Shadow climate minister says Britain is losing the race to create green jobs
Labour has accused the government of being “highly irresponsible” in sidelining a crucial piece of energy legislation, arguing that Britain is “losing the race” to create green jobs.
The energy security bill was published in July with the aim of boosting domestic, low-carbon power supplies and bringing down energy costs.
Continue reading...As the UN’s Cop27 summit begins in Egypt, there are warnings more must be done to avert climate breakdown
Last year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.
The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets.
Continue reading...Recent flooding is believed to have caused the pipeline outage in central-west NSW and is hampering repair
It could take weeks to completely fix a pipeline outage that has left more than 20,000 New South Wales residents without natural gas during an unseasonal cold snap, with recent flooding believed to have caused the outage as well as hampering its repair.
Residents in the central-west towns of Bathurst, Lithgow and Wallerawang woke up on Thursday to find their homes without natural gas, a day after snow fell in the region and a temperature of 1C was recorded in Lithgow. The towns of Portland and Oberon are also affected.
Continue reading...Queensland environment group had asked federal minister to revisit decisions made going back to 2011
Federal environment officials have agreed to look again at 18 proposed new coal and gas projects after a Queensland environment group submitted requests to have the effects of climate change considered.
None of the 18 projects has been approved under the country’s environment law, but have been through a process where the environment minister determines the nature and scale of their likely impacts.
Continue reading...Calls by countries such as UK and US to halt auction for drilling permits in the world’s second-largest rainforest branded ‘galling’
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has criticised the west for pressuring it to halt oil and gas exploration in the Congo basin rainforest, while continuing to search for fossil fuels in their own countries.
The Congo basin, more than half of which is located in DRC, is the last rainforest on Earth that sucks in more carbon than it releases and is second only to the Amazon in size. The DRC announced in July that oil and gas permits in parts of the rainforest would be auctioned off. The blocks up for sale include areas in Virunga national park, as well as critically endangered gorilla habitats and the world’s largest tropical peatlands, which store the equivalent of three years of the world’s fossil fuel emissions.
Continue reading...Climate campaigners welcome move as community pressure over fossil fuel sponsorships and advertising grows
A 37-year partnership between fossil fuel giant Shell and Australia’s national science and technology centre Questacon – which branded and delivered science activities for children – is ending.
Canberra-based Questacon has also confirmed a four-year, $1m sponsorship deal with Japanese oil and gas company Inpex will not be renewed when it runs out at the end of the financial year.
Continue reading...Wonnarua people want Ravensworth Homestead added to the state heritage register and to become a site of reconciliation
The New South Wales independent planning commission has for the first time ruled against a coalmine extension in Singleton.
Scott Franks and Robert Lester, representatives of the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People (PCWP), learned this week that priceless Wonnarua cultural heritage in the Upper Hunter region – centred on the Ravensworth Homestead – would be protected because the planning commission had denied Glencore’s Glendell coalmine expansion.
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Sophie Nicholls is a freelance writer based in the Hunter Valley
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Organiser says income from gas company was tied to deal and ‘we are now searching for a new sponsor’
Organisers of a nationwide schools science roadshow say they have dropped gas company Santos as its main sponsor after a senior climate scientist said the fossil fuel funding was inappropriate.
The Science Schools Foundation, which runs the Santos Science Experience, told Guardian Australia its board had decided not to renew the gas company as its naming rights sponsor for next year.
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Continue reading...Experts say crude oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanzania will produce 25 times host nations’ combined annual emissions
An oil pipeline under construction in east Africa will produce vast amounts of carbon dioxide, according to new analysis. The project will result in 379m tonnes of climate-heating pollution, according to an expert assessment, more than 25 times the combined annual emissions of Uganda and Tanzania, the host nations.
The East African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil drilled in a biodiverse national park in Uganda more than 870 miles to a port in Tanzania for export. The main backers of the multibillion dollar project are the French oil company TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
Continue reading...PM said he stood by Tories’ 2019 manifesto policy when asked in Commons, in rebuff to Liz Truss
Fracking will in effect remain banned under Rishi Sunak’s government, his spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday, saying the new prime minister was committed to the policy in the 2019 manifesto.
The confirmation came after the prime minister told the Commons that he “stands by” the manifesto, which put a moratorium on shale gas extraction.
Continue reading...Quitting the ECT, which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits, was ‘coherent’ with Paris climate deal, Macron said
France has become the latest country to pull out of the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT), which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits.
Speaking after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “France has decided to withdraw from the energy charter treaty.” Quitting the ECT was “coherent” with the Paris climate deal, he added.
Continue reading...Stage three of New Hope Group’s open-cut mine granted a water licence, allowing work to proceed
Work can begin on the expansion of the controversial New Acland thermal coalmine after the Queensland government granted a water licence for the project.
Stage three of New Hope Group’s open-cut mine was on Thursday granted a water licence, clearing the final hurdle for work to start.
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Continue reading...Group of fans including former WA premier Carmen Lawrence say having fossil fuel company as major sponsor is ‘no longer appropriate’
High profile Fremantle Dockers fans, including Tim Winton and former Western Australian premier Carmen Lawrence, have called on the club to end its partnership with Woodside Energy.
In a letter to the club’s president, Dale Alcock, and other board members, the group wrote it “it is no longer appropriate to have a fossil fuel company as our major sponsor moving forward”.
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Continue reading...Opposition motion drafted to make it very difficult for government to ignore or allow mass abstentions
Labour will attempt to force a binding vote on fracking on Wednesday, as Tory MPs mull backing a bid which would allow the opposition to put down a bill banning shale gas extraction.
The motion submitted by Labour for its opposition day debate is drafted to make it very difficult for the government to ignore the vote or allow mass abstentions.
Continue reading...A group of philanthropists, artists and First Nations representatives have offered $200,000 if the gas company is dropped by the festival board
Santos has backed out of its sponsorship of Darwin festival, preempting a move by a cohort of philanthropists, artists and First Nations representatives, who were offering a $200,000 funding deal on the condition the festival cut ties with its fossil fuel partner.
The deal was scheduled to be discussed at a meeting late on Tuesday, but earlier in the day, Jane Norman, Santos chief of staff and vice president of strategy, contacted the chair of the festival board, Ian Kew, to inform him the company would not be seeking to renew its sponsorship deal, which expires at the end of the year.
Continue reading...Telecoms entrepreneur says continent’s people should be allowed to use their vast reserves
One of Africa’s richest entrepreneurs, the telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim, has criticised developed countries for seeking to dissuade African nations from exploiting their vast reserves of gas.
Ibrahim told the Guardian in an interview: “We need a balanced and a fair policy for everybody. Gas can be useful to our transition … [Those who say otherwise] are hypocrites.”
Continue reading...Government also able to offset impact of higher energy prices globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mick de Brenni says
Retaining control of its electricity assets has given Queensland an edge over other regions in coordinating and funding the race to decarbonise the economy, the state’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, says.
Queensland last month unveiled a $62bn plan to rid its power grid of coal by 2036, replacing the generation with 25GW of large-scale wind and solar farms, new transmission lines and two giant pumped hydro plants for storage.
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Continue reading...Unions accuse resource minister Madeline King of signing ‘dud deal’ with multinational gas companies
Labor is ratcheting up pressure on the gas industry as it contemplates a workable policy mechanism to lower prices.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, on Tuesday night ruled out intervening in the market with price caps after the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, confirmed the government was revisiting the problem of gas prices given soaring energy costs are driving domestic inflation and punching a hole in household budgets.
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Continue reading...Brian Eno, Ahdaf Soueif and Miriam Margolyes sign open letter about exhibition opening shortly before Cop27
Campaigners including the musician Brian Eno, the author Ahdaf Soueif and the actor Miriam Margolyes have criticised BP’s sponsorship of an exhibition of Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum.
The exhibition opens shortly before the critical Cop27 climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh this November.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Meetings while in Saudi Arabia undisclosed due to ‘administrative oversight’, says business department
The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, held undisclosed meetings with senior executives of Saudi Arabian firms when he was the business secretary, documents acquired by the Guardian show.
The meetings occurred in January, when Kwarteng visited the kingdom for a two-day trip under his previous ministerial role.
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