Nigeria’s president-elect, Umaru Yar’Adua, intends to tackle violence in the Niger Delta by initiating dialogue with “militants” when he assumes office. Yar’Adua, who won the disputed election, said he would get to work immediately on solving the crisis in the Delta. “You can expect a clear plan to be developed for the solution of the … Read More
Blog Post
The Carbon Credit ‘Smokescreen’
An investigation by the Financial Times has found that the millions of dollars being spent on “carbon credit” projects yield few if any environmental benefits. In some cases, companies are paying emission reductions do not even take place. In others the clean-up would have been made anyway.
UNEP to Begin Cleaning Up the Niger Delta
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is preparing for a massive clean up operation of oil spills in the Niger Delta, including in Ogoni. UNEP’s Country Director, Turhan Saleh said the clean up work would be the most challenging task the organization has undertaken in recent years.
Big Oil Cedes Control to Chávez
Four multinational oil companies have finally agreed to cede control of Venezuela’s last remaining privately run oil projects to President Hugo Chávez’s government. Officials from Chevron, BP, Total and Statoil signed memorandums of understanding this week agreeing to give state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela a majority stake in three of the projects. Exxon Mobil … Read More
China to Overtake US Emissions
China is set to overtake the US as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases within months, experts are predicting. Previously expected to occur in 2009 or 2010, the historic event could now happen as early as November. But this event pales into insignificance if China takes no action to improve emissions. Within twenty five … Read More
Massacre at Chinese Oilfield in Ethiopia
Africa and oil is often a deadly and violent mix and if the Chinese thought they would escape being targeted then they will have to think again. This time the turmoil is in the East of the continent in Ethiopia. Somali rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation front have killed seventy-four workers at a Chinese … Read More
Ronald Jonkers: Big Oil’s Man in Iraq
You knew he had to be there, even if we didn’t know his name before. As ace reporter Daphne Eviatar reveals in this month’s American Lawyer, Ronald Jonkers is the oil industry’s man in Iraq – and US taxpayers are picking up the bill. Jonkers unfortunately wouldn’t comment for the article – and apparently few … Read More
Erasing Climate Change at the World Bank
The scandal at the World Bank is quickly spreading to Paul Wolfowitz’s handpicked deputy, Juan Jose Daboub. First he is accused of trying to remove references to “family planning” from World Bank documents, now the Bank’s Chief Scientist, Robert Watson, is accusing him of trying to erase references to climate change from the Bank’s Clean … Read More
McCain Warns of Vulnerability of Foreign Oil
In the third of three major policy addresses, Republican presidential candidate, John McCain has talked about the “great and urgent challenge – breaking our nation’s critical dependence on foreign sources of oil”. In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) McCain warned that America’s “dependency on foreign oil and the way … Read More
Welcome to Warming Island
The Independent newspaper leads on its front-page that the map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland’s enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming. Several miles long, … Read More