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Three thousand days and counting: Nasa's Curiosity rover continues its extraordinary exploration of Mars.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California’s snowpack remains below historic averages that could limit future low-carbon hydroelectric generation, while overall power consumption dropped slightly in December across the Golden State as Governor Gavin Newsom re-imposed measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, data shows.

Compliance entities and speculators held their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings mostly firm across the first several trading sessions of 2021, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

EUAs advanced to a new record above €35 on Friday as cold weather continued to support carbon’s massive rally while auction supply remains paused.

Scientists say the risk of local extinctions is rising due to damaged waterways, land clearing and climate change

It is dusk beside a creek and we are instructed to look for a trail of bubbles, under which could be one of the world’s weirdest mammals.

When you’re desperate to see a platypus in the fading light, everything looks like one.

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Guardian environment reporter Graham Readfearn heads out in search of the elusive platypus. Researchers tracking the DNA of the egg-laying mammals believe platypuses have likely gone from Kedron Brook and four other greater Brisbane waterways: the Bremer River, Scrubby Creek, Slacks Creek and Enoggera Creek. They believe the threats to the animals' habitat are so severe that the Australian government should list the platypus as a vulnerable species

• 'Glum future for the platypus': why the elusive mammal is disappearing under our noses

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Norway aims to increase its national carbon tax more than threefold by the end of the decade as part of a climate roadmap released Friday that mainly aims to reduce emissions from non-ETS covered sectors.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma becomes full-time president of November's COP26 conference in Glasgow.

The UK government shuffled its climate ministers on Friday, with Business Secretary Alok Sharma stepping down from that post to focus full time on his role as president of the upcoming UN climate summit.

Report shows US was battered by punishing extreme weather on both the east and west coasts in 2020

The US was battered by a record number of weather and climate-driven disasters in 2020 as extensive wildfires scorched the west, hurricanes in quick succession pummeled the east and extreme heat swept across the heart of the country, a new federal government report has shown.

A total of 22 major disasters, defined as each causing at least $1bn in damage, swept the US last year, six more than the previous record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

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Decision to move business secretary follows pressure from environment experts due to scale of role

Boris Johnson has moved his business secretary, Alok Sharma, to work full-time on preparations for the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow this November, a change urged by environmental experts given the scale of the role.

For the past 11 months, Sharma has combined being Cop26 president with his job as business secretary. He will now undertake the Cop role full-time, with Kwasi Kwarteng taking the business brief.

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The future Democratic chair of the US Senate agriculture committee will focus on passing bipartisan legislation in the new Congress to help rural stakeholders voluntarily participate in carbon markets, according to a media report.

Elon Musk's company SpaceX is building a vehicle that could transform space travel.

Some companies covered by Germany's newly-launched national emissions trading system (nEHS) are likely to promptly launch legal challenges against the mechanism, which could introduce a degree uncertainty that could drag on for years, according to experts.

The broadcasting legend reveals to Radio 1's Greg James he's busy enough replying to letters.

People may have to travel to London despite pandemic in one of biggest protest crackdowns in UK legal history

More than 1,000 people who took part in environmental direct action organised by Extinction Rebellion have been taken to court in what experts say is one of the biggest crackdowns on protest in British legal history.

Hundreds of cases are ongoing and lawyers say that despite the pandemic, some defendants may still be asked to travel to court in London from across the UK to appear in person.

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The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world including sparring elk, dove v chipmunk and a playful elephant

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Satellite data shows that 2020 and 2016 are essentially tied as the hottest years since records began.

Global heating continued unabated despite Covid lockdowns, with record Arctic wildfires and Atlantic tropical storms

The climate crisis continued unabated in 2020, with the the joint highest global temperatures on record, alarming heat and record wildfires in the Arctic, and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic.

Despite a 7% fall in fossil fuel burning due to coronavirus lockdowns, heat-trapping carbon dioxide continued to build up in the atmosphere, also setting a new record. The average surface temperature across the planet in 2020 was 1.25C higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900, dangerously close to the 1.5C target set by the world’s nations to avoid the worst impacts.

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