Oil firms, petrostates, airlines and carmakers ‘doubling down’ on sector that is popular with young people
Oil companies, petrostates, airlines and carmakers are among the big polluters bombarding the esports industry with adverts, a study has found.
Esports, short for electronic sports, are competitive video games watched by spectators, with multiplayer games such as League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2 attracting peak viewer figures in the millions.
Continue reading...Permits for coal-fired power plants drop by 83% despite leading world in construction as focus turns to renewables
Coal-fired power is still enjoying a construction boom in China, but a marked slowdown in the permitting of future plants has given experts hope that the world’s biggest emitter may be turning a corner.
China led the world in the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the first half of 2024, with work beginning on more than 41GW of new generation capacity, data published on Thursday showed.
Continue reading...Devastation in Brazil wetlands was made at least four times more likely by fossil fuel use and deforestation, scientists say
The devastating wildfires that tore through the world’s biggest tropical wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, in June were made at least four times more likely and 40% more intense by human-caused climate disruption, a study has found.
Charred corpses of monkeys, caimans and snakes have been left in the aftermath of the blaze, which burned 440,000 hectares (1.1m acres) and is thought to have killed millions of animals and countless more plants, insects and fungi.
Continue reading...More than 95% of investors urged commodities firm to keep highly profitable fossil fuel arm to help maximise shareholder cash
Glencore has scrapped plans to spin off its coal business after shareholders urged the commodities company to hold on to the highly profitable but heavily polluting division.
The FTSE 100 company said that an overwhelming majority of its shareholders favoured retaining the coal business over its plan to list the division as a separate company on the New York stock exchange.
Continue reading...Ed Miliband said GB Energy would be a crucial tool to tackle the UK’s energy security concerns
The former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable is testifying at the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal today. My colleague Mark Sweney will be sharing updates on that in the live blog here:
“The days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over,” chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, has said.
Yesterday I met the civil service unions together with my colleague, the new minister [Georgia Gould]. We had a very positive discussion covering a whole range of issues.
I made it clear that the days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over. Instead, we want a civil service that’s motivated, valued and helps the government deliver its priorities. And on this specific issue of pay, the government will have more to say on civil service pay before the summer recess.”
We do value civil servants, and of course we want all public servants to be properly and fairly rewarded, and, like any public expenditure, what’s spent on pay has to be balanced against other priorities and fair to taxpayers as a whole.”
Departments do have flexibility on pay, they can direct pay towards the needs of their own workforces.”
Continue reading...Suggestions definition of petrostate is too narrow as many rich countries that could phase out fossil fuels double down
“Drill, baby, drill!” Donald Trump’s ominous avowal to pump up the oil and gas production of the US has horrified many people around the world about the intentions of the Republican candidate, who has also declared he wants to be “dictator for a day”. Rather than the prospective leader of the free world, the election frontrunner sounds more like the tyrant of a petrostate.
That should not be entirely surprising given the country’s recent record: it has ramped up fossil fuel production to become the world’s biggest producer. As a Guardian investigation reveals, the total number of projected licences by the US for 2024 could lead to an estimated 397m tonnes of planet-heating emissions.
Continue reading...Countries and companies involved in oil and gas extraction to be asked to join scheme aimed at tackling global heating
Fossil-fuel producing countries and companies are being asked to pay into a new international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis.
The climate investment fund is being set up by the Azerbaijan government, host country of the Cop29 UN climate summit in November.
Continue reading...Lending puts banks in ‘complete violation’ of commitments to Paris agreement, climate group says, even as overall funding to sector ebbs
Australia’s big four banks are in “complete violation” of commitments to the Paris climate accord by funding fossil fuel expansion even as their overall lending to the sector continues to ebb, according to a new report.
The climate activist group Market Forces said in the report that the banks lent the industry $3.6bn in 2023, bringing their total loans to more than $61bn since 2015. Last year, though, was first year in the past eight that banks avoided explicitly backing a new or expanded fossil fuel project.
Continue reading...Australia’s electricity sector was fast to cut carbon pollution due to renewables as alternatives to coal and gas – until lately
Australia’s electricity sector has long been the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the economy, accounting for more than a third of the national total.
The industry was one of the fastest to cut carbon pollution because of the availability of wind, solar and hydro power as alternatives to burning coal and gas – until lately.
Continue reading...Projections of shortfalls – and calls for more production – come even as the bulk of gas produced in Australia is exported
East coast gas shortfalls could emerge as soon as 2027, a year earlier than was forecast six months ago, unless new sources of supply are made available, the competition watchdog has warned in a report.
Released on Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report does not cover the supply squeeze that prompted the market operator last month to issue a “threat notice” of potential shortfalls of the fuel in southern states, amid production issues and a prolonged cold snap.
Continue reading...Incident reignites concerns over crackdown on media before crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year
Western journalists were refused entry to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns over the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.
At least three journalists from the UK and France have told the Guardian that they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite registering with the event organisers weeks in advance.
Continue reading...‘Threat notice’ flags elevated supply risks, as expert warns problems will get worse without urgent addition of more backup resources
Gas supplies in southern states are likely to remain strained the rest of this winter, and the problems will worsen without the urgent addition of more backup resources, analysts including the market operator say.
Those states, particularly Victoria, have drawn down their gas storage as cold weather increased demand. Gas-fired power generation has also been double that expected on some days amid unusually calm periods, and gas production at Victoria’s Longford plant has dropped because of unscheduled maintenance.
Continue reading...Labour leader says he would refuse to participate in negotiations for another independence referendum if he is elected PM
Speaking of Nigel Farage: the Reform UK leader has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the emasculated and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.
The Guardian’s Rowena Mason and Ben Quinn report:
Continue reading...Commission recommends 33-point plan to ensure oil giant complies with state climate commitments
The French government should intervene in TotalEnergies and spur faster climate action, a senate inquiry commission has concluded.
The commission, set up to explore ways the state could guarantee that the oil conglomerate complies with French climate commitments, recommended 33 steps the government should take to “encourage a rapid, orderly and effective transition”.
Continue reading...Minister should have assessed climate damage that would be caused by two large developments, advocates say
Conservationists will ask the high court to examine whether the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, should have assessed the climate damage that would be caused by two large coalmine developments.
The Environment Council of Central Queensland has sought special leave in Australia’s highest court to appeal against the federal court’s dismissal of what is known as the Living Wonders case.
Continue reading...Stephen Kwikiriza is one of 11 campaigners against EACOP targeted by authorities in past two weeks, rights group says
A man campaigning against the controversial $5bn (£4bn) east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) is recovering in hospital after an alleged beating by the Ugandan armed forces in the latest incident in what has been called an “alarming crackdown” on the country’s environmentalists.
Stephen Kwikiriza, who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, according to his employer. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital on Sunday evening.
Continue reading...Coal and gas-fired power plant owners say interim target an important step to net zero by 2050
The owners of Australian coal and gas-fired power plants have joined the country’s leading business groups in saying the Coalition should keep Labor’s 2030 climate target if it wins the next election.
The Australian Energy Council, which represents electricity companies and gas wholesalers and retailers, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group said maintaining an interim target – legislated as a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – was an important step in getting to net zero emissions by mid-century.
Continue reading...‘The industry is rapidly strangling our planet,’ says Andrew Wilkie, who joins Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Zali Steggall and Monique Ryan in call for ban
At least nine independent MPs and the Greens have backed the UN secretary general’s call for the Australian government to ban fossil fuel advertising and for media companies to stop accepting money to promote coal, oil and gas companies.
Many described fossil fuel advertising as greenwashing that damaged the climate, the environment and people’s health, and compared its use to steps taken by “big tobacco” before cigarette advertising was banned in 1992.
Continue reading...António Guterres warns of ‘climate crunch time’ and announces dire new scientific warnings of global heating
Fossil-fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the secretary general of the United Nations has said while delivering dire new scientific warnings of global heating.
In a major speech in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres called on news and tech media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking fossil-fuel advertising money while warning the world faces “climate crunch time” in its faltering attempts to stem the crisis.
Continue reading...Governors say president has ‘done nothing but attack American energy’ and urge end to US fossil-fuel rules and regulations
Republican governors gathered in the fossil-fuel rich state of Louisiana on Monday to rail against the Biden administration’s climate agenda and lay out plans to “unleash American energy”, alarming community advocates and climate experts.
“President Biden has done nothing but attack American energy,” said the Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, who led the Wednesday press conference.
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