An Environmental & Ecology thread — Page 2

UK banks put £75bn into firms building climate-wrecking ‘carbon bombs’, study finds

Exclusive: Britain is key financial hub for destructive fossil fuel mega-projects, according to research

www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/uk-banks-put-75bn-into-firms-building-climate-wrecking-carbon-bombs-study-finds
 

 
a snippet…

'Banks in the City of London have poured more than $100bn (£75bn) into companies developing “carbon bombs” – huge oil, gas and coal projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global consequences – according to a study.

Nine London-based banks, including HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds are involved in financing companies responsible for at least 117 carbon bomb projects in 28 countries between 2016 – the year after the landmark Paris agreement was signed – and 2023, according to the study.

If the projects go ahead, the study says they will have the potential to produce 420bn tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to more than 10 years of current global carbon dioxide emissions.

“Despite the UK’s seemingly ambitious climate plans, it is astonishing how much money has flowed from UK banks to companies worldwide developing the biggest climate-wrecking and damaging projects since 2016,” said Fatima Eisam-Eldeen, a lead analyst at the Leave It in the Ground Initiative, the climate thinktank that produced the study. “Real climate ambition and leadership would mean proper financial regulation not only within the country but also beyond the country’s borders by stopping all financial flows to companies exacerbating the climate crisis we all suffer.”

The report follows a Guardian investigation that revealed how big fossil fuel companies were quietly planning scores of vast projects that threaten to shatter the effort towards the international goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.’

Revealed: Forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels soar in Trump’s first 100 days

Tariff chaos hampers Trump’s pledge to ‘drill, baby, drill’, but analysis still shows surge in planet-heating emissions

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-drill-baby-drill-tariffs
 

 
a snippet…

'Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US to “drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels have ironically been hampered by the economic chaos unleashed by his own tariffs, but the US is still on track to increase oil and gas extraction, causing a surge in planet-heating emissions, a new analysis shows.

The US was already the world’s leading oil and gas power, producing more of the fossil fuels than any country in history during Joe Biden’s administration. But Trump has sought to escalate this further, declaring an “energy emergency” to open up more land and ocean for drilling and launching an unprecedented assault on environmental regulations in his first 100 days back in the White House.

This new political climate means that the expected amount of greenhouse gas emissions from active and planned projects in US oil and gas fields has jumped under Trump, after previously dropping under Biden, forecasts shared with the Guardian show.

Despite awarding more drilling leases than Trump in his first 100 days, Biden also pursued policies to combat the climate crisis that saw oil and gas companies revise down their production estimates. That situation has now reversed, threatening a pulse of new pollution that will further add to the fever of a planet already suffering from heatwaves, floods, droughts and other disasters accelerated by global heating.’
 

‘Extreme weather is the UK’s new normal, says Met Office’

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74w1gyd7mko
 

 
'The UK is breaking heat and rainfall records increasingly frequently as its climate continues to warm, the Met Office has warned.

The country’s changing weather patterns mean the UK now experiences a “notably different” climate to what it was just a few decades ago, its State of the UK Climate report says.

We now have many more very hot days and many fewer extremely cold nights, according to this latest assessment.

It shows just how much global warming caused by the vast emissions of greenhouse gases our civilisation creates is reshaping the country’s climate.

Climate change is bringing more severe weather events like storms and flooding - and inevitably the country’s changing climate is having an impact on the natural world, with some species suffering.

The report focuses on 2024, when the UK experienced its second warmest February, warmest May, warmest spring, fifth warmest December, and fifth warmest winter since records began in 1884.

The Met Office highlights that some of these records have already been surpassed in 2025 - more evidence of this trend towards more extreme weather.

This summer many parts of the country are in the throes of their third heatwave with very warm weather reaching into Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as southern England.

The first hosepipe ban of the year was imposed in Yorkshire last week following England’s warmest June on record, which came after the country’s driest and sunniest spring for 132 years.

Yorkshire and the north west of England were declared in official drought by the Environment Agency in June. At least one region is expected to be added to the list when the UK’s National Drought Group meets on Tuesday.

Mike Kendon, a Met Office climate scientist and lead author of the State of the UK Climate report, said: "Every year that goes by is another upward step on the warming trajectory our climate is on.

“Observations show that our climate in the UK is now notably different to what it was just a few decades ago.”’

more categories and info in the linked article here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74w1gyd7mko

‘Wetter as well as hotter weather’
‘Flood risk growing’
‘Nature is changing with the climate’

Global plastic talks collapse as countries remain deeply divided

Global talks to develop a landmark treaty to end plastic pollution have once again failed.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgpddpldleo
 

Human-made global warming ‘caused two in three heat deaths in Europe this summer’

Researchers from Imperial College London say 16,500 deaths caused by hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases

theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/17/human-made-global-warming-caused-two-in-three-heat-deaths-in-europe-this-summer-analysis-finds
 

 
a snippet…

'Human-made global heating caused two in every three heat deaths in Europe during this year’s scorching summer, an early analysis of mortality in 854 big cities has found.

Epidemiologists and climate scientists attributed 16,500 out of 24,400 heat deaths from June to August to the extra hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases.

The rapid analysis, which relies on established methods but has not yet been submitted for peer review, found climate breakdown made the cities 2.2C hotter on average, greatly increasing the death toll from dangerously warm weather.’

“The causal chain from fossil fuel burning to rising heat and increased mortality is undeniable,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and a co-author of the report. “If we had not continued to burn fossil fuels over the last decades, most of the estimated 24,400 people in Europe wouldn’t have died this summer.”

The true cost of peace

Rebalancing world military spending for a sustainable and peaceful future

www.un.org/en/peace-and-security/the-true-cost-of-peace
 

independent.co.uk/news/united-nations-antonio-guterres-stockholm-international-peace-research-institute-b2823459.html
 

Landmark deal to cut global shipping emissions in tatters after US pressure

A landmark deal to cut global shipping emissions has been abandoned after Saudi Arabia and the US succeeded in ending the talks.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vnl0yxg53o
 

 
'More than 100 countries had gathered in London to approve a deal first agreed in April, which would have seen shipping become the world’s first industry to adopt internationally mandated targets to reduce emissions.

But US President Donald Trump had called the plan a “green scam” and representatives of his administration had threatened countries with tariffs if they voted in favour of it.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the outcome a “huge win” for Trump.

But reflecting the pressure countries faced, the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation Arsenio Dominguez issued a “plea” for this not to be repeated.

In a dramatic conclusion on Friday, when countries should have been voting to approve the deal, Saudi Arabia tabled a motion to adjourn the talks for a year.

The chairman said this would mean that the agreement was not approved, as key timelines for the treaty would have to be revised.

The motion passed by just a handful of votes.

Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, Minister for Climate Change for the Republic of Vanuatu, said Saudi Arabia’s motion was “unacceptable given the urgency we face in light of accelerating climate change”.

“We came to London in reluctant support of the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework. While it lacks the ambition that climate science demands, it does mark a significant step,” he said.

The shipping industry has been broadly supportive of the deal because it offered consistent global standards.

Speaking after the talks ended, Thomas Kazakos, secretary-general of the industry body the International Chamber of Shipping, said : “We are disappointed that member states have not been able to agree a way forward at this meeting.”

“Industry needs clarity to be able to make the investments,” he added.

The UK and most EU nations voted to continue the talks, but some countries including Greece went against the EU bloc and voted to abstain.

The countries that voted in favour of adjourning the talks included Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US, who raised concerns that the deal would lead to price rises for consumers.

Some key countries including China that had initially voted to support the deal in April agreed to delay proceedings.

Island states Bahamas also changed their position and Antigua and Barbuda, who agreed in April, abstained. A delegate from the island states group told the BBC that these nations particularly rely on the US for trade and had been leaned on heavily by the Trump administration to change their position.
 

The deal was first agreed in April after ten years of negotiations and was considered historic as it meant shipping was set to become the first industry in the world with internationally mandated targets to reduce emissions.

The agreement had meant that from 2028 ship owners would have to use increasingly cleaner fuels or face fines.

Shipping currently makes up 3% of global emissions, with levels increasing in line with global trade rises – 90% of goods are currently transported via the sea. Unlike other sectors shipping has been unable to reduce its emissions, in part due to the lack of cost incentive.

“There is no fuel as cheap as diesel that ships use today because when we take crude oil out of the ground, we take out all the nice bits, that’s the kerosene for aviation, diesel and petrol for cars,” Faig Abbasov, programme director for maritime transport at think tank Transport and Environment, told the BBC during the last IMO negotiations.

This means without intervention the International Maritime Organisation, previously estimated that by 2050 emissions could grow by between 10% and 150%.

The meeting this week in London between nations had been to make the final approval and finalise the next steps. But since April the US has been increasingly vocal about its objections to the plan which they are concerned could raise prices for goods for its consumers.

Posting on Truth Social on Thursday night President Trump wrote: “The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping. We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers.”

With talks now delayed the carefully planned timeline to get the regulations in place for 2028 does not appear feasible.

“A delay in action may require changes to the text of agreement that undermine the planned timeline, and could revert years of work to date,” said Blánaid Sheeran, an observer to the talks and policy officer at environmental NGO Opportunity Green.’