GLOBAL POLICY
The Paris climate goals demand a rapid, just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. We’re pushing governments to lead the way by adopting policies to end oil and gas production.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
In order to achieve climate goals, governments and other decision makers must support a just and equitable move away from fossil fuels. We are pushing for precedent-setting leadership from governments to put policies in place to manage the decline of oil and gas and ensure a just transition for fossil-fuel dependent workers and communities.
Building from a growing group of first mover governments, we are pressuring for increasing numbers of national and regional governments to end new licenses and permits for oil and gas production, and to develop plans to wind down their existing production over time.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
At top executive from oil giant Shell, the world's top maker of biofuels, has said he considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving.
Eric G Holthusen, Fuels Technology Manager Asia/Pacific, said the company's research unit, Shell Global Solutions, has developed alternative fuels from renewable resources that use wood chips and plant waste rather than food crops "If we have the choice today, then we will not use" food crops, he said.
Tony Blair will tomorrow announce the results of Britain’s long awaited energy review, which will call for a five-fold increase in energy generation from wind, solar, tidal and agricultural sources.
However the boost in renewables will be seen as trying to offset the huge criticism over Blair giving the green light to a resumption in nuclear power. The review states: “Based on a range of possible scenarios, the economics of nuclear now look more positive than at the time of the 2003 Energy White paper”.
A third of the planet’s 5,700 amphibian species are under threat of extinction, according to fifty of the world's leading conservation experts who are calling for an urgent rescue mission to save frogs, newts and other amphibians. Up to 122 amphibian species have become extinct since 1980. Climate change, loss of habitat and infectious diseases are all to blame.
Writing in the US journal Science, the conservationists are proposing a $400m initiative, called the Amphibian Survival Alliance, to dispatch “rapid response" teams to collect endangered amphibians for captive breeding. Surely though its better to tackle the problem at source which means
The Guardian reports today that “money [is] no object as the big players grab what is left of a diminishing resource”, quoting the recent decision by Sinopec of China to pay $1bn for the right to explore for oil in deep water off Angola. This has “shocked” the west, “which fears it could be left behind in a global scramble for resources”.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
This new report, “Public Enemies: Assessing MDB and G20 international finance institutions’ energy finance” looks at G20 country and MDB traceable international public finance for fossil fuels from 2020-2022 and finds they are still backing at least USD 47 billion per year in oil, gas, and coal projects.
This briefing assesses Shell’s fossil fuel extraction plans in light of Shell's appeal of a Dutch court verdict requiring the company to take responsibility for its climate pollution. Our analysis shows that Shell continues to plan for levels of oil and gas production and investment that undermine the world’s chances of curtailing climate disaster.
The countries that produce oil and gas from the North Sea (Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark) rank among the countries with the greatest economic capacity and responsibility to rapidly phase out extraction, and to finance just transitions to renewable energy solutions domestically and abroad.