fossil fuels industry

World Leaders Failed Us, But We Have the Power to End the Era of Fossil Fuels

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Original article by RABBI JACOB SIEGEL republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Extinction Rebellion climate activists hold a banner in Lincoln’s Inn Fields before a march on November 13, 2021 in London, United Kingdom.  (Photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Over 1,600 institutions, including hundreds of faith-based organizations, have now joined the fight to move money away from polluting fossil fuels and toward clean energy solutions—yours should be next.

Last month saw an historic, albeit altogether insufficient, step forward to avoid climate catastrophe.

At the annual global UN-backed climate change conference in Dubai, known as COP28, countries for the first time unanimously acknowledged the necessity of “transitioning away from fossil fuels”: coal, oil, and gas. While short of an endorsement of a full fossil fuel phaseout—what scientists tell us is needed to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis—it is a milestone, decades in the making.

Yet even this tepid sign of progress faced pushback from fossil fuel executives and the politicians who do their bidding.

The story of COP28 is one of the power and perniciousness of the fossil fuel industry. The CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ oil company (the 12th largest in the world) served as conference chair, and industry lobbyists outnumbered delegates from nearly every country. The final text is full of industry-friendly loopholes, giving fossil fuel corporations leeway to continue to profit off dirty energy.

Trying to address the climate crisis while expanding drilling, mining, and fracking operations is like offering chemotherapy to a lung cancer patient while handing them pack after pack of Marlboro Reds.

It’s clear we are at the end of the fossil fuel era. Solar and wind energy are the cheapest forms of energy to build.

Like tobacco companies before them, fossil fuel corporations have known for years (with shocking accuracy) about the science: their products, when used as directed, would harm the health of the planet and cause widespread devastation. But the industry has time and again blocked significant action or sought to delay it through false promises. They did so again at COP28.

As the future is at stake, it falls to the rest of us to take urgent action. Indeed, civil society institutions are not waiting. Last week marked a major achievement: 1600 institutions across the world representing more than $40 trillion (with a “T”) have now pledged to move money away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy.

Finance represents a critical lever for climate action. Fossil fuel corporations rely on an open spigot of funds – project finance through underwriting and loans from major banks, plus investment capital and approval for continued fossil fuel expansion from investors, including the world’s largest firms, BlackRock and Vanguard.

When investors move their money en masse, fossil fuel corporations face reputational and brand risk that can have knock-on effects, including lower credit ratings and challenges with securing financing for projects and operations. Crucially, doing so also erodes fossil fuel corporations’ social license to expand their operations.

The 1600 institutions that have committed to move their money include groups like the National Academy of Medicine, because profiting from burning fossil fuels violates the medical ethic of “first, do no harm.” They include universities like Brandeis, rooted in Jewish history, experience, and values, whose students and administration recognize the climate crisis as an existential threat to their future.

It’s clear we are at the end of the fossil fuel era. Solar and wind energy are the cheapest forms of energy to build. The market itself is acting on this imperative. Fossil fuels as a sector have performed worse financially over the past decade than the rest of the market. Over the last 30 years, they have shrunk from a quarter of the market to around 5%. According to a recent report, six public pensions could be $21 billion richer if they had ditched investments in coal, oil, and gas a decade ago.

As the future is at stake, it falls to the rest of us to take urgent action.

Faith-based institutions, representing more than a third of the commitments, are at the forefront of this movement for change. As Pope Francis has encouraged, we “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”

One year ago, my organization, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, released a report about the investment capital of major Jewish institutions. The report found that these institutions had a substantial opportunity to move more than $3 billion in capital out of fossil fuels and into clean energy, and offered a roadmap to achieve this goal. Since last year, the climate crisis has grown more urgent, and so has the power of our faith and moral voice.

Faith groups are leading. They are making prudent, long-term decisions that will protect their communities. Join us before it is too late.

Original article by RABBI JACOB SIEGEL republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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“Reckless and irresponsible”: critics speak out against the UK’s U-turn on net-zero targets 

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/net-zero-policy/uk-net-zero-targets-critics-delay-climate/

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has rowed back on UK net-zero targets, incurring the wrath of industry, charities and academics.

Rishi Sunak will dance naked for oil a& gas dollar$$$$$$$$
Rishi Sunak offers to dance

The UK will water down policies aimed at achieving its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision, announced on 20 September, to push back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030 to 2035. 

Sunak also announced an easing of energy efficiency targets for rental properties and backtracked on plans to make homeowners replace gas boilers with heat pumps.

“We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero” that would bring the UK in line with countries such as France and Germany, he said.

Reacting to the news, Halima Begum, CEO of ActionAid UK, told our sister site Investment Monitor that the UK Government’s sudden reversal of its net-zero commitments “is reckless and irresponsible”.

“Climate action is not a political bargaining chip that can be taken on and off the table to satisfy party political squabbles, but a global imperative,” she added. “The climate crisis is not a future event, it is happening now. People are facing flash floods, droughts, rising sea levels and irreversible damage that has already led to tragic deaths around the world this year alone.”

Meanwhile, Nick Kirsop-Taylor, an expert in environmental governance from the University of Exeter, joined a chorus of other academics in saying it is “truly disappointing news” since time is running out for the global action required to keep global temperatures to below 1.5°C, let alone 2°C.

…

https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/net-zero-policy/uk-net-zero-targets-critics-delay-climate/

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‘Real Solutions, No Bullshit’: Action Targets Biden DOE Over Climate Scams, Greenwashing

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Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Climate Justice Alliance campaigners protest outside the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. on October 31, 2023. (Photo: Climate Justice Alliance/Twitter)
Climate Justice Alliance campaigners protest outside the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. on October 31, 2023. (Photo: Climate Justice Alliance/Twitter)

“Now more than ever, we need real leadership from the Department of Energy to end fossil fuels,” said one organizer.

Climate advocates on Tuesday donned Halloween costumes to greet attendees of the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Justice Week,” but the organizers assembled outside the agency will be urging guests to demand far more from Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and the Biden administration, who they say are “greenwashing” efforts to further equity and environmental justice.

The department’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity is holding the five-day event, where officials plan to highlight efforts to move “toward a more equitable, clean, and just energy future.”

The week will include discussions of the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program, which pushes for more access to renewable energy facilities in underserved communities, and executive actions President Joe Biden has taken to promote environmental justice.

All those actions, however, have happened alongside the administration’s push in favor of so-called climate “solutions” that scientists say are unproven and serve only to perpetuate fossil fuel extraction under the false assumption that it can do so while still addressing greenhouse gas emissions and planetary heating.

The DOE, noted Basav Sen, a climate justice project director at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) who took part in the action, is “the biggest funder of false solutions such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and direct air capture.”

“These are scams. We know that the real solution to the climate crisis is to keep fossil fuels in the ground and make a rapid, just transition to real renewable energy controlled by communities,” said Sen, wearing zombie face paint at the direct action. “Instead what were seeing from the Department of Energy is a continuation of the fossil fuel economy.”

As Common Dreams reported in May, analysts say that just running the machinery to operate a carbon capture and storage project—like the ones the Biden DOE announced a $1.2 billion investment in earlier this year—would increase energy consumption by 20%, adding to carbon dioxide emissions.

Smog, benzene, and formaldehyde emissions also increase with carbon capture technology, biologist Sandra Steingraber said—three types of pollution that disproportionately affect people in low-income neighborhoods, the very communities the DOE says it’s targeting with environmental justice programs and events like “Justice Week.”

Additionally, noted Sen, the DOE is continuing to license exports of fossil gas.

“We are here today to tell attendees of the Department of Energy’s Justice Week that the version of environmental and energy justice that they’re going to hear from the Department of Energy in the event is greenwashing, pure and simple,” said Sen. “The Department of Energy cannot pretend to be on the side of environmental justice while they are actively licensing more fossil gas exports, which means more fracking, more air and water pollution, more pipelines, more export terminals, more sacrifice zones in frontline communities.”

Some of the campaigners displayed the organizers’ message succinctly on a banner reading, “Real Solutions. No Bullshit.”

“Now more than ever, we need real leadership from the Department of Energy to end fossil fuels, quit peddling climate scams and advance energy justice,” said Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), one of the groups behind the action.

Addressing Granholm, the group added that the secretary “can’t cover up [her] record with greenwashing events like Justice Week 2023 while undermining real climate and environmental justice with [her] actions.”

“We demand an end to fracked gas exports, carbon capture, and hydrogen energy,” CJA said.

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Real Solutions, No Bullshit’: Action Targets Biden DOE Over Climate Scams, Greenwashing

Extinction Rebellion pour fake oil over steps of Labour headquarters

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Extinction Rebellion activists poured oil over the steps of the Labour Party’s London headquarters Photo: Luke Flegg
Extinction Rebellion activists poured oil over the steps of the Labour Party’s London headquarters Photo: Luke Flegg

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/extinction-rebellion-pour-fake-oil-over-labour-hq-steps-demand-further-pledges

CLIMATE activists today poured a pool of fake oil over the steps of the Labour Party’s London headquarters and let off smoke grenades to demand the party pledges further action.

Two activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) climbed onto the portico and set off the canisters, while another chained himself to a handrail.

Other supporters held up banners saying: “Cut the ties to fossil fuels.”

The protesters called on Labour to do more than stop issuing new oil licences if it wins the next general election but promise to cancel any oil licences granted by the Conservatives.

Campaigners also called for a manifesto commitment to make the transition to renewables an urgent priority of a new Labour government.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/extinction-rebellion-pour-fake-oil-over-labour-hq-steps-demand-further-pledges

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World cannot meet climate targets relying on carbon capture and storage

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[Hopefully globalwitness will not mind me quoting them at length. Rishi Sunak’s UK government has been promoting CCS recently.]

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/world-cannot-meet-climate-targets-relying-carbon-capture-and-storage/

Fossil fuels

United Kingdom

Unable to ignore the catastrophic emissions produced by burning fossil fuels, the fossil fuel industry has turned to carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a solution that allows them to carry on business as usual.

But with serious concerns about this unproven technology, Global Witness and Friends of the Earth Scotland have commissioned world-renowned climate scientists at the Tyndall Centre in Manchester to assess the role of fossil fuel-based Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the energy system, and its ability to help to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global average temperature increases to 1.5°C.

This ground-breaking research finds that CCS cannot be relied on to deliver global 2030 emissions reductions, whilst the majority of CCS that exists is being used to extract more oil. It finds:

Current status of fossil fuel-based CCS in the energy system

  • The scale of deployment of CCS to date is significantly less than proponents have predicted, with only 26 CCS plants currently in operation globally.
  • Global operational CCS capacity is currently 39MtCO2 per year, this is about 0.1% of annual global emissions from fossil fuels and less than Scotland’s territorial emissions in 2018.There is no operational CCS capacity in the UK or the EU at all.
  • 81% of carbon captured to date has been used to extract more oil via the process of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). This means CCS is being predominantly used for carbon-emitting oil extraction that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible.
  • Current CCS projects usually target 90% capture at peak capacity. The Petra Nova facility missed capture targets by around 17% between starting in 2017 and its mothballing in May 2020.

Key implications for delivering Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5°C

  • Fossil fuel-based CCS is not capable of operating with zero emissions. Many projections assume a capture rate for CCS of 95%, however, capture rates at that level are unproven in practice.
  • Fossil fuel-based CCS will continue to entail residual, process and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. There must be consideration of whether fossil fuel hydrogen with CCS is sufficiently low-carbon relative to remaining carbon budgets.
  • Even if the technology is to become economically and technically viable at scale, optimistic forecasts do not anticipate significant CCS capacity until at least the 2030s.
  • A focus on CCS will not help achieve 2030 CO2 emission reduction targets being adopted by Governments, which have to be met if we are to prevent a climate catastrophe. The research emphasises the real danger of reliance on CCS in energy for delivering these vital emission reductions, given they cannot be expected to any degree until at least 2030.

On the basis of this research, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Global Witness believe the promotion of CCS in energy is a distraction from the rapid growth of renewable energy and energy efficiency required. We urge instead reliance on technologies that can deliver the emissions reductions required by 2030 if we are to deliver on the Paris Agreement goals.

Download a summary brief of the report produced by Global Witness and Friends of the Earth Scotland: Downloads

The full report is available to download from the Tyndall Centre website and below.

Full Report: A Review of the Role of Fossil Fuel Based Carbon Capture and Storage in the Energy System

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/world-cannot-meet-climate-targets-relying-carbon-capture-and-storage/

Continue ReadingWorld cannot meet climate targets relying on carbon capture and storage