DeSmog

December 23, 2022 - UK Edition From rogue Tory backbenchers to North Sea profits for Putin, in the past year the DeSmog UK team has kept tabs on the people, money and PR machines that work to slow meaningful action on climate change. In 2022 this has led us to stories that have unmasked all manner of trickery: from the minutiae of misleading stickers marketing “hydrogen-ready” boilers to the sinister presence of sanctioned coal barons at this year’s COP27 climate summit. It was a tough year for the green transition. Climate targets were under threat from all sides with climate science deniers, politicians and media platforms exploiting the war in Ukraine and ensuing energy crisis to demand an increase in fossil fuel extraction. We saw misinformation surge from familiar and new sources, with a disturbing conflation of “QAnon” and anti-vax conspiracy theories with climate opposition. Meanwhile, corporations’ greenwashing tactics morphed, sometimes into forms of dizzying complexity – in the case of voluntary carbon markets. It was also the year that “solutioneering” took hold in agriculture – source of 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions – as major players announced net zero plans and began to push harder on sometimes fanciful technologies (think: capturing cow burps), at the expense of the deeper transformations needed to safeguard nature and the climate. At the same time, it was a year in which the case for climate action could not have been clearer. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine showed the real dangers of relying on brutal polluting petrostates for energy, and climate impacts became tragically ever more present across the world.  Plenty for DeSmog to get stuck into, in summary. And we were, in essence, all over it. It was a tough call to select the highlights, but here you have my Editor’s pick of our Top 10– in no particular order – chosen for going deep, originality, capturing the political moment, scoring victories for the climate movement or straight-up popularity… From all of us at DeSmog: have a very happy Christmas and New Year. See you on the other side. 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: various 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 Editor’s Pick: Top DeSmog UK Stories of 2022 From rogue Tory backbenchers to North Sea profits for Putin, in the past year the DeSmog UK team has kept tabs on the people, money and PR machines that work to slow meaningful action on climate change. In 2022 this has led us to stories that have unmasked all manner of trickery: from the minutiae of misleading stickers marketing “hydrogen-ready” boilers to the sinister presence of sanctioned coal barons at this year’s COP27 climate summit. Read more... Sowing Doubt: How Big Ag is Delaying Sustainable Farming in Europe In the spring of 2020, the European Union announced an ambitious plan to overhaul farming practices in fields and valleys across the continent. Named Farm to Fork, it calls for less fertiliser and pesticide use, and more organic production. Veteran sustainable food and farming experts welcomed the strategy as one that just might have a genuine shot at tackling biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas pollution from the sector. Read more... Environmental Activists Fight Back as Companies Resort to ‘Lawfare’ to Quash Criticism In 1999, when Shpresa Loshaj was 19, she fled her home town of Deçan, Kosovo, as a refugee and moved to Canada. When she returned in 2018, long after the war had ended, a journalist encouraged her to go into the hills and take a look at some new hydropower plants on the river Lumbardhi i Deçanit. The journalist was investigating claims by local people that the plants were operating without permits and potentially damaging the local ecosystem and water infrastructure. Read more... New Study Reveals Billions of Dollars in Political Spending by US Trade Associations, Most of It on PR Industry trade associations in the United States that work on climate and energy issues spent more than $3 billion over 10 years on political activities, according to a new study that sheds light on trade associations’ role in influencing policies and obstructing climate action. The new paper by scholars Robert Brulle of Brown University and Christian Downie of The Australian National University, published Monday in the journal Climatic Change, examined the political spending of nearly 90 U.S. trade associations from 2008 to 2018. Read more... 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... 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!