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When comparing apples to apples, a new study finds energy budget climate sensitivity estimates consistent with climate models

Scientists use a variety of approaches to estimate the Earth’s climate sensitivity – how much the planet will warm as a result of humans increasing greenhouse effect. For decades, the different methods were all in good general agreement that if we double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Earth’s surface temperatures will immediately warm by about 1–3°C (this is known as the ‘transient climate response’). Because it would take decades to centuries for the Earth to reach a new energy balance, climate scientists have estimated an eventual 2–4.5°C warming from doubled atmospheric carbon (this is ‘equilibrium climate sensitivity’).

However, a 2013 paper led by Alexander Otto disrupted the agreement between the various different approaches. Using a combination of recent climate measurements and a relatively simple climate model, the ‘energy budget’ approach used in Otto’s study yielded a best estimate for the immediate (transient) warming of 1.3°C and equilibrium warming of 2.0°C; within the agreed range, but less than climate model best estimates of 1.8°C and 3.2°C, respectively.

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Wolf Hall actor lends his support to Save our Sands, which wants to stop the dredging of Goodwin Sands for the development of Dover port

The actor Mark Rylance has lent his support to a campaign to stop the dredging of a stretch of sandbanks off the Kent coast.

Dover Harbour Board has applied for a licence to dredge Goodwin Sands, which had been proposed as a marine conservation zone, for aggregate to be used in the expansion and development of Dover port.

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Gardeners searching the web for advice on the best way to tackle Japanese knotweed are likely to find confusing and contradictory advice, a study says.

Mayor to target older, dirtier vehicles with £10 charge from 2017 as part of proposals to tackle the capital’s ‘toxic’ air

Older, dirtier cars will have to pay a £10 pollution charge to drive in central London, according to plans set out by Sadiq Khan on Tuesday.

The charge, on top of the existing £11.50 congestion charge, would apply from 2017 to cars first sold before 2005. The mayor of London’s proposals to tackle the capital’s “toxic” air also include a big expansion of a planned Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) and a faster roll-out of cleaner buses.

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Random shifts in the paths of Atlantic storms during the summer are more responsible for changes in temperatures than greenhouse gases, according to a new study.

Analysis shows most UK plastic ends up in the Arctic, where it does ‘extreme harm’ to the fragile polar environment

Plastic dumped into the seas around the UK is carried to the Arctic within two years, scientists have revealed, where it does “extreme harm” to the fragile polar environment.

Marine plastic pollution is a huge problem, with 5tn pieces of plastic now floating in the world’s oceans. The plastic is frequently mistaken for food by fish and birds, causing damage to life throughout the seas.

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To mark the 60th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, we’ve been asking Guardian readers to share their memories and stories of what the UK was like before the act came into force.

• You can see all the contributions – or submit your own – via GuardianWitness

The great smog of 1952 swathed London in a toxic smog of pollution, resulting in thousands of deaths over a four-day period. The Clean Air Act was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that led to the phase-out of coal in Britain’s towns and cities.

Sheila Romain, 88, West Sussex
“Coming home from school one day I caught the bus from Crystal Palace to Dulwich. When we got to Gypsy Hill the bus driver said he couldn’t see well enough to go on. I got off knowing I could walk home. When the driver saw in which direction I was going he asked if he could follow me. So, for the next mile and a half, the bus followed me. This must have been the winter 1946-47.”

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Delayed report by the Climate Change Authority could provide Turnbull with a blue-print for a shift to the centre on critical climate policies. Little wonder that the Far Right has gone into melt-down.

HSBC report says third electric vehicle boom underway, driven by significant drop battery prices and a changing mindset among consumers, industry and governments.

Claxton, Norfolk Ants allow us to reflect upon a chemical realm we can seldom know empirically. They are governed by it

If I set aside the rag-winged rooks and moulting lapwings, and forget the storms that this land has just endured, the morning seems utterly still. I stand to watch a long flotilla of cumulus over the marsh, as beautiful and unmoving as sail ships becalmed in doldrums. There is so little breeze that neither foreground nettle nor the red-tinged Yorkshire fog beyond so much as stirs.

Even with my coarse senses, however, I know that this rain-washed stillness is volatile and densely scented. There is a deer nudging through the reeds that I shall never see, because it navigates by smell.

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California grid operator under-estimated speed of solar uptake by at least 4 years – and the belly of the duck is getting fatter much sooner than expected.

Australia rates number 10 in world in solar capacity per head of population - well behind Liechtenstein, and the mountainous micro-state of San Marino.

The US space agency's Juno probe puts itself in orbit around Jupiter, ready to undertake a survey of what lies beneath the giant planet's obscuring clouds.

The US space agency has successfully put a new probe in orbit around Jupiter.

Fringe political groups such as One Nation, Family First and the Liberal Democrats still reject the evidence that humans are causing climate change

So we’re in that post-election twilight zone where analysts, psephologists and columnists try and pull something cogent out of all the mess of uncertainty.

Who’ll be the next prime minister? Which party will lead and how will they do it? What does it all mean, and did Donald Trump have anything to do with it? What do psephologists do when there’s no election on?

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Authorities to remove carcass of humpback whale on Honeycombs beach because it is a popular surf location and decomposing animal could attract sharks

A 12-metre humpback whale weighing up to 40 tonnes has washed up on the beach near Margaret River prompting a shark warning.

The Department of Parks and Wildlife will remove the whale carcass that washed up on Honeycombs beach in Leeuwin-Naturaliste national park in the WA’s south-west.

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Even at current market prices, various different energy storage options make economic sense for renewable energy projects in some locations, according to new research from MIT.

Milder winters and hotter summers pose a threat to some of Australia's most loved apple varieties.

Solgen Energy has completed the installation of 175MW of ground-mounted and rooftop solar systems across the NBN.

The UK is almost certain to miss its EU 2020 targets for renewable energy, the National Grid says.