuadrilla boss Francis Egan last November, Claire Perry said the government “has no intention of altering” the system. The Financial Times also has the story.

Meanwhile, BBC News reports that Friends of the Earth has lost the latest High Court challenge against fracking at a site in Lancashire. The group said the Environment Agency should have considered other techniques that produce less waste when it considered Cuadrilla’s application to drill for shale gas at the Preston New Road site, but Mr Justice Supperstone rejected the challenge. The Independent also has the story. The Sunday Times has an interview with Cuadrilla’s chief executive, Francis Egan, describing him as “clearly frazzled”. “You can disagree with fracking, say it’s the wrong way for the country to be getting its energy, but no one’s child is going to be killed as a result of this. Not a chance. So, yes, it does annoy me,” says Egan. The Independent also reports on a “surge” in oil and gas firms using injunctions to block protesters at UK sites. “Since the end of 2017 oil and gas firms have taken out five injunctions covering 16 sites from Lancashire to Surrey in a bid to curb protesting,” the article says.

A pre-trial hearing for Friends of the Earth’s bid to overturn the “unlawful” decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow airport will take place on Tuesday at the High Court, the Independent reports. The activists aim to overturn the decision based on climate change targets. The legal challenge is one of five against the third runway, which are being undertaken on the grounds of climate, air quality and harm to the wellbeing of local residents, adds the Independent. “The government should never have entertained the idea of a climate-wrecking third runway, with Heathrow already the UK’s single biggest source of emissions,” says Laura MacKenzie, climate change campaigner at Friends of the Earth.

Coverage of the fallout from the expected suspension of the Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant by Japanese firm Hitachi has continued over the weekend. The Sunday Times, which notes the suspension is expected to be confirmed at a board meeting today, says it will force ministers “pioneer a new way of financing nuclear power”. “[It] will force the government to lure investors with a financing method that would pile costs on to consumers, even before a plant has been built,” adds the Sunday Times. BBC News says a statement from the Welsh Government described reports that Hitachi’s board would be likely to decide to suspend all work on the plant as “worrying”. The Guardian says Hitachi’s withdrawal from the scheme will leave “Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters.” The Daily Mail notes the “looking collapse” comes after rival Japanese group Toshiba abandoned plans to build a reactor in Cumbria. Nick Butler argues in the Financial Times that “the demise of Wylfa forces the need for a comprehensive review of energy policy”. The questions are simple, he says: “How much energy is likely to be needed? What are the most cost effective ways of reducing emissions? What alternative competitive sources of supply are now available, and what research priorities can improve efficiency and advance the next generation of supplies? Then, crucially, what incentives or guarantees are necessary to secure the required investment?”

A residency programme for wealthy foreigners has been extended by Portugal’s parliament to include investors who spend at least €500,000 on environmental projects, Reuters reports. However, such “golden visa” programmes have faced criticism in Brussels for “exposing the EU countries that operate them to corruption risks”, Reuters adds.

The economy minister of one of Germany’s coal-mining states, North Rhine-Westphalia, has said the state is demanding at least €10bn in structural support if coal-fired power stations are phased out, reports Reuters. The German cabinet has appointed a coal commission to find a compromise on how operators of these coal plants set to be closed – and the regions they are located in, could be compensated. Germany’s governing coalition has so far agreed to spend €1.5bn to help regions affected by the planned coal exit, adds Reuters. EurActiv reports that Germany is among those to have “turned in patchy plans” for an end-of-2018 deadline to submit draft energy and climate plans to the European Commission. Seven EU nations – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain – missed the deadline, says EurActiv.

The bump in transportation emissions in a recent Rhodium Group estimate of a CO2 emissions “surge” in the US did not come from cars, notes Umair Irfa in a Vox article. “Instead, emissions from trucking and air travel helped contribute to the overall increase: demand for both diesel and jet fuel increased about 3% in 2018.” This is a “clear sign of just how difficult it is to decarbonise the airline industry”, says Irfa, adding that surprisingly few low-carbon technologies or fuels have been developed for aviation so far. “Regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions from air travel would be a major step to spur more research on this front,” he concludes. Separately, BusinessGreen reports that Major Denmark broadsheet Politiken has pledged to end domestic air travel for assignments as well as minimise international flights taken by its reporters.

“In 2017, more than 1GW of energy storage capacity was added around the world,” says a briefing in the Guardian on batteries and energy storage. While this was a record addition, it is “still a drop in the ocean of global energy demand”, says the article, which goes on to explain how these batteries work, how many of them there are, how they fit into the “renewables revolution”, and their social and environmental impacts.

Limiting global warming to 1.5C could stem increases to rainfall intensity across China, a study finds. Using climate models, the researchers find that global warming of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is likely to lead to an increase in rainfall intensity in northeast China, north China and the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. However, “an increase in global warming from 1.5 to 2C is projected to lead to an increase in precipitation intensity over China, except for some scattered regions in the northwest and southwest of the country”, the authors say. “More frequent extreme precipitation days are also expected.”

Spring rainfall could increase the rate at which thawing permafrost releases methane, a study finds. “When permafrost thaws, the ground collapses and sinks. Often a wetland forms within the collapsed area,” the researchers say. The study finds that spring rainwater – which is relatively warm – can “rapidly” heat up these wetlands. The authors say: “The microbial and plant processes that generate methane increase with temperature. Therefore, wetland soils, warmed by spring rainfall, supported more methane production and release.”