Governments around the world have increasingly been using economic stagnation as an excuse for climate inaction. But a letter published today in Nature Climate Change by Dr Chris Hope, Reader in Policy Modelling, Cambridge Judge Business School and Mat Hope, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol, suggests this neglect is unwise.

The research estimates the mean damage caused by emitting an additional tonne of carbon dioxide today is $107 per tonne if economic growth in the rich world is around 2% per year. But if rich economies continue to stagnate the mean damage rises to $138 per tonne.

Severn Trent Costain is strongly backing the warning from the Environment Agency of the need for businesses to prepare for future weather extremes. Managing Director, Wayne Earp said: “The Environment Agency assessment of the likely trend for more extreme weather in future is borne out by the events of 2012, when the country suffered both drought and flooding.

“There are a number of potential effects on businesses, ranging from vulnerability to flooding itself to serious water supply issues as declining river and groundwater levels make existing supplies problematic.”

The Freight Transport Association has welcomed the conclusions of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Freight Carbon Review, published today. Based largely on the success of FTA’s Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS), government has decided to continue working with industry to improve freight’s carbon performance.

The LCRS was endorsed by the Department for Transport in 2011 and has shown over the last three years that industry is capable of voluntarily recording and reporting carbon emissions without the need for additional tax and regulation. Additionally, the scheme has set a carbon reduction target to reduce the carbon intensity of its freight operations by 8 per cent by 2015 against a 2010 baseline.

A global temperature rise of 1.5C would be enough to start the melting of permafrost in Siberia, scientists warned on Thursday. Any widespread thaw in Siberia's permanently frozen ground could have severe consequences for climate change. Permafrost covers about 24% of the land surface of the northern hemisphere, and widespread melting could eventually trigger the release of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, which would have a massive warming effect.