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A sleeping dormouse, baby marine iguana and a frilled dragon are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Analysts criticise fund – which focuses on cutting the impact of fossil fuels but will not support renewable energy - calling it a ‘drop in the ocean’

A $1bn fund to invest in cutting the climate change impact of fossil fuels has been announced by 10 of the world’s biggest oil companies, on the day the global Paris climate change agreement comes into force.

But analysts called the sum a “drop in the ocean” which showed the companies were not serious in tackling global warming.

The Native American women leading the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline say they have faced police abuse and mistreatment in jail. North Dakota’s militarized law enforcement has left many of them traumatized. ‘They came with their guns, their weapons and violence and put it on a peaceful people,’ says Lauren Howland, a member of the San Carlos and Jicarilla Apache tribes and Navajo Nation

• At Standing Rock, women lead fight in face of mace, arrests and strip searches

Since 2010, Dr Thomas Krumpen from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research has been flying above northern Greenland towards North Pole to measure ice thickness. By lowering a small torpedo from the aircraft towards the sea ice scientists are able to to obtain data from inaccessible areas helping to build a clearer picture ice health

Environment groups hail ‘momentous occasion’ but warn governments need to cut carbon emissions more steeply to avoid dangerous global warming

The significance of the Paris agreement coming into force today is easy to miss: it may seem like an anti-climax, given the travails that led up to its signing last December.

But the moment is of huge importance. This is the first time that a legally-binding agreement, signed by all of the world’s functioning governments, has laid down a commitment to limit the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with the goal of preventing global warming exceeding 2C above pre-industrial levels.

Dyfi estuary, Wales A single egret, starkly white against the muted greys and browns of the saltings, flapped slowly up from the bed of a creek

From my vantage point on the southern side of the Dyfi estuary it was clear that my plan for the day had been compromised. The salt marsh, with its almost fractally complex pattern of creeks, pools and drains, is often host in late autumn to large groups of geese grazing contentedly within easy reach of the seawall.

On this visit those few geese visible through the pervasive anticyclonic murk were strung out along the seaward edge of the marsh, distant and difficult to approach. As if by compensation a single egret, starkly white against the muted greys and browns of the saltings, flapped slowly up from the bed of a creek just in front of me.

Environment groups hail ‘momentous occasion’ but warn governments need to cut carbon emissions more steeply to avoid dangerous global warming

The Paris agreement on climate change enters into force on Friday, marking the first time that governments have agreed legally binding limits to global temperature rises.

The passage of the accord – the fruit of more than two decades of often tortuous international negotiations on combating climate change – was hailed by nations and observers around the world.

Despite millions of dollars invested, the Australian geothermal energy industry remains in its infancy. Will Arena’s cautious optimism be rewarded?

In July 2010, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) took a $32m gamble on geothermal energy, investing in Australia’s first demonstration of geothermal electricity generation.

Six years later, the wells in South Australia’s Cooper Basin have been filled with concrete and abandoned, and the geothermal exploration company involved – Geodynamics Limited – has announced it is rebranding and pivoting to biogas, solar photovoltaic, battery storage and hybrid solutions.

New research calculates the impact of the average westerner’s carbon emissions to help people understand their own contribution to climate change

The average westerner’s carbon emissions destroy 30 square metres of Arctic sea ice every year, according to new research.

The work indicates that, even with current efforts to cut emissions, the Arctic will lose all its ice in summer within about 20 years.

Climate Institute says the speed with which the Paris agreement has come into force has caught the country by surprise

Australia’s lack of progress on climate change policy is increasingly at odds with global momentum and risks leaving Australia’s economy behind, according to a new report.

The Climate Institute has released a report called “COP 22 – Getting to Zero” in the lead-up to an international climate conference next week.

Public funds from Europe’s carbon trading programme – set up to help poorer countries reduce emissions – will help build two plants that will emit about 7m tonnes of CO2 a year

Greece appears on track to win access to a controversial EU programme that could earmark up to €1.75bn (£1.56bn) in free carbon allowances for the building of two massive coal-fired power plants.

The 1100MW coal stations will cost an estimated €2.4bn, and emit around 7m tonnes of CO2 a year, casting doubt on their viability without a cash injection from an exemption under Europe’s carbon trading market.

Kate Rawles will ride a bike made from bamboo grown in Cornwall to raise awareness about the loss of biodiversity

A bicycle made out of bamboo grown in Cornwall, UK will be ridden the length of South America by an environmental activist and adventurer raising awareness about the loss of biodiversity.

A collection of this month’s zoological wonders, featuring string-pulling bees, industrious echidnas and a geriatric panda

Government should restore subsidies for onshore wind power as a cost-effective way of reducing the country’s emissions, says head of ScottishPower

The UK’s climate targets are at risk if the government does not reverse its decision to end support for windfarms, the head of one of the Big Six energy companies has warned.

Keith Anderson of ScottishPower said onshore wind power should be opened up to the government’s new subsidy regime because the technology could be deployed quickly, help energy bills and cut carbon emissions.

Current climate commitments are insufficient to reduce emissions by the amounts needed to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, says Unep report

The commitments made by governments on climate change will lead to dangerous levels of global warming because they are incommensurate with the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.

The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) said that pledges put forward to cut emissions would see temperatures rise by 3C above pre-industrial levels, far above the the 2C of the Paris climate agreement, which comes into force on Friday.

Alan Finkel challenges renewables alarmism, saying they provide ‘many viable technology paths to cutting emissions’

Australia’s chief scientist has challenged the resurgent political alarmism about renewable energy, saying energy security isn’t about locking in the status quo, it’s about ensuring the successful decarbonisation of electricity generation.

In his first public comments since being asked to lead an energy security review for federal and state governments, Alan Finkel delivered an upbeat assessment of renewable energy technologies, saying they provide “many viable technology paths to cutting emissions”.

Brazilian worm arrived in a pot plant from Europe and preys on snails and earthworms that are essential for soil health

An invasive flatworm from Brazil that poses a threat to soil health and wildlife has made its way to mainland Britain.

A 4.5cm Obama flatworm (Obama nungara) – not linked to the US president but named after the Brazilian Tupi words for leaf (oba) and animal (ma) – was discovered this summer crawling out of a Heuchera plant imported from the Netherlands at a garden centre in Oxfordshire.

Stanhope Dene, Weardale For a few moments the falling rain became a silver sunlit curtain as it swept across the canopy

We knew we were going to get wet, probably very wet, but it was the kind of morning that turns landscape into dramatic theatre; dark clouds unleashing torrential showers, then sunshine breaking through gaps in the clouds, sweeping across fields and fell side.

The first downpour arrived just as we made our way along the footpath that skirts the edge of the dene, a steep-sided cleft in the hillside cut by Stanhope burn, clothed with ash, Scots pine, oak and beech. The impact of heavy raindrops loosened leaves from the canopy above, sending them spinning down to join a carpet of wet beech autumn foliage, as shiny as polished copper, under our feet.

Legislation needed because lifejackets are not being worn despite campaign issuing free ones, says MAIB after spate of deaths

Marine investigators are calling for the wearing of lifejackets to be a legal requirement on commercial trawlers after a spate of deaths at sea.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch took the unusual step of recommending legislation as it released reports into four of the nine commercial fishing deaths so far this year.