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• Final data confirms record-breaking temperatures for third year in a row

• Earth has not been this warm for 115,000 years

2016 was the hottest year on record, setting a new high for the third year in a row, with scientists firmly putting the blame on human activities that drive climate change.

The final data for 2016 was released on Wednesday by the three key agencies – the UK Met Office and Nasa and Noaa in the US – and showed 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century.

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A smartphone attachment that analyses DNA could help improve cancer and tuberculosis treatments.

The onboard atomic clocks that drive the satellite-navigation signals on Europe's Galileo network have been failing at an alarming rate.

The moth, which has a wingspan of just over a centimetre, was discovered in California.

The payment to the UN Green Climate Fund was announced three days before Donald Trump takes office.

A technique designed to help parents affected by genetic disorders is used to tackle infertility.

Sharp Tor, Bodmin Moor Turf hummocks mask mine workings beside the old railway, which weaves between flowering gorse

On the eastern edge of the moor, granite sleepers mark part of the Kilmar railway, used in the second half of the 19th century by trucks carrying moorstone destined for the port of Looe via the Liskeard and Caradon railway. Turfy hummocks mask mine workings beside the way, which weaves between flowering gorse bushes and hawthorn trees draped in bearded lichen. Blue sky reflects in puddles and frost crystals sparkle in cold hollows.

Dumps of wasted stone interspersed with tall conifers tower above the track as it passes beneath disused Cheesewring quarry; ahead, above sunlit sheep pastures, Sharp Tor is fringed with orange bracken.

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Origin Energy should consider a bid for NSW network operator Endeavour Energy and/or make a serious push into the Queensland renewable energy market, with the aim of developing Australia’s first large scale “renewables energy on demand” business.

The bailout of the Portland aluminium smelter is arguably the dumbest thing the normally sensible Andrews Labor state Government will have committed to. And it will bear direct subsidy and power costs that amount to more than $500,000 per direct employee, per year.

China's National Energy Administration announced that 104 planned and under-construction coal power projects have been suspended.

Worldwide spending on clean energy fell 18 percent from 2015’s record high. However, even as spending ebbs, the amount of wind and solar connected to power grids around the world is still climbing.

German company Senec-IES has begun shipping its battery storage units to the fast-growing Australian storage market, with 2,000 units to be supplied in the first six months of 2017.

UK engineers finish the assembly of a wind-observing satellite that meteorologists expect to have a major impact on weather forecasts.

The strong growth in large scale renewable project financing in Australia could be just the beginning of major wave of investment, and points to RET being met by 2020.

Babies learn language in the early months of life, and retain this knowledge, say scientists.

Saudi Arabia says it will focus on solar and wind energy in a new $US50 billion energy plan that is about to be unveiled.

Investment in American innovation demonstrates growth opportunities in solar with energy storage

The initiative, which would apply to the UK if passed, would wipe out 44m tonnes of food waste every year

People are being urged to support calls by a major pan-European group to halve ‘farm to fork’ food waste in Europe by 2030, on the eve of a landmark vote later this month.

The European parliament’s environment committee will vote on new regulations on 24 January, which are set to shape the next 15 years of EU food waste policy and have the potential to be the most ambitious, legally binding target on food waste in the world.

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The argument for renewable energy is now a purely economic one – and the move away from coal will only pick up speed

The inauguration of President Trump this Saturday (Australian time) marks a radical change in the world as we know it. It ushers in the beginning of four years where progressive issues as far reaching as race equality, women’s health, nuclear and foreign policy, and of course climate change will be under sustained attack.

Less than a year after the world agreed a historic climate pact in Paris, the US – the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas polluter – elected a man who wants to revive the glory days of coal, oil and gas.

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Aerial video shows a huge ice crack which is forcing British Antarctic Survey staff to leave their base.