Green Groups News

Oil and gas companies and environmental groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration's five-year plan to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The petitions to a U.S. appeals court come four months after the Interior Department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing that included just three sales, the lowest since the government began publishing the schedules in 1980.The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade group…

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ordered that a postponed federal auction of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico be held within 37 days, a setback for environmentalists seeking expanded protections for the endangered Rice's whale.According to court papers, the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed an effort by four green groups to block an expansion of the sale ordered by a lower court judge in September.The judges said the groups lacked standing to challenge the September decision.

Italy's Prysmian has adopted a net zero carbon target by 2050 and slightly upped its emission reduction targets for the near term, the world's largest cable maker said on Wednesday.Prysmian - which supplies cables for industries including high voltage power transmission, offshore wind farms and telecoms - said in a statement it was committed to reducing all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the value chain by 2050.As part of this plan, the company will cut so-called Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90% by 2035…

Canada on Friday banned cruise ships from dumping sewage and dirty water close to shore, and said it would impose fines of up to C$250,000 ($190,000) for offending vessels.A range of anti-pollution measures introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2022 will become obligatory with immediate effect, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement.Environmental groups said Ottawa had ignored the largest source of liquid pollution from cruise ships: the water used to clean exhaust gas cleaning systems…

A Russian research vessel which has been prospecting for oil and natural gas in the Antarctic docked in South Africa on Saturday following protests by green campaigners who say its operations in the region violate a treaty banning mineral exploration.Several members of the Extinction Rebellion environmental group held banners reading "Hands off Antarctica" as the polar explorer ship Akademik Alexander Karpinsky arrived as scheduled in Cape Town's port during the morning.Earlier this week, several dozen protesters from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion demonstrated at the port, saying the ship's seismic surveys in the Antarctic were a threat to marine life in the area and violated a 1958 international agreement.A 1998 amendment to the 55-nation Antarctic Treaty…

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed during his 2020 election campaign to end federal oil and gas drilling as a major step in his strategy to fight climate change.The U.S. Senate Democrats' $430 billion spending bill agreed this week could kill that pledge. If it passes, it would effectively guarantee continued drilling rights auctions on federal lands and waters for at least another decade.Still, with Congress set to begin a summer recess by the end of next week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer faces a tricky road to quick passage for the bill…

A federal judge invalidated the results of an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday saying the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction's climate change impact.The decision has cast uncertainty over the future of the U.S. federal offshore drilling program, which has been a big source of public revenue for decades but also drawn the ire of activists concerned about its impact on the environment and contribution to global warming.The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of existing U.S.

Rio Tinto forecast slightly weaker-than-expected 2022 iron ore shipments on Tuesday, citing tight labor market conditions and production delays from the new greenfields mine at Gudai-Darri project.The world's biggest iron ore producer said it expects to ship between 320 million and 335 million tonnes (Mt) in 2022 from the Pilbara region in Western Australia, a forecast with a mid-point below RBC estimate of 332 Mt and UBS' estimate of between 330 Mt and 340 Mt.Rio shipped 321.6 Mt of the steel-making commodity last year…

India's Adani Group is preparing to ship the first coal cargo from Australia's most controversial mine, after battling a seven-year campaign by climate activists and defying a global push away from fossil fuels.The Carmichael mine in outback Queensland state is likely to be the last new thermal coal mine to be built in Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, but will be a vital source of supply for importers such as power plants in India."The first shipment of high-quality…

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has the power to stymie oil and gas development on government-controlled lands and waters, industry and environmental experts said, even though a court decision ended his freeze on federal drilling auctions.Some options, they said, include offering sparse acreage or imposing more time-consuming permitting requirements."We lived through the Obama administration, and they did a lot of things to constrain leasing and other activity on federal lands…

The United Nations shipping agency on Thursday adopted a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic region while green groups said the regulations contained loopholes which will allow many vessels to keep sailing without enough regulatory control.Antarctic waters are protected by stringent regulations, including a ban on heavy oil fuel (HFO) adopted in 2011, even though no cargo moves through the turbulent southern waters. For the Arctic, the rules have been looser.In a virtual…

Ships sailing through the Arctic region’s busiest lane along the Siberian coast made the highest number of trips on record this year as a quicker-than-expected melting of ice enabled more traffic, data showed.The Arctic has warmed at least twice as quickly as the rest of the world over the last three decades and shipping activity has picked up.Analysis by the Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL) at Norway’s Nord University Business School showed there were 62 transits through the Northern Sea Route in the period to Dec.

The United Nations shipping agency on Friday approved a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic region in a move criticized by green groups which said loopholes will allow many vessels to keep sailing without enough regulatory control.Antarctic waters are protected by stringent regulations, including a ban on heavy oil fuel (HFO) adopted in 2011, even though no cargo moves through the turbulent southern waters. For the Arctic, the rules have been looser.In a virtual session…

The United Nations shipping agency on Tuesday approved measures to boost energy efficiency in vessels as part of efforts to reduce the industry's carbon footprint, a UN spokeswoman said.Countries approved the additional regulations to reduce the carbon intensity of commercial ships at this week's virtual Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) session of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).Green groups opposed the approval, saying it would allow the shipping sector's share of emissions to keep rising over the next decade…

A coal ship that dropped anchor off the coast of the Indonesian port city of Balikpapan on Borneo island was likely to blame for an oil spill, after dragging a pipeline more than 100 metres and causing it to crack, an energy ministry official said. Indonesia declared a state of emergency this week after the spill and fire killed five fishermen. The environment ministry said the oil covered an area of nearly 13,000 hectares and had polluted 60 km of coastal ecosystems, including mangrove wetlands and marine mammal habitats. "We suspect the pipe was dragged by the ship that caught fire," Oil and Gas Director General Djoko Siswanto told reporters on Thursday.

Recent improvements in the design efficiency of new ships went into reverse last year, a new independent study has found. According to the CE Delft study the average design efficiency of new bulk carriers, oil tankers and gas carriers was worse in 2016 than in 2015. The share of new ships complying with future efficiency standards also decreased in 2016. The design efficiency of containerships and general cargo ships appears to be stagnating after a period of improvement. The…

Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprise Ltd may walk away from its proposal to build one of the world's biggest coal mines in Australia, citing long delays caused by legal challenges to the project by groups concerned about the environment. Adani is battling multiple legal challenges from green groups opposed to its $10-billion Carmichael mine, rail and port project. The Australian on Saturday reported that the company's founder and chairman, Gautam Adani had told the newspaper the company may abandon the project because of long delays due to legal challenges. "You can't continue just holding. I have been really disappointed that things have got too delayed," Adani told The Australian.

Italy went to the polls on Sunday for a referendum on off-shore oil and gas drilling rights, a complex issue that the government hopes voters will shun. For the ballot to be valid, more than 50 percent of the Italian electorate must vote and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has urged people to stay away, saying that the referendum is unnecessary and might end up hurting the economy. It would be a blow to Renzi if substantial numbers did turn out, suggesting voters were ready to snub him just weeks before major local elections. But opinion polls have indicated that a quorum will not be reached. The referendum focuses on whether Italy should stop renewing offshore drilling licenses within 12 miles (20 km) of the coast.

Environmental groups want the eight countries that ring the North Pole to take a stand on banning the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO), considered one of the greatest threats to the Arctic ecosystem, reports  Canadian Press. The use of heavy fuel oil by shipping in the Arctic could have disastrous consequences. Banning this fuel would protect the region’s rich wildlife, improve human health and benefit the climate. Larger cargo carrying ships, tankers and larger cruise ships almost always use HFO, one of the world’s dirtiest and most polluting ship fuels. In the global Arctic, these large vessels comprise only 28 per cent of vessels, but consume 75 per cent of the total annual fuel used in the region.

Countries calling for an ambitious agreement at the Paris climate summit must insist that language on aviation and shipping emissions be reinserted or the prospects of keeping global warming below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C, will be fatally undermined, green groups have warned. The latest draft deal, issued days before talks are due to end, dropped any mention of the two international transport sectors, which fall outside national reduction targets and therefore require an explicit reference in the agreement. Earlier drafts of the deal at the COP21 summit this week had called for the ‘reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation and marine bunker fuels’ by working through the UN agencies that regulate aviation and shipping sectors.

The global airline and shipping industries appeared to win a symbolic reprieve from the growing global drive to reduce carbon emissions on Wednesday, cut from a new draft climate change pact being negotiated in Paris. As nearly 200 nations attempt to craft a breakthrough global deal to slow the rise in world temperatures, the reference to two of the world's fastest-growing emitters appeared to be one of the first significant changes in an agreement still riddled with much bigger, more contentious issues. A previous draft from Dec. 5 had included an optional paragraph that would have singled out the two sectors and encouraged nations to curb their carbon output "with a view to agreeing concrete measures addressing these emissions".

Former BP PLC Chief Executive John Browne said fellow FTSE 100 giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC is risking its long term reputation and finances by deciding to drill n the Arctic, the BBC reported. Both Browne and Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden gave interviews to BBC for a Radio 4 documentary concerning climate change, where Browne said Shell should not be prioritising the Arctic as an area for exploration for a variety of reasons, especially in the current downturn. "I'm not chairman of Shell. But I think [Arctic drilling] is very expensive and I would always go for hydrocarbons which have less cost and effort involved. Some companies will genuinely believe - they may be right - that they can produce oil safely and environmentally securely in extraordinary conditions" said Browne.

Ten environmental groups say a missing icebreaker should be a deal-breaker for Arctic offshore drilling by Royal Dutch Shell PLC off Alaska's northwest coast and urged the U.S. government not to grant final permits to Shell, reports Reuters and AP. The groups in a letter that under Shell's exploration plans, the U.S. Interior Department cannot allow it to begin exploring for oil in the Chukchi Sea off northern Alaska while the icebreaker, the Fennica, is unavailable. The icebreaker is a key part of Shell's exploration plan and spill response plan, said attorney Mike LeVine of Oceana. "The Fennica plays an important role in protecting the entirety of Shell's fleet from ice," he said.