Sir Jim Ratcliffe faces fresh accusations of environmental vandalism after being linked to almost a third of industrial air pollution in Scotland. Several companies owned by the billionaire, including chemicals giant Ineos, are based at Grangemouth in Falkirk. They belched 3.6m tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2017, about 32% of the 11m tons generated by firms, which must report emissions to an environment watchdog. Official figures suggest the level of pollution linked to Ratcliffe – mostly carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and is considered to be a key driver of climate change – is about 10% of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Times 9th June 2019 read more »
Ex-BP boss John Browne: ‘It’s going to take a long time to take oil and coal out of the energy system’. John Browne: What would you say to Greta Thunberg? I would say that I have been at this for longer than you’ve been on the planet and that [decarbonisation] will take time. And so my proposal is this: remember that energy is a very big system and there is not one solution. We can’t have one magic bullet that will make the solution work for us. We need to take all the things people are doing [to reduce emissions] because it will be very difficult to persuade them to change. China is opening up brand new coal mines to feed India. What happens in the UK is actually not very important. It’s what happens in places like China, Indonesia and India that will really count. Because we will need coal, oil and gas, we need to do everything we can to decarbonise the emissions. This is critical for the future.
Observer 8th June 2019 read more »
Fossil fuel companies are already grappling with the risks posed by climate change, from the physical threats of extreme weather to the challenge of switching to cleaner energy. Now they have a new item rising up their list of worries: liability lawsuits. Over the past two years, a growing number of legal cases in the US – brought by cities, counties, and the State of Rhode Island – are seeking damages from energy companies for a litany of climate-related problems.
FT 9th June 2019 read more »
