Just Stop Oil climate protesters not jailed over track invasion at British Grand Prix

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Just Stop Oil protest at Silverstone Grand Prix

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/31/climate-protesters-spared-from-jail-over-track-invasion-at-british-grand-prix

Six climate crisis protesters have been spared jail after a track invasion that risked “serious harm” to Formula One drivers and marshals at last year’s British Grand Prix.

Louis McKechnie, Emily Brocklebank and Bethany Mogie, who were among five Just Stop Oil campaigners who were dragged off the circuit at Silverstone as two Formula One cars passed close by, were given suspended jail sentences at Northampton crown court on Friday.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Garnham also handed 12-month community orders to fellow protesters David Baldwin, Alasdair Gibson and Joshua Smith.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/31/climate-protesters-spared-from-jail-over-track-invasion-at-british-grand-prix

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil climate protesters not jailed over track invasion at British Grand Prix

Just Stop Oil QEII Bridge activist ‘was delivering climate warning’

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11.15am The video changed shortly after I posted. It was originally far more critical of UK government and urging people to take action, far more like this one ;)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-65127506

A Just Stop Oil protester has told jurors he climbed the Dartford Crossing bridge to deliver a “warning message”.

Morgan Trowland, 40, of Islington, north London, and Marcus Decker, 34, of no fixed address, are on trial accused of causing a public nuisance.

The court has heard the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, linking the M25 in Essex and Kent, was closed between 04:00 BST on 17 October and 21:00 the following day.

“We climbed it to deliver a warning message – to put up a banner saying ‘Just Stop Oil’ and to speak that message through interviews with journalists,” he told Basildon Crown Court.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-65127506

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil QEII Bridge activist ‘was delivering climate warning’

Morning Star: Tories’ Powering up Britain plan condemns us to more climate change

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Extinction Rebellion promote 'The Big One' on 21 April 2023
Extinction Rebellion promote ‘The Big One’ on 21 April 2023

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/tories-powering-britain-plan-condemns-us-more-climate-change

THE government’s announcement of revised plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions today, Powering up Britain, needs to be judged against the latest report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report, issued on Monday March 20, states: “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

Global warming has been driven by the use of fossil fuels, which has increased the concentration of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, in the atmosphere. The report calls for massive cuts in the use of such fuels, and instead the application of clean energy and technology.

Essentially the latest plans from the British government are business as usual — or at least as much as possible. There is no fresh funding, and the 60 points include many initiatives that have already been announced.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/tories-powering-britain-plan-condemns-us-more-climate-change

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Tories’ Powering up Britain plan condemns us to more climate change

Conservatives Received £3.5 Million from Polluters, Fossil Fuel Interests and Climate Deniers in 2022

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The governing party has accepted millions in “dirty donations” while watering down its net zero commitments.

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps. Credit: Simon Dawson / 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Individuals and entities linked to climate denial, fossil fuels and high pollution industries donated more than £3.5 million to the Conservative Party last year, DeSmog can reveal.

Electoral Commission records show that the party and its MPs received considerable sums from the highly polluting aviation and construction industries, mining and oil interests, and individuals linked to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank that denies climate science.

This revelation comes on the government’s supposed ‘green day’, when it has announced a long list of policies on energy and the transition to net zero. 

However, rather than strengthen the commitment to the government’s legally binding climate targets, the policies are expected to entrench the role of fossil fuels in the UK’s energy system.

The government’s updated measures include a plan to loosen restrictions on oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, in which is says “we remain absolutely committed to maximising the vital production of UK oil and gas as the North Sea basin declines”.

The government’s failure to act on a number of key recommendations in the net zero review conducted by Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, along with a legal challenge to the UK’s climate plans, has prompted outrage from green campaigners. 

“It’s clear this is not a strategy, just an assembly of lobby interests,” Tom Burke, a co-founder of the E3G think tank told The Guardian earlier this week.

Caroline Lucas told DeSmog that the government’s net zero announcements were becoming “muddier and murkier by the moment”. 

The government’s green day “couldn’t be any more of a misnomer, when the Conservative Party is raking in millions of pounds’ worth of dirty donations from fossil fuel interests and climate deniers”, she added.

High-Pollution Industries

Aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne donated the largest total sum to the Conservatives in 2022, gifting £1.5 million to the party, which had an income of £31.7 million for the year ending 2021.

Harborne is the owner of AML Global, an aviation fuel supplier operating in 1,200 locations across the globe with a distribution network that includes “main and regional oil companies”, according to its website. Harborne is also the CEO of Sheriff Global Group, which trades in private jets. 

Aviation emissions accounted for eight percent of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions before the pandemic, according to the government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC).

Harborne has previously provided gifts to Conservative MP Steve Baker, who co-founded an anti-green group of back benchers, the Net Zero Scrutiny Group. Harborne has also donated some £6.5 million to the Brexit Party – now Reform UK – whose co-founder Nigel Farage has called for a referendum on the government’s net zero targets. Harborne has rarely spoken about the climate crisis, so the details of his personal views are unknown. 

Harborne and all those cited in this article have been approached for comment. 

One of the largest donations to the party in 2022 came from Mark Bamford, a member of the JCB construction dynasty, who gave £973,000. The JCB group, a multinational firm that manufactures equipment for construction, also donated more than £36,000 to the party during the year. 

According to the government’s Environmental Audit Committee, the UK’s built environment is responsible for 25 percent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and “there has been a lack of government impetus or policy levers to assess and reduce these emissions”. The construction industry is also responsible for 18 percent of large particle pollution in the UK, a figure that rises to 30 percent in London, according to a recent report by Impact on Urban Health (IoUH) and the Centre for Low Emission Construction (CLEC).

Fossil Fuel Interests

The Conservative Party also received considerable sums from those directly tied to the fossil fuel industry. 

This included more than £62,000 from Nova Venture Holdings, a firm wholly owned by Jacques Tohme, who describes himself as an “energy investor” on LinkedIn and lists his current role as co-founder and director of Tailwind Energy, an oil and gas company. 

According to its website, Tailwind focuses on “maximis[ing] value in UK continental shelf (UKCS) opportunities”, an area which includes the North Sea. Serica Energy reportedly has an agreement in place to buy Tailwind, which will make Serica one of the 10 largest North Sea oil and gas producers. 

The party also received £10,000 from Alan Lusty, the CEO of Adi Group, a “leading supplier of engineering services to the petrochemical industry”. These services “add significant value to petrochemical engineering companies”, Adi says, though the firm claims “to work towards delivering a low-carbon economy” through its products. Adi also provides engineering services to the aerospace and automotive industries. 

Centrax, a firm that manufactures gas turbines, also gifted £35,000 to the Conservatives. 

A further £23,900 was raised from Amjad Bseisu, the CEO of EnQuest, an oil and gas company. Bseisu has lobbied for support to maximise the exploration for fossil fuels in the North Sea, where EnQuest operates.

During the course of his Conservative leadership bid last summer, Rishi Sunak personally received £25,000 from Mick Davis – a mining tycoon and former CEO of the Conservative Party. Davis was the CEO of Xstrata, an Anglo-Swiss firm that specialised in coal production, among other things, before it was acquired by the commodities giant Glencore in 2013. 

Sunak received a further £38,000 from Lord Michael Farmer, who founded the Red Kite metals trading and investment firm. According to his register of interests, Lord Farmer currently holds shares in Shell, BP, and Chesapeake Energy Corporation – an oil and gas company. Lord Farmer donated a further £50,000 directly to the Conservative Party in 2022. 

Sunak’s leadership opponent Liz Truss was also the beneficiary of donations linked to the fossil fuel industry. Truss received £100,000, her largest single donation, from Fitriani Hay, a former director of Fosroc, which provides “construction solutions” to the oil and gas industry. Her husband, James Hay, is a former executive at the oil supermajor BP. 

Truss also received substantial donations from individuals linked to groups lobbying for fracking regulations to be relaxed. 

Lord Michael Spencer donated £286,000 to the Conservatives during the year, both personally and via his family firm IPGL, including a £25,000 donation to the Truss campaign. Lord Spencer, a reported billionaire, holds shares in several oil and gas companies.

Lord John Nash likewise donated £55,000 to the party, with the peer’s register of interests listing him as a shareholder in Shell and BHP.

Links to Climate Denial

Individuals and firms with close ties to the GWPF, an organisation that denies climate science, also helped to finance the Conservative Party last year. 

This included Sir Michael Hintze, who donated £17,500 to the party and one of its MPs, Brandon Lewis. While Hintze avoids public statements on climate change, he was one of the early funders of the GWPF – an anti-green organisation that opposes what it describes as “extremely damaging and harmful policies” to mitigate climate change.

As revealed by DeSmog, Conservative MP Steve Baker received £5,000 from Neil Record in January 2022. Record is the chair of the Global Warming Policy Forum, the campaign arm of the GWPF, and has donated to the organisation. 

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt and Home Secretary Suella Braverman each received £10,000 in 2022 from First Corporate Consultants, owned by Terence Mordaunt, who sits on the board of the GWPF. Penny Mordaunt has previously distanced herself from the views of her namesake and donor in relation to climate change. 

Net Zero Review

At least 60 new measures were unveiled today, focused on energy supply and the transition to net zero. The policies were previously set for a public launch in Aberdeen, the de facto capital of the UK’s oil and gas industry, before an outcry from green campaigners forced a re-think.

The government’s updated net zero policies are partly a response to a successful legal challenge, which proved that the government had failed to disclose sufficient details of how its climate goals will be achieved.

The revamped strategy is also a response to the net zero review commissioned from Chris Skidmore by former Prime Minister Liz Truss, released in January. 

The government has defied several of Skidmore’s recommendations, such as refusing to ban flaring by 2025. Flaring is the process whereby fossil fuel extractors burn off the gas that comes out of the ground while drilling for oil.

Announcements have included the continued expansion of North Sea oil and gas exploration. The North Sea Transition Authority has this week announced that it is advocating new measures to “speed up North Sea oil and gas production” by “streamlin[ing] the buying and selling of assets”.

Green campaigners have suggested that the government’s updated plans continue to fall short of its climate targets – risking further legal action. 

On Wednesday, the CCC released a new report on the UK’s climate change adaptation – saying that the country is “strikingly unprepared” for the impacts of global heating. 

Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s Adaptation Committee, said: “The Government’s lack of urgency on climate resilience is in sharp contrast to the recent experience of people in this country. People, nature and infrastructure face damaging impacts as climate change takes hold. These impacts will only intensify in the coming decades”.

Original article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

Continue ReadingConservatives Received £3.5 Million from Polluters, Fossil Fuel Interests and Climate Deniers in 2022

Activists in swimwear queue up outside Sunak’s heated pool to highlight electricity grid scandal

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‘While Sunak will enjoy doing lengths in his warm pool, the rest of us are stuck with an outdated power network’

Greenpeace activists wearing swimming trunks, flip flops and caps have lined up outside Rishi Sunak’s Grade-II listed manor house in Richmond, Yorkshire.

On Wednesday morning (29 March 2023), Greenpeace activists are staging a demonstration outside Rishi Sunak’s Grade-II listed manor house in Richmond, Yorkshire, where earlier this month it was revealed that Sunak paid privately for his local electricity grid to be upgraded to heat his £400,000 swimming pool.

Activists wearing swimming trunks, flip flops and scuba diving gear have lined up outside the gates of his house, valued at £2mn, waiting to get access to the Prime Minister’s private pool. They aim to highlight the hypocrisy of the UK’s richest ever Prime Minister paying for private upgrades to the grid for his own benefit, while failing to upgrade our outdated national grid, which remains unable to deliver the green energy revolution for the rest of us that would lower bills and help tackle the climate crisis.

This demonstration comes ahead of the Government’s so-called ‘Energy Security Day’ on Thursday 30 March. Ministers are expected to announce policies to boost carbon capture and new fossil fuel projects that campaigners argue would do nothing for our energy security and would be disastrous for the climate.

Greenpeace activists wearing swimming trunks, flip flops and caps have lined up outside Rishi Sunak’s Grade-II listed manor house in Richmond, Yorkshire.

Greenpeace UK is urging the government to listen instead to energy experts, industry and its own auditors who have warned that without upgrading the outdated grid we won’t be able to roll out renewables at the speed needed to tackle the cost of energy and climate crisis. A wait of up to 13 years to connect new renewable and battery storage projects to Britain’s grid is threatening investment and undermining the shift away from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of pounds are being wasted to shut down electricity generators when the grid can’t take the extra power.

‘While Sunak will enjoy doing lengths in his warm pool, the rest of us are stuck with an outdated power network’

Philip Evans, Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, said:

“We’re queuing up for the Prime Minister’s heated pool because a better electricity grid should be a public good, not the private luxury of millionaires. While Sunak will enjoy doing lengths in his warm pool, the rest of us are stuck with an outdated power network, not fit for purpose, that’s blocking the roll-out of more cheap and clean renewables.

“Securing green energy for all should be the focus of the Government this week. Instead,  they’re approving new oil drilling and giving tax breaks to fossil fuel giants, proving they really are out of their depth when it comes to tackling the climate and energy crisis.

“Sunak must upgrade our outdated grid and clear away other barriers to renewables so we can reap the full benefits of cheap energy from solar and wind, bringing down bills and carbon emissions alike. If he refuses, he leaves us stranded without a raft.”

Greenpeace activists wearing swimming trunks, flip flops and caps have lined up outside Rishi Sunak’s Grade-II listed manor house in Richmond, Yorkshire.

Moving to a smart grid

Problems with the electricity grid are well documented, blocking our ability to use and store renewable energy all over the country. The grid needs upgrading and expanding so it can transmit power from where it is made to where it is needed at the scale we need.

According to Ofgem, a smart grid could save up to £4.7 billion a year by the end of this decade. Our bills are predicted to rise again if these issues are not addressed in the package of measures announced this week by the Government.

from a Greenpeace press release

Continue ReadingActivists in swimwear queue up outside Sunak’s heated pool to highlight electricity grid scandal

George Monbiot: The UK’s ‘green day’ has turned into a fossil fuel bonanza – dirty money powers the Sunak government

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Just Stop Oil protests at BP
Just Stop Oil protests at BP

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/29/uk-green-day-fossil-fuel-dirty-money-sunak-renewables

In prioritising oil and gas over renewables, ministers are doing the bidding of the polluters. And we’ll all pay the price

Money for the criminals, prison for the heroes: this, in brief, is the government’s climate policy. If something is damaging to the public interest, it’s likely to be rewarde

Money for the criminals, prison for the heroes: this, in brief, is the government’s climate policy. If something is damaging to the public interest, it’s likely to be rewarded and subsidised. If it’s beneficial, it will find itself in a hostile environment.

This government represents the denouement of the Pollution Paradox: as dirty money has the greatest incentive to invest in politics, it comes to run the whole system. Across these 13 years of misrule, we have seen the perversities of Conservative government multiply and intensify.

Thursday was supposed to be “green day”, when the government, forced to act by a court ruling, would unveil a new, more detailed plan for achieving net zero emissions. Instead, the occasion has been rebranded “energy security day”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/29/uk-green-day-fossil-fuel-dirty-money-sunak-renewables

Continue ReadingGeorge Monbiot: The UK’s ‘green day’ has turned into a fossil fuel bonanza – dirty money powers the Sunak government

UK scientists urge Rishi Sunak to halt new oil and gas developments

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Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/uk-scientists-rishi-sunak-oil-and-gas-developments-climate-crisis

Call comes on eve of revised net zero strategy that allows drilling in North Sea and boosts ‘unproven’ carbon capture

Hundreds of the UK’s leading scientists have urged the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to halt the licensing of new oil and gas developments in the UK, ahead of his anticipated launch of a revised net zero and energy security strategy on Thursday.

The scientists, who include Chris Rapley, former head of the Science Museum and professor at UCL and Mark Maslin, professor of earth system science at UCL, warn that there must be no new developments of oil and gas, for the world to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

The call, backed by more than 700 scientists, comes on the eve of the government’s “energy security day”, when a new net zero strategy will be published.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/uk-scientists-rishi-sunak-oil-and-gas-developments-climate-crisis

Continue ReadingUK scientists urge Rishi Sunak to halt new oil and gas developments

UK ‘strikingly unprepared’ for impacts of climate crisis

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/uk-strikingly-unprepared-impacts-climate-crisis

Government’s official advisers point to ‘lost decade’ in efforts to protect lives and livelihoods

The UK is “strikingly unprepared” for the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which said there had been a “lost decade” in efforts to adapt for the impacts of global heating.

The CCC, the government’s official climate adviser, said climate damages will inevitably intensify for decades to come. It has warned repeatedly of poor preparation in the past and said government action was now urgently needed to protect people and their homes and livelihoods.

The extreme heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, was both an example and a warning, the CCC said. More than 3,000 people died early and 20% of hospital operations were cancelled at the peak of the heatwave, while rail lines buckled, wildfires raged and farmers struggled with drought. “It won’t be long before those kinds of very hot summers are a normal summer,” said Chris Stark, CCC chief executive.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/29/uk-strikingly-unprepared-impacts-climate-crisis

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Sky-high stress could cause NHS exodus

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NHS sign

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sky-high%20stress-could-cause-nhs-exodus

MORE than three-quarters of NHS staff are considering quitting due to stress, burnout and anxiety, according to shocking figures published today.

A massive 78 per cent of the 2,500 NHS workers surveyed by campaign group Organise reported experiencing stress and over half (55 per cent) had taken time off because of stress, anxiety or burnout as the crisis in the NHS deepens, with 25 per cent staying away from work for more than a month.

Most NHS workers pointed to the impact that this was having on patient care, with over half saying that patients had experienced “medication errors, delays in procedures and a compromised quality of care.”

Organise head Nat Whalley said: “NHS workers are exposing a ticking time bomb at the heart of our healthcare system.

“We don’t need empty promises, we need tangible investment in the NHS that allow workers to thrive in their roles without suffering from stress, anxiety and burnout.

“Listen to us, invest in the well-being of our NHS workforce and ensure the future of the NHS.”

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sky-high%20stress-could-cause-nhs-exodus

Continue ReadingSky-high stress could cause NHS exodus