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France and Germany this week agreed to build a common position on carbon pricing ahead of December’s UN climate talks while advancing work on closer energy ties.

US-based electric utility Eversource will “pursue all available options” to build its international hydroelectric transmission line after a New Hampshire state committee on Thursday denied the company a rehearing on the project.

From Europe to Africa, extreme and widespread heat raises climate concerns in hottest La Niña year to date on record

Record high temperatures have been set across much of the world this week as an unusually prolonged and broad heatwave intensifies concerns about climate change.

The past month has seen power shortages in California as record heat forced a surge of demand for air conditioners. Algeria has experienced the hottest temperature ever reliably registered in Africa. Britain, meanwhile, has experienced its third longest heatwave, melting the roof of a science building in Glasgow and exposing ancient hill forts in Wales.

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The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Thousands of schools across the country are taking measures such as closing roads and setting up park and stride schemes

Schools across the country are moving to ban the school run amid growing concern about the devastating impact of air pollution on young people’s health.

The Guardian has found that thousands of schools in cities and towns – from Edinburgh to London, Manchester to Ellesmere Port – are taking measures to try to deter parents using their cars. These include closing roads, setting up “park and stride” schemes, walk-to-school initiatives and “playing dead” protests.

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Catherine Friend and Valerie Bisbal are the first people to circumnavigate Mallorca on paddleboards.

Pacific walruses, Tapanuli orangutan twins and a moon bear are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Wholesale prices soar by more than 30% and farmers have to renegotiate with supermarkets

Lettuce is being imported from the US, Spain and Poland as soaring temperatures increase demand but hit crops in the UK.

The airline IAG Cargo said it had flown 30,000 heads of lettuce from Los Angeles to the UK in the past week alone.

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Traditional farming shows its benefits as stone barns and hedgerows provide cattle with relief from the heat

Sunscreen and waiter service for cows, and a renewed appreciation for traditional countryside structures such as stone barns and hedgerows, are some of the modern and ancient ways in which farmers are trying to cope with the heatwave.

Record temperatures and a lack of rainfall have drawn comparisons with 1976, the UK’s biggest drought in living memory. Forecasters say the hot weather is set to continue, probably for weeks.

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Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator this week issued over 77,000 offsets to the Director of National Parks, the first time the agency has earned credits for its efforts to control savanna fires.

The price rise in New Zealand’s carbon market continued Friday as allowances hit the NZ$22 mark for the first time in the market’s 10-year history.

Hong Kong is planning to launch a carbon crediting scheme for its building sector that could generate 2.5 million credits a year and is developing a blockchain-based trading platform to create a domestic market, according to government officials.

Three African American hikers describe fears and stereotypes they have faced – and why they love hitting the trails

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Revival of last eight coal plants when ‘beast from the east’ hit Britain proved to be brief

Britain has been powered for more than a thousand hours without coal this year, in a new milestone underscoring how the polluting fuel’s decline is accelerating.

The UK’s last eight coal power plants staged a brief revival when the “beast from the east” pushed up gas prices earlier this year, causing coal plants to fire up.

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New Zealand could become the first country to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Robert McLachlan, Professor in Applied Mathematics, Massey University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia's consumer watchdog has concluded that rooftop solar incentives have distorted the market unfairly for those who cannot afford solar panels, and has recommended the scheme ends ten years early. Lucy Percival, Associate, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Conservationists, Labor and the Greens condemn clearing over four years

More than half a million hectares of forest was cleared in the Great Barrier Reef catchments over four years – an area more than twice the size of the Australian Capital Territory.

Official environment and energy department data shows that 596,000 hectares of forest was cleared between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2016.

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Allendale, Northumberland: The dazzling monkey flower is having a bumper year in the upper reaches of the Tyne river system

The dry grass prickles my sandalled feet as I cross the biscuit-coloured field towards the East Allen. The green and cool haugh has burned up in the heat, its smell become Mediterranean, an earthy mix of dried clay and hay, bitter and sweet at the same time. The shrunken river threads its way between boulder islands, finding passage between rocks that are normally submerged. This year the monkey flowers are able to grow tall, untrammelled by the fast flow of water, unbattered by wind or flood. The Allen has become a river of gold.

Monkey flower, Mimulus guttatus, was first recorded in the wild in Britain in 1824, having escaped from gardens. This non-native species comes from the west coast of North America, where it grows in wet places from sea level to high-altitude meadows. It is now well established along our water courses, around lakes and in damp pastures, setting abundant seed and rooting easily from fragments that get carried downriver. The more floods we have, the more it is likely to increase, so its spread may affect the richness of our riparian plant communities. It is certainly having a bumper year in the upper reaches of the Tyne river system.

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Days after ACCC calls for rooftop solar scheme to be abolished, new report identifies why more rooftop solar should be encouraged to reduce peak demand on hot days and boost system security.

Tesla says unprecedented chaos in South Australia's electricity market on Monday highlights need for quick shift to 5-minute settlement. Coalition predictably blames renewables, while ACCC waves its hands and says price gouging is perfectly legal.