‘Appalling’ Earth Day greenwashing must not detract from message, says protest founder

Denis Hayes, who coordinated the first event in 1970, denounces fossil fuel companies that use the event to get positive publicity

Corporate greenwashing should not undermine the message behind Earth Day and has nothing to do with its original aims, one of the founders of the annual environmental event has warned.

Denis Hayes, the American environmental activist who coordinated the first Earth Day in 1970, denounced the “appalling” environmental messaging by oil, gas and other extractive companies and said he hoped it did not distract attention from the threats posed by the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, which he compared to the threat of nuclear conflict during the cold war.

Continue reading...

EU faces legal action after including gas and nuclear in ‘green’ investments guide

European Commission accused of acting unlawfully in two separate cases bought by environment groups

The European Commission is being sued by environmental campaigners over a decision to include gas and nuclear in an EU guide to “green” investments.

Two separate legal challenges are being lodged on Tuesday at the European Union’s general court in Luxembourg – one by Greenpeace and another by a coalition including Client Earth and WWF – after the classification of fuels in the so-called taxonomy, a guide for investors intended to channel billions into green technologies.

Continue reading...

Insulate Britain activist jailed for eight weeks for contempt of court

David Nixon disobeyed judge’s order not to mention climate crisis as motivation during trial over road-blocking protest

An environmental activist has been jailed for eight weeks after disobeying a judge’s instruction not to mention the climate crisis as his motivation during his trial for taking part in a road-blocking protest.

David Nixon, 36, a care worker from Barnsley, was sentenced at Inner London crown court on Tuesday after admitting contempt of court the day before by using his closing address to begin telling a jury about his reasons for protesting.

Continue reading...

Georgia officials condemned for labeling ‘Cop City’ protests domestic terrorism

Lawyers for climate activist killed by police say charges send warning: ‘If you stand in our way, we will take you out of our way’

Lawyers for the family of a climate activist who was shot dead by police in Georgia last month have condemned officials’ attempts to brand his fellow protesters of Atlanta’s planned “Cop City” training facility as domestic terrorists.

Attorneys representing relatives of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán were speaking at a news conference Monday as a large number of officers, including heavily armed tactical teams, descended again on the site in Atlanta’s South River forest where the building of the $90m so-called Cop City is planned.

Continue reading...

Peers deliver several blows to government’s anti-protest bill

House of Lords votes against flagship public order bill on day when Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted proceedings in chamber

A government bill aimed at cracking down on protest has suffered a number of setbacks in the House of Lords, setting the stage for a tense showdown between parliament’s two chambers.

Peers inflicted a number of defeats on the wide-ranging public order bill, which is aimed at curbing guerrilla tactics used by protest groups.

Continue reading...

Fears mount over safety of two missing Mexican environmental activists

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia’s bullet hole-riddled vehicle was found after an anti-mining meeting

Fears are mounting for the safety of two missing Mexican land rights activists after their vehicle was found ridden with bullet holes.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer and environmentalist and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening travelling toward the neighbouring state of Colima after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

Continue reading...

Climate activists vow to take to streets to stop fossil fuel extraction

‘Cease and desist’ letter signed by over 650,000 people sent to oil and gas CEOs follows removal of Greta Thunberg from coal protest

Hundreds of thousands of young climate activists have said they will continue “protesting in the streets in huge numbers” against fossil fuels, a day after Greta Thunberg was removed by German police from a condemned village atop a massive coal deposit.

In a cease-and-desist letter to the CEOs of fossil fuel companies, youth campaigners accuse them of a “direct violation of our human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, your duties of care, as well as the rights of Indigenous people”.

Continue reading...

Police to get new powers to shut down protests before disruption begins

Plans aimed at preventing tactics such as ‘slow marching’ are part of Rishi Sunak’s public order crackdown

Police are to be given powers to shut down protests before any disruption begins under Rishi Sunak’s plans for a public order crackdown, which aim to prevent tactics such as “slow marching”.

Sparking outrage from civil liberties campaigners, the government said it would be laying an amendment to the public order bill to toughen its crackdown on “guerilla” tactics used mainly by environmental protesters.

Continue reading...

Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil vow to continue disruptive action

Commitment to ‘civil resistance’ comes after Extinction Rebellion said it would prioritise ‘relationships over roadblocks’

Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil have doubled down on their commitment to disruptive climate “civil resistance” after Extinction Rebellion announced new tactics prioritising “relationships over roadblocks”.

“It’s 2023 and XR has quit,” Just Stop Oil said in a statement. “But it’s 2023, and we are barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered civil society, as extreme weather impacts tens of millions, as our country becomes unrecognisable … there is now a need to face reality.

Continue reading...

UK ministers face legal challenge over North Sea oil and gas licences

Three campaign groups challenge plans to award up to 130 new licences for exploration

The UK government is facing a fresh challenge in the courts over plans to award up to 130 new licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration, in the latest attempt to stop ministers’ proposed expansion of the country’s fossil fuel production.

Three campaign groups have written to the business secretary, Grant Shapps, explaining the grounds on which they consider the latest offshore oil and gas licensing round to be unlawful. They call for the decision to award the new licences to be reversed, arguing that new oil and gas exploration and development is incompatible with the UK’s own rules and international climate obligations.

Continue reading...

Tyre Extinguishers deflate tyres of 900 SUVs in ‘biggest ever action’

The climate activists claim to have targeted 4x4 owners in eight European and US cities

Guerrilla climate activists Tyre Extinguishers have claimed their “largest ever night of action against SUVs”, with 900 of the vehicles targeted around the world.

“Last night (the evening of Monday 28 November and early morning of Tuesday 29 November), citizens in eight countries deflated tyres on nearly 900 polluting SUVs,” the activist group said in a statement.

Continue reading...

What happened at Cop27 on day 11?

EU agrees to loss and damage fund to help poor countries and activists interrupting proceedings lose their passes

The biggest news of the day broke on Friday morning, with the announcement that the EU would agree to a loss and damage fund to help poor countries with climate disasters.

The climate summit will run until Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse. This is not really a surprise to anyone.

Youth activists staged a Friday climate strike to mark the last formal day of negotiations. Meanwhile during the talks, Nakeeyat Dramani, a 10-year-old Ghanaian climate activist, asked delegates to “have a heart”.

Elsewhere the activists who interrupted the US president, Joe Biden, lost their summit passes, as did the Ukrainian protester who spoke out at a Russian press conference.

A surprisingly large number of gas deals were struck at the summit, with more than a dozen set up.

And Desmog crunched the numbers and found that representatives from big agriculture more than doubled at Cop27.

Continue reading...

Climate activists throw black liquid at Gustav Klimt painting in Vienna

Pair attack Death and Life painting in Leopold Museum in protest against fossil fuel ‘death sentence’

Climate activists in Austria have attacked a painting by Gustav Klimt, with one throwing a black, oily liquid at it and another gluing himself to the glass covering the painting.

Members of Letzte Generation Österreich (Last Generation Austria) tweeted that they had targeted the 1915 painting Death and Life at the Leopold Museum in Vienna to protest against their government’s use of fossil fuels.

Continue reading...

Civil society groups report surveillance and intimidation at Cop27

Attenders say actions of Egyptian authorities are threatening their participation at conference

Members of civil society attending Cop27 have described how surveillance and intimidation by the Egyptian authorities is threatening their participation in the climate conference.

Problems reported by attenders include overt surveillance, control of their meetings by conference staff and problems with accommodation.

Continue reading...

Cop27 wifi in Egypt blocks human rights and key news websites

Attendees say they are unable to visit Human Rights Watch and other sites needed during climate talks

Attendees at the Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.

HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.

Continue reading...

Climate activists storm Amsterdam airport and block private jets

Sitdown protests are part of a day of demonstrations in and around Schiphol airport

Dutch border police arrested hundreds of climate activists who stormed Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and sat in front of the wheels of aircraft to prevent them from leaving.

More than 100 protesters, wearing white suits, entered an area where private jets are kept on Saturday as part of a day of demonstrations in and around the airport organised by environmental groups.

Continue reading...

Protesters who targeted Girl with a Pearl Earring jailed by Dutch court

Two activists from Just Stop Oil Belgium each sentenced to two months in prison with one month suspended

Two Belgian climate change activists who last week targeted the Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring have been sentenced to two months in prison by a Dutch court, of which one month was suspended.

One activist glued his head to glass covering the painting at a museum in The Hague. The artwork was not damaged, gallery staff said.

Continue reading...

Environmental activist’s home visited by Queensland police ahead of planned protests in Sydney

Activist among 30 people in three states and ACT to report visits from officers at request of NSW police ahead of mining forum

Counter-terror police in Queensland have visited the home of an environmental activist following a request from New South Wales ahead of planned protests at a mining conference in Sydney.

The activist is one of about 30 people across four jurisdictions to report visits from police in the past week ahead of the International Mining and Resources Conference, which starts on Wednesday.

Sign up for our free morning and afternoon email newsletters from Guardian Australia for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira remembered in Lancaster exhibition

Exhibition at Halton Mill is part of a month of activities about the Amazon commemorating Phillips and Pereira

An exhibition in memory of the murdered Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira opens on Sunday ahead of an international conference on saving the Amazon rainforest which is being held next month.

The two men were killed in Brazilian Amazonia in June 2022 while researching a book Phillips was writing called How to Save the Amazon.

Continue reading...

Climate activists throw mashed potatoes at Monet work in Germany

Two protesters pelt painting with potatoes and glue their hands to wall at Museum Barberini in Potsdam

Claude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.

Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before glueing their hands to the wall.

Continue reading...