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Posts in September 2009

• Nigeria: MEND Dismiss Chinese Oil Bidders as “Locusts”

  Andy Rowell

  Sep30

  Yesterday, the Financial Times rocked the oil world with a story about how the Chinese state-owned oil company, CNOC, was in talks with the Nigerian Government to buy large stakes in some of the country’s key oil blocks. The story was so compelling, because if it is accurate, it puts the Chinese in direct competition…
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• Chances of Climate Deal Are “Pie in the Sky”

  Andy Rowell

  Sep29

  The good news is that President Obama is going to Copenhagen. The bad news is that he is going on a whirlwind trip to lobby the International Olympic Committee on behalf of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Games. Its got nothing to do with climate change.

• Expect Catastrophic Warming in Your Life-Time …

  Andy Rowell

  Sep28

  A 4 C rise and counting. By 2060. That is the message from the UK Met Office in a study prepared for the British Government. Unless there is a radical action on carbon emissions, a catastrophic four degree rise in centigrade (7.2 F) could happen in many people’s live-times. That is five decades before most…
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• FT: Ending subsidies is “An idea whose time has come”

  Andy Rowell

  Sep25

  I don’t know how many G20 leaders will have time to read the FT website today, but they should. The paper’s editorial is nothing short of staggering. It starts by stating “As addictions go, the world’s addiction to fossil fuels is a killer.” Coming from the mouthpiece of one of the world’s financial capitals, which…
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• Ending Subsidies or Shifting Blame?

  Andy Rowell

  Sep24

  So the political road-show moves from the UN up to the G20 at Pittsburgh, where climate and the banking crisis will be on the table. And so will a discussion about ending fossil fuel subsidies. For years campaigners have been arguing for the ending of the tax breaks and other incentives given to the fossil…
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• Obama: Global Leader or World Leader Pretend?

  Andy Rowell

  Sep23

  Many American Presidents find their terms in office defined by one event: if we think of Nixon it was Watergate, Clinton it was the Monica Lewinsky affair and George Bush it was the war in Iraq. Whilst many Americans may think that Obama’s Presidency will be defined on whether he succeeds in reforming health care…
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• Airlines Preempt Copenhagen by Pledging to Halve CO2

  Andy Rowell

  Sep22

  As bold PR moves go – and this is bold – amongst the politicians making promises today at the UN Climate Summit, the CEO of British Airways, Willie Walsh will make a dramatic pledge to cut global aviation emissions to 50 per cent of 2005 levels by 2050. Like a snake oil salesman bearing gifts…
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• Obama Attacked Over “Ambition Gap” on Climate

  Andy Rowell

  Sep21

  There is a first time for everything. Tomorrow the world’s attention will be on the Chinese President Hu Jintao when he becomes the first top Chinese leader to address a United Nations conference on climate change. Whilst many will see this as a positive step, there is no indication that Hu will announce any change…
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• Uganda: Africa’s “New Oil Frontier”

  Andy Rowell

  Sep18

  We are used to talking about the oil majors like Shell being in the spotlight over African oil exploration. But a smaller player is making the headlines, with a soaring share price and two African discoveries in a week: one in Uganda and another off Sierrra Leone. It is the Irish independent company Tullow that…
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• Justice for 30,000 Trafigura Victims

  Andy Rowell

  Sep17

  Take one of the world’s largest oil traders, the world’s most famous libel law firms and one of the most famous spin doctors and spin a trail of devious pollution, deaths, mass injury, lies and legal threats. You have the story of Trafigura, that could be finally reaching its closing chapter. The British oil trading…
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