Fossil

Greens and David Pocock accuse industry of using programs and sponsorships to ‘build social licence’, push for parliamentary inquiryFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Greens and David Pocock have backed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the alleged “petro-grooming” of children after an investigation exposed the extent of the fossil fuel sector’s presence in schools, sports clubs and other educational institutions.The resources minister, Madeleine King, has defended industry sponsorships of grassroots and elite sports and said it was fortunate so many companies were prepared to support clubs. Continue reading...

Jotham Napat’s visit renews expectations that the two countries can sign the Nakamal pact after long negotiations. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHanson’s press club speech a ‘reality check’ for Australians, says WattEnvironment minister Murray Watt, says One Nation’s popularity dipping from 31% to 29% is due to Pauline Hanson’s controversial press club address, but concedes the “polls will bounce around a bit.”We have seen a bit of a change in the public mood towards One Nation since Pauline Hanson’s Press Club speech.I think that speech was a bit of a reality check for a lot of Australians who were thinking about voting for One Nation, because they got to see that as much as people are under pressure at the moment, things could get worse under One Nation with all the cuts they were talking about imposing.Yes, of course, any improvement is welcome. But we know that we to provide real answers and real change to the pressure that people are feeling.I’m a half glass full sort of guy, Nat [Barr] and the the electorate’s very restless. People are understandably restless because they’ve seen their incomes decline back to 2011 levels under government … So it’s very volatile.The first thing you’ve got to do is get the herd moving and the herd is moving. It’s just not going through the the right gate for us at the moment. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of Americans say they are worried about climate but level of media coverage does not reflect thisUS political and media discourse has drifted away from the climate crisis amid a frontal assault by Donald Trump upon policies to limit global heating and the president’s pugnacious demands to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil and gas.Yet while elite attention on climate has waned, even among some previously vocal Democrats who have wound back on criticism of the fossil fuels that are overheating our planet, the American public remains concerned about the climate crisis and continues to favour action to deal with it, according to experts and polling. Continue reading...

Climate minister Chris Bowen says country must prepare for changing world and can play bigger role in reducing emissionsAustralia will find exporting fossil fuels increasingly difficult but can switch to exporting clean energy products, the president of the next UN climate negotiations has declared.Speaking at a climate conference in Bonn, Germany, Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, argued his country had led the global push to “transition away from fossil fuels” – based on the rapid growth of renewable energy and batteries in its domestic power grids – and that its economy could manage the switch. Continue reading...

JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers sayThe world’s largest banks committed $906bn in financing to the fossil fuel industry last year, an “unfathomable” increase in investment locking in years more of coal, oil and gas production as the world continues to overheat, a new report has found.The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures, according to the coalition of environmental groups behind the new analysis. Continue reading...

Energy specialists say abandoning net zero and increasing oil and gas drilling would cause more instability for BritonsAbandoning net zero and drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea would be a massive setback for the UK and would not help the economy, leading experts have said in response to claims by the former prime minister Tony Blair.“This is a bizarre intervention to make during the worst May heatwave on record and when the Iran crisis is providing yet more evidence of the enormous costs of oil and gas,” said Ed Matthew, the UK programme director at the E3G thinktank. “Clean energy is cheaper energy - it protects our bills from prices skyrocketing, its running costs are virtually zero, and it doesn’t cause climate change which threatens economic collapse ... The government should ignore Blair’s ideological nonsense and focus on what works.” Continue reading...

Jerome Laxale breaks ranks to publicly back reforms that would also wind back the diesel fuel rebateFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Labor MP Jerome Laxale says it’s “reasonable to expect more” from mining giants, breaking ranks to publicly back changes to the generous tax concessions blamed for holding back decarbonisation after revelations BHP delayed major projects to cut emissions.Labor’s grassroots environment action group has also renewed calls to wind back the diesel fuel rebate following an exclusive investigation by the Guardian and the ABC, which revealed BHP scrapped a project to significantly reduce global emissions, delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara and war-gamed options to push the electrification of its polluting diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades. Continue reading...