Blair’s fossil fuel ideas ‘bizarre’ in face of energy and climate crises, experts say
Energy specialists say abandoning net zero and increasing oil and gas drilling would cause more instability for Britons
Abandoning 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.”
In an essay published on Wednesday, Blair argued that the UK should exploit its remaining oil and gas reserves and abandon its long-set target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Blair, who has links to petrostates and whose institute takes money from technology companies that want a large build-out of AI data centres, has made these arguments for fossil fuels and against net zero many times in the past two years.
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Calls to maximise production from the UK’s rapidly dwindling North Sea reserves have also been made by the Conservative and Reform parties.
The head of the International Energy Agency, and one of the world’s most respected energy economists, Fatih Birol, said last month that opening new fields would have little impact, and more drilling by the UK would not bring down the price of oil and gas for British consumers.
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Last week, the UK’s Climate Change Committee warned that the impacts of global heating of 2C by 2050 were likely to wipe billions from the UK’s economy, in the form of damage from heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms, but that acting to reach net zero would bring economic benefits.
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See the original Guardian article at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/28/tony-blair-fossil-fuel-advice-bizarre-energy-climate-crises-experts-say
dizzy: Blair should not be regarded seriously
Prepare for imminent return of El Niño, UN warns
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/02/prepare-for-imminent-return-of-el-nino-un-warns
UN agency predicts phenomenon that supercharges weather extremes has 80% chance of forming before September
The world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the supercharged weather extremes it brings, the UN has warned.
The powerful natural weather pattern, which raises global temperatures and worsens some rainfall, has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.
It found most models projected the return of the cyclical phenomenon in the ocean and atmosphere to be “at least moderate” in strength, and possibly strong.
Scientists have previously warned that it could be the strongest this century. However, the WMO stopped short of backing such projections and said forecasters were still in a window of uncertainty.
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Continues at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/02/prepare-for-imminent-return-of-el-nino-un-warns
Spain registers record high sea temperatures for May
June 2 (Reuters) – Spain registered record sea temperatures for the month of May along much of its coastline, the country’s port authority said on Tuesday, as the UN forecast a moderate or possibly strong El Nino, which could drive up global temperatures in coming months.
Twelve out of 15 deep-water buoys recorded their highest-ever temperatures for the month of May, as well as six out of 14 buoys along the coast, according to the Spanish port authority.
Human-caused climate change was behind the phenomenon, said Ruben del Campo, spokesperson for Spanish weather agency AEMET.
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Continues at https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/spain-registers-record-high-sea-temperatures-may-2026-06-02
