Category Archives: Fossil fuels

Empty North Sea gas fields to be used to bury 10m tonnes of C02

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Ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent to pipe greenhouse gas into vast under-sea cavities

Three of the largest ports in Europe – Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent – are to be used to capture and bury 10m tonnes of CO2 emissions under the North Sea in what will be the biggest project of its kind in the world.

The ports, which account for one-third of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg region, would be used to pipe the gas into a porous reservoir of sandstone about two miles (3km) below the seabed.

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Trump halts plans to expand offshore drilling after legal setback

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Court decision blocking fossil fuel activity in swaths of the Arctic complicated administration plans to ramp up fossil fuel extraction

The Trump administration has shelved plans to vastly expand offshore oil and gas drilling in the wake of a recent court decision that blocked fossil fuel activity in swaths of the Arctic.

The administration had opened up almost all US waters to companies seeking to drill oil or gas deposits but this expansion has been halted due to a legal setback, according to David Bernhardt, the interior secretary.

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Pennsylvania governor under scrutiny for role in approving pipeline

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Tom Wolf’s office has denied he ordered permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which is under criminal investigation for pollution and property damage, to be accelerated

Internal government records obtained by the Guardian raise questions about the role of Pennsylvania’s governor, Tom Wolf, role in permitting construction of a controversial fossil fuel pipeline that now faces two criminal investigations stemming from widespread environmental and property damage.

The 350-mile, $2.5bn Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline through southern Pennsylvania has sparked growing outrage. It has caused roughly 140 documented industrial waste spills into wetlands and waterways, destroying numerous residential water wells, and opening large sinkholes just steps from residents’ homes.

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Double standards on oil spills in Nigeria must end | Letters

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Oil companies must respect human lives and clean up the damage their industry does wherever they operate, say Dr John Sentamu, Baroness Amos, Prof Michael Watts, Njeri Kabeberi and James Thornton

The devastating impact of oil spills is widely recognised. The past decade has witnessed the destruction caused to human life and the environment from spills including the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the Montara spill in Australia in 2009.

On each occasion the global community has reacted with horror, demanding the oil industry clean up local ecosystems and communities. Yet in Nigeria, and particularly in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta, these calls are ignored.

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Top oil firms spending millions lobbying to block climate change policies, says report

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Ad campaigns hide investment in a huge expansion of oil and gas extraction, says InfluenceMap

The largest five stock market listed oil and gas companies spend nearly $200m (£153m) a year lobbying to delay, control or block policies to tackle climate change, according to a new report.

Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil were the main companies leading the field in direct lobbying to push against a climate policy to tackle global warming, the report said.

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Fires of Jharia spell death and disease for villagers

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The inhabitants of a remote village at the heart of India’s coal industry brave deadly sinkholes and toxic gases simply to survive

In the village of Liloripathra, in a remote corner of India’s eastern Jharkhand state, mother-of-three Sushila Devi grips the hands of two women sitting on either side of her. Coal fires spew clouds of smoke into the already heavy, polluted air.

At about 8pm, a policeman cradling a small body wrapped in black plastic bags emerges through the smoke and the crowds that have gathered around her home. He has come to deliver the body of her 13-year-old daughter Chanda, killed along with two others from the village when a coal mine caved in on top of them. They had been scavenging in a colliery operated by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a subsidiary of state-owned Coal India.

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Western Australia environment watchdog plans tougher curbs on emissions

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EPA chief says new regulations are needed to meet Paris targets, putting future LNG projects under threat

Western Australia’s environmental protection authority has announced tough new measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from large projects.

The EPA, which works independently and makes recommendations to the WA government about whether new developments should be granted environmental approval, said on Thursday it was setting a “higher bar” for how it would assess the impact of major projects on the climate.

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UK must stop investing in fossil fuels in developing countries | Ban Ki-moon

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It is time to prove it is serious about phasing out use of fossil fuels worldwide

The United Kingdom is a critically important actor in the global fight against climate change.

As a permanent member of the UN security council, and a member of the G20 group of leading industrialised economies, it is well placed to further a progressive climate agenda and influence other states to fully implement commitments made under the Paris agreement.

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Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets

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Experts warn that failure to act risks spike in global temperatures

Dramatic rises in atmospheric methane are threatening to derail plans to hold global temperature rises to 2C, scientists have warned.

In a paper published this month by the American Geophysical Union, researchers say sharp rises in levels of methane – which is a powerful greenhouse gas – have strengthened over the past four years. Urgent action is now required to halt further increases in methane in the atmosphere, to avoid triggering enhanced global warming and temperature rises well beyond 2C.

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UK has biggest fossil fuel subsidies in the EU, finds commission

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Subsidies for coal, oil and gas are not falling despite EU pledges to tackle climate change

The UK leads the European Union in giving subsidies to fossil fuels, according to a report from the European commission. It found €12bn (£10.5bn) a year in support for fossil fuels in the UK, significantly more than the €8.3bn spent on renewable energy.

The commission report warned that the total subsidies for coal, oil and gas across the EU remained at the same level as 2008. This is despite both the EU and G20 having long pledged to phase out the subsidies, which hamper the rapid transition to clean energy needed to fight climate change.

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Immediate fossil fuel phaseout could arrest climate change – study

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Scientists say it may still technically be possible to limit warming to 1.5C if drastic action is taken now

Climate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research.

It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal.

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