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Posts in July 2009

• Iraq Trade Union Threatens BP Deal

  Andy Rowell

  Jul17

  After its offer was accepted last month to develop Iraq’s vast Rumaila oil field, BP may have thought it had won the biggest prize in the country’s oil race. But it may not be over yet and BP now faces industrial action. The trade union representing workers of Iraq’s state-owned Southern Oil Company (SOC) yesterday…
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• UK Outlines Flawed “Low Carbon Transition Plan”

  Andy Rowell

  Jul16

  After twelve years in power the British Labour government yesterday outlined what it has deemed a “low carbon transition plan”. Coopting language from the growing Transition Town movement is a crafty tactic by the British government that is promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020 with 80% cut by 2050. Let’s get…
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• How Corporate Money Corrupted the Climate Bill

  Andy Rowell

  Jul15

  One of the issues that Oil Change has tried to highlight is how oil money corrupts and corrodes politics. Big Oil has always had hordes of cash to spend to influence legislation on energy and climate.  Big Oil always expects to get its way as its pockets are deeper than its opponents. For years it…
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• Outrage as China Protects its Renewables Industry

  Andy Rowell

  Jul14

  It is meant to be a visit to talk about China’s commitment to tackling climate change, but on the sidelines is the thorny issue of China’s protectionist tactics to become the world leader in renewable energy. In many ways China has stolen a march on its rivals: The US and EU had the technology to…
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• The rhetoric changes but what about the reality?

  Andy Rowell

  Jul13

  It was a great speech full of powerful oratory. When Obama addressed the Ghanaian parliament on his first trip to Africa over the weekend, his speech was peppered with the concepts of America and Africa working together in a powerful, partnership. Obama told his audenice that Africans needed to remove the millstone of conflict around…
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• Kurds Stake Claim to their Oil Reserves

  Andy Rowell

  Jul10

  This was not meant to happen. In the post-invasion planning of Iraq it was meant to be the American and British oil companies that enjoyed the spoils of war and access to the country’s lucrative oil reserves. But the Kurds keep putting a proverbial spanner in the works. Iraq’s Kurdish leaders adopted a new constitution…
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• G8 Cooks Up a Good Political Fudge

  Andy Rowell

  Jul09

  First some good news: The G8 has agreed for the first time agreed that it must limit worldwide temperature rises to no more than 2C, the minimum rise to prevent irreversible climate change. The richest industrialised countries also agreed for the first time that they should collectively cut emissions by 80% by 2050, and that…
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• Gore Invokes Spirit of Churchill to Fight Climate Change

  Andy Rowell

  Jul08

  Many people working on climate change have long dismayed at the apathy on the issue expressed by leading politicians. They talk action but do nothing. With just months to go to the critical UN climate conference in December, Al Gore came to the UK yesterday and implored the world’s politicians to invoke the spirit of…
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• Coral Reefs Are “On Death Row”

  Andy Rowell

  Jul07

  He is seen as one of Britain’s iconic figures: Sir David Attenborough has graced millions of television screens from many a different part of the world to inform viewers of the beauty and plight of the natural world. Will anyone listen to his latest warning? His message is not new, we have heard it before,…
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• Can politicians really tackle the greatest peril to humanity?

  Andy Rowell

  Jul06

  It is already being billed as the most chaotic G8 ever.  And that’s before it has even started.  The Italian host, Silvio Berlusconi is facing a political crisis at home over his private antics as well as questions about hosting the venue in an active earth quake zone. All the back-stage bickering threatens to undermine…
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