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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

A newborn Sitatunga calf and an orange-bellied parrot are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Arctic scientists have reported that the speed at which the northern ice cap is melting risks triggering 19 climate tipping points, with disastrous consequences. It could also affect ecosystems elsewhere on Earth, perhaps irreversibly. The Arctic Resilience Report says it is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

• Arctic ice melt could trigger uncontrollable climate change at global level
  

Natural management is ‘vital’ as well as other flood defences says environment secretary, reports The Ends Report

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will spend £15m on natural flood management projects, the environment secretary has announced.

On Thursday, Andrea Leadsom confirmed to parliament that, although flood defences such as concrete barriers are “very important”, natural flood management is “vital” as well.

Canada has joined a growing list of countries phasing out the most polluting fossil fuel and global demand has fallen. Is this the start of a low-carbon energy era or just a blip in coal’s dominance?

This week Canada joined the growing list of major developed countries saying they will phase out coal power.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of global demand for coal falling last year for the first time in nearly two decades, a development that could presage a new era of lower-carbon energy generation – or merely a blip in the long-term dominance of the highly polluting fuel.

Airport expansion plans may breach climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, warns Committee on Climate Change

Plans to build a third runway at Heathrow may breach the Government’s own climate change legislation if other sectors do not make big cuts to emissions, an independent advisory body has warned.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said it had “concerns” over how the Department for Transport (DfT) had presented its case for expanding the hub in relation to greenhouse gas emissions.

Ministers deliberately delayed a report showing fracking could affect house prices, health and the environment until after a crucial planning decision, documents reveal

Ministers deliberately delayed a controversial fracking report it was being forced to publish until after crucial council decisions on planning permission, according to newly revealed documents.

The documents also show ministers acknowledged they were open to a charge of double standards, having granted local communities the final say over windfarm applications but overruling fracking decisions.

Ketton Quarry, Rutland Withered stems of white bryony lash together clumps of little red globes hanging in garlands, and hedges blush with hawthorn berries

The incoming polar air mass and clear night sky produces this year’s heaviest frost. Water crystallises into bristly masses on every surface. The blazing morning sun rapidly scorches most of it away, but in the deepest still hollows of Ketton quarry the thick, white, dusting endures into the afternoon.

Related: Birds and berries: A fertile feast

Scientists warn increasingly rapid melting could trigger polar ‘tipping points’ with catastrophic consequences felt as far away as the Indian Ocean

Arctic scientists have warned that the increasingly rapid melting of the ice cap risks triggering 19 “tipping points” in the region that could have catastrophic consequences around the globe.

The Arctic Resilience Report found that the effects of Arctic warming could be felt as far away as the Indian Ocean, in a stark warning that changes in the region could cause uncontrollable climate change at a global level.

Josh Frydenberg says coal ‘vitally important’ after former Great Barrier Reef official calls said its future depended on an end to mining

Josh Frydenberg has defended Australia’s coal industry as “vitally important” days after a former Great Barrier Reef authority chief called for a ban on new mines.

Speaking after a forum on the reef with state and territory ministers in Sydney on Friday, the federal environment minister said other countries would simply “fill the void” if Australia did not export coal.

It is staggering that in 2016, the hottest year on record, the chancellor can present a budget that has no mention of climate change (Report, 24 November). Indeed, most policies and spending plans are heading in the wrong direction. We have more money for new roads and fracking keeps its subsidy, but cuts to the local authorities who subsidise bus services. 

The freeze on fuel duty is another backward step and shows that the government cares nothing about climate change, air pollution or public health. Last year saw a record number of vehicles on our roads, especially in rural areas where bus services have been decimated. The government could bring us healthier air and less congestion by raising fuel duty and using the money to reverse the devastating cuts to buses. We need to give people the choice of travelling by public transport, walking and cycling, but that can only happen if we make the polluter pay and use the money raised to invest in things that are good for our health and our environment.
Jenny Jones
Green party, House of Lords

The claim that Greece may receive an unfair exemption to increase lignite use (Report, 3 November, theguardian.com) is not justified – it is based on misinterpretations:

1) Greece is not trying to “revive its lignite-based model”. In fact, retirements of fossil fuel plants in 2014-23 amount to 4,095MW, including 2,671MW of lignite capacity.

Move hailed as first formal reintroduction of a once native mammal in the UK

Large populations of wild beavers living in the southern and western Highlands of Scotland are to be allowed to expand naturally after ministers granted them protected status.

For the first time since it was hunted to extinction about 300 years ago, the beaver will be officially designated as a native British species,the Scottish environment secretary announced on Thursday.

Environmental groups hope Utah, Nevada and Grand Canyon will be included in rapid conservation efforts as Trump plans to expand fossil fuel extraction

Barack Obama’s administration is rushing through conservation safeguards for large areas of public land ahead of Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House, presenting a conundrum for the new president’s goal of opening up more places for oil and gas drilling.

All of the supermarket’s own-brand cosmetics and cleaning products will be free from the tiny plastic pieces within a month

Tesco will have phased out microbeads from all its own brand cosmetics and household cleaning products within a month, it was announced on Thursday.

While UK ministers recently said personal care products containing these tiny pieces of plastic will be banned from sale by the end of 2017, it is not clear yet whether the ban will extend to other types of products that rely on their abrasive properties.

The Natural History Museum has chosen 25 of the year’s best images from its Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist. Voting is open until 10 January to find the people’s choice winning photo of the year

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London

Europe’s bioenergy plants are burning trees felled from protected conservation areas rather than using forest waste, new report shows

Protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife.

Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving fuels such as wood pellets and chips, rather than wind and solar power.

• Blazes have burnt 12,000 hectares, including five protected natural areas
• Endangered species under threat from fires that ‘took us by surprise’

Peru has declared a state of emergency in seven districts in the north of the country where forest fires have killed two, injured four and burnt nearly 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of land, including five protected natural areas.

Wildfires have spread to 11 regions across the country, according to Peru’s civil defence institute, in what scientists say may be the worst drought in more than a decade.

Release of captive-bred marsupials into 7,800ha Mt Gibson wildlife sanctuary part of ongoing attempt to save critically endangered species in Western Australia

Fourteen numbats will be released into a predator-free wildlife sanctuary 350km north of Perth in an ongoing attempt to save the critically endangered species.

It is the first release of captive-bred numbats into the 7,800ha Mt Gibson sanctuary, which has been declared free of feral cats and foxes following an extensive baiting program.

With 83% of the fund spent, the government’s central climate policy is almost exhausted, with no further funding committed

The federal government’s Direct Action carbon reduction policy appears to be running out of steam, with participation from industry dropping, the cost of the program rising and the budget for emissions reduction nearly exhausted.

The Clean Energy Regulator announced on Thursday it would pay a further $367m to polluting industries, in return for a commitment for them to reduce carbon emissions by 34.4m tonnes.