Japan has pledged to reduce its emissions by 26% on 2013levels by 2030. But its intended future energy mix means that coalcould still grow by 30%.

A new study combats the accepted wisdom that shale gascaused US emissions to fall. The findings could be politicallysignificant.

Secretary of State Amber Rudd appeared for the first timebefore the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, laying outpriorities for the Department of Energy and ClimateChange. The Guardianhighlights hercomments that new wind farms could still be built in the UK withoutsubsidies, and that three developers have approached the departmentwith proposals for such projects. BusinessGreensays that therenewables industry has braced itself for steep cuts after Ruddfocused on the need to end reliance on subsidies quickly.They livebloggedthesession. The Telegraphfocused on Rudd’soptimism that a decision would be taken later this year to builtthe new Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in the UK.

Mayors have met at the Vatican for a conference includingPope Francis, aimed at promoting local action to tackle climatechange and raising the profile of the Pope’s recently releasedencyclical. The 60 mayors were invited to keep pressure up ondiplomats negotiating the UN’s new climate deal,reports Associated Press. Pope Francis linkedclimate change to the problem of human trafficking, the other themeof the conference, reports The Guardian. Among the attendees wasNew York mayor Bill de Blasio, who committed to reducing his citiesemissions by 40% by 2030, report the Associated PressandThe Guardian, in two separatearticles. The New York Timesalso covers thestory.

The Financial Times correctly predicted that the governmentwould release new cuts to clean energy subsidies early thismorning. The plans have just been released on the government website, and include removingthe guaranteed level of subsidy for biomass conversion andlaunching a consultation on controlling subsidies for solarphotovoltaics.

A study published in Nature Communications suggests that thedrop in US carbon emissions could be due to the recession, notshale gas, as is widely believed. Carbon Briefalso looked at thefindings.

Colombia’s pledge to the UN climate deal will include apledge to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2030, the governmenthas said. The country is currently finalising its plans and willpresent them to the UN in the following weeks, reports Reuters. Thegoal will be achieved through a focus on fighting deforestation,increasing energy efficiency, creating sources of renewable energyand renovating public transportation with hybrid vehicles.

Sea level rise could harm turtle populations in the future,as eggs that are swamped in seawater have less chance of hatching,due to their inability to gather oxygen from the surrounding area.The findings are based on a study carried out on Raine Island, onthe edge of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which is regularlyhit by king tides and storms.

The world is not on track when it comes to developing thenew technologies needed to tackle climate change, writes EduardoPorter in an article trailed on the front page of the New YorkTimes. Nuclear and carbon capture and storage are still in theirinfancy, and the US, which should be leading the push forinnovation, is not doing so, he writes. Meanwhile, investments inthe sector are falling.

The UK has set an example for the world in cutting itscarbon emissions, and this gives David Cameron and his governmentreal clout when engaging with countries such as China and the USabout the importance of tackling climate change, argue Lord Sternand Sir Brian Hoskins. The prime minister must now exercise thisinfluence at the “golden opportunity” of the UN climate talks inParis this December.

Based on a photo call from the Major Economies Forum thattook place on the weekend, RTCC’s Ed King runs through a who’s whoin the world of climate diplomacy. From Christiana Figures, theface of the UN climate talks, to the little known Luxembourgminister Carole Dieschbourg, these are the politicians who willhelp to shape the outcome of the UN climate talks in Paris thisDecember.

Between 1948 and 2012, autumn and winter seasons in the UShave been starting later, while spring and summer are startingearlier, new research shows. Researchers analysed data from 60weather stations across mainland US. The biggest shifts in seasonswere found along coasts and in larger, more urbanised areas, thestudy says.

A new paper reviews the state of the science of modellingconvective weather systems in regional climate models. Despite onlybeing in existence for around a decade, these”convection-permitting” models have added value to climatesimulations for mountainous regions and extreme rainfall events,the researchers say. Results to date suggest an increase in flashfloods, changes in hail storm characteristics, and reductions inthe snowpack over mountains, the study finds.

Almost 7,000 oil and gas wells in the US were used forhydraulic fracturing less than a mile from the surface, and some asshallow as 100 feet, a new study finds. Shallower fracking poses agreater potential threat to underground water sources because thereis less separation between the chemicals pumped underground and thedrinking water above them, the researchers say.