DeSmog

December 19, 2022 - UK Edition ~~~~ DeSmog is hiring, but you’ll have to be quick! Applications for a new Deputy Editor close at 11.59pm on December 23. ~~~~ While many of us will be reflecting on how we can become better versions of ourselves in 2023, we all know others (the “new year, old me” types) who are stubbornly resistant to change. Step forward Benny Peiser, director of the UK’s main climate denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). As Adam Barnett reports, Peiser spoke at a Heritage Foundationevent on December 8, where net zero was branded a “religion”. In the same year that the GWPF published two reports rejecting the science of the greenhouse effect, Peiser used the webinar to claim that the energy crisis is caused by “a dogmatic prioritization” of renewable energy over alternatives such as shale gas or nuclear. That’s strange, because according to the International Energy Agency, the energy crisis is caused by the high wholesale cost of gas and fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In other news, Matthew Green reported on Reuters Events how oil companies are targeting carbon markets to finance large-scale carbon capture initiatives and sell the world on – brace yourselves – “net-zero oil”. Northern Lights, a joint venture between Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor, aims to store carbon emissions from European industry in disused oil fields under the North Sea, the largest project of its kind in the world. All told, existing CCS projects store about 40 million tonnes of CO2 a year – amounting to just 0.1 percent of global emissions. Speaking of the North Sea’s buried secrets, last week DeSmog and the Times revealed that Russian-state owned energy giant Gazprom expects to continue exploring for new reserves in the North Sea, having paid itself a £28 million dividend from drilling operations in the area. Svitlana Romanko, founder of Ukrainian climate group Razom We Stand, was shocked that Gazprom was still being allowed to “fund Russia’s war machine” from North Sea profits. “Justice must be done by the UK government, by ending business with Gazprom,” she told DeSmog. If you're interested in what DeSmog's getting up to around the world, sign up to our international newsletter. As always, we love feedback on the newsletter. If you have anything to say, please email editor@desmog.uk. Image credit: Gary Bembrige/Wikimedia Commons Support DeSmog: donate today! DeSmog exists to hold the powerful to account on their climate pledges. If you think that's important too, then please support us. We are determined to keep DeSmog free to access. But we are independent, meaning we don't take advertising money and we don't have corporate donors. So we rely on the support of you, our dear readers, to continue our work. If you can, please donate today! NEW STORIES Gazprom ‘Anticipates’ Further North Sea Gas Exploration Amid Bumper Profits Gazprom expects to continue exploring for new reserves in the North Sea, having paid itself a £28 million dividend from drilling operations in the area, its latest accounts show. Subsidiaries of the Russian state-owned gas giant still have stakes in multiple fields more than nine months after the invasion of Ukraine began and despite its chief executive being under UK sanctions. Read more... Heritage Foundation Hosts UK Climate Science Denier at Event Opposing ‘Green Energy’ An influential US think tank has hosted a well-known UK climate science denier at an event attacking what one speaker called Europe’s “socialist” net zero policies. The Heritage Foundation panel on December 8, called “Lessons for America from Europe’s Green Energy Disaster”, featured Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). Read more... House Committee Wraps Up Historic Investigation Into Oil Industry Congressional investigators released a new set of documents that underscored the oil and gas industry’s ongoing attempts to block climate policies and confuse the public about their long-term investments in fossil fuels. The latest tranche of documents caps off a nearly two-year investigation that appears set to come to an end with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in January. Read more... 1.5 and 2°C: A Journey Through the Temperature Target That Haunts the World Two numbers. One long-term goal. In 2015, nearly 200 countries agreed to “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”. Read more... A New Era for Germany’s Gas Industry Fuels Climate Fears   For 150 years, heavy industry has been the lifeblood of the German port of Wilhelmshaven, a hub for shipbuilding, plastics, coal and steel. Now, the city is at the forefront of the country’s dash to break its dependence on Russian gas. Read more... Flagship EU Farming Reforms in Peril as Lobbyists Exploit Ukraine War Europe’s leading farming lobby group Copa-Cogeca has used the war in Ukraine as a pretext to push back behind the scenes against flagship EU laws to protect nature, DeSmog can reveal. The meeting records reviewed by DeSmog are the latest evidence to emerge of a long-running effort by agribusiness lobby groups and pesticide firms to roll back rules aimed at safeguarding birds, bees, and butterflies. Read more... ENJOYED THE READ? WHY NOT SIGN UP?! Been forwarded this email? Seen it somewhere else? Why not skip the middleman and click here to sign up to get it delivered straight to your inbox every week. And if you want to support DeSmog UK, become a Patron today!