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Calls for a tax on meat and dairy products (Report, 8 November) are misguided and would increase, not decrease, overall emissions from agriculture. Instead we should improve production systems by taxing nitrogen fertiliser and pesticides, the underlying causes of environmental damage associated with food systems.

Something close to mass hysteria has developed in relation to cattle and other ruminants since the publication in 2006 of Livestock’s Long Shadow, by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. This report and its successor in 2013 are both flawed and misleading. They conflate the emissions from the destruction of virgin land in South America, the root cause of which is not chicken production, but our insatiable demand for vegetable oils, with the actual emissions from ruminants. They also failed to balance this by including emissions from the conversion of land to grow crops for human consumption, or the carbon sequestration associated with the planting of forests in parts of the world, such as the UK, that was taking place at the same time.

Study finds floods, storms and droughts cost global economy $520bn a year and highlights need to tackle climate change

Floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and other extreme natural disasters push 26 million people into poverty each year and cost the global economy more than half a trillion dollars in lost consumption, the World Bank has said.

A bank study of 117 countries concluded that the full cost of natural disasters was $520bn (£416bn) a year – 60% higher than any previous estimate – once the impact on poor people was taken into account.

Related: How America's new president will affect the global economy

World Meteorological Organisation figures show global temperature is 1.2C above pre-industrial levels and will set a new high for the third year running

2016 will very likely be the hottest year on record and a new high for the third year in a row, according to the UN. It means 16 of the 17 hottest years on record will have been this century.

The scorching temperatures around the world, and the extreme weather they drive, mean the impacts of climate change on people are coming sooner and with more ferocity than expected, according to scientists.

Related: The world passes 400ppm carbon dioxide threshold. Permanently

Impact of dams on climate change has been underestimated, researchers warn, as rotting vegetation creates 25% more methane than previously thought

Hydroelectric dams contribute more to global warming than previously estimated, according to a study published in BioScience.

It appears that the current and planned boom of hydroelectric projects would double the current cover of dams in the world and will aggravate the problem.

Related: COP22 host Morocco launches action plan to fight devastating climate change