news from one week in october 2022
Sunday OCTOBER 23rd – 19C/13C
Report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) finds new fossil fuels ‘incompatible’ with 1.5C goal. link
Monday OCTOBER 24th – 18C/12C
Poll finds 66% of UK public support direct action to protect environment link
Tuesday OCTOBER 25th – 18C/10C
Government’s efforts to protect UK rivers described as ‘abject failure’ – Two thirds of cattle farms in north Devon cause river pollution, Environment Agency report link
Government emissions projections show that UK will overshoot our 2030 Paris agreement emissions commitment by 40% and we’ll blow our 6th Carbon Budget by a whopping 100% link
France, Spain, the Netherlands & Poland have exited Energy Charter Treaty – UK need to do the same. Energy Charter Treaty allows corporations to sue countries for acting on climate.
Interview with Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate on BBC R4 Woman’s Hour:
“some of the questions have been: ‘How extreme should climate activism go?’ And my answer to that is also a question: ‘How extreme should environmental destruction go?’ And sometimes, especially with the reactions I saw with the soup and the painting, if only that frustration and criticism, if only people had those same frustrations towards children that are starving as a result of malnutrition in the Horn of Africa, if only people carried that anger and that frustration for the people that are suffering as a result of floods in Pakistan. I just wish that we stopped discussing what mode of action is right or not, or not right, and really focused on the major issues that are happening right now and people are suffering right now. And to be honest, it’s a place of privilege for some people to know about the climate crisis through maybe their traffic being distracted, but for certain communities, to know about the climate crisis, they live it. They don’t just get a traffic distraction. So I think people should really ask themselves where the criticism and the frustration should really be directed to.”
Wednesday OCTOBER 26th – 19C/12C
Human health ‘at the mercy of fossil fuels’ – The Lancet Countdown link
Lower income countries paying the highest price as emissions and fossil fuel profits rocket – 189 million people per year have been affected by extreme weather-related events in developing countries since 1991. link
Rishi Sunak re-appoints Suella Braverman – despite her having resigned for breaking the Ministerial Code a few days earlier
Alok Sharma: “Government must explain how new oil and gas is consistent with net zero”link
‘Colleague of mine put it well – Just Stop Oil commit minor crimes in public in the full knowledge they’ll be arrested, oil companies commit major crimes in private knowing they’ll get away with it.’ @DominicMHinde on Twitter
Thursday OCTOBER 27th – 21C/11C
Garden Court Chambers (Barristers committed to fighting injustice, defending human rights and upholding the rule of law) say ‘exceptional threat to freedom of expression posed by The Public Order Bill 2022’ link
International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook: Energy Crisis is Fossil Fuel Crisis – ‘No one should imagine that Russia’s invasion can justify a wave of new oil and gas infrastructure in a world that wants to reach net zero emissions by 2050’ link
UN finds no credible pathway to 1.5 All sectors had to avoid locking in new fossil fuel infrastructure, contrary to plans in many countries, including the UK, to develop new oil and gas fields. A study published this week found “large consensus” across all published research that new oil and gas fields are “incompatible” with the 1.5C target. link
UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap report makes clear we are headed for economy-destroying levels of global heating link
Shell announce huge profits link
Friday OCTOBER 28th – 19C/11C
Government will miss the legal deadline for publishing nature targets, as specified in the Environment Act link
Rishi Sunak received £141,000 from energy interests this year link
New Environment Secretary, Therese Coffey MP, champions using reusable cups as good habit to address climate concerns. link
Saturday OCTOBER 29th – 22C/11C
Almost Half of Earth’s Vital Signs Are Now ‘Code Red’ (meaning they’re at record extremes), Scientists Warn link
‘We’re now faced with a stark choice: make quick and meaningful changes to the way we live our lives and treat the planet, or face the very real possibility of global societal collapse further down the line.’
“Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels….Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, April 2022
