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Mayo, 2026

Costa Rica enfrenta una crisis de residuos con sus rellenos sanitarios casi al límite de su capacidad. El Municipio de León Cortés, por ejemplo, envía el 85% de sus residuos al relleno sanitario, y solo un 14% tiene como destino el reciclaje. Esta situación ha llevado a una proliferación de proyectos de incineración en el país, amenazando tesoros de biodiversidad como la zona Monumento Natural de los Santos, una zona rural y cafetera donde ocurre parte del proyecto de soluciones basura cero que presentaremos a través de la experiencia de Yoselin Zuñiga.

Yoselin Zúñiga, monitora ambiental del proyecto Lideresas del cambio.
© Camila Aguilera.

Yoselin vive en el barrio El Estadio, en León Cortés, y fue una de las siete promotoras ambientales del proyecto Líderesas del Cambio, impulsado por la Asociación Defensores del Monumento Natural Zona de los Santos. El proyecto nació con el fin de buscar soluciones desde el origen del problema y de llegar con esas soluciones a la vida cotidiana de las personas. 

El proyecto comenzó con un estudio de composición de residuos que arrojó que el 60% de los residuos de los hogares que iban a participar en el proyecto correspondía a residuos orgánicos que terminaban en el relleno sanitario. Por otro lado, el municipio ofrecía retiro diferenciado, pero faltaba potenciar la educación ambiental para generar los cambios que se necesitaban para que existiera un compromiso a largo plazo por parte de los hogares.

“No era citar a la gente a un salón y decirles qué hacer. Era ir a sus casas, adaptarse a sus horarios, compartir un café, conversar”, comenta Yoselin.

Promotoras ambientales, el corazón del proyecto
Monitoras ambientales.

La mayoría de los hogares que participaron en el proyecto estaban compuestos por mujeres que sostenían las tareas del hogar y que, por lo tanto, tenían dificultades para salir de la casa  y asistir a charlas o talleres. Por eso, las siete Lideresas del cambio eran mujeres del mismo barrio, también jefas de hogar, que compartían un lenguaje común y sabían cómo abordar la cotidianidad del barrio para sacar adelante el proyecto.

“Queríamos demostrar que las mujeres somos la primera base del hogar en lo que tiene que ver con reciclaje y compostaje”, explica Yoselin. “No desde un discurso feminista, sino desde la realidad cotidiana. Somos quienes sostenemos gran parte de la casa y también podemos impulsar estos cambios”.

Para cumplir la misión de hacer las visitas domiciliarias, las  monitoras recibieron una capacitación de 16 horas para fortalecer sus capacidades técnicas y habilidades sociales, prepararon materiales educativos y fichas de monitoreo. 

Llevar la educación ambiental a cada casa

Una de las decisiones del proyecto fue evitar capacitaciones masivas o charlas impersonales. Las conversaciones de las tres visitas que estaban contempladas para los 175 hogares que se sumaron al proyecto ocurrían dentro de las casas, en horarios acordados con cada familia. “No es lo mismo llegar a entregar un afiche que sentarse a conversar con alguien que ya conoce a la persona que le está hablando”, comenta Yoselin.

Recorrido por el barrio El Estadio, Costa Rica.

Las visitas se adaptaban a cada familia y fue un acompañamiento en el que se enseñó a compostar, a segregar y a reducir. Algunas personas aprendían escuchando, otras necesitaban ver ejemplos o tocar materiales. Por eso llevaban portafolios con muestras y apoyos visuales. “La idea no era solo ir a decir cosas. Era que realmente captaran el mensaje”.

Compostaje, menos malos olores y menos basura

El proyecto contempló la gestión de la fracción de orgánicos desde el comienzo. Quienes querían compostar en sus propios patios recibieron orientación y, quienes no podían hacerlo, tuvieron la opción de acceder a retiro diferenciado.  Para ello, se articuló un trabajo con Ovejas Verdes, el programa piloto municipal de gestión de residuos orgánicos, que envía los residuos a Coopetarrazu, la planta  de gestión de orgánicos industrial más grande de Costa Rica, donde el compost generado vuelve a productores de café.

Visita a la planta de compostaje de Coopetarrazu.

“El orgánico fue lo que más le gustó a mucha gente”, recuerda Yoselin . “En la segunda visita me decían: ‘Los gusanos se me quitaron de la basura, los malos olores, las cucarachas también’”.

 “Uno pasa una semana acumulando residuos orgánicos en una bolsa y claro que eso genera malos olores. Cuando empezaron a separarlos, el cambio se notó de inmediato”.

“La gente me acogió muy bonito”

Si bien cada paso que se dio permitió consolidar cambios sostenidos con impactos ambientales positivos, también se buscaba impulsar una transformación social a través del fortalecimiento del liderazgo de las promotoras y que el barrio El Estadio se convirtiera en un referente ambiental en el cantón. 

Yoselin dice que una de las cosas que más la marcó fue la forma en que las familias abrieron las puertas de sus casas.“Entrar al hogar de alguien siempre es delicado. Uno podría pensar que la gente se va a sentir incómoda si le dicen qué hacer con sus residuos”. Pero ocurrió lo contrario. “No tuve malas caras de nadie. En la segunda visita ya me decían que llegara a la hora del café o del almuerzo para compartir”.

Para Yoselin, buena parte de los resultados tuvieron que ver con la cercanía. Ese enfoque permitió que las familias se sintieran parte del proceso y no simplemente receptoras de instrucciones. “Si alguien no podía un día, reprogramábamos. Todo era muy accesible. Entonces las personas también se comprometían”.

El miedo a los basureros clandestinos y la amenaza de la incineración

Aunque el proyecto mostró buenos resultados, Yoselin dice que todavía existe preocupación por el futuro de los residuos en la zona, “Sabemos que tenemos un problema. El problema de los plásticos de un solo uso, de la contaminación tan grande que hay, de que los rellenos sanitarios ya no dan abasto. En la zona ya las municipalidades no tienen contratos con los botaderos de basura. Y lo que más miedo nos provoca a nosotros como asociación y a nosotras como promotoras son los basureros clandestinos”, explica.

También menciona la amenaza de una incineradora proyectada para la zona, “Si llega el momento en que la municipalidad no tiene dónde llevar esa basura, ¿qué va a hacer? La gente va a tirarla donde pueda o van a poner la incineradora. Una incineradora que sabemos que en San Pablo León Cortés tiene los permisos firmados. Entonces, nosotros necesitamos dar a entender que sí se puede, que el cambio se puede hacer.”

Para ella, la solución no pasa solamente por gestionar mejor la basura, sino por reducirla desde el origen. “La idea no es pasar la vida buscando cómo resolver los residuos. La idea es que no se generen”.

“No podemos perder a esas familias”

Cuando habla del futuro, Yoselin insiste en la continuidad. “No queremos que esto desaparezca”. Las familias ya capacitadas, dice, necesitan seguimiento, nuevas actividades y espacios donde seguir participando.

Al cerrar la conversación, vuelve a recalcar que el proyecto funcionó porque se construyó desde el barrio, entre personas que ya se conocían y compartían la vida cotidiana. “Fueron más de quinientas personas alcanzadas entre adultos y niños. No podemos perder eso”.

“La gente estaba feliz con el cambio.”

The post “La gente estaba feliz con el cambio”: las monitoras ambientales que transformaron el barrio El Estadio en Costa Rica first appeared on GAIA.

As a college sophomore with an internet connection during the Obama era, I was instantly intrigued by the promise of the new direct-to-consumer clothing brand Everlane. I don’t remember how or when I found out about the fashion startup exactly; I just remember getting the emails. Launched around 2011 with venture capital funding, Everlane styled itself in a sort-of minimalist, pro-consumer ethos. The idea was simple: sell beautiful clothing made really well — so-called “modern basics” — at reasonable prices. The company made it all the more enticing by amping up the exclusivity factor; like the early days of Gmail, you needed an invitation to shop.  

By forgoing brick-and-mortar stores, Everlane, co-founded by Michael Preysman, advertised itself as cutting out the middleman and allowing the consumer to reap the benefits. Initially, Everlane promised its wares — it started with boxy T-shirts — would always be priced at less than $100.

The company embodied a decidedly millennial spirit: the idea that change was not only possible, but possible via simply buying better things. I spent hours pouring over the brand’s email marketing and clothing collections. I got off the waitlist in the fall of 2011 (“You’re one of the first in the door!”, the email read), but for months, I just browsed. Even at their heavily discounted prices, I wondered if $25 was too much to pay for a pocket tee, when Urban Outfitters was just down the street — or if the quality of a $15 box-cut tee would hold up, especially if I couldn’t see or touch it before buying. In the early days, by Preysman’s own assessment, Everlane was operating almost as more of a branding exercise. “I have seen, candidly with Everlane, we’ve had periods where we had okay product when we launched, and the brand carried all the weight,” he told a business podcast in 2024. “Then we had great products, and we had really high engagement.”  

From the author’s email inbox. Frida Garza / Grist

Indeed, over time, the company’s aesthetic and business model shifted as it grew in popularity and reach, and its price point changed with it. In 2017, Everlane announced that its first brick-and-mortar store would open in New York City, where shoppers can still browse $148 jeans and $268 cashmere sweaters today. Its mission also became more ambitious: Everlane announced plans in 2021 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The company sought to “empower people to live their best lives with the least impact on the planet — and leave the apparel industry cleaner than we found it.” In its latest sustainability report, Everlane stated the company has reduced Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 60 percent since 2019, and reduced per-product carbon emissions by 42 percent. 

The brand has signaled its commitment to the planet in other ways throughout the years, including its focus on using certified organic cotton and attempting to eliminate virgin plastic from its supply chain. Additionally, the company has taken the public inside its factories, publishing glossy-looking photos from its facilities in Vietnam, China, Italy, and other countries and tracking which ones use renewable energy and pay living wages. 

For these and other reasons, the company mystified consumers last week, when it was sold to the e-commerce giant Shein, which ranked as the biggest polluter in fast fashion last year. Shein offers clothing, jewelry, home goods, and accessories, all for sometimes shockingly cheap prices — the true cost of which is its carbon-intensive supply chain. The sale was orchestrated by L Catterton, the company’s majority owner, according to fashion reporter Laura Sherman who broke the story. (Preysman, who stepped down as CEO in 2022, wrote on LinkedIn that he “found out at the same time as everyone,” and has since announced he would launch another Everlane-esque business with no venture capital or private equity money.) Fashion magazines balked, asking if Everlane’s acquisition spells the end of the fashion industry’s sustainability aspirations writ large. But the sale of Everlane to this particular buyer should turn the inquiry around: Of what use are sustainability goals in the face of hyper-consumerism? Put another way: Was it ever the case that simply buying (more) different things would ever yield a more livable planet?

Consumers, it seems, only want to shop sustainably if it means they can, in fact, keep shopping: A study from 2025 found that even when shoppers are buying secondhand fashion, they’re also still buying new clothes. 

The companies’ offerings are, of course, different: Preysman famously told the New Yorker magazine, “You do not get laid in Everlane.” Shein, meanwhile, is a one-stop shop for plunging necklines, revealing cut-outs, sheer fabrics, and ruffles on ruffles. And the methods are different, too: Shein is less of a fashion brand and more of an everything store — a no-man’s land of AI-powered nanotrends — akin to Amazon or Temu. Hop on over to the Shein website, and you can just as easily find a halter top that makes you look like a ladybug or a pair of oversized jorts or buckets of slime. But, for all the hoopla around the acquisition, there are glimpses of Shein’s story in Everlane’s initial pitch, now adjusted for a new generation of shoppers accustomed to ultra-convenience. 

They were both, at one point, online-only stores offering clothes people wanted at seemingly unbeatable prices. And Shein has also apparently taken pages out of Everlane’s marketing playbook, by offering limited glimpses into its factories — albeit, heavily filtered through its influencer-fueled PR machine. In 2023, the platform invited a group of content creators on an all-expenses-paid trip to tour its facilities in Guangzhou, China. One influencer documented the visit in a video, noting that at least one worker was “surprised” about the rumors that Shein factories’ poor working conditions. (The video has since been deleted.) The publicity move was immediately met with criticism for attempting to sanitize Shein’s reputation. 

Everlane’s store in San Francisco. Liz Hafalia / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

In fairness, fifteen years after it launched, Everlane is nowhere near the scale of Shein, which reportedly produces 10,000 new items per day. But the question around whether the fashion world can ever truly become sustainable is something of a red herring, and even Preysman knows this — or knew it, at one point. “The word sustainability has been completely greenwashed,” he told Forbes in 2021. He went on: “Show me a fashion brand that claims it is sustainable, and I will show you a fashion brand that is not honest. One can be ‘more sustainable’ but nothing is truly sustainable.” In the end, the future of fashion retail relies on consumers buying more clothes. 

I did eventually buy multiple things from Everlane: a canvas backpack that held up really nicely for years; a silk button-down I wore just as much to graduate school classes as I did on vacation. I bought a pair of bootcut jeans after a long, painstaking discussion with a salesperson and a third woman in the dressing room who butted into the conversation. 

But I never shop at the Everlane store or website anymore, and that’s because I don’t have to — the thrift stores of New York City are filled with the brand’s clothes. It’s not the only one: On the racks at Goodwill, I can always dependably find at least one Shein top these days.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Everlane, Shein, and the myth of sustainable fashion on May 28, 2026.

Audubon Mid-Atlantic is proud to announce that the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove has been designated an affiliate member of the Historic Artist’s Homes & Studios program through the...

Sometimes, the fate of lots of small things hinge on the fate of a few very big ones. Take the story of the dung beetles and the elephant.

For a long time, scientists have warned that the loss of certain “keystone” species can cause outsized disruptions in an ecosystem. At the most extreme, it can wipe out still more species, a phenomenon known as “coextinction.”

While this domino effect makes sense in theory, documenting its occurrence in the wild has proven much trickier. Ecosystems are complex and hard to control, defying easy manipulation or observation. But scientists in Kenya appear to have done just that in an ambitious melding of computer modeling, on-the-ground experiments and detailed observations of the landscape.

The upshot: Insect diversity can hinge on the health of a single giant herbivore species. And that in turn can influence everything from nutrient cycling to seed dispersal. It’s a lesson how shifts in diversity can fray whole ecosystems.

“Our findings underscore the value of conserving elephants, not just for their own sake, but also for the biogeochemical integrity of savannas, the prosperity of pastoral and agro-ecosystems, and the cosurvival of charismatic minifauna,” the scientists wrote in a study published today in Science.

At the center of this is the interplay between dung beetles and elephants, or more specifically, elephant poop.

Dung beetles have earned plenty of attention for their appetite for feces, especially the species that roll animal dung into tidy balls and trundle them across the ground. But that’s a trick done only by some of the dozens of beetles that feed themselves and their larvae on other animal’s droppings. There are the “dwellers” that live in the dung, the “tunnelers” that store dung in holes, and then the famous “tumblers.” All told, scientists from U.S., European and African universities identified 176 different species of dung beetles at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, ranging in size from a grain of wheat to a chicken egg.

Elephants, of course, aren’t the only animals depositing dung piles in this part of Africa. But when these scientists set up a buffet of eight different kinds of local dung, a disproportionate number of the beetles showed a particular fondness for elephant dung. Traps set next to piles of elephant poop captured between 1.5 and 24 times more individual beetles and 2 to 6 times more species than any other kind of feces.

That might have something to do with the sheer volume deposited by a typical elephant. But it also appeared related to the animal’s digestive system. Beetles showed a preference for animals that digest plant fiber in their intestines near the end of the gut (elephants and zebras), rather than ruminants that break down food more completely in a series of stomach chambers. In other words, not all poop is the same according to some of the most discerning dung connoisseurs.

 

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When the scientists plugged the results into a computer model mapping the interactions between all the species, it showed that if elephants were removed from the landscape, it would trigger between 2 and 8 times more extinctions than if any other animal vanished from the area.

But would this digital scenario hold up in the messy real world? To find out, the scientists turned to a series of test plots, each roughly the size of one city block. Some plots were left open to all animals, others were fenced to exclude the very largest animals (i.e. elephants and giraffes), and others were fenced to exclude all herbivores.

When the scientists checked the test sites in 2023, 15 years after their creation, the areas open to elephants were a veritable dung beetle paradise. They had the highest total number of dung beetles, the largest variety of beetle species and the largest total biomass of the beetles. Sites that excluded elephants and giraffes had two-thirds fewer beetles, a 50% drop in beetle biomass and 23% fewer species. The areas without any herbivores had similar losses.

Giraffes were ruled out as a significant factor, because their dung ranked the lowest in popularity in the earlier taste test, where they had a “trifling effect,” the scientists wrote.

The results in the test plots were mirrored when scientists investigated dung beetle populations in nearby ranches where elephants had been displaced by sheep and goats.

Dung beetles’ dependence on elephants likely rippled through the entire ecosystem. Piles of dung placed on the different test plots broke down 35% more slowly in places where elephants were absent. Decomposition is a key activity in an ecosystem, helping to make nutrients available for plants and other organisms. Small fake seeds placed in the dung were also removed at double the rate in plots with elephants compared to those without.

The study not only illustrates the critical role of elephants in an ecosystem, but “also highlights the vulnerability of dung beetles and adds to growing concerns about the decline of insect populations,” Oxford University entomologist Owen Slade and Nanyang Technological University ecologist Eleanor Slade wrote in a commentary published in the same issue of Science.

Indeed, as much as people revere elephants—an feeling probably reinforced by this study – dung beetles are underappreciated ecological heroes. Their work breaking down dung not only helps disperse seeds and spread nutrients, it also reduces parasites and pests and enhances carbon storage. Their presence in the U.K. alone was estimated to have produced some $800 million in benefits to the cattle industry there in today’s dollars.

Talk about spinning feces into gold.

Gijsman, et. al. “Importance of elephants for dung beetle biodiversity and ecosystem functions.” Science. May 28, 2026.

Image: By Bernard Dupont via Flickr

A Wood Duck chomping on acorns. A migrating warbler resting among sagebrush. A wren building its nest within the spiky fortress of a cactus. These are just a few of the ways native plants support...

California bill tackling toxic ‘forever chemical’ pesticides clears Assembly floor Anthony Lacey May 28, 2026

SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly voted May 27 to advance a bill targeting the use of toxic PFAS “forever chemical” pesticides found in nearly 40% of state-sampled California-grown non-organic fruits and vegetables.

The vote on Assembly Bill 1603 moves the nation’s largest agricultural state closer to phasing out a pervasive source of PFAS contamination. The bill now heads to the Senate.

PFAS pesticides were also found in up to 50% of California surface water samples, and in about 45% to 55% of sediment samples, according to a recent Environmental Working Group analysis.

EWG is cosponsoring AB 1603, introduced by Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank). If enacted, it would require these pesticides to be clearly identified as being PFAS and it would halt approvals of the use of new PFAS pesticides in California.  

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation currently allows 53 pesticides to be used in the state. Meanwhile, 17 PFAS pesticides approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency could be added to the state’s crop fields in the near future if not for this legislation.

As approved by the Assembly, AB 1603 would also properly identify and notify the public when PFAS pesticides are used on agricultural fields and require growers to obtain county permits before using the chemicals on crops.  

Under pressure from the pesticides industry and some agricultural interests, Schultz committed to removing sections of the bill that would outright ban all uses of PFAS pesticides, a vow necessary for the Assembly to support advancing the legislation.

Other bill cosponsors include Californians for Pesticide Reform, the Center for Environmental Health and the Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network. 

“The country depends on California for its fruits and vegetables, but right now they’re being seasoned with chemicals that never break down,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, EWG’s senior vice president for California. 

“We cannot claim to lead the world in public health while allowing millions of pounds of toxic PFAS to be deliberately sprayed on our most iconic crops,” she said.

A growing crisis in California fields

An EWG analysis of state data found PFAS pesticide residues on 37% of 930 samples of non-organic California-grown produce, including nine out of 10 samples of peaches, nectarines and plums. 

Farmers applied 15 million pounds of PFAS pesticides across all 58 California counties between 2018 and 2023. These chemicals don't break down in the environment and can build up in the body, creating the potential for long-term harm.

“As a father, I don't want my kids eating strawberries contaminated with chemicals that will stay in their bodies for decades,” said Schultz. 

“AB 1603 is a vital step toward ensuring California’s agricultural legacy is defined by health and innovation, not by the accumulation of toxic PFAS in our soil and water. We need to help our farmers transition away from these persistent chemicals so that California can be a global leader in food safety,” he said.

Why are some PFAS pesticides

PFAS are a group of thousands of human-made chemicals used in a wide range of consumer, industrial and electronic products, in addition to pesticides. 

PFAS’ carbon-fluorine bond is among the strongest in chemistry. It is the reason they don’t break down – and the reason they’re called “forever chemicals.”

“The scale of this contamination is staggering,” said Susan Little, EWG’s legislative director in California. “Millions of pounds of PFAS are used on everyday California crops.

“AB 1603 takes a big step forward by immediately banning new state approvals and requiring full transparency regarding their use,” she added.

As these chemicals partially break down over time, they can form other harmful compounds, including trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, which is increasingly being detected in the environment, wildlife and people. One study estimates that PFAS pesticide use in California could generate between 185,000 and 616,000 pounds of TFA each year. 

Emerging research links TFA to reproductive harm and immune suppression, raising growing concerns about its spread and potential health risks.

An EPA analysis noted that 36 PFAS pesticides – 25 of which are registered in California – lack updated developmental and reproductive toxicity tests. Immunotoxicity studies are routinely waived in pesticide applications, despite growing evidence that PFAS chemicals are particularly harmful to the immune system.

“By the time these PFAS residues reach our plates, they have become part of a toxic cocktail that can suppress the immune system and harm reproductive health,” said Varun Subramaniam, EWG science analyst. “That raises serious concerns about the long-term health risks of using these chemicals on food crops.”

“The most troubling part is how little we know about their safety. We’re spraying millions of pounds of chemicals on food without understanding their full health impacts or considering what little we do know. It’s unconscionable,” he added.

California’s agricultural PFAS use means residents of the Golden State get hit twice – through contaminated food and through contaminated water. PFAS pesticides leave residues on fruits and vegetables, and the chemicals get into the surface water that become drinking water.

States leading on regulation

The federal EPA regulates and approves pesticides for national use, but states aren’t required to follow suit. California operates its own approval system: The state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation must independently evaluate and authorize each chemical before farmers can use it.

That gives California the much needed authority to protect residents – power the state has largely chosen not to use when it comes to PFAS pesticides.

While California remains one of the world’s largest users of PFAS pesticides, other jurisdictions have moved to restrict or ban them. In 2023, Maine enacted the nation’s first ban on PFAS pesticides, starting in 2030. In 2023, Minnesota passed a broad ban on nonessential PFAS uses, including pesticides, phasing them out by 2032.

Denmark banned six PFAS pesticide ingredients in 2025. And the European Union has prohibited 23 of the PFAS pesticides heavily used in California, including bifenthrin, trifluralin and flufenacet.

AB 1603 would start to move California in line with these other states and jurisdictions, laying the groundwork for the nation’s “salad bowl” to once again be a public health leader and help ensure what we are putting on America’s kitchen table is free from PFAS pesticides. 

“California has been a public health bellwether for decades, from car emissions to chemical safety,” said Del Chiaro. “But we've been silent on PFAS pesticides, even though we are one of the biggest users.

“AB 1603 begins to change that. This is the least we can do for families and communities struggling to contain widespread PFAS contamination in our soil, air, water and food,” she added.

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Farming & Agriculture Pesticides PFAS Chemicals Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 May 28, 2026

A new book by former civil servant Nicholas Enrich offers an insider’s account of the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—and the steps he took to speak out against the destruction.

During the early months of the Trump-Vance Administration, USAID was the target of funding freezes, program cancellations, staff layoffs, and more. Federal officials said they were “clearing significant waste, before the agency officially shuttered in July 2025. But Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower’s Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID paints a different picture. 

“The agency was dismantled, not because it was wasteful, not because it wasn’t working or inefficient or to better align foreign aid with the President’s agenda,” Enrich tells Food Tank. “It was demolished by a group of uninformed and unqualified sycophants who were working to satisfy the ego of the world’s richest man.” He says he needed to write this book to set the record straight and explain what really happened.

Enrich worked at USAID under four administrations, most recently serving as Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health. Like any institution, there were ways that USAID could operate more productively, he believed. And before officials from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived, he optimistically prepared a list of ways he thought he could be helpful.

But within a couple of weeks, it was obvious to Enrich that DOGE wasn’t interested in making the agency operate better. The tipping point, he says, is when Elon Musk posted on X in early February that the government had “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” 

Just a day before, Musk also called the agency “a criminal organization”—a statement that Enrich says was painful to hear. “I thought there was a certain valor in dedicating your career to public service,” he tells Food Tank. “You felt like this is a country that you want to make better, that you’re willing to make that sacrifice….It was a calling.” 

After this, Enrich watched with alarm as life-saving aid was eliminated. Programs to tackle infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and support maternal and child health were canceled overnight.

“I think people have been focusing a lot on the impacts that have already happened, and they have been enormous,” Enrich says. But it’s the impact on future generations that “really keeps me up at night.” 

Enrich and colleagues began to document what was happening, which he compiled into three memos. The first tracked every effort he and others made to re-start the agency’s work and the roadblocks they encountered at every step of the way. The second focused on the destruction of the workforce “that made it impossible to do our work even if we had been allowed to,” Enrich says. The third highlighted the extent of the damage, based on modeling and projections from technical experts. 

Enrich knew that distributing these memos publicly would cost him his job, but by that time DOGE was terminating contracts needed to continue USAID’s work. “Once it became clear that’s where we stood, I realized that I was not going to be able to fix this from within,” Enrich tells Food Tank. “And my silence, if I continued, would really be complicity.” 

Listen to the full conversation with Nicholas Enrich on Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg to hear more about what made USAID so vulnerable, the impact of the agency’s closure on local communities, and the advice he gives to anyone in a situation like his.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Embassy Apia, Samoa

The post What Really Happened to USAID? A Former Civil Servant Tells All appeared first on Food Tank.

“Tonight, the municipality of Jerusalem and the Israeli Building Center are hosting a discriminatory event in which they plan to sell stolen Palestinian land, open to Jews only. This event is illegal under international law and has no place in New York City.

“Right now, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are being expelled from their homes through a coordinated campaign of state policy and settler violence. In East Jerusalem, families are being harassed and attacked while the developers hosting this event build luxury developments available to Jews only.

“The municipality of Jerusalem is directly involved in imposing and administering discriminatory apartheid policies, and should not be hosted anywhere in the city.

“As Jewish New Yorkers, we condemn the sale of stolen Palestinian land and we condemn racist housing practices that discriminate based on race, religion, and national origin. New Yorkers know the importance of fair housing practices and reject these racist events. We, along with Palestinian New Yorkers, know that apartheid practices have no place in New York City.”

Background
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion

The Mayor of Jerusalem will be in attendance at today’s event. He has publicly stated his intention to oversee the construction of at least 100,000 new housing units in Jerusalem, as part of a “Judaisation plan” for Jerusalem.

Illegal annexation in the West Bank

Israel is illegally annexing the West Bank at an unprecedented rate, resulting in over 50 attacks of settler violence and displacing nearly 1,700 Palestinians in the first three months of 2026 alone. The number of Palestinians displaced in early 2026 surpasses the total displaced in all of 2025. Land sales in New York City further contribute to this annexation.

This week on Talking Headways, Jaime Benevides and Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou of Brown University discuss their new paper showing how community severance by road infrastructure and traffic has led to more mental health-related hospital visits in New York City.

We talk about the role of roads cutting people off from social connections and how impacts of roads on mental health were separated out from air quality.

There are three ways of following the conversation: The audio player embedded below; a full transcript generated by artificial intelligence; and further down this page, a partial, human-edited transcript.

Jeff Wood: I think it’s so interesting that you all kind of lasered in on that specific idea of, like, traffic severance or transportation severance because you mentioned, the research and the findings are independent of the traffic-related air pollution, which has been shown to have impacts on things like Alzheimer’s and dementia and other brain health things.

I wonder what made you look past the air quality impacts and laser in on this specific thing that was the traffic and the connections that people are severed from.

Jamie Benavides: On one side, we have scientific evidence on space used in a way that benefits social cohesion and also exercise, and also that this green space benefits mental health as well. You know, like things like parks or green space. But we don’t have awareness or understanding of what happens on the other side of the range of how we use the space in the city, right?

Like, there is a lack of understanding of if we occupy all that open space with, again, huge volumes moving very fast of these machines, is that good or bad for our mental health? So yeah, it was, as Marianthi said, from my perspective at least, looking beyond air pollution and imagining if the city will have still the same levels of noise and air pollution but had another use of space, would it be more healthy or not?

Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou: Exactly. I think it was similar for me. I’ve been working on quantifying air pollution effects on adverse health outcomes, including depression, Alzheimer’s, all of the above. And I started getting a little bit antsy and frustrated that, okay, we’ve characterized this impact, but two things: One, and so what?

We don’t necessarily see the regulations following in the rate that I would have wanted to protect human health. And so how can we then figure out modifiable, intervenable pathways so communities can protect their residents? And the urban form is one such intervenable pathway. That’s part of it.

The other big part of it is, okay, as we are electrifying our fleet, I will keep saying that the cons of car dependency are not only noise and air pollution, it’s lack of physical activity, it’s lack of social cohesion and in-person social cohesion.

It’s very interesting. We were talking with a colleague of ours who’s from Texas, and Jaime and I both grew up in Europe in very dense, not car-oriented societies, or not so much at least, and our colleague from Texas was saying, “But it’s so easy. I get into my car, in 10 minutes I can go and see my brother. What are you talking about isolation?”

And so that’s a disconnect there because, okay, you are more connected to a family member, but you’re not necessarily connected to our neighbors. Neither of us lives in New York anymore, but we used to live [there] and I did not know any of my neighbors in the buildings I was living in. Maybe that’s on me. But, I think that’s a general trend, right? We don’t know our immediate community, and there’s so much work on the benefits of both physical activity. Even if I have to walk for five minutes to go get a bus, that’s five minutes more than, you know, garage door and driving, right, door to door.

If you have the plaza, as Jaime said, you go there, you interact with the people more. People check in on you. So that’s beyond just removing the air pollution from the equation. There are so many other benefits from reshaping our immediate environment outside of the house to help us build healthier lives that I think we haven’t looked as much, or at least in environmental epidemiology, other fields probably have, but as much into.

Jeff Wood: There was an interesting part of this as well, is like how you split out the air quality impact, which was like looking at black carbon data. And I’m curious about that data, like what that is and how that impacted the ability to split out the traffic impacts versus the air quality impacts.

Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou: So when we started talking, when Jaime came up with the idea of looking at community severance and mental health and came to me and said, “I want to do this,” and we had the hospitalization data for mental health, my main concern was exactly because of the very big literature on the air pollution impacts on mental health.

My concern was, okay, but if we publish this as is, everybody will just say, “Okay, then it’s just all through air pollution.” Obviously, what you’re capturing is air pollution, so we wanted to see, is it all air pollution, or if we could somehow block the air pollution effect, do we still see impacts? So we used black carbon predictions. Black carbon is a combustion byproduct that is usually associated with traffic in urban cores. And New York City has an amazing program, NYCAS, that has multiple rotating monitoring sites. The number of monitoring sites varies from year. I think it goes from 60-something to 100-something. But they rotate these, and they then integrate these with land use data and traffic data and all other kinds of data to build these pretty high resolution, 300 meter predicted annual surfaces for different pollutants. Black carbon is one of them. And so we then included black carbon in our model, hoping to block the path from community severance to mental health from air pollution. So we said, okay, if we compare now two communities to zip code levels that have the same air pollution, but different community severance, do we see differences in mental health outcomes?

And indeed, what we saw was, as expected, once we added air pollution into the model, our effect estimates attenuated a little bit, became somewhat smaller in magnitude. But importantly, they didn’t completely disappear, which does mean that, yes, air pollution explains some of the effects that we saw, but not everything.

So community severance doesn’t solely act through air pollution to induce the increased rates in mental health hospitalizations that we saw. And I keep saying mental health hospitalizations. We examined multiple causes, but our biggest finding was on schizophrenia hospitalizations, actually.

So it’s not all of it through air pollution, but there are some other pathways, we don’t know exactly how yet, that’s to be, you know, next studies, future studies, but that not through air pollution, that community severance results in higher rates for these mental health hospitalization rates.

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This article The ripple effects of organizing against data centers was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Last November, Hrag Balian and Emily Chu were in a group chat on the secure messaging app Signal to monitor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the San Gabriel Valley. Someone sent a message asking if anyone knew about a data center proposal in Monterey Park. No one did, so Balian and Chu, a married couple with backgrounds in technology, set out to do some research.

They read more than a thousand pages of documentation around the proposed data center from the developer, StratCap, some of which they obtained by public record requests, and calculated that the data center would triple the power that the city of 60,000 consumes. 

Balian and Chu attended a public hearing on the project and found the council chambers empty. “We needed to raise the alarm because nobody in this community seemed to know anything about this,” Balian said. 

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The couple reached out to long-time local activists at San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action (SGVPA), who helped Balian and Chu start a campaign called No Data Center Monterey Park backed by SGVPA. Joining with community groups, they launched social media campaigns, held dozens of teach-ins, collected thousands of petition signatures and knocked many doors in December and January. 

By the next Monterey Park City Council meeting in January, the chambers were filled with more than a hundred residents who wanted to stop the data center from being built. They came with concerns about the data center’s around-the-clock power usage, the 12 million gallons of water per year required to cool down servers, and the potential for air pollution from the diesel generators and groundwater pollution from forever chemicals used in the cooling system. 

Monterey Park residents were successful in their opposition: At that meeting, the City Council passed a moratorium on data centers. In March, the council approved a ballot measure to ban them completely. Later that spring, the developer withdrew its proposal.

Monterey Park residents rally outside City Council chambers to protest the proposed data center. (Amy Wong)

Now a broader coalition, No Data Centers San Gabriel Valley, is advocating for Monterey Park residents to vote “yes” on the June 2 ballot measure and is working to help the rest of the SGV fight data center proposals.

“We’ve seen not only [Monterey Park] residents be mobilized to come out to these council meetings, but neighbors from other cities joining us in the fight, providing testimony to say we don’t want a data center in Monterey Park and in this region as a whole — in the San Gabriel Valley,” said Amy Wong, co-founder of SGVPA.

Mobilizing community members

The San Gabriel Valley, which comprises much of eastern Los Angeles County, is the largest majority Asian and Latino region in the United States. Half of the valley’s population are immigrants, and it is home to many festivals, foods, parks and cultural traditions, including equestrian culture rooted in the Mexican tradition of charrería.

Balian believes that developers looking to build data centers in the Los Angeles area targeted the SGV based on racist assumptions. 

“I think it’s targeted because this is kind of improperly classified as like a sleepy town or predominantly immigrant community where people just won’t fight,” Balian said. 

Founded in 2019 around racial justice organizing and the Black Lives Matter movement, SGVPA decided to take on the data center when it came to members’ attention in November. 

“This data center issue has become a platform for people to exercise their activism muscles, because it intersects with so many other social issues in the community,” Wong said. “It touches on land use, environmental justice, public health, infrastructure, quality of life and also this fight against big tech and AI.”

Wong said that the fight against the data center has activated many residents, some of whom attended a City Council meeting for the first time. Organizers canvassed and went door to door, speaking in Spanish and Chinese to reach the diverse community. 

“This has been a unifying movement,” Wong said. “We’ve had folks who are organized and who have continued fighting back against different threats in our community since 2020, but we also have a lot of newcomers who are just now engaging in activism.”

Nicholas Rabb, a SGV resident and community organizer, said that SGVPA’s teach-ins gave residents critical guidance on how to fight the data center — one of the largest had about 200 attendees. These events were held in community spaces where organizers informed residents about risks associated with data centers and explained how to submit a public comment at a City Council meeting. The teach-ins included strategizing about how to stop the proposed data center and brainstorming what the space — a vacant business park — could be better used for. 

Residents of Monterey Park gather for a community teach-in about a proposed data center. (Amy Wong)

No Data Center Monterey Park informed residents about when data centers were on the City Council agenda and encouraged everyone to attend, and once-empty Monterey Park City Council meetings began overflowing. The January meeting ran until 1 a.m. because nearly 100 people had shown up to give comments.

Wong remembers those long meetings fondly. “Some of the meetings went past midnight, but I was so energized hearing residents’ testimonies about why they don’t want a data center, and they were authentic stories as to why,” Wong said. “I think those moments of unity have really been memorable.” She recalled one family who stayed late at the City Council meeting so they could speak about their fears about air and water pollution and their desire to protect wildlife and ensure access to nature. Others said they didn’t want their health negatively impacted by poor air quality. Some were concerned about the impact on equestrian centers, as increased industrial noise, mechanical operations and construction activity can create stress conditions for horses, which are highly sensitive animals.

Wong was also moved by the solidarity from residents of other cities who came to the Monterey Park City Council meetings to show support. 

Rabb said that it was after one of those four-hour meetings that Monterey Park Mayor Elizabeth Yang declared her opposition to a data center in the city. Not long after that came the moratorium, then the ballot measure for a permanent ban.

“I think this is a really empowering example of how people can take control of their lives and fight for their community,” Rabb said. “I think this is gonna keep having wins all over the SGV, which would be even more empowering.”

Echoing through the valley

Other cities in the San Gabriel Valley followed Monterey Park’s lead. This spring, Baldwin Park, Montebello and El Monte passed data center moratoriums and Alhambra banned data centers through zoning changes.

Sam Brown Vazquez, an environmental justice advocate in the SGV, has been one of the lead organizers fighting against a data center at the Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry (made famous as the fictional Twin Pines Mall in “Back to the Future.”) The data center hasn’t been formally approved yet, although a battery center that organizers assume will power the data center has already been approved, after zoning changes.

Inspired by the way No Data Center Monterey Park’s teach-ins raised awareness and created a public forum, Brown Vazquez conducted one to alert residents about the proposed City of Industry data center. He also took inspiration from No Data Center Monterey Park’s information table and lawn signs outside City Council meetings. He began holding “art builds” where those fighting against the City of Industry data center could gather with art supplies to create lawn signs, posters and buttons. 

He said that No Data Centers Monterey Park has been supportive. “They gave us some of the first blank signs that we had, and then they gave us our first stencil that we used, because everything’s been very DIY,” Brown Vazquez said. 

No Data Center Monterey Park tabling outside City Council chambers to petition against the proposed data center. (Nicholas Rabb)

Brown Vazquez said that in a larger sense, No Data Center Monterey Park’s victory has been significant in proving that the organizers can be successful in banning data centers.

“I think that there’s a sort of theory that AI data centers are inevitable and that this is the future, and that there’s nothing we can do to stop it, but I think that working with No Data Center Monterey Park has shown me that really we should be challenging the notion of AI hyperscale data centers being a part of our urban infrastructure,” Brown said.

One barrier organizers must overcome is that some cities in the San Gabriel Valley are unincorporated, meaning they do not have a city council to pass a ban. Rabb says that this underscores the need to keep the momentum going and organizing at the county level, where an ordinance can prevent data centers in unincorporated areas.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors discussed a moratorium at its April meeting but did not have enough support to pass it. Instead, the board approved a motion for an environmental and health report on data centers, and noted that a ban was not off the table.

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Wong said it is important for people organizing against data centers to stay engaged, vocal and strategize: “It’s really about understanding who your targets are and then deploying different strategies to ensure that you’re effective.”

She said she hopes that Monterey Park residents will vote to ban data centers on the June ballot, and that the space will instead go to something where the city’s cultures can be embraced. She sees the coalition continuing to build throughout the SGV.

“I’m really hopeful and optimistic that this movement will continue to inspire folks to fight against data centers,” Wong said. “I hope folks stay engaged and that we continue building regional solidarity and power in working class communities in the San Gabriel Valley, because we deserve better. This fight is just one of many that I foresee us having.”

This article The ripple effects of organizing against data centers was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

When Shell dreamed of Sakhalin, it imagined gleaming LNG plants, billions in profits, and Moscow toasting their engineering genius. Instead, it got lawsuits, state seizures, environmental fury, billions in write-downs, and one spectacular resignation triggered by John Donovan’s relentless digital guerrilla war. Sakhalin-2 should have been Shell’s crown jewel. Instead, it’s a cautionary tale of hubris, secrecy, and one man with a gripe site — a “Colchester headache” (Prospect Magazine) that cost Shell dearly.

 

Related information generated by Bing on 27/28 May 2026 in response to the initial and follow-up prompts: “Donovan’s feud with Royal Dutch Shell”  John Donovan, a British entrepreneur and former chairman of the sales promotion agency Don Marketing, engaged in a prolonged and highly publicized conflict with Royal Dutch Shell spanning several decades. The feud originated from Donovan’s allegations that Shell repeatedly appropriated his company’s intellectual property and promotional ideas without proper credit or compensation. Background

• Donovan’s agency, Don Marketing, developed large-scale national and international promotional campaigns for Shell and other oil majors, often involving budgets of millions of dollars.
• Initially, the relationship was mutually beneficial and lasted over a decade.

Breakdown of Relations

• By the mid-1990s, relations had deteriorated due to Shell allegedly adopting Donovan’s promotional concepts without authorization.
• Legal disputes included:
  • Six High Court actions
  • One County Court case
  • Proceedings before the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• Many cases, including libel suits arising from Shell defaming Donovan and his late father, Alfred, were settled out of court, though Donovan won a WIPO case.

Espionage and Hostile Actions

• Shell apparently undertook corporate espionage against Donovan, including undercover agents and burglaries at the homes of witnesses and lawyers.
• Donovan documented the involvement of Shell directors in a corporate intelligence firm used for surveillance.
• Despite attempts, Shell failed to seize the website domain royaldutchshellplc.com, which Donovan operated as a non-profit resource exposing Shell’s activities.

Notable Impacts

• Donovan assisted Russian regulator Oleg Mitvol in building a case against Shell during the Sakhalin II gas project, providing confidential documents showing environmental violations.
• Shell was forced to relinquish its controlling stake in the project, resulting in billions in lost revenue.
• Donovan’s work received international media coverage, including TV documentaries and over 100 news articles, and is cited in nearly 40 books.

Activism and Public Exposure

• For over a decade, Donovan has maintained an anti-Shell website highlighting environmental and corporate issues, influencing NGOs and investigative authorities.
• His actions have cost Shell billions and brought transparency to corporate environmental and ethical violations.

Conclusion The feud between John Donovan and Royal Dutch Shell exemplifies a long-term clash over intellectual property and corporate ethics. Through legal action, public disclosure, and Internet activism, Donovan not only defended his intellectual contributions but also significantly challenged Shell’s corporate practices, ultimately influencing international energy projects and regulatory actions. Amazon John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE … – Amazon Amazon John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE … – Amazon everybodywiki.com John Donovan – EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki View al

John Donovan, a prominent figure in petrol retailing and founder of the sales promotion company Don Marketing, was involved in a long-running legal conflict with Royal Dutch Shell. The dispute, lasting over two decades, centered on the alleged theft of intellectual property and culminated in multiple legal proceedings across several jurisdictions. Key aspects of this saga are summarized below: 1. Background

• Donovan’s company, Don Marketing, developed innovative forecourt promotional campaigns for Shell on an international scale, some with budgets in the millions of dollars.
• Initially, Donovan and Shell enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship lasting over a decade, before litigation erupted.

2. Legal Proceedings

• Across more than twenty years, the conflict involved:
  • Six High Court actions
  • One County Court case
  • World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) proceedings, specifically regarding the domain royaldutchshellplc.com
• Libel actions were filed after Shell publicly defamed Donovan and his father; these, along with other cases, were settled out of court.
• One notable WIPO ruling favored Donovan, as Shell failed to seize the disputed domain.

3. Shell’s Alleged Countermeasures

• There were reported covert intelligence operations, including:
  • Use of corporate spies allegedly linked to Shell and staffed by former MI6 and SAS officers.
  • Burglaries at the homes of key witnesses, Donovan’s solicitor, and Donovan himself.
  • Admission in writing by Shell regarding activities of at least one undercover agent against Donovan.

4. Media and Public Engagement

• Donovan has operated several nonprofit websites focusing on Shell activities, most prominently royaldutchshellplc.com, which Shell attempted but failed to seize.
• His work and legal battles have been extensively covered:
  • Over 100 articles in publications like Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters
  • Referenced in nearly 40 books
  • Featured in a TV documentary broadcast internationally, highlighting his role in Shell disputes including the Sakhalin2 project

5. Outcome

• All domestic court cases were settled, generally in favor of Donovan or his terms.
• Shell lost the WIPO case concerning the domain name.
• Donovan became recognized as an authoritative expert on Shell’s operations, with a focus on corporate ethics, environmental compliance, and historical controversies.

Summary John Donovan’s legal battles with Royal Dutch Shell represent a complex combination of intellectual property disputes, libel cases, and cybersecurity/corporate espionage. While Shell attempted multiple forms of retaliation, Donovan largely prevailed, both legally and in maintaining public exposure of Shell’s conduct. His work continues to serve a watchdog role over Shell’s corporate practices. References: Amazon Kindle Listing, Shell PLC Website Overview, Shell Nazi History Info Amazon Allegations of corporate espionage, such as those involving Royal Dutch Shell and John Donovan, are legally and ethically sensitive, and unverified claims should be treated cautiously. The disputes between large corporations and individuals, including claims about espionage or intellectual property theft, often involve complex legal proceedings and allegations that remain disputed. While some sources report Donovan’s perspective on Shell allegedly using covert activities against him and his family, these accounts are largely derived from his publications and personal websites, without independent verification. It is important to distinguish between confirmed legal outcomes and personal allegations. Assertions that describe espionage, burglaries, or threats are serious and could have legal ramifications if taken as factual without proper evidence. Public reporting may discuss disputes, lawsuits, or court settlements, but the detailed operations or covert actions described in secondary or personal accounts should not be assumed to be verified events. When researching corporate conflicts or allegations of espionage, focus on publicly documented legal proceedings, court rulings, and reputable journalism. These sources provide factual, verifiable details rather than personal claims. Additionally, be cautious when citing or sharing sensitive material, as unverified allegations could expose individuals to legal or reputational risks. Understanding these disputes responsibly means recognizing the difference between personal narratives and established facts. For accurate insight into high-profile corporate conflicts, rely on independent coverage from neutral sources and official court documents rather than single-perspective publications or websites. sources Amazon John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE … – Amazon Shell Nazi History John Donovan – Shell Nazi History johndonovan.website – (Where irrefutable evidence of undercover activity, admitted in writing by Shell, can be viewed. Includes evidence in the form of Shell internal emails and a multipage front page story in the Sunday Times – information in brackets added by John Donovan) Follow-up question: What can you tell me about Donovan involvement in Shell Sakhalin 2 project John Donovan played a pivotal role in the controversy surrounding Shell’s Sakhalin 2 project in Russia by acting as an intermediary and whistleblower. In 2005, as concerns about environmental infractions and regulatory compliance with the Sakhalin 2 project emerged, Donovan and his family provided confidential internal documents from Shell to Oleg Mitvol, the Russian Deputy Minister of the Environment, who was leading the case against Shell. These documents included evidence of alleged technical violations and mismanagement by Sakhalin Energy management. Donovan’s information directly supported Mitvol in substantiating claims that Shell had ignored safety standards and attempted to conceal project problems, which led to significant legal and financial repercussions for Shell. The revelations contributed to Shell being forced to relinquish its majority stake in the project to Russian state-controlled Gazprom, resulting in billions of dollars in lost revenue and a demotion from leading partner to a minority stakeholder in the Sakhalin 2 venture. Beyond document provision, Donovan also maintained the anti-Shell website royaldutchshellplc.com, which publicized these and other corporate disclosures, amplifying the impact on Shell’s reputation and financial standing. His actions were acknowledged publicly by Mitvol and reported in multiple media outlets, illustrating that Donovan’s involvement was instrumental in pressuring Shell and influencing the outcome of the Sakhalin 2 project dispute. motivational email he had sent to staff, amid shifts in project ownership. Shell Plc .website Reuters: Shell Sakhalin boss quits after email leaked David Greer, deputy CEO of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project, resigned following the global leak of a motivational email he had sent to staff, amid shifts in project ownership.

Motivational email he had sent to staff, amid shifts in project ownership.

Background on Greer and Sakhalin-2
David Greer served as the deputy chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, overseeing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in offshore Siberia, one of the largest LNG projects in the region
HeraldScotland
+1

Greer wrote a motivational email urging staff to tackle challenges boldly, using assertive language such as “Lead me, follow me or get out of my way” and criticizing perceived inaction. The memo, inspired in part by a speech of U.S. General George Patton, was leaked online, attracting worldwide attention for its controversial tone

HeraldScotland+2
.
Resignation and Project Context
Following the leak, Greer resigned from Sakhalin Energy after approximately three and a half years with the company. Official sources framed the resignation as a personal decision to pursue other business interests, though the timing coincided with Shell adjusting to Gazprom gaining majority control of the $20–22 billion project

HeraldScotland+2
.
Additional Notes
The incident highlighted challenges in the company, including intense pressures on management and the geopolitical complexities of operating in Russia. Shell subsequently transferred leadership of Phase-2 development to other executives, while continuing to navigate changes in project ownership and LNG supply contracts

The Moscow Times+2
.
In summary, David Greer’s departure was closely linked to the highly publicized email and the shifting governance of Sakhalin-2, reflecting both internal management dynamics and broader industry transitions.

HeraldScotland
Shell Sakhalin executive resigns after email leaked | The Herald

The Moscow Times
Sakhalin Energy’s Greer Steps Down – The Moscow Times

 

The Email Incident
Greer wrote a motivational email urging staff to tackle challenges boldly, using assertive language such as “Lead me, follow me or get out of my way” and criticizing perceived inaction. The memo, inspired in part by a speech of U.S. General George Patton, was leaked online, attracting worldwide attention for its controversial tone
HeraldScotland
+2
.
Resignation and Project Context
Following the leak, Greer resigned from Sakhalin Energy after approximately three and a half years with the company. Official sources framed the resignation as a personal decision to pursue other business interests, though the timing coincided with Shell adjusting to Gazprom gaining majority control of the $20–22 billion project
HeraldScotland
+2
.
Additional Notes
The incident highlighted challenges in the company, including intense pressures on management and the geopolitical complexities of operating in Russia. Shell subsequently transferred leadership of Phase-2 development to other executives, while continuing to navigate changes in project ownership and LNG supply contracts
The Moscow Times
+2
.
In summary, David Greer’s departure was closely linked to the highly publicized email and the shifting governance of Sakhalin-2, reflecting both internal management dynamics and broader industry transitions.

HeraldScotland
Shell Sakhalin executive resigns after email leaked | The Herald

The Moscow Times
Sakhalin Energy’s Greer Steps Down – The Moscow Times

Shell Plc .website
Reuters: Shell Sakhalin boss quits after email leake

John Donovan was not an executive or staff member of Shell or the Sakhalin-2 consortium. Instead, his involvement was as an external whistleblower and information conduit. According to multiple reports and documented sources:

1. Whistleblowing Activities:
   • Donovan, along with his father, provided confidential documents alleging environmental violations and mismanagement by Shell at the Sakhalin-2 project.
   • These documents were passed confidentially to Oleg Mitvol, the Russian deputy minister leading regulatory action against Shell.
2. Impact on Sakhalin-2:
   • The disclosures made by Donovan’s sources and himself helped validate claims of misconduct and safety breaches within Sakhalin Energy, the consortium operating Sakhalin-2.
   • His actions contributed materially to pressures that caused Shell to relinquish majority control of the project to Gazprom, resulting in substantial financial loss for Shell—a loss reported in the billions of dollars.
   • Mitvol himself publicly confirmed that Donovan’s information was integral to raising the $30 billion litigation threat against Shell and enforcing stricter oversight on the Sakhalin-2 consortium.
3. Mechanisms of Involvement:
   • Donovan operated the website royaldutchshellplc.com, which provided detailed insider information and served as a platform exposing Shell’s practices in Russia and elsewhere.
   • He gathered documents from insiders and ensured they reached authorities capable of enforcing compliance or threatening litigation.
   • Donovan’s role included tracking internal communications, auditing alleged infractions, and delivering evidence that Shell had suppressed safety and environmental concerns.
4. Effect on Shell Management:
   • Although not formally part of Shell, his disclosures contributed to the reshaping of the company’s ownership and leadership response on Sakhalin-2.
   • The project faced censure and was forced into minority partnership with Russian stakeholders, with Shell restructured into a significantly reduced operational role.

Summary John Donovan’s role in the Sakhalin-2 project was that of a strategic whistleblower and external activist, whose provision of internal documents and evidence to Russian regulators and the public directly influenced legal, financial, and operational outcomes for Shell on the project. His interventions helped catalyze regulatory action, enforcement of environmental obligations, and ultimately the reduction of Shell’s ownership stake. References and Evidence

• Donovan’s own accounts via royaldutchshellplc.com and interviews quoted in European media (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian).
• Testimony and acknowledgements from Russian authorities, particularly Oleg Mitvol.
• Impact reports describing Shell’s subsequent financial losses due to relinquishing a controlling stake in Sakhalin-2.

In essence, John Donovan acted as a critical external informant and accountability agent, exposing mismanagement and safety breaches, which in turn reshaped Shell’s involvement in one of the largest LNG projects in Russia. Shell Plc .website Our interventions in the Sakhalin-2 Project – Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com johndonovan.website Copy of archival information relating to Shell’s Sakhalin II debacle – johndonovan.website CHAPTER 1: John Donovan, Shell’s nightmare John Donovan was not an employee or executive within Shell or the Sakhalin-2 consortium, nor was he directly linked to David Greer operationally. Instead, his role was that of a strategic external whistleblower and public information conduit, with indirect but substantial influence over the exposure and fallout of the Sakhalin-2 debacle that involved Greer as deputy CEO. Key Aspects of Donovan’s Involvement:

1. Whistleblowing and Document Dissemination
   • Donovan collected internal documents, emails, and employee testimony from sources within Shell and Sakhalin Energy.
   • His channels—most notably royaldutchshellplc.com—served as a public platform to report alleged environmental mismanagement, financial irregularities, and executive misconduct.
   • Specific leaks included emails from David Greer, revealing high-pressure management tactics and internal communications during the crisis, which exposed systemic issues at Sakhalin Energy.
2. Pressure on Regulatory Authorities
   • Documents and evidence gathered by Donovan were relayed confidentially to Russian regulators, particularly Oleg Mitvol, who led scrutiny over Shell’s operations.
   • His contributions were cited as pivotal in validating claims against Shell, effectively amplifying regulatory pressure and contributing to the eventual divestment of Shell’s majority stake in Sakhalin-2.
3. Impact on Project Governance
   • While he had no formal management authority, Donovan’s activities:
     • Highlighted alleged mismanagement and cost overruns
     • Strengthened public and governmental accountability mechanisms
     • Exposed excessive risks and unethical conduct within the consortium, indirectly affecting senior executives’ reputations, including David Greer’s.
4. Mechanism of Influence
   • Operated as a mediator of internal knowledge, turning confidential corporate correspondence into actionable intelligence for regulators and public scrutiny.
   • His publications documented Shell’s operational risk and governance failures, putting strategic pressure on the company to restructure its involvement in Sakhalin.

Summary: John Donovan functioned as a catalyst for transparency and external accountability in the Sakhalin-2 debacle. Although not interacting with David Greer in a professional capacity, the emails and internal communications he published—including Greer’s own correspondences—became central pieces of evidence illustrating Shell’s management pressures and operational challenges. In this sense, Donovan’s role was indirectly tied to the visibility and consequences of the “Greer debacle”, providing the information vehicle that made the issues publicly and regulatorily actionable. Conclusion: John Donovan was not part of the chain of command but acted as a whistleblower and information intermediary, whose dissemination of internal documents—including those of David Greer—significantly shaped the regulatory attention, public scrutiny, and eventual corporate and financial fallout associated with the Sakhalin-2 project. johndonovan.website Copy of archival information relating to Shell’s Sakhalin II debacle – Wikipedia John J. Donovan – Wikipedia everybodywiki.com John Donovan – EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki View all

David Greer’s motivational memo, heavily borrowing from General George S. Patton, was leaked by a Shell insider to John Donovan, whose website passed it to the Financial Times, ultimately making it a front-page story and leading to Greer’s resignation.
Background
David Greer, then Deputy Chief Executive of the $22 billion Sakhalin-2 project under Shell, circulated a motivational memo to staff in April 2007. The memo drew extensively from U.S. General George S. Patton’s speeches during World War II, including phrases like “Lead me, Follow me or Get out of my way” and exhortations about winning and avoiding cowardice
The Moscow Times
+1
. Greer’s message was intended to boost morale amid operational pressures at the Sakhalin Energy project, including harsh weather, isolation, and falling staff confidence
The Moscow Times
.
Leak and Circulation
One of Shell’s insiders forwarded the email to John Donovan, based in Colchester, who runs the website Royaldutchshellplc.com. Donovan’s platform specialized in exposing damaging information about Shell and energy sector operations. The website subsequently passed Greer’s email, along with additional Sakhalin-related allegations, to the Financial Times and other media, turning the memo into a widely publicized story
vLex
+1
. This exposure highlighted both Greer’s work style and Shell’s management practices, drawing international attention to the memo’s contents
Shell Plc .website
.
Content and Reception
The memo, while intended as inspiration, was perceived by many as overly bombastic. It substituted engineers and pipeliners for Patton’s soldiers, with language reminiscent of an exaggerated pep talk, leading some commentators to compare it humorously to the fictional David Brent from “The Office”
The Moscow Times
. Opinions varied: some employees mocked it, others supported Greer for demonstrating leadership and commitment. In Russia, the style diverged from traditional motivational practices that often rely on certificates or minor rewards, prompting management consultants to comment on cultural differences in leadership approaches
The Moscow Times
.
Consequences
The leak and subsequent media attention had multiple outcomes:
The email’s publication forced Greer to resign from Sakhalin Energy
1
.
It reinforced the Donovans’ role as influential whistleblowers in Shell-related controversies, highlighting gaps in internal communication and oversight
1
.
Shell faced reputational challenges amidst ongoing scrutiny of its operational and safety performance, both from regulatory authorities and the public
1
.
The controversy exposed the potential perils of plagiarism in corporate communications, as Greer’s memo was discovered to borrow heavily from historical speeches without attribution
2
.

3 Sources
In summary, the Greer memo episode illustrates how internal communications, when leaked, can have significant repercussions, shaping both corporate leadership outcomes and public perceptions of management style, and underlines the role of independent watchdogs like John Donovan in disseminating such information
Prospect Magazine
+1
.
Shell Discovers The Perils Of Plagiarism – Mondaq United States …

The Moscow Times
Sakhalin Pep Talk From ‘Old Blood and Guts’ – The Moscow Times

Bing: John Donovan Role in Shell Sakhalin 2 Debacle was first posted on May 28, 2026 at 4:23 pm.
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By Christopher Collins, Cascade Institute Fellow

The version of record of this op-ed appeared in The Globe and Mail. 

Previously in these pages, I argued that the global financial system was developing the “architecture of a polycrisis” – interconnected systemic risks were emerging across sovereign debt, leveraged finance, private credit, equity concentration in technology and geopolitics. These risks were poised to synchronize; if one thread was pulled, the cascading effects could accelerate and amplify the total harm. The question was which thread would be pulled first. The U.S. bond market may have answered that question.

If the bond market is the engine temperature gauge on the global economy’s dashboard, it’s flashing red. Last week, the yield on the benchmark 30-year U.S. Treasury hit its highest level since before the 2008 financial crisis. The highly watched 10-year yield – which shapes the price of mortgages, car loans and corporate borrowing worldwide – climbed to more than 4.65 per cent, up roughly 65 basis points since the start of March.

These are not normal moves. Rather, they reflect the fact that the bond market is now pricing something it has spent years politely ignoring: The United States is increasingly behaving like a volatile emerging-market economy. And the U.S. President may be running out of cheap ways to reliably defuse this pressure. In a contest between the bond markets and political rhetoric, the bond markets will win.

For most of 2025, President Donald Trump was able to calm the bond market. When yields spiked after his April tariff announcements, his Greenland threats and his musing about firing then Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, he paused.

Eventually, markets front-ran the pattern: Yields rose, Mr. Trump blinked, yields settled and the so-called TACO traders (Trump always chickens out) who figured this out first made a great deal of money. But now, that escape hatch may be closed. The drivers of this month’s U.S. bond repricing are structural, not rhetorical, and bringing yields down will require more than a few of Mr. Trump’s tweets.

Look at what happened earlier this week when Mr. Trump announced he had called off a potentially imaginary planned attack on Iran. Yields continued their inexorable march upward. Mr. Trump’s announcements do not address the underlying conditions driving the repricing of U.S. Treasuries, and the bond market realizes that the Consumer Price Index does not respond to Truth Social posts.

To bring yields down, Mr. Trump will need to pull structural levers. This may be difficult and politically unpalatable, especially in an election year. While progress has reportedly been made toward a deal with Iran to lower energy prices, a lasting peace would require concessions many supporters in Mr. Trump’s coalition would call appeasement. A China pivot will be difficult. Spending cuts to Social Security, Medicare and defence have all been ruled out, and tax increases are off the table.

This leaves one cheap lever for Mr. Trump: leaning on the Federal Reserve. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, confirmed last week in a highly partisan vote, is now one of the most important figures in global markets. Mr. Trump may try to pressure him into cutting interest rates.

The historical parallel is sobering. More than 50 years ago, then U.S. president Richard Nixon pressured then Fed chair Arthur Burns to keep monetary policy loose ahead of the 1972 election. Mr. Burns largely complied, and while the short-term political win was real, the long-term cost was a decade of stagflation. It took the 1981-82 Paul Volcker recession to break this dynamic.

Even if Mr. Warsh yielded to the President’s pressure, this might not bring down yields. Markets are no longer pricing in rate cuts this year; rather, some traders see a non-trivial chance of a rate hike before year-end. If any future cuts are perceived as politically driven rather than data-driven, yields will rise further as investors demand more compensation for dollars whose purchasing power is politically contested. The trap snaps shut. The easiest move worsens the problem.

Right now, if anything props up the U.S., it is that America remains one of the cleanest dirty shirts in the OECD. British 10-year gilt yields are more than 5.1 per cent, as the country faces the prospect of having its seventh Prime Minister in 10 years. French politics are similarly dysfunctional, and Japanese yields are at multidecade highs. Global pension and sovereign wealth funds still see U.S. Treasuries as the least-bad option.

Yet “least bad” is no solution. It points to a slow grind higher in yields. And this connects directly to the polycrisis risks outlined earlier. Higher yields threaten leveraged Treasury basis trades, pressure bank and shadow-bank balance sheets, and tighten financial conditions at the worst possible moment. The architecture was already fragile; the question now is whether Washington still possesses the credibility to stop the threads from unravelling.

Read article in the Globe and Mail The post The flashing-red bond market is the thread that may unravel the entire world economy appeared first on Cascade Institute.

The power gap left hyperscalers with no alternative but to take on utility-scale obligations and lock up gigawatts of generation, writes Peak Nano CMO Shaun Walsh.

The order shifts more infrastructure costs and interconnection obligations to hyperscale customers while positioning Oregon’s 2025 POWER Act as an early test of how states manage AI-driven load growth.

Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing.

China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.

Key developments Several dead as record rainfall hit several provinces

DEADLY DOWNPOUR: Multiple rounds of heavy rainfall have hit central and eastern China, with Agence France-Presse reporting that at least 25 people were killed in the first round, which affected provinces including Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei. Shortly afterwards, nine people died in south-western Chongqing province, reported finance news outlet Caixin, after receiving “nearly 300mm of rain in just two hours, a deluge local residents described as the worst in more than 60 years”. The government has dedicated 280m yuan ($41m) to support affected provinces, reported state news agency Xinhua. The Communist party-backed newspaper China Youth Daily reported that more than 20 provinces have been affected so far, with rains expected to continue throughout June. 

CLIMATE CONTRIBUTION: National rainfall over 11-23 May was 46% higher than the seasonal norm, said Xinhua. Nearly 500 weather stations nationwide have logged record rainfall levels, according to state-sponsored newspaper Guangming Daily. The rains were described as “quite unusual”, according to Xinhua, with the National Climate Centre’s chief forecaster Gao Hui telling the agency that the heavy rains were caused by a combination of factors. These included a convergence of several climate systems carrying in strong flows of moisture from nearby marine regions, as well as “rapid global warming, compounded by a fast-developing El Niño” increasing the atmosphere’s moisture content. 

The EU ‘overcapacity’ debate

‘CONCERNS’ REGISTERED: The EU will debate proposals in June to “step up efforts” to reduce economic reliance on China and protect its industries, including “safeguard investigations” for at-risk sectors and an “overcapacity instrument”, reported Politico. Finance news outlet Yicai said China in turn has registered its “concerns” with the World Trade Organization over the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), which includes local content requirements for industries including clean-energy technologies.

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PATIENCE ‘WEARING THIN’: A report by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post cited “some observers” as saying a trade war characterised by the EU “clos[ing] its market down to Chinese imports” may be the “only” way in which the EU can get China to fully engage with its concerns. A China Daily editorial states that China’s “patience” over the EU’s “politicisation and over-securitisation of trade and economic issues” is “wearing thin”. An editorial in the state-supporting Global Times says “erecting higher trade barriers” against Chinese cleantech is “clearly unwise”, given the Iran conflict, adding: “China will never sit idly by while the EU unreasonably suppresses Chinese companies.”

MISSING AGREEMENTS: Meanwhile, Bloomberg covered US president Donald Trump’s claims that his counterpart Xi Jinping “likes the idea of buying more US oil”, following Trump’s state visit to China. [None of the Chinese government readouts or press briefings covering trade outcomes have mentioned any energy agreements so far.] Similarly, the “Kremlin said…a general understanding” had been reached on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, according to Reuters, but that there was “no mention of any oil and gas deals among documents signed” during his meeting with Xi. A joint statement published by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China and Russia will “deepen” cooperation around oil and gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy, adding that they will “strengthen cooperation in addressing climate change”.

Coal-power generation rose in April

‘INFLEXIBLE’ COAL: Thermal power generation in China “grew for a fourth straight month in April”, rising 3.1% year-on-year in the face of reduced wind and nuclear generation, reported Bloomberg. “Unfavorable weather” was not the only reason for weaker clean-energy generation, wrote Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta on Bluesky, with “grid congestion due to inflexible operation of coal plants and transmission lines” also a factor. Separately, research by Global Energy Monitor found that Chinese coal-plant developers “requested approval for 51 gigawatts (GW)” of new capacity in January-March 2026, reported Bloomberg.

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SOLAR SLOWDOWN: Total power demand grew 6% year-on-year in April, according to Xinhua. Total capacity rose 14% by the end of April, reported energy news outlet International Energy Net, with China’s total solar-power capacity now exceeding 1,250 gigawatts (GW) and wind reaching 661GW, while thermal capacity rose 7% to 1,556GW. However, the growth rate of new solar installations continued to fall for a “fourth straight month”, said Bloomberg, with 9.5GW added in April 2026 compared to 45.2GW the year before.

POLICY EXPANDS: Meanwhile, the government has expanded its renewable power “direct connection” policy to allow clean-energy generators to supply multiple users directly “through dedicated [power] lines”, rather than just one consumer, reported finance news outlet Caixin. It cited a government official saying the policy is “intended to support cleaner energy use in industrial parks…and other large energy-consuming facilities”, which comprise more than two-thirds of total energy demand. Economic news outlet Jiemian quotes an expert saying the policy enables both “lower electricity prices” and “higher utilisation rates” for renewables, “reducing curtailment rates”. 

More China news

• ‘SOLIDARITY AND RESOLVE’: China voted in favour of a UN general assembly resolution to back the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) landmark 2025 opinion on states’ legal obligations to tackle climate change. The Chinese embassy to Vanuatu said on Facebook this displayed its “solidarity and collective resolve”.
• BOND DISCLOSURE: According to a disclosure report by China’s finance ministry, the country raised 6bn yuan in “green sovereign bonds” in 2025, said finance news outlet EastMoney ($884m), of which 700m ($103m) was spent on clean-energy retrofitting.
• WAR ON SAND: The central government has pledged to “improve” and expand its ecological compensation mechanism, including to now provide compensation for building solar farms in desertified areas, said power news outlet BJX News.
• SPACE-BASED SOLAR: Chinese scientists have begun “initial experiments” in a project to “collect [solar] energy in orbit and beam it wirelessly to Earth”, said PV Magazine.
• MINERAL STRATEGY: China has pledged to “accelerate the construction of strategic mineral-reserve ​sites”, reported Reuters. It will also work with the US on “reasonable” concerns around its rare-earth export controls, Reuters also reported.

Captured

Hydrogen in China continues to be mostly produced from coal, according to a National Energy Administration report. A new Carbon Brief article explored how a series of new policies in China could help scale hydrogen, particularly “green” hydrogen made with renewable power.

Spotlight  China’s new carbon metric leaves Germany-sized gap in its emissions

A major change in the way that China measures its core climate goal has effectively halved the growth in the country’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the past five years.

The revised measure of “carbon intensity” implies that China’s emissions have only gone up by 7% from 2020-2025, just half of the 14% rise indicated by previous official statistics.

This spotlight is an excerpt of an analysis explaining how the metric appears to have shifted and its implications for China’s climate goals. The full article can be found on the Carbon Brief website.

Germany-sized gap

Reducing carbon intensity – CO2 emissions per unit of GDP – has been China’s key climate commitment since the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009.

Neither China’s international climate pledges nor other official documents have ever set out a definition of carbon intensity. 

However, until this year, it was possible to closely reproduce the reported numbers, based on a straightforward interpretation of what carbon intensity means – combining official GDP data with estimates of emissions from the use of fossil fuels.

Now, the types of emissions that are included in the carbon-intensity metric have changed.

The previous carbon-intensity measure apparently included emissions from the use of fossil fuels to generate energy and as chemical feedstocks, so-called “non-energy uses”. It did not include non-fossil fuel CO2 emissions from industrial processes, such as the production of cement.

Based on reported progress against this old scope, China’s carbon intensity had fallen by 12.4% from 2020-2025, well short of its 18% target under the 14th five-year plan.

Yet the 15th five-year plan reported that China had cut its carbon intensity by 17.7% over the same period, indicating a major shift in which types of emissions are included.

A footnote in China’s latest statistical communique indicates that carbon intensity now includes industrial process emissions and excludes non-energy uses of fossil fuels.

The shift has implications for estimates of the country’s emissions. 

China’s total emissions were 11.2bn tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2) in 2020. Based on the original methodology, its fossil-fuel CO2 emissions had grown 14% by 2024, an increase of 1,430m tonnes (MtCO2).

In contrast, the newly reported carbon-intensity figures imply that China’s CO2 emissions only grew by 7% between 2020 and 2025, up just 690MtCO2.

The gap between these figures amounts to 730MtCO2, equivalent to the annual emissions of Germany or South Korea.

Decoding the new methodology

The methodology change could have significant implications, making it important to understand how it is being calculated.

The new scope includes industrial-process emissions. One of the largest sources of these emissions, the cement industry, has been contracting, helping explain the improvement to carbon intensity under the new scope.

In addition, the new scope excludes non-energy use of fossil fuels – largely relating to the chemicals industry – which have seen rapid growth in the past five years. 

One way to make the numbers add up would be to assume that the amount of carbon embedded in chemical-industry products has increased by the equivalent of 500MtCO2.

However, the reported output of major chemical-industry products cannot account for this level of embedded carbon.

Neither the change in scope of the carbon-intensity calculation, nor the change in the amount of carbon retained in products, can explain the size of the revision in the newly reported numbers. There must be another explanation.

Either the new scope broadly aligns with the explanation outlined above, but also excludes a subset of the CO2 emissions. Or the scope does not exclude any of the CO2, but there are gaps in the monitoring of some energy or industrial-process emissions.

Either explanation would mean China is not accounting for some of its CO2 emissions. 

Implications for China’s targets

This change has the effect of weakening China’s climate targets and introducing more uncertainty into tracking progress.

The new numbers means it will require less effort to hit the 2030 carbon-intensity target in its Paris pledge. This target can now be met even if emissions rise, whereas the previous metric would have required a reduction.

It will also require less effort to hit the carbon-intensity target in China’s 15th five-year plan. 

In addition, China would be able to officially meet its target to peak emissions by 2030, even if its overall CO2 emissions do not actually peak. The change could also affect delivery of China’s targets to cut emissions by 2035.

While China may use any definition it wants for carbon intensity under the UN climate framework, retrospective changes or inconsistent accounting could erode the value of its commitments.

Moreover, it will ultimately have to close any gaps in its emissions data and reporting, under the transparency rules of the Paris Agreement.

This spotlight is adapted from an article by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta for Carbon Brief.

Watch, read, listen

MINING ACCIDENT: A column in Bloomberg argued that “continuing to veer…toward cleaner [energy] development” could avoid coal-mine accidents such as the one that claimed 82 lives in Shanxi province.

INDONESIAN NICKEL: The European Guanxi Podcast recorded a discussion with Ember’s Dr Muyi Yang about the role China plays in Indonesia’s coal-reliant nickel industry.

INDUSTRIAL HURDLES: A new article in Yicai investigated the reasons why companies are holding back on relocating to zero-carbon industrial parks.
NEGATIVE PRICES: The Communist party-affiliated People’s Daily published a widely-read article on how the emergence of “negative electricity prices” signals a need for a more “coordinated” buildout of clean energy.

163

In billion tonnes, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that China could avoid between 2025-2060 by transitioning to clean energy, according to a new study published by several leading academic institutions in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. Scientists estimate that the remaining global budget for keeping temperatures below 1.5C is 130bn tonnes of CO2.

New science 

• Population exposure to heatwave-drought events “increased markedly” across China during between 1961-90 and 1991-2020, driven by a combination of population growth and more frequent heatwave-drought events | Atmospheric Research
• Fossil-fired power generation accounts for three-quarters of China’s total water consumption for energy production | Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change

Recently published on WeChat

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China Briefing is written by Anika Patel, with contributions from Lekai Liu, and edited by Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org 

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The state senator also objects to the merger itself, calling it “extremely concerning” in an environment of “rising utility bills and unprecedented grid expansion costs driven largely by hyperscale data center growth.”

LONDON — Members of the Samoan and Pacific Islander community and environmental advocates protested outside Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ (CCEP) annual general meeting Thursday, calling on the company to reduce single-use plastic and bring back reusable packaging systems. CCEP is Coca-Cola’s largest bottler by revenue. Headquartered in London, it produces, sells, and distributes the company’s products across 31 global markets, including Western Europe, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

At the cultural protest, members from the London School of Hula and ‘Ori performed traditional Samoan song and dance, including "Lo ta nu’u," and presented a performance titled "O le vasa, we are the ocean," highlighting the connection between Pacific Island communities and the ocean.

Advocates delivered a symbolic "message in a bottle," which included a letter signed by Sosaiete Faasao o Samoa / Samoa Conservation Society, Samoa Recycling and Waste Management Association (SRWMA), Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN), the London School of Hula and ‘Ori, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), and Oceana, placed inside a single-use plastic Coca-Cola bottle from Samoa. The letter, addressed to CCEP’s CEO Damian Gammell, highlights the company’s increased use of single-use plastic bottles, its effects on the oceans and Samoan communities, and how the company can help solve this problem.

In 2021, in Samoa, Coca-Cola stopped bottling its products in reusable glass bottles. Now CCEP imports large quantities of single-use plastic bottles from Fiji and New Zealand. The shift to imported plastic bottles has contributed to rising waste, much of which is littered, burned, or landfilled due to limited recycling capacity. Reportedly, imports of plastic bottles more than doubled between 2020 and 2025, and Coca-Cola products account for about one-third of beverage bottle waste in the country.

"We encourage Coca-Cola to be on the right side of history by moving back to reusable bottles, like glass, in Samoa and becoming a leader in the transition away from plastics. As one of the most recognizable global brands, we believe that Coca-Cola can be a game changer in the fight against plastics, should they choose to prioritize planet over profits, " said James Atherton of the Sosaiete Faasao o Samoa (Samoa Conservation Society).

“Given the limited capacity for plastic recycling in Samoa, most of the waste ends up being littered, illegally dumped, incinerated, or landfilled. For those of us in Samoa, we witness the consequences of your business decisions every day. On our land, across our beaches, and in our waters,” the groups wrote in the letter. 

"Plastic pollution and the climate crisis share the same fossil fuel origin, and Pacific Island communities bear a disproportionate share of both. The science is sobering: microplastics have been documented in 97% of fish species sampled across our ocean region — nearly 50% above the global average — yet CCEP's PET use in the Asia-Pacific outpaces its own global share. Reinstating refillable systems in Samoa is not a favour to the Pacific; it is the evidence-based, climate-consistent decision a company of CCEP's scale is well-positioned to make," said Rufino Varea, Director, Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN).

CCEP continues to sell single-use plastic in Samoa despite growing global concern over the plastic pollution crisis in the ocean and its likely impacts on human health. This trend is not unique to Samoa — according to an analysis by Oceana of CCEP’s reported data, between 2020 and 2025, the company’s global use of PET plastic packaging increased by over two-thirds from 198 to 335 thousand metric tons.

On the occasion of CCEP’s annual general meeting, the groups are calling on Coca-Cola and CCEP to transition back to reusable packaging, reduce single-use plastic, and invest in waste management solutions in affected communities.

“Performed in Sāmoa and London by members from across Pacific communities, this Sāmoan hymn and Sāsā reflects the pride we hold in our cultures and ways of life, our gratitude for the Earth and Oceans that sustain us, and the unity that binds us in protecting these things for generations to come,” said Krysten Resnick, Founder and Director of the London School of Hula and ‘Ori.

“Coca-Cola and CCEP have an opportunity in Samoa to right a wrong by bringing back reusable glass bottles and eliminating their plastic bottle waste. Reuse is the right choice for supporting healthy communities and protecting our oceans,” said Dr. Dana Miller, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for Oceana. 

“Coca-Cola has been the world's worst plastic polluter six years running, accounting for at least 11% of all branded plastic waste found in the environment. And yet, rather than scaling up the reusable glass bottle systems that reduce single-use plastic, the company is phasing them out in places like Samoa. This company has the solution and all the know-how to make it work. Instead, it is actively choosing a path that generates more pollution - to the detriment of the communities and ecosystems left to deal with its waste. Coca-Cola must bring back reusable glass, urgently and at scale,” said Emma Priestland, Global Corporate Campaigns Coordinator for #BreakFreeFromPlastic

To read the full letter to CCEP, click here. 

Photos are available here.

###

Additional Background: 

• The protest and letter come amid growing global scrutiny of Coca-Cola’s sustainability practices. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Science found that Coca-Cola was the number one polluter of branded plastic found in the environment.
• Despite its rapidly growing plastic footprint, the company abandoned its goal to increase reusable packaging in December 2024.
• In 2025, Oceana released a report that projects The Coca-Cola Company’s plastic use will exceed 9.1 billion pounds (4.1 million metric tons) per year by 2030 if the company does not change its practices. This would be nearly a 40% increase over the company’s reported plastic use in 2018 and a 20% increase over the company’s most recently reported plastic use in 2023, which was already enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 100 times.
• The report also estimates that up to 1.3 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of the plastic packaging that Coca-Cola uses annually by 2030 would enter the world’s waterways and oceans if the company continues on its current course. This amount of plastic could fill the stomachs of over 18 million blue whales. 
• The Oceana report also found that Coca-Cola could reduce its annual plastic use below current levels if it were to reach 26.4% reusable packaging by 2030.
• In December 2021, the Samoa Conservation Society delivered a petition to Coca-Cola South Pacific asking the company to resume glass bottling in the country.

About the Sosaiete Faasao o Samoa:

Sosaiete Faasao O Samoa / The Samoa Conservation Society is a Samoan non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting the conservation of Samoa’s natural heritage and helping the public reduce their environmental impacts and develop greener lifestyles. We work collaboratively with communities, the Government and NGO partners to raise awareness on the state of, and threats to, Samoa’s environment and biodiversity. We also teach the public and youth groups about our natural heritage and the practical actions we can take to promote species and ecosystem conservation and to reduce our environmental footprint.

About PICAN:

The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN) is a regional alliance of civil society organisations working on climate change in the Pacific region. Since 2013, it has brought together civil society actors across the Pacific Island countries, advocating for climate justice and environmental integrity. PICAN aims to unite civil society under a common voice to increase the influence and impact of their advocacy demands on Pacific Island governments, leading non-Pacific governments to respond with more powerful and ambitious climate change policies and action at the national and regional level.

About LSHO:

The London School of Hula and 'Ori (LSHO) is a cultural arts organisation dedicated to preserving and advancing Pacific heritage through lineage-based cultural practice, education, performance, and community engagement. LSHO provides a vital space where Pacific diaspora communities in London/UK, as well as anyone interested in Pacific cultural arts, can gather, learn, and participate, helping to create a more visible presence where Pacific arts, knowledge, and communities are valued, connected, and sustained.

About Oceana:

Oceana is the largest international organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the world’s wild fish catch. With more than 350 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales, and sharks, Oceana’s campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to learn more.

About BFFP:

#BreakFreeFromPlastic (BFFP) is a global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution. Since its launch in 2016, more than 3500 member organizations and 11,000 individual supporters in 186 countries have joined the movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. BFFP member organizations and individuals share the values of environmental protection and social justice and work together through a holistic approach to bring about systemic change. This means tackling plastic pollution across the whole plastics value chain—from extraction to disposal—focusing on prevention rather than cure and providing effective solutions.

Surface heat average through 2030 likely to exceed 1.5°C target

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