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Some two weeks after the UN Montreal talks scraped together an 11th hour deal on climate change there is still a raging debate on whether it was a good deal or not. Environmental groups from Europe were surprising upbeat about Montreal in the immediate aftermath. Friends of the Earth called it an “historic step” forwards that “sent a clear signal that the future lies in cleaner and more sustainable technologies and is good news for people everywhere”.
Blair gets an Official Warning over Inaction on Climate
The US is usually seen as the villain over climate and rightly so – see - click here
However, the day after the Montreal meeting, Tony Blair faced the wrath of his own watchdog on sustainable development. For the first time ever the “Sustainable Development Commission”, measured government performances in certain key areas such as biodiversity, energy usage and climate change.
BP Goes Green Again.
BP is at it again. Whether it is completely coincidental that we have had the Montreal meeting, the melting Arctic, extreme weather and extreme profits of the oil companies, but BP is in the middle of an unprecedented greenwashing campaign, trying to persuade the public, politicians and who ever else is listening that they are a green energy company.
Although Russia has now switched the tap back on allowing gas exports to resume at full strength to the Ukraine, the ramifications of the dispute are still rumbling across Europe.
You could argue that the Russian action could be beneficial in that it has woken people up to the problems of long-term energy security based on fossil fuels from foreign lands.
I think many people are shocked to find out just how dependent Europe is on Russian gas. We now know that this dependency will only grow.
Check out this AP article re: Chevron in Ecuador and Nigeria. Quotes from Oil Change, Earthrights, and Amazon Watch.
So three days into the New Year and we have already had our first energy crisis, with a spat between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices. What started as a regional argument soon rapidly spread affecting Italy, Hungary, France, Germany and at least seven central and eastern European countries.
It has also highlighted just how dependent Europe has become on Russian Gas, especially with declining North Sea reserves. Russia accounts for about one-third of EU gas imports, and one-fifth of the gas used in EU.
A great insight into oil industry strategy, via the Exxon funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, to destroy European support for Kyoto. Also a showcase for the power of good old fashioned dumpster diving to get you the goods. Read it here in the Independent.
One of the things we want to do on the Oil Change site is to generate the debate on a whole host of issues surrounding the oil industry as well as the move to clean energy. We want you to join in that debate.
Whether it is the inter-related politics of oil and war in the Middle East to the debates about climate change or peak oil; from the human rights impacts of oil in the Niger Delta to the ecological ones in the Arctic; from the politics of oil in Baku to the rising demand of oil in Beijing, if