Ask anyone on the East Coast of Canada or the US recently about their air quality, and they will tell you the same story. They will tell you that the acrid choking air from Canada’s wildfires has made their lives miserable over the last few weeks, with residents experiencing the worse air quality in years.
carbon offsetting
Exxon’s 2050 net zero pledge dismissed as “greenwashing” and “gaslighting”
ExxonMobil is a company that for decades has done more than any other to spread climate denial. But now the climate laggard wants you to believe it is becoming a climate champion.
False solutions: To achieve net zero, carbon offsetting would use up all global farmland
In the coming months in the run up to the crucial climate talks, COP26 in Scotland, there will be a slew of false solutions on climate change announced, whether carbon, capture and storage (CCS) or carbon offsetting.
The Angry Mermaid Strikes Back
All the news reports this morning are that a deal at Copenhagen is dead. Barack Obama has said that we had run out of time to secure a deal in December. This will please the corporate lobbyists no end. The longer they can delay action on climate the better. But now Copenhagen’s iconic mermaid is … Read More
Airlines Preempt Copenhagen by Pledging to Halve CO2
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 … Read More
UK Outlines Flawed “Low Carbon Transition Plan”
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 … Read More
Carbon Offsetting is “Fundamentally Flawed”
As the pressure for an international deal grows in Copenhagen, one of the corner-stones of any solution will be carbon offsetting, where rich, polluting countries supposedly offset their rising emissions by investing in “clean” projects in developing countries. Off-setting will be high on the agenda at the next round of climate talks in Bonn this … Read More
UK Watchdog Warns About Carbon Trading
The fast-growing market in carbon dioxide emissions poses risks that could threaten other commodities markets, the British Financial Services Authority has warned. The watchdog said problems including investors being sold unsuitable products, confusion over the regulation of emissions traders, and insufficient official data created risks to both the fledgling global emissions markets and to related … Read More
Carbon Offsets: “a heightened potential for deception”
The US Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising in the US, is investigating America’s burgeoning carbon offset market and whether it is subject to greenwashing and misleading advertising. Companies and shoppers in the US spent over $54 million last year on offset credits toward tree planting, wind farms, solar plants and other projects. As more … Read More
Bali: Hot Air and Hypocrisy ..
Great analysis on the Bali conference from Charles Clover, the environment correspondent from the UK right-wing Telegraph, which we reprint in full: “As an exhibition of hypocrisy, the UN climate change conference in Bali takes some beating. The Indonesian President Yudhoyono is there, playing delegates the video of a song he wrote about saving the … Read More