Interesting to look at the minute-by-minute sources of UK electricity https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Energy giant BP has reported record annual profits as it scaled back plans to reduce the amount of oil and gas it produces by 2030.

The company's profits more than doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022, as energy prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Other energy firms have seen similar rises, with Shell reporting record earnings of nearly $40bn last week. It has led to calls for energy firms to pay more tax as people's bills soar...

... The company - which was one of the first oil and gas giants to announce an ambition to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 - had previously promised that emissions would be 35-40% lower by the end of this decade.

However, on Tuesday it said it was now targeting a 20-30% cut, saying it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands...

... While shareholders may be making the least noise today, their voice is arguably the loudest when BP's competitors like Shell and Exxon are also making record profits...

... The UK minister said the Deposit Return Scheme should be "paused" after business leaders raised concerns over the costs involved in setting it up.

The initiative, due to launch in August, is designed to boost recycling via a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans.

Industry critics fear it will disrupt trade, raise prices...

... a UK-wide scheme - due to launch in 2025 - would maximise environmental benefits and minimise disruption to the drinks industry...

... "The last thing we want to do is rush into this..."

Yet more mining?...


Whitehaven {NEW} coal mine: Friends of the Earth to launch legal fight
wrote:

Friends of the Earth is to take legal action against the government over its decision to approve the UK's first major coal mine in more than 40 years...

... lawyer at Friends of the Earth, said: "With the world facing a climate emergency, we shouldn't have to take this challenge to court.

"Any sensible government should be choosing to leave coal in the ground and accelerating the transition to a safe, clean and sustainable future."...

[...]

Campaigners say a mining licence for a company due to open the UK's first coal mine for decades should not be renewed after water at a harbour turned orange...

... Investigations by the Environment Agency and Coal Authority are ongoing...

... "This pollution in the harbour looks like mine water - given the failure of finding and stopping the pollution source, it would be prudent to call a halt to any new mining..."...

... West Cumbria Mining Ltd was approached for comment on the claims, but declined to comment...

... Investigations carried out in December found no evidence of sewage pollution but results did show "increased metals in the water"...

... The harbour has about 85% of its 400 berths occupied and Mr Baker said looking out on to rust-coloured water was "not a pleasant environment", with some boat owners voicing their concerns...

The Science Museum in London signed a sponsorship contract containing a gagging clause with the Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor, agreeing to take care not to say anything that could damage the firm’s reputation...

... The inclusion of the so-called non-disparagement clause has led to accusations of greenwashing from environmental groups...

... Equinor and the Science Museum declined to reveal how much the oil company paid to sponsor the Wonderlab exhibition...

... Environmental groups claim the Science Museum has lost its ability to honestly discuss the true impact of the oil and gas sector on the environment because of gagging clauses it has signed with big businesses.

In 2021, two prominent scientists refused to allow their work to be included in the Science Museum’s collection after it was revealed that the institution had signed a similar contract with Shell.

Steve and Dee Allen, global plastic pollution researchers, say the museum’s deals with fossil fuel companies such as Shell and Equinor mean it is no longer a credible scientific institution.

Commenting on the latest revelations, Steve Allen said: “Scientists cannot support these gagging clauses. It’s simply not tenable, because our job is to report how the world really is, to the best of our knowledge. We have to tell the whole truth, not just what is acceptable to the oil and gas industry..."

The world is at risk of descending into a climate “doom loop”, a thinktank report has warned.

It said simply coping with the escalating impacts of the climate crisis could draw resources and focus away from the efforts to slash carbon emissions, making the situation even worse.

The damage caused by global heating across the globe is increasingly clear, and recovering from climate disasters is already costing billions of dollars. Furthermore, these disasters can cause cascading problems including water, food and energy crises, as well as increased migration and conflict, all draining countries’ resources...

There is now less sea-ice surrounding the Antarctic continent than at any time since we began using satellites to measure it in the late 1970s.

It is the southern hemisphere summer, when you'd expect less sea-ice, but this year is exceptional...

... What is more, the melt still has some way to go this summer...

... Research, cruise and fishing vessels are all reporting a similar picture as they make passage around the continent: most sectors are virtually ice-free.

Only the Weddell Sea remains dominated by frozen floes...

... Freezing seawater at the surface of the ocean expels salt, making the water below denser, causing it to sink. This is part of the engine that drives the great ocean conveyor - the mass movement of water that helps regulate energy in the climate system.

Sea-ice is also hugely important for life at the poles. In the Antarctic, the algae that cling to the ice are a source of food for the small crustaceans known as krill, which are a basic food resource...

US government officials are expected to make a decision on one of the biggest US oil projects in decades this week.

Environmental groups and some Native residents have long opposed the proposal because of its potential for climate impacts and wildlife damage.

But opposition has grown rapidly in the last few weeks as the #stopwillow campaign has gone viral on TikTok...

... The drilling site would sit in ... the largest area of undisturbed public land in the US...

... As of Thursday a change.org petition calling to stop the Willow Project on environmental grounds has gained more than three million signatures - making it one of the most signed petitions on the platform...

... A decision on the project is expected by the end of the week. The US Department of the Interior has 30 days from the final environmental impact assessment issued by the Bureau of Land Management to make a decision. It declined to provide a comment...

Saudi oil giant Aramco has announced a record profit of $161.1bn (£134bn) for 2022, helped by soaring energy prices and bigger volumes...

... It is the latest energy firm to report record profits, after energy prices spiked following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

America's ExxonMobil made $55.7bn, and Britain's Shell reported $39.9bn...

Who profits from that pollution?...

Here's hoping that world opinion counts?...

Airlines and airports opposed measures to combat global warming caused by jet vapour trails [yet] ... evidence suggests [vapour trails] account for more than half of the aviation industry’s climate impact...

... Scientists say the climate impact of vapour trails, or contrails, has been known for more than two decades, with one accusing the industry of a “typical climate denialist strategy”...

... “The industry should not hide behind [supposed] uncertainty and needs to act to rapidly reduce both its CO2 and non-CO2 effects.”...

Abstract

While there is evidence for an acceleration in global mean sea level (MSL) since the 1960s, its detection at local levels has been hampered by the considerable influence of natural variability on the rate of MSL change. Here we report a MSL acceleration in tide gauge records along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts that has led to rates (>10 mm yr-1 since 2010) that are unprecedented in at least 120 years. We show that this acceleration is primarily induced by an ocean dynamic signal exceeding the externally forced response from historical climate model simulations. However, when the simulated forced response is removed from observations, the residuals are neither historically unprecedented nor inconsistent with internal variability in simulations. A large fraction of the residuals is consistent with wind driven Rossby waves in the tropical North Atlantic. This indicates that this ongoing acceleration represents the compounding effects of external forcing and internal climate variability.