As well as embracing ‘beautiful coal’, the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects
Continue reading...Category Archives: Fossil fuels
Corporate ‘middlemen’ mask who really profits from Australian fossil fuel projects, report warns
Nominee companies – paid to be listed as shareholders on behalf of unnamed investors – could be reducing accountability over financial support of industry
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Three global banks are being paid to obscure who profits from 51 fossil fuel projects in Australia that produce 22m tonnes of carbon emissions each year, according to new analysis.
An analyst who authored the report says it highlights a “massive problem” in Australia that could be reducing the amount of scrutiny investors face for financial support of the fossil fuel industry.
Continue reading...Trump administration spending $625m to revive dying coal industry
White House allocating 13.1m acres of public land to coal mining, which has been on rapid decline over past 30 years
The White House will open 13.1m acres (5.3m hectares) of public land to coal mining while providing $625m for coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration has announced.
The efforts came as part of a suite of initiatives from the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency, aimed at reviving the flagging coal sector. Coal, the most polluting and costly fossil fuel, has been on a rapid decline over the past 30 years, with the US halving its production between 2008 and 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Continue reading...Value of Australia’s coal and gas exports will plunge 50% in five years, treasury modelling forecasts
Figure amounts to a $60bn fall by 2030 under any future scenario of emissions reduction in Australia, modelling predicts
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The value of Australia’s coal and gas exports is predicted to plummet by 50% over the next five years as global demand for fossil fuel falls, according to Treasury modelling.
The modelling, released on Thursday as the government announced its emissions reduction target for 2035, found the annual value of fossil fuel exports is predicted to fall by more than $60bn by 2030 under any future scenario of emissions reduction within Australia.
Continue reading...Human-made global warming ‘caused two in three heat deaths in Europe this summer’
Researchers from Imperial College London say 16,500 deaths caused by hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases
Human-made global heating caused two in every three heat deaths in Europe during this year’s scorching summer, an early analysis of mortality in 854 big cities has found.
Epidemiologists and climate scientists attributed 16,500 out of 24,400 heat deaths from June to August to the extra hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases.
Continue reading...Hopes rise for green economy boom at Africa Climate Summit
Renewables are thriving, with Africa breaking solar energy records – but action is needed to plug financing gap
The first signs of a takeoff of Africa’s green economy are raising hopes that a transformation of the continent’s fortunes may be under way, driven by solar power and an increase in low-carbon investment.
African leaders are meeting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Africa Climate Summit, a precursor to the global UN Cop30 in November. They will call for an increase in support from rich countries for Africa’s green resurgence, without which they will warn it could be fragile and spread unevenly.
Continue reading...WA museum tells staff ‘almost all of us are guilty’ of burning fossil fuels in email defending Woodside partnership
Exclusive: Climate advocates reject CEO’s claim he is ‘not qualified’ to comment on risks of gas firm’s plan to extend production to 2070
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The head of the Western Australian Museum has told staff that burning fossil fuels is something “almost all of us are guilty of in one way or another” in an email defending the institution’s renewed research partnership with Woodside.
The museum’s chief executive, Alec Coles, sent the email to staff before a Woodside-sponsored August open day at the Maritime Museum – one of WA Museum’s seven locations. It came amid public criticism of the extension of the “longstanding collaboration”, in which the gas company supports the museum’s biodiversity research along the WA coastline.
Continue reading...Tories would maximise North Sea oil and gas extraction, Badenoch to say
Conservative leader says it is ‘absurd’ to shift away from fossil fuels and leave ‘vital resources untapped’
The Conservative party will aim to “maximise extraction” of oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins power, Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce.
Badenoch will use a speech in Aberdeen in the coming days to set out her plans to extract as much oil and gas as possible instead of shifting away from fossil fuels, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Continue reading...Murray Watt advised by own department to declare protection order over ‘significant Aboriginal area’ in WA
Exclusive: Environment department document states that Burrup peninsula site near Woodside gas plant ‘under threat of injury or desecration’
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The environment minister, Murray Watt, has been advised by his department to declare a protection order over part of the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia due to its significance as an Aboriginal site, a government affidavit filed in the federal court shows.
A Murujuga traditional custodian, Raelene Cooper, applied in 2022 to protect the area’s cultural heritage from nearby industrial activities, including Woodside’s planned extension of its North West Shelf processing plant.
Continue reading...US pipeline protester’s obstruction conviction overturned by appeals court
New trial for Mylene Vialard after Minnesota judges find ‘pervasive’ prosecutorial misconduct in Line 3 protest case
The controversial felony conviction of a peaceful climate activist has been overturned by an appeals court due to “pervasive” prosecutorial misconduct.
Mylene Vialard, 56, was found guilty of felony obstruction in 2023 for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by irregularities.
Continue reading...Plan to extend Queensland coalmine would bulldoze ‘critical’ koala habitat
Glencore says it is working with state and federal governments to minimise the impact of flora and fauna in the 680ha area west of Mackay
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Habitat for threatened koalas that are part of a population described by one expert as nationally significant would be bulldozed under plans to extend a Queensland coalmine.
The campaign group Lock the Gate used drones with thermal imaging cameras to find 13 koalas in one night in trees earmarked for clearing by mining company Glencore.
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Continue reading...Commonwealth Bank urged to repay fees of 2 million low-income customers after posting record profit
Australia’s biggest bank delivers bumper payout to shareholders as CBA vows to end lending to coal companies with no net zero plans
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The Commonwealth bank has posted a record cash profit, sparking renewed calls for Australia’s biggest bank to repay more than 2 million low-income customers $270m in fees – something it has refused to do.
CBA recorded $10.25bn in annual cash profits for the year to June – a 4% lift on the previous year – and gave a bumper $2.60 payout per share to shareholders.
Continue reading...BP makes its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years off coast of Brazil
Company to carry out more tests on its Santos basin find as it continues shift from renewables back to fossil fuels
BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.
The Santos basin oil and gas discovery, which is located in deep waters, is the company’s 10th oil discovery of the year and could be its largest since its discovery at the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.
Continue reading...Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables, thinktank finds
Fossil fuel reliance likely to continue and Cop28 target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C will be missed
Most global governments have failed to act on the 2023 UN pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, according to climate analysts.
The failure to act means that on current forecasts the world will fall far short of its clean energy goals, leading to a continued reliance on fossil fuels that is incompatible with the target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C.
Continue reading...Gorilla habitats and pristine forest at risk as DRC opens half of country to oil and gas drilling bids
Government launches licensing round for 52 fossil fuel blocks, potentially undermining a flagship conservation initiative and affecting an estimated 39 million people
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks.
The blocks opened for auction cover 124m hectares (306m acres) of land and inland waters described by experts as the “world’s worst place to prospect for oil” because they hold vast amounts of carbon and are home to some of the planet’s most precious wildlife habitats, including endangered lowland gorillas and bonobo.
Continue reading...Don’t believe the hype: Victorian government deserves credit for not buckling to aggressive pro-gas campaign
Australia’s most gas-reliant state takes a significant step to move households and businesses away from fossil fuels and cut energy bills
It didn’t go as far as previously flagged, but don’t believe the negative hype about Victoria’s plan to start weaning off gas: it is a significant step that will help drive households and businesses away from fossil fuels and cut energy bills.
The Allan Labor government announced that gas heating and hot water systems will be banned in all new homes and nearly all new commercial buildings, including schools and hospitals, from 1 January 2027. They will not be connected to the state’s gas network and will run on electric systems. New agricultural and manufacturing buildings, some of which use gas for high-temperature industrial processes, are excluded.
Though still marketed as “natural”, and sometimes even as “clean”, gas is actually methane – a highly potent fossil fuel. It releases plenty of greenhouse gas when burned. The electricity grid is moving from being dominated by coal-fired power to renewable energy. Electric appliances are better for the planet and the people who live on it. It is a necessary part of getting to net zero emissions.
Gas is expensive. Analysis has found electrification of appliances should save households nearly $1,000 a year on their energy bills. There are upfront costs in getting new systems, but the Victorian policy is not forcing people to change over until their existing system is dead, and offers rebates to help with the change.
Victoria is running out of gas. For decades, it has relied on reservoirs in Bass Strait, but they are running low, and all potential new sources are expensive. The state government wants to install a 20-year floating liquified natural gas (LNG) import terminal near Geelong to make sure demand is met. It sounds ridiculous, but may be the least bad option available – after the most obvious one: reducing gas use as much as possible so that it is available for the few industrial processes that do not yet have viable alternatives.
Continue reading...Brazil to auction oil exploration rights months before hosting Cop30
Sale covering 56,000 square miles set to go ahead despite opposition from Indigenous and environmental groups
The Brazilian government is preparing to stage an oil exploration auction months before it hosts the Cop30 UN climate summit, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and Indigenous communities worried about the environmental and climate impacts of the plans.
Brazil’s oil sector regulator, ANP, will auction the exploration rights to 172 oil and gas blocks spanning 56,000 square miles (146,000 sq km), an area more than twice the size of Scotland, most of it offshore.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage’s pitch for Welsh elections: bring back coalmining
Reform leader says steel and coal industries can be revived but does not say how beyond ‘scrapping net zero’
Nigel Farage has demanded the reopening of domestic coalmines to provide fuel for new blast furnaces, arguing that Welsh people would happily return to mining if the pay was sufficiently high.
Speaking at an event in Port Talbot, the south Wales town traditionally associated with the steel industry, the Reform UK leader said it was in the “national interest” to have a guaranteed supply of steel, as well as UK-produced fuel for the furnaces, a close echo of Donald Trump’s repeated pledges to return heavy industry to the US.
Continue reading...Australia’s emissions up slightly in 2024 as Labor faces heat over ‘climate-wrecking’ gas project
Greens leader accuses Albanese government of failing two climate tests: pollution on the rise and approving extension for North West Shelf
Australia’s climate-heating emissions increased fractionally last year as pollution from fossil fuel power plants rose for the first time in a decade, and domestic air travel and use of diesel-powered cars and trucks hit record highs.
The jump in emissions was small – just 0.05% – due to falls in pollution from other sectors. But the direction was at odds with the Albanese government’s pledge to cut pollution to reach targets for 2030 and 2050.
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Continue reading...No one committed to Paris goals can seriously argue Woodside’s LNG project should operate until 2070
Forty-year extension of North West Shelf gas project granted by environment minister Murray Watt will result in huge greenhouse gas emissions, putting the already degraded Indigenous rock art at risk
We don’t know all the evidence that the new environment minister, Murray Watt, had before him when he decided to approve a 40-year life extension to one of Australia’s biggest fossil fuel developments so that it could run until 2070.
But we do know this. The decision largely turned on whether the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on the Pilbara’s Burrup Hub can coexist for decades into the future with an incredible collection of ancient Murujuga rock art, some of it nearly 50,000 years old and unlike anything else on the planet.
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