The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk
to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political
conflict, a report published yesterday by a US military think tank
concludes. The Guardianhighlights the report’s
warnings about rapid change in the Arctic “sparking
conflict”.

Former Conservative energy secretary Lord Howell has said
that the government’s drive for fracking will lead to the loss of
“thousands of Tory votes”. The government will shortly publish an
assessment of the UK shale gas reserve focused on the south of
England, where many Conservative constituencies are
located.

“Germany’s biggest utility E.ON on Tuesday called for
compensation for its loss-making gas-fired power stations after
posting a 12-percent fall in first-quarter earnings. Germany’s
utilities are under pressure from expansion of renewable energy
capacity which is threatening the business model of their
conventional power plants, most notably gas.”

Norway wants to open up areas of its Arctic seas for oil and
gas drilling, despite warnings from scientists that “it is too
early to trust global warming to keep the ice away.”

The Guardian reports that government figures show both
rejections and approvals of onshore wind farms were up in 2013 –
436 windfarms were approved and 310 rejected approval, compared
with 105 approvals and 38 rejections in 2009.

“Subsidies for large solar farms are to be scrapped in what
the industry described as a crippling blow after ministers said the
projects were being built so quickly they could become
unaffordable.” The BBC reports thatthe government wants
to scrap the current subsidy scheme for solar two years early,
making large solar installations apply for subsidies under the
established contracts for difference scheme.

Two wind turbines installed near an airport in Derby are
currently not operating because they interfere with radar signals.
The owners are working with the airport to install “extra radar
technology” to allow the turbines to operate, the Telegraph
reports.

In China, pilot carbon trading schemes are “provoking
considerable bafflement and frustration among those trying to
grapple with a carbon market with Chinese characteristics”,
according to the FT. Government officials say they hope to see a
national carbon market by 2020.

Small companies that sought to bring shale gas to the UK will
now need bigger partners to attempt to exploit shale gas reserves,
Reuters reports. “Britain’s small [shale gas] companies are now in
the midst of a mini boom as they seek to capitalise on the
new-found interest from investors to consolidate their holdings and
raise external finance.”

Equipment such as refrigerators and air conditioners
containing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) represent a substantial unseen
commitment to further radiative forcing of climate change, says a
new paper. If, for example, HFC production were to be phased out in
2020 instead of 2050, about 91-146 billion tonnes of cumulative
emissions could be avoided, the scientists say.

A new paper reviews why half of Americans do not know or
believe a scientific consensus exists among climate scientists that
human-caused climate change is occurring. The authors look at why
this could be, and what climate science societies and individual
scientists can do.