In fact, the news from #WallStreet lately has mostly been about retreat from #climate goals, rather than recommitment. #Banks & asset managers are withdrawing from #international climate alliances & chafing at their rules. Regional banks are stepping up #lending to #FossilFuel producers. #Sustainable#investment funds have sustained crippling outflows, & many have collapsed.
Selling a Mirage
"Now, the [#FossilFuel and #plastics] industry is heralding nothing short of a miracle: an “advanced” type of recycling known as #pyrolysis It uses heat to break plastic all the way down to its molecular building blocks.
Under all the math & engineering, I found an inconvenient truth: Not much is being recycled at all, nor is pyrolysis capable of curbing the plastic crisis.
Not now. Maybe not ever."
BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to the Swinomish Tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.
The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish.
If passed, new legislation in California would force public pension systems to move $15 billion from the #fossilfuel sector within 7 years. https://buff.ly/3L0U1Ip
#FossilFuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” & should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, Antonio Guterres UN secretary general has said https://t.co/pVKUntwVA0
Summer has not officially started yet and the world's largest economy, home of a large base of #ClimateBreakdown deniers is about to experience dangerously hot temperatures.
The United States is one of the largest per capita polluters in the world.
Their own citizens are suffering for the sake of #FossilFuel greed.
Few countries in the world have the kind of power to do something about #ClimateCrisis the way the US does. They must act NOW
“It makes me wonder if people in decades to come will look back at the world’s collective failure to shut down the #fossilfuel industry in time and see it for what it really is: an intergenerational crime against humanity.”
"#Australia’s greenhouse gas #emissions are rising and enormous #FossilFuel projects continue to be approved to meet domestic and international demand.
[In a 2023 survey] half of the Australians surveyed claimed that the impacts in our region have not been severe, with a third of people believing that the media exaggerates the influence of global warming."
Many people, even young healthy people will not survive this week because of #ClimateBreakdown
#ClimateCrisis is hitting us already. Not sometime in 2030 or 2040 when we have fresh targets to not hit.
This is genocide.
Indian authorities won't be able to keep an accurate tally of the dead. It is a crisis that #FossilFuel companies gave us. we need to sue them out of existence.
#FossilFuel companies convinced us driving large and fuel inefficient cars is a normal way of life
#Amazon and other distribution companies have convinced us that buying stuff we don't need and ends up in the landfill within months is also a normal way of life
#FastFashion has convinced us that getting new clothes monthly is a normal way of life
None of these things were normal before we normalized them.
"The movement should focus on a more feasible, yet crucial, step on the road to #FossilFuel phaseout: stopping fossil fuel #expansion.
Proponents of ambitious #climate action should direct policy and advocacy efforts toward building a global “No New Fossil” norm, encompassing exploration for and development of new fossil fuel extraction sites, and permitting and construction of new, large-scale fossil fuel–consuming infrastructure."
The world has enough #FossilFuel projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 & govts should 🛑 stop issuing new #oil, #gas & #coal licences, according to a large UCL/IISD study aimed at political leaders https://buff.ly/4aFc4hr
"#RenewableEnergy accounted for more than 30% of the world’s electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.
The surge in clean electricity is expected to power a 2% decrease in global fossil fuel generation in the year ahead, according to Ember."
"Wind and #solar power generation in the #EuropeanUnion increased by 46% from 2019, when the current European Commission took office, to 2023, displacing a fifth of the bloc's #FossilFuel generation, a report by think tank Ember showed.
Without this expansion, fossil generation would have fallen just 1.9% (21 TWh) instead of 22%."
" Bill that would make Vermont the first state to have a 'Climate Superfund' takes a key step forward
The #ClimateSuperfund Act directs the state treasurer to work with climate scientists to catalog the damage Vermont has seen due to #ClimateChange between 1995 and 2024 — and what it will cost to adapt to a warmer future with more volatile weather.
If the bill becomes law, #Vermont could start to seek damages in 2027."
IT'S A LAW
"#Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring #FossilFuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by #ClimateChange.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature late Thursday, saying he is very concerned about the costs and outcome of the small state taking on “Big Oil” alone in what will likely be a grueling legal fight. "
"The head of the IPCC has compared the rollout of carbon capture and storage (#CCS) to "trying to push water uphill," questioning a technology that the oil and gas industry has long touted as integral to net-zero emission plans.
The International Energy Agency has previously called for the oil and gas industry to let go of the "illusion" that carbon capture is a solution to climate change, pushing instead for energy majors to ramp up investments in clean energy."
This makes explicit why the #FossilFuel industry is pushing so hard for "carbon capture" and "hydrogen with #CCS": It's an excuse to keep pumping oil and gas.
"Aramco is heavily investing in #CarbonCapture technology and aims to produce blue ammonia, which has a lower carbon footprint compared to traditional ammonia."
BUT
"It is very difficult to identify any off-take agreement in Europe [for blue hydrogen]... and they explained it's because of the high cost."
"The #UK is pulling out of a treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over their #climate policies.
The [#EnergyCharterTreaty] allows fossil fuel investors to sue states for lost profit expectations in an opaque corporate arbitration system set up to protect fossil fuel investors in the former Soviet economies in the 1990s."
"#FossilFuel firms are biggest beneficiaries of investor-state dispute settlement courts which have awarded $114bn of public money."
The #ISDS system is reeling after EU countries last week withdrew en masse from the #EnergyCharterTreaty.
The modern ISDS system is widely viewed as an outcrop of efforts to prevent former colonies in the global south from appropriating or nationalising industrial concerns after independence."
"#Hawaii’s supreme court on Thursday will hear attempts by #FossilFuel companies to dismiss a #climate accountability lawsuit."
The “personal jurisdiction” excuse: defendants argue that they did not conduct enough business in Hawaii to be hauled into the state’s courts.
The “failure to state a claim” excuse: claims that the lawsuit should be dealt with by lawmakers, not state courts.
The first amendment excuse.
"Far-right fossil fuel allies have launched a stunning and unprecedented campaign pressuring the #SupremeCourt to shield #FossilFuel companies from litigation that could cost them billions of dollars.
“I have never, ever seen this kind of overt political campaign to influence the court like this,” said Patrick Parenteau, professor and senior climate policy fellow at Vermont Law School."