Lmst

New environmental guidance published for halted North Sea oil and gas projects

Major North Sea oil and gas projects halted by a Supreme Court ruling will be able to reapply…
#Environment #environmentalguidance #Environmentalimpact #environmentalimpacts #Greenhousegasemissions #MichaelShanks #NorthSea #oilandgas #Oilandgasindustry #Rosebank #SupremeCourt
https://www.europesays.com/2176466/

The biosecurity officers' fight against fire ants and allegations of threats, harassment and stalking
A Glen Turner Déjà vu

“We’ve had threats of ‘If you come on my property, I’ll shoot you’. ‘If you try and come on my property, I’ll set my dog on you...Australian police are routinely escorting biosecurity officers onto private properties after they reported being threatened with dogs and guns. In cases when people were “incredibly hostile”, program staff would “proactively engage with the police to escort us and to keep the peace and to keep everyone safe in that environment, because we need to complete the treatment”
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/03/fire-ants-australia-eradication-biosecurity-officers-queensland-ntwnfb

The environmental officer Glen Turner
was shot in Croppa Creek, near Moree in 2014 investigating illegal land clearing. "There is an interweaving between the physical murder of Glen Turner, and the ecological ‘murder’ of the brigalow through the voracious demand for agricultural land." Book review: ‘The Winter Road’ by Kate Holden
>>
https://residentjudge.com/2022/04/09/the-winter-road-by-kate-holden/
#conservation #biosecurity #FireAnts #InvasiveSpecies #BiosecurityOfficers #OHS #biodiversity #IllegalLandClearing #GlenTurner #violence #crime #Moree #GoldCoast #Grafton #SunshineCoast #LandOwnership #IndividualPropertyRights #PossessiveIndividualism #liberalism #pseudolaw #community #pests #EnvironmentalImpacts #insecticide #EnvironmentalLaws #NSW

‘I feel guilty and angry’: the captain turned campaigner trying to keep cruise ships at bay https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/25/i-feel-guilty-and-angry-the-captain-turned-campaigner-trying-to-keep-cruise-ships-at-bay?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other #CruiseShips #Oceans #EnvironmentalImpacts

From the Bretton Woods Project: #Forests

"Finally, the [#WorldBank] ’s #forest policy and #WeakSafeguards on #ForestProtection have also been observed to infringe the rights of local communities and have failed to protect one of the planet’s most important ‘#CarbonSinks’ (see Observer Spring 2017). CSOs have called for the Bank to open up its Forest Notes – which are meant to guide the interface between its lending and forests – to consultation (see Observer Winter 2017-2018). CSOs have also been highly critical of one of the forest initiatives the Bank manages, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a climate investment fund that supports Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) projects. A March 2017 post in REDD Monitor called the FCPF, 'the most cost-inefficient tree-saving scheme ever,' owing to high administrative costs between fiscal years 2009-2015 absorbing 64 per cent of FCFP’s $55 million expenditure. More generally, the Bank’s overall approach to lending has undermined the protection of vital natural ecosystems in borrower countries. As noted by Bruce Rich in his influential 2013 book, Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction, 'When one examines the failures to conserve ecosystems, or to mitigate environmental impacts of development, one finds that failed governance at all levels is almost invariably at the root. …Many of [the Bank’s] problems are associated with a dysfunctional institutional culture in which the relentless pressure to move money out the door, even in violation of the Bank’s own policies and rules, often overrides all other considerations.'"

2017: World Bank policy lending undermines climate goals

"One of the main problems is the Bank’s refusal to adequately assess the social and environmental risks of their policy loans" - Harlem Mariño, Derechos, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales

6 April 2017

"A late January report by US-based NGO Bank Information Center (BIC), together with partners in Egypt, Indonesia, Mozambique and Peru, claimed that the Bank is undermining its climate commitments by supporting investment incentives for coal, gas and oil projects through its development policy financing (DPF) mechanism. DPF accounts for approximately a third of all Bank funding and provides resources for programmes of policy and institutional reforms that are agreed by the Bank and the borrowing government (see Update 82). The report argued that the Bank’s financing through DPF contradicts the internationally agreed and Bank-supported goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to 2°C, which according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would require that at least two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves are left in the ground.

"BIC’s report looked at the Bank’s DPF measures in four countries: Egypt, Indonesia, Mozambique and Peru. It found that DPF introduced subsidies for coal in all countries, apart from Peru. For example, the report argued that Bank-supported subsidies for coal infrastructure have helped Indonesia become one of the world’s top coal exporters. It found some DPF support for renewable energy, but argued that the Bank could do more given that all countries examined have potential to develop renewable energy. For example, while Peru’s DPF provides subsidies to public-private partnerships to develop oil and gas infrastructure, it does not include plans for solar or wind power projects."

https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2017/04/world-bank-policy-lending-undermines-climate-goals/

#FCPF #REDD #Ecosystems #ProtectTheForests #EnvironmentalDestruction #ForestDegradation #Deforestation #EnvironmentalImpacts #Egypt #Indonesia #Mozambique #Peru #LeaveItInTheGround #Coal #BigOilAndGas #ExtractiveIndustries #Exploitation #EnvironmentalImpacts
#HumanRights #ParisAgreement
#ParisClimateAgreement #BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism #IMFLoanSharks #RenewablesNow

From the Bretton Woods Project: Continued #FossilFuel investments

"In terms of its direct lending, the [#WorldBank] ’s investments in #FossilFuels have been criticised for undermining climate goals – with the Bank continuing to fund a considerable number of fossil fuel projects in the years after the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, which saw countries jointly commit to limit average global temperature rise to 'well below 2°C” relative to preindustrial levels. Despite the Bank’s recent climate commitments (see Observer Spring 2018), CSOs remain concerned that the Bank lacks a comprehensive approach to align its entire lending portfolio with the Paris Agreement. In addition to project finance for oil and gas infrastructure, there are other remaining types of Bank investments that are a cause for concern. The IFC now invests nearly 50 per cent of its portfolio in FI, and a lack of sub-project disclosure in these investments makes it difficult to assess the exposure of these investments to fossil fuels, including coal (see Governance above). However, CSO research has linked IFC FI investments to the construction of 19 new coal-fired power plants in the Philippines, while another report found IFC FI investments linked to 41 new coal plants between 2013 and 2016. While the IFC announced a new Green Equity Strategy in October 2018 that will require new FI clients to divest from coal over time, this policy will not affect past FI investments (see Observer Winter 2018).

"CSOs are also concerned that the World Bank has thus far not developed a framework to assess the climate impacts of its Development Policy Finance. CSO research has found that in some cases, these contain ‘prior actions’ that benefit the fossil fuel and extractive industries. Finally, the Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) has in recent years provided a number of guarantees that have backed fossil-fuel projects. According to CSO research, in FY16, MIGA did not support a single renewable energy project: '[its] guarantees to energy were worth $1.9 billion … of which $0.9 billion went to fossil fuel projects', with the rest going to projects such as hydropower dams, often with detrimental environmental and human rights impacts."

Report from #OilChangeInternational

Cross Purposes: After Paris, Multilateral Development Banks Still Funding Billions in Fossil Fuels

October 12, 2017

"A new report shows how multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, gave over $9 billion in funding for fossil fuel projects in 2016, nearly all of it following the Paris Agreement being reached and despite claims that they were acting on climate and adjusting their investment strategies."

https://www.oilchange.org/publications/development-banks-still-funding-fossils/

#HydropowerDams #EnvironmentalImpacts #HumanRights #ParisAgreement #ParisClimateAgreement #BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism #CoalFiredPlants #Phillipines #IFC_FI #MIGA #IMFLoanSharks

study reveals alarming details about the particulate matter that is released into the air when fireworks explode...
#airquality #Fireworks #environment #environmentalimpacts
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-reveals-fireworks-impact-air-quality.html

Satellite Imagery Covering Catchments Of Indian Himalayan River Basins Show Significant Changes In Glacial Lakes
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https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/satellite-imagery-covering-the-catchments-of-indian-himalayan-river-basins-show-significant-changes-in-glacial-lakes/article68094828.ece <-- shared media article
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https://www.isro.gov.in/Satellite_Insights_Expanding_Glacial_Lakes_Indian_Himalayas.html <-- shared technical article
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #water #hydrology #India #Himalayas #remotesensing #earthobservation #ISRO #glacial #lakes #melting #glacialakes #satellite #imagery #climatechange #inventory #change #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #glacier #elevation #mountains #moraine #erosion #changeanalysis #environmentalimpacts #glof #flooding #risk #hazard #GlacialLakeOutburstFloods
@ISRO

photo - glacier feeding Ghepang Ghat Glacial Lake

map - glacial lakes and IHR basins, India Himalayas

photo - glacial lake in mountainous terrain in Indian Himalayan region

satellite images - The long-term changes in the Ghepang Ghat Glacial Lake area

By sending electronic greetings instead of physical cards, we can drastically reduce paper consumption.

Read the full article: Saving Trees, Spreading Joy – The Eco-Friendly Benefits of eCards
▸ https://lttr.ai/ANe0z

#ReducePaperWaste #EcoFriendlyBenefits #PreserveTrees #SpreadingJoy #EnvironmentalImpacts #GreenhouseGasEmissions #GreetPool

Happy to be #teaching again my class that mixes a tough discussion of the origins and limitations of ecological theories in their applications to marine environmental management problems at a branch of #SciencesPo / it’s a look behind the headline making declarations about #marineconservation and #environmentalimpacts using real world demonstrations of what ecological theories and modeling can actually do for decision makers.

The Anthropocene Condition - Evolving Through Social–Ecological Transformations
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https://phys.org/news/2023-12-anthropocene-condition-evolving-socialecological.html <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0255 <-- shared paper / opinion piece
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[not my usual fare to post, but fascinating]
#anthropocene #global #human #evolution #archaeology #ecology, #anthropology #evolutionary #culture #cultural #culturalintelligence #culturalpractices #culturalheritage #humanimpacts #population #fire #cooking #farming #agriculture #urbanisation #trade #trading #supplychains #economic #economys #humansociety #reshapetheplanet #anthroecology #ecosystems #climatechange #anthropogenic #extinction #pollution #environment #environmentalimpacts #socioecology