Category Archives: Fossil fuels

Green campaigners fear UK to renew subsidies to Drax power station

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Billions of pounds from energy bill payers to run out in 2027 but could be extended as soon as Monday

Green campaigners fear ministers are poised to award billions of pounds in fresh subsidies to Drax power station, despite strong concerns that burning trees to produce electricity is bad for the environment.

Drax burns wood to generate about 8% of the UK’s “green” power, and 4% of overall electricity. This is classed as “low-carbon” because the harvested trees are replaced by others that take up carbon from the atmosphere as they grow.

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Rosebank oilfield go-ahead decision ruled unlawful by Edinburgh court

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Court says UK government green light for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account CO2 emissions

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.

The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.

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The oil crisis fuelled by Russia’s war is evaporating – and so are the profits

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Results from Shell and Exxon this week will be weaker – and Trump’s desire to drill may result in oversupply

Almost three years ago, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wiped out Europe’s largest source of gas and shocked global energy markets, setting the stage for quarter after quarter of better-than-expected earnings for the fossil fuel producers ready to profit from the volatility. Now those returns are beginning to cool.

But as markets have reduced to a simmer, oil executives have warned that profits are also going off the boil. A glut of new oil and gas projects, stoked by a pro-fossil-fuel agenda from the White House, could mean weaker markets in the future too.

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How the world has responded to Trump’s Paris climate agreement withdrawal

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From Europe to Africa and South America, countries reaffirm commitment to tackle crisis

World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.

The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.

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Big oil pushed to kill bill that would have made them pay for wildfire disasters

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Legislation has new life in wake of Los Angeles catastrophe but US fossil-fuel industry is already mobilizing against it

In the year preceding the devastating Los Angeles county wildfires, big oil fiercely lobbied to kill a “polluter pay” bill that moved through the California senate and would have forced major fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate disasters.

Fossil-fuel industry lobbying in California spiked to record levels during the 2023-24 legislative session, and the polluter pay bill was among the most targeted pieces of legislation, a Guardian review of state lobby filings found.

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Andrew Forrest fires back at ExxonMobil’s claims of ‘smear campaigns and lawfare’

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Iron ore billionaire says he is ‘personally delighted’ at lawsuit as fossil fuel giant has ‘opened themselves up to cross-examination’ in a US court

Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is among a group accused of orchestrating “smear campaigns and lawfare” against the global oil and gas sector “for politics, publicity, and private gain” in a dramatic defamation claim launched in US courts by fossil fuel company ExxonMobil.

But the iron ore billionaire, who is not himself a defendant in the case, said he is “personally delighted” at the court action and that “Exxon has walked themselves into the court and opened themselves up to cross-examination”.

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Thailand bans imports of plastic waste to curb toxic pollution

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Campaigners welcome move but say success depends on enforcement and global agreement on a treaty

Thailand has banned plastic waste imports over concerns about toxic pollution, as experts warn that failure to agree a global treaty to cut plastic waste will harm human health.

A law banning imports of plastic waste came into force this month in Thailand, after years of campaigning by activists. Thailand is one of several south-east Asian countries that has historically been paid to receive plastic waste from developed nations. The country became a leading destination for exports of plastic waste from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan in 2018 after China, the world’s biggest market for household waste, imposed a ban.

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McKinsey paid $1.6m to ‘guide’ Australian climate policy despite working for fossil fuel companies

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Guardian Australia was told firm disclosed its private sector work, but it is not known which clients were listed

Consultancy firm McKinsey was paid $1.6m over 11 weeks to “inform” and “guide” Australian energy and climate policy, despite its work for the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies.

The firm, whose links to oil and gas giants are well known, conducted “detailed market, economic and policy analysis” and produced modelling that underpinned “internal energy and climate policy work”.

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Australia news live: Gallagher says she expects Pocock to trump her in ACT Senate race; more ball-shaped ‘debris’ on Sydney beach

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Detectives investigating four separate incidents of children being approached by drivers in white vans in Melbourne

Victoria police detectives are investigating four separate incidents in Melbourne in the last month of children being approached by drivers in white vans.

People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities: they prey on fear, they prey on anxiety, they prey on all of the elements that contribute to uncertainty in society.

They entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative – I personally find it deeply repulsive.

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More than three-quarters of UK universities join fossil fuel pledge, say activists

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Move to exclude fossil fuel firms from investment portfolios follows years of campaigning by staff and students

More than three-quarters of UK universities have pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios, according to campaigners.

The move, which is part of a wider drive to limit investment in fossil fuels, follows years of campaigning by staff and students across the higher education sector.

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How climate policies reduce air pollution saving lives and money

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Early deaths from air pollution in US could be reduced by between 4,000 and 15,000 a year by 2035, study shows

The burning of fossil fuels that harms our climate also produces air pollution that damages ecosystems and harms our health. But we fail to tally up the benefits of reduced air pollution in our climate policies, and overlook opportunities to tackle these problems together.

A reminder of this failure is illustrated in a new study which has found that reduced air pollution from net zero policies in the US could result in a health gain of between $65bn (£51bn) and $128bn in 2035 alone.

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UAE urges countries to honour fossil fuels vow amid Cop29 impasse

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Petrostate’s rebuke comes as Saudi Arabia and allies try to derail transition promise made at climate talks last year

The world must stand behind a historic resolution made last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the United Arab Emirates has said, in a powerful intervention into a damaging row over climate action.

The petrostate’s stance will be seen as as a sharp rebuke to its neighbour and close ally Saudi Arabia, which had been trying to unpick the global commitment at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan this week.

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Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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Revealed: McKinsey clients had ‘rising share of global emissions’, internal analysis shows

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Consulting giant had said it engages with clients to help them transition to cleaner energy even as it knew they were in line to exceed climate targets

The world’s biggest consulting firm found that its clients were on a trajectory to bust global climate targets, details of internal forecasting in 2021 uncovered by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian reveal.

McKinsey & Company has worked with some of the world’s biggest emitters, including many of the largest fossil fuel producers. It has previously argued it is necessary to engage these clients to help them transition to cleaner forms of energy and hit the target of limiting global warming to less than 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

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Cop29 climate finance deal hits fresh setback as deadline looms

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Outcry after draft text contains only an ‘X’ instead of setting $1tn funding goal to support developing countries

Hopes of a breakthrough at the deadlocked UN climate talks have been dashed after a new draft of a possible deal was condemned by rich and poor countries.

Faith in the ability of the Azerbaijan presidency to produce a deal ebbed on Thursday morning, as the draft texts were criticised as inadequate and providing no “landing ground” for a compromise.

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Santos figured out net zero roadmap ‘literally on the fly’, court hears in world-first greenwashing case

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Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility accuses Australian oil giant of misleading and false claims in closing arguments

Santos misled investors by positioning itself as a “clean fuels company” with a credible net zero plan, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) has alleged in closing remarks to a world-first greenwashing case.

Noel Hutley SC, representing ACCR, said the case was about protecting the public interest by “ensuring that commitments by Australian companies regarding climate change are reasonably based and not misleading”.

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Fifty-year extension for one of Australia’s biggest CO2 emitters likely after WA ditches emissions-reduction rules

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Extending life of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas processing plant on Burrup Peninsula could result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution, critics say

The Western Australian Labor government appears all but certain to give one of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters the green light to operate until 2070 after it announced it would abolish state emissions-reduction requirements.

Scientists have warned the proposal to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula in the country’s remote north-west is linked to the development of at least three major gas fields and could ultimately result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution being released into the atmosphere.

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Spain’s apocalyptic floods show undeniable truths: the climate crisis is getting worse and Big Oil is killing us | Jonathan Watts

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The devastating flooding should spur this month’s Cop29 climate conference to press for immediate action, not look away

Move on. Nothing to see here. Just another ordinary, everyday apocalypse.

If past experience is any guide, the world’s reaction to the floods in Spain last week will be similar to that of motorway drivers at a crash scene: slow down, take in the horror, outwardly express sympathy, inwardly give thanks that fate picked someone else – and foot on the accelerator.

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US students score win in push for fossil fuel divestment by private high schools

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Concerned students press for their high schools – some with $1bn endowments – to reinvest in clean energy

A high school in California has decided not to invest in coal, oil or gas, instead pledging to put money into clean energy. It’s the latest win in a new fossil fuel divestment campus campaign launched by high schoolers across 11 countries that is gaining support in the US.

The Nueva School, an elite private school outside San Francisco, pledged in spring 2024 to invest a portion of its $55m endowment in renewable power. The commitment followed months of pressure from students.

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Proposed powers to exempt NT projects from environmental assessments criticised as ‘terrifying’ and ‘authoritarian’

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The Labor opposition, conservationists and Indigenous groups have expressed shock at the move

The newly elected Northern Territory government wants to grant itself sweeping new powers to exempt major projects from environmental assessments in a move described by conservationists and Indigenous groups as authoritarian and anti-democratic.

A leaked consultation document, seen by Guardian Australia, outlines how a new Territory Coordinator (TC) would have powers to “step in” and take the role of government agencies to make assessments and approvals and could order other agencies to make decisions within a specific timeframe.

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