The news that ExxonMobil has just posted the highest profits in history should bring down to earth those congenital optimists who, for the last 20 years or so, have been claiming that the best way to do well is to do good. ExxonMobil got their record-breaking billions the old fashioned way: through high oil prices. [...]

Oil giant Exxon Mobil yesterday reported the biggest profit in corporate history- some $36.1bn (£20bn) after tax for 2005.

More on that story of Britain’s stagnated climate change strategy. The Guardian reports how the strategy has “been paralysed for seven months by a dispute between two Whitehall departments.”

Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that climate change could be much more serious than previously thought in a new government report on global warming published today. The report is a major update to a scientific conference held in Exeter last year by the British government on the subject.

Whilst everyone else gets excited about the potential for renewable energy, the Chief Executive of Shell, Jeroen Van Der Veer shows a remarkable lack of foresight or imagination. Writing in the Financial Times this week, Van Der Veer outlined his “vision for meeting energy needs beyond oil”.