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As the PM calls for climate "bravery" at a global summit in New York, NSW regulators prepare to sign off on a major new coal mine extension described as a "carbon bomb."

The post Biggest coal project lines up for approval as Albanese calls for “bravery” in climate action appeared first on Renew Economy.

Like the interstate system before it, a network of massive, hyper-scale AI data centers is cropping up across America. And much like highways, they’re spewing air, water, and noise pollution across our communities, unleashing more surveillance tech and police on our sidewalks, and erasing the climate gains of every bike or a bus trip we take — all for the supposed “benefit” of communities that many advocates doubt. 

Today, The Brake is back from hiatus with Saul Levin, veteran transit advocate and host of one of our favorite new podcasts, The Hum, where he interviews the leading voices in the data center resistance movement. And along the way, he helps us understand not just why these two types of fossil fuel infrastructure have so much in common, but how the same playbook can help defeat them both — especially if we band together. 

For a transcript of this conversation with AI typos (yes, we recognize the irony): click here.

The following is an adapted excerpt from The Peach: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, and Forgiveness. It explores the author’s experience as a survivor of an infamous 2003 crash which claimed the lives of ten people.

I glance at my wristwatch. It’s 1:43 p.m. The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market closes at two. People scurry past me in search of the last berries, tomatoes, artisan cheeses, and tropical fruits. 

Through the crowd of shoppers and maze of reds, greens, and purples, I spot a pyramid of peaches that makes my mouth water. Summertime gifts you with at least one juicy peach that rewards you with peach sweetness. I walk to the other side of Arizona Avenue and carefully pick up a perfect one. I roll it in my hand, its downy fuzz tickling my fingers. I bring the peach to my nose. It smells like orchard sugar. I anticipate the first bite – the squirt, the pulp, the tang. 

I hear a pop. The peach flies out of my hand.

I do not remember a Buick sedan heading toward me as its eighty-six-year-old driver pressed his foot to the accelerator, believing he is pressing the brake. 

It would take me years to begin to trust the world enough to cross an intersection again. It would take years before I could see an older driver behind the wheel of a car and not shudder.

Our deepest fears can rule our lives. But sometimes we choose to study our fear, to examine its causes and learn how to protect ourselves and others from getting hurt. 

Eventually, I’d become a student of the little-understood phenomenon known as “pedal error,” an oddly sanitized and trivializing label for something that begins with a moment of confusion yet ends with blood on concrete. I learned that what had happened to me had happened to so many others, and would continue happening, because little was being done to tackle the root causes or prevent its recurrence.

The coming decades would be marred by a global vehicle-ramming epidemic. Vehicle-ramming incidents have become a disturbing worldwide trend. If you type in “vehicle-ramming” you’ll find a Wikipedia entry listing one attack after the next: Charlottesville, New York City, Ohio State University, Ontario, London and Berlin.

How easy it is, despite intention, age, or experience of the driver, for a vehicle to become a lethal weapon – a means of inflicting mass casualties. “The city is safe,” the Toronto police chief said in response to the deadliest rampage involving a vehicle in Canada in April 2018. Ten people were killed, mostly women, and another sixteen injured. A troubled loner deliberately drove a rental Ryder van along Toronto’s main artery for one-and-a-half miles during a busy lunch hour. The driver – Alek Minassian – intentionally struck one pedestrian after the other, tossing people into the street, crushing others in crosswalks, pinning a woman beneath the van. 

How does such pure madness, a gross act of outrage, affect the safety and well-being of Toronto residents? Does the bystander who rushed to help a pedestrian struck while crossing the street feel safe? And what about the injured, or the families of the dead? 

Recommended What is ‘Traffic Violence’ and Why Do We Need To Talk About It? Streetsblog May 3, 2021

I knew they would never feel safe again. Some will forever mistrust walk signals, traffic lights, all cars, all drivers. I imagine their feet coming to a cold stop at the edge of a curb, refusing to move into the crosswalk each time they see a white Ryder van waiting for a traffic light to turn green. Just as my feet freeze solid whenever I see a Buick Le Sabre idling at a stop light.

The escalation of vehicle-ramming attacks forced cities large and small to wake-up to the threat of out-of-control cars, and to consider solutions in the form of strategically placed barriers that would allow pedestrians to go about their business, free from this new threat. 

In 2018, the San Luis Obispo Farmers’ Market in California fast-tracked their pedestrian safety project; they approved $1.3 million to erect removable steel bollards. The concern for pedestrian safety gained urgency in New York City after a driver, high on PCP, sped three blocks on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk, followed by the vehicle-ramming attack along the Hudson River.

Recommended Commentary: Why do Leaders Only React to Traffic Violence When it Comes from Terrorists? Roger Rudick January 7, 2025

In the wake of these incidents, the city allocated $50 million for better, secure high-risk public spaces. Fifteen hundred metal bollards were installed at locations most visited by tourists. Some might gasp at the price tag attached to these barriers, but compare those figures to the collective medical expenses incurred by all sixty-three injured in the Farmers’ Market crash, plus medical damages incurred by the injured in New York City, Charlottesville, Toronto, Berlin, Nice …. Now that’s sticker-shock. 

The city of Barcelona has taken the lead and gone beyond erecting bollards to create long-term planning that reimagines the urban future as one in which cars are relegated to the fringes, and pedestrians move freely and safely in an urban landscape that is quieter, greener, and safer. In a big and bold move to stop prioritizing cars, Barcelona is constructing so-called “superblocks.” Traffic will be restricted to a few, large collector arteries, while secondary streets are being converted into citizen spaces designated for cultural activities, community gatherings, and leisure. This ambitious citywide plan will transform Barcelona, and may save thousands of lives.

Other cities should consider similar strategies — and start treating all traffic violence as preventable.

• Enforcing traffic laws is all well and good, but when cities rely on ticket revenue to fill the government’s coffers, it erodes trust in police and takes away resources from preventing or solving other crimes. (Governing)
• A rail consultant says that a national railroad infrastructure bank could bring together federal, state and private sector resources to build high-speed rail. (Smart Cities Dive)
• Planner Mark R. Brown argues that most public hearings about transportation are unnecessary or even downright counterproductive — a relic of bad decisions in the 1960s that now allow a vocal minority to kill good projects. (Car Free America)
• One upside of robotaxis is that they would make it a lot easier to implement congestion pricing. (Government Technology)
• Oregon is nowhere near meeting its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to the Trump administration’s transportation policies and uncertain funding at the state level. (Capital Chronicle)
• WTSP pinpointed Tampa’s 10 deadliest roads.
• Jacksonville’s Skyway monorail is nearing the end of its useful life. What should replace it? (The Jaxson)
• Complete Streets improvements to Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Drive both reduced crashes and improved travel times. (NACTO)
• Crime dropped by two-thirds and revenue rose by $10 million a year after Bay Area Rapid Transit upgraded fare gates at train stations. (Mass Transit)
• Pittsburgh has started turning downtown’s Smithfield Street into a pedestrian-friendly corridor. (Post-Gazette)
• WUGA interviewed Athens, Georgia’s Vision Zero coordinator about the city’s new safety action plan.
• The Kansas City streetcar will turn into a rolling platform for live music, poetry and public art on Wednesday. (KCTV)
• The Doobie Brothers’ 1974 hit “Black Water” was written on a New Orleans streetcar. (Yahoo)
  
  

Bowen and AEMO celebrate new renewables record - first time above 80 pct in main grid - and the cheaper wholesale prices that came with it.

The post “More cheap, clean sovereign energy:” Bowen and market operator celebrate new renewables record appeared first on Renew Economy.

Victorian Labor says it will adopt the proposed federal Labor mandate and require future data centre developers to bring their own renewable energy and storage if re-elected in November.

The post Victorian Labor toes federal line on BYO renewables for data centres, Coalition still pushing gas appeared first on Renew Economy.

Powerful new wind turbine adds longer blades to reduce costs and boost output, and comes at critical time for the struggling Australian wind industry.

The post Global wind giant expects lower costs from new turbine equipped with extra-long blades appeared first on Renew Economy.

Angka besar, tangkapan layar kemenangan, label RTP, sampai cerita soal pola tertentu dapat terlihat meyakinkan ketika muncul bersamaan di layar. Masalahnya, tidak semua informasi tersebut memiliki bobot sama. Cara Royalgacor membaca informasi game perlu dimulai dengan memisahkan data permainan, materi promosi, serta pendapat komunitas. Langkah sederhana ini membantu pembaca memperoleh konteks sebelum menerima sebuah klaim sebagai fakta.

Kebiasaan tersebut semakin relevan saat informasi bergerak cepat melalui forum, grup komunitas, maupun media sosial. Klaim pemain slot terkadang berasal dari pengalaman pribadi dalam sesi singkat. Pengalaman tersebut tetap dapat menjadi bahan diskusi, tetapi belum cukup untuk menjelaskan cara sebuah game bekerja secara keseluruhan. Pada permainan berbasis peluang, hasil sebelumnya juga tidak membuat hasil berikutnya otomatis lebih mudah diprediksi.

Cara Royalgacor Memisahkan Data Game dari Pendapat Pemain

Membaca informasi game sebaiknya tidak berhenti pada kalimat seperti “sering menang”, “mudah bonus”, atau “sedang panas”. Istilah semacam itu perlu diperiksa kembali karena biasanya tidak menjelaskan periode pengamatan, jumlah putaran, versi permainan, maupun sumber datanya. Royalgacor dapat menempatkan informasi teknis sebagai lapisan pertama. RTP teoretis, volatilitas, aturan fitur, tabel pembayaran, serta mekanisme bonus memiliki fungsi berbeda. RTP, misalnya, merupakan persentase pengembalian teoretis berdasarkan performa jangka panjang. Angka tersebut bukan janji hasil untuk satu pemain atau satu sesi. UK Gambling Commission juga membedakan theoretical RTP dari actual RTP serta menekankan pengaruh volume permainan dan volatilitas saat membaca performa aktual.

InformasiCara MembacanyaHal Perlu DiwaspadaiRTPLihat sebagai nilai teoretis jangka panjangJangan dianggap persentase kemenangan per sesiVolatilitasMenggambarkan karakter variasi hasilBukan penentu waktu kemenanganFitur bonusPeriksa aturan resmi gameHindari klaim “pasti aktif” setelah pola tertentuRiwayat hasilGunakan sebagai catatan sesiTidak otomatis memprediksi putaran berikutnyaTestimoni pemainPerlakukan sebagai pengalaman individualJangan disamakan dengan data seluruh pemainScreenshot kemenanganLihat sebagai bukti satu kejadianTidak menunjukkan keseluruhan riwayat permainan Membaca Informasi Game dengan Melihat Sumber Pertama

Salah satu cara paling praktis menghindari informasi menyesatkan ialah mencari sumber awal. Jika sebuah klaim membahas RTP, aturan bonus, multiplier, atau mekanisme simbol, pembaca dapat membandingkannya dengan halaman bantuan game, informasi provider, atau dokumentasi relevan. Cara Royalgacor semacam ini membuat proses verifikasi lebih terarah dengan informasinya tidak dinilai hanya karena sering diulang. Frekuensi sebuah klaim muncul di komunitas tidak otomatis meningkatkan akurasinya. Standar responsible gambling juga menempatkan ketersediaan informasi, literasi permainan, serta komunikasi tanpa klaim menyesatkan sebagai unsur penting agar pengguna dapat mengambil keputusan secara lebih terinformasi.

Bedakan Pengalaman Pribadi dengan Mekanisme Permainan

Kalimat “saya mendapat bonus setelah beberapa putaran” menggambarkan pengalaman. Sebaliknya, pernyataan “bonus selalu muncul setelah jumlah putaran tertentu” sudah berubah menjadi klaim mengenai mekanisme. Perbedaan kecil tersebut sering terlewat. Terjebak klaim pemain slot bisa terjadi saat pengalaman individual berubah menjadi rumus umum setelah dibagikan berulang kali. Padahal permainan berbasis RNG dapat menghasilkan rangkaian hasil berbeda tanpa membentuk pola prediktif sederhana. Informasi dari regulator Gibraltar juga menjelaskan RNG diuji untuk menghasilkan keluaran acak dalam volume permainan sangat besar.

Royalgacor Perlu Memberi Konteks pada Angka

Angka sering terlihat objektif, tetapi angka tanpa konteks tetap dapat menimbulkan kesimpulan keliru. Contohnya, RTP 96% tidak berarti saldo Rp100.000 akan menghasilkan kembali Rp96.000 pada satu sesi. Hal serupa berlaku pada persentase kemenangan komunitas, statistik bonus, atau catatan permainan dalam periode pendek. Jumlah sampel, rentang waktu, volatilitas, serta metode pencatatan perlu diketahui sebelum data dipakai sebagai dasar kesimpulan. Membaca informasi game dengan konteks membantu pembaca memahami batas setiap statistik. Alih-alih mengejar satu angka paling menarik, perhatian dapat diarahkan pada definisi dan cara angka tersebut diperoleh.

Klaim Spektakuler Perlu Pemeriksaan Lebih Ketat

Semakin besar sebuah janji, semakin besar kebutuhan untuk memeriksa dasarnya. Frasa seperti “pasti menang”, “jam kemenangan”, “pola anti kalah”, atau “RTP menjamin profit” patut dipisahkan dari informasi teknis. Cara Royalgacor dapat menggunakan pendekatan sederhana: cari sumber, periksa definisi, lihat periode data, lalu bedakan fakta dari interpretasi. Metode ini tidak membuat informasi menjadi rumit. Justru pembaca memperoleh gambaran lebih bersih tanpa harus menerima setiap narasi komunitas.

Royalgacor Menempatkan Transparansi sebagai Filter Informasi

Kualitas informasi bukan ditentukan oleh seberapa meyakinkan kalimatnya, melainkan seberapa mudah klaim tersebut diperiksa. Royalgacor dapat menampilkan aturan game, penjelasan fitur, istilah teknis, serta batas interpretasi secara jelas agar pengguna tidak bergantung pada rumor. Pendekatan ini membuat proses membaca informasi game lebih rasional. Klaim pemain slot tetap dapat menjadi referensi pengalaman, tetapi posisinya berbeda dari dokumentasi teknis atau data jangka panjang. Pada akhirnya, informasi terbaik bukan informasi dengan janji terbesar. Data dengan sumber jelas, konteks memadai, serta batas klaim transparan jauh lebih berguna. Cara Royalgacor membaca informasi game melalui prinsip tersebut dapat membantu pengguna mengenali perbedaan antara fakta, pengalaman pribadi, promosi, dan asumsi sebelum menarik kesimpulan.

Windlab's John Martin on the project that broke the investment drought for big wind, and what makes the sector so hard. Plus: Victoria's disarray, EV milestones, and more.

The post The “impossible” wind project that broke the investment drought | Energy Insiders appeared first on Renew Economy.

Anne Jellema is executive director of 350.org; Mads Christensen is executive director of Greenpeace International; and Amitabh Behar is executive director of Oxfam International.

On Monday, global petitions with a collective total of more than 2 million signatures were presented to the United Nations, calling on governments to introduce binding mechanisms to make fossil-fuel companies and the super-rich contribute to the costs of the damage they have created.

The petition signatures were received by Selwin Hart, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action, in New York during the UN General Assembly, sending a clear message to governments: there is no more room for excuses.

If governments are serious about resilience, energy security and protecting people from an increasingly unstable world, they must make the companies profiting from the fossil-fuel economy pay their fair share. Because the crisis we are facing is no longer some distant threat. It is unfolding in real time, and it is exposing the extraordinary costs of an economy still built around fossil fuels.

• Sep 22, 2026 News Climate change and energy transition rise up national security agenda Leaders highlighted the national security risks posed by global warming and fossil fuel dependency at New York Climate Week Read more
• Sep 21, 2026 News COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’ Turkish minister Murat Kurum said AI companies should be transparent about their energy use and power their data centres with clean energy Read more

For more than six months, the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which a fifth of the world’s oil once flowed without a second thought, has been closed, contested or effectively unusable. Tankers sit at anchor. Insurance premiums have gone through the roof. Petrol pumps from Los Angeles to Lagos have felt the tremor. It has taken a war to remind the world just how much of our daily lives still rests on a single, fragile artery of fossil fuels.

At the other end of the same emergency, a glacier came down on the Nepal–China border in the last week of August. A wall of ice, rock and water tore through the Bhote Koshi and Langtang valleys. It has been described as one of the deadliest disasters in the region’s modern history, unfolding in a landscape where the world’s glaciers are retreating and destabilising at a pace scientists have been warning about for years.

And this came only weeks after hundreds of thousands of people were displaced — not by ice, but by fire. Europe has experienced its worst wildfire season in more than a decade. Homes have been lost across Spain, Portugal, France, Greece and the UK. Firefighters and civilians have been killed battling the blazes, while damage and reconstruction costs continue to reach extraordinary levels.

These are not separate crises. They are different expressions of a world becoming more volatile, while the fossil-fuel economy continues to generate enormous profits for those at the top and pushes the costs onto everyone else.

Communities absorbing cost

Because the crisis we are facing is no longer some distant threat. It is unfolding in real time, and it is exposing the extraordinary costs of an economy still built around fossil fuels. One thread runs through all of these events: a global economy still organised around the profits of a fossil fuel industry that has known, for decades, exactly what it was doing to the planet.

At a moment when governments are gathering in New York for the UN General Assembly to talk about security, resilience and economic competitiveness, it is worth spelling out what “security” – or the lack of it, driven by our economy’s dependence on oil – actually means this year for ordinary people around the world: 35,000 excess deaths in Europe due to heat; the highest food prices in three and a half years; $700 billion in economic losses, threatening countless jobs and livelihoods, from a war and a closed oil chokepoint whose consequences are nowhere near over.

Meanwhile the companies that extracted, refined, shipped and sold the fuel behind all of this continue to report extraordinary profits. Households are paying more for energy. Governments are spending billions on disaster response, on reconstruction, on emergency deployments of firefighters and aid. Communities are absorbing the cost of a system they didn’t design and don’t control. We pay. They profit.

This is not a coincidence, and it is not inevitable. It is a political choice, repeated year after year, to let the companies most responsible for the climate crisis hoard the wealth they generate while the rest of us carry the risk.

Taxes and fines needed

That is why, together with communities and campaigners in dozens of countries have spent the last three years building the case for a simple, overdue idea: polluters should pay for the damage they have caused. Not through voluntary pledges or distant net-zero promises, but through binding mechanisms, climate damages taxes, surtaxes on fossil fuel profits, and fines ring-fenced for recovery and adaptation that put real money where the harm actually is. This is how we take the profit out of destruction and protect the generations to come.

The response has told us we are not alone in thinking this. Our petitions calling on governments to make polluters pay have now gathered a collective total of over 2 million signatures from people across every region of the world.

The case for making polluters pay has moved into the mainstream

That is not a fringe demand. It is what happens when people watch a choke-point war spike their fuel bill, watch a glacier take a thousand lives, watch their own summer holidays rearranged by fire. They draw the obvious conclusion: the people who caused this should be paying for it – not profiting from it.

We hear the objection already forming: that this is not the moment, with wars underway and economies fragmenting, to burden industry further. We would say the opposite is true. If governments can mobilise trillions for war, for bailouts and for new fossil fuel infrastructure, they can mobilise the political will to tax the companies that caused this crisis.

Money for clean energy and resilience

That money can go straight to the people paying for it, through cheaper, cleaner, more secure energy, and through funding for communities on the frontline of floods, fires and glacial collapse. There isn’t an excuse left. There is only a choice about where power and money go next. Every dollar we don’t spend now on adaptation, resilience and cutting emissions, we burn many times over later: on disasters we could have prevented and economies we scramble to fix too late.

This year’s UNGA should be the moment that choice gets made in public. Governments arriving in New York will talk about resilience, about energy security, about protecting their citizens from an unstable world. Let them explain on the record why a fossil fuel industry that has spent decades profiting from that instability should not be the one paying to fix it so wrecking the planet no longer pays off.

The fires, floods and storms won’t just go away. The system that keeps producing these disasters, and keeps paying the same companies for the privilege, will not change itself unless political leaders step up. It is on all of us to make sure they hear, as loudly as possible, that the time for excuses has run out.

The post After Hormuz, Nepal and wildfires, people want action to make polluters pay appeared first on Climate Home News.

Grupo Temático de Energía y Alternativas Miembros * Carmen Aliaga * Franco Augusto * Rose Benedice Lawaetz * Matthew Burke * Raquel Castillo * Trimita Chakma * Alex Jensen * Madhuresh Kumar (Coord.) * Vasna Ramasar * Rebeca Roysen * Manthan Shripadvs

Energy and Alternatives Thematic Group Members * Carmen Aliaga * Franco Augusto * Rose Benedice Lawaetz * Matthew Burke * Raquel Castillo * Trimita Chakma * Alex Jensen * Madhuresh Kumar (Coord.) * Vasna Ramasar * Rebeca Roysen * Manthan ShripadalternativesalternativesGTAalternativesalternativesalternativesvsalternativesalternativesalternativesGTAweaversendorsersalternatives

Renters will be saddled with higher power bills if minimum energy efficiency standards stop at ceiling insulation and air conditioning, new modelling warns.

The post Weak rental energy efficiency standards could leave tenants saddled with higher power bills appeared first on Renew Economy.

Governments need to start addressing climate change impacts and nature loss as a threat to national security and manage shocks before they hit rather than picking up the pieces afterwards, Britain’s foreign minister and other leaders told the opening of Climate Week NYC on Monday.

Ed Miliband – who was until July the UK’s energy minister – said the growing urgency and severity of extreme weather and related disasters require a shift in thinking, calling on governments to put the issues “front and centre”.

“Climate breakdown, in my view, must be an issue for foreign ministers and prime ministers, as well as energy and climate ministers – the security community, not just the activist community, the generals, not just the green campaigner,” he told an audience of policy and business leaders.

There is a need to assess risk differently, he added, by embedding climate and nature in national security systems, threat assessments and contingency planning. He also urged countries to pool information because climate shocks can travel fast through supply chains as well as influencing financial markets and migration patterns. 

The framing of climate change as a threat to countries’ security and stability is not new, but it has gained greater emphasis as the impacts of global warming are biting harder in places like Europe, which is struggling with more intense heatwaves, drought and forest fires.

In mid-August, Miliband said in a social media post, reflecting on the UK’s hot and dry summer, that he would convene foreign ministers attending the UN General Assembly in late September to discuss how to respond to “this new national security threat” and build a coalition for action. But he did not give further details of that initiative on Monday. 

• Sep 21, 2026 News COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’ Turkish minister Murat Kurum said AI companies should be transparent about their energy use and power their data centres with clean energy Read more
• Sep 18, 2026 News Fossil fuel expansion threatens COP31 hosts’ credibility, experts warn Türkiye and Australia are pushing coal, oil and gas at home with no national timeline for their own fossil fuel phase-out Read more
• Sep 17, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier DR Congo’s power-hungry mining sector drives record solar surge As solar deployment rapidly accelerates across Africa, miners in the DRC are driving significant demand for clean energy to replace expensive diesel Read more

Australia calls for unified response

Other leaders in New York also reflected on the growing threat to their societies and economies from climate change impacts and exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country “understands the dangers of global warming and the urgency of climate action as well as any nation”.

“We have seen it up close – from increasingly intense bushfires and floods, to the damage warming oceans are wreaking on our vulnerable coastlines,” he said in a speech, adding that with a record-breaking El Nino forecast, Australia and Pacific nations are preparing for a potential summer of extreme heat, bushfires and floods.

With scientific forecasts of worsening impacts now coming to pass, “this means the global community cannot afford to be frozen in time as the world warms around us”, he added. People cannot be left to cope alone, he said, emphasising that as leaders, “we need to come together, to meet the problem head on”. 

Australia will lead the negotiations at the upcoming COP31 climate summit, and has brought the existential threat to Pacific countries from sea level rise into the diplomatic limelight. The pre-COP gathering next month will be hosted in Fiji, with a visit by leaders to Tuvalu.

Speaking to Climate Home News in New York, Panama’s environment minister Juan Carlos Navarro said the small Central American country faces hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from drought in the Panama Canal due to El Niño.

The Panama Canal Authority estimates income could be reduced by between $225 million and $400 million due to slower maritime traffic passing through the strait.

“What a great irony,” Navarro said. “Panama being a small, carbon-negative country pays the price for the big carbon-emitting countries.”

UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband speaking at New York Climate Week. (Photo: The Climate Group) Climate investment “critical” to stability

Amina J. Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, said there was a need for countries to stick with multilateral approaches to problems including climate change, despite the difficult geopolitical times the world is going through. She added, however, that it “does require your voices. It won’t happen by itself. We have to lean into it.” 

The rest of the high-level UNGA week in New York will show the extent to which multilateral efforts to resolve the world’s problems – from climate change to poverty – have top-level support as leaders give their speeches, including the Brazilian and US presidents on Tuesday.

Kaysie Brown, associate director for climate diplomacy and geopolitics with think-tank E3G, said the statements by Miliband and other leaders at Climate Week NYC had underlined the political and government case to integrate climate considerations into security thinking and institutions at the highest level.  

“In a world of escalating climate impacts and the record El Niño expected to heighten risks worldwide alongside energy volatility and geopolitical tensions, investing in global climate resilience and the clean energy transition are critical to credible strategies to enhance stability and national security,” she added in a statement.

Suneeta Kaimal from the Natural Resource Governance Initiative (NRGI) said that, while in previous years governments heavily focused their speeches on climate action, this year’s focus on energy security does not change the underlying challenge. 

“The fact that the framing has changed from energy transition to energy security doesn’t change the reality that this transition needs to occur in energy systems. It’s just a different framework. It’s a more transactional framework, but it all points to the need for resilience,” she said.

Speaking at the opening session of Climate Week, Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir described how her country had reacted to the spiralling costs it faced from the 1970s oil price crisis by investing in a large-scale district heating system fuelled instead by its abundant geothermal energy.

“Resilience wasn’t built while the crisis was happening. It was built in the years after – deliberately, patiently, as a national mission – so that the next shock wouldn’t hit as hard, if at all,” she said.

New COP goal on electrification

Speaking at a separate event on Monday, UN climate chief Simon Stiell pointed to a new voluntary target expected to be adopted at COP31 for 35% of global energy use to come from electricity by 2035 as a strategy that can help cushion countries, families and businesses from fossil fuel supply shocks and rising costs.

At the United Nations, the Turkish COP presidency gave more details of the electrification goal it first announced at the Bonn climate talks in June, including sharing with governments a final text of the pledge it wants them to get behind.

The pledge sets out a global ambition to advance electrification, highlighting the importance of supporting developing countries to identify their grid investment needs and access finance for electrification. 

“It is a development strategy, an industrial strategy, a health strategy, and a security strategy,” Stiell said.

The post Climate change and energy transition rise up national security agenda appeared first on Climate Home News.

Plants are a beautiful way to connect to our environment while supporting birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. When your outdoor space is limited to a small patio or balcony, it can...

Kate and Aaron talk to Nick Holshouser, a data analyst with Wandering Nature, LLC, who is analyzing the public comments coming in on the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the 2001 roadless rule in real-time at roadless.org, and Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, about public comment periods under the Trump administration. We cover why you should still submit public comments (even though the Trump administration probably isn’t interested in your opinion) and how to write a comment that requires an agency response and helps build the legal record against bad agency actions.

News

• Trump is considering more data centers on public lands than previously known – The Washington Sun
• Forest Service adds comment period for PitCo’s Maroon Bells operations takeover – Aspen Journalism

Resources

• Roadless Rule repeal live comment analysis
• Submit a comment on the proposed Roadless Rule repeal
• Watch this episode on YouTube (coming soon)

Produced by Aaron Weiss, Lauren Bogard, Kate Groetzinger, and Lilly Bock-Brownstein
Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
Music: Purple Planet
Featured image: Stand of Ponderosa Pines in Grassy Valley by Deer Creek on the Malheur National Forest in North Eastern Oregon; Source: USFS/Flickr

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In a move that has left the entire public relations industry gasping for air (and possibly a stiff drink), Shell has once again turned to the wizards of spin at MSQ Partners. The London-based group, which joined Shell’s global agency roster back in 2022 and has been gamely polishing the oil major’s image ever since, now faces what industry insiders are calling “the Mount Everest of reputation management – if Everest were made of crude oil, blood, and decades of awkward court documents.”

MSQ’s own Stephen Maher once declared the firm “absolutely thrilled” to work with the “truly world class brand that is Shell.” One can only assume the thrill has since curdled into a low, constant humming of existential dread.

Because let’s be honest: this is not a rebrand. This is an exorcism. And the demons have resumes longer than a tanker of Nigerian crude.

A Brief, Highly Incomplete History of Why This Job Is a Nightmare

Start with the Nazi past. Sir Henri Deterding, the Dutch founder often called the “Napoleon of oil,” developed a soft spot for Hitler in the 1930s. He met the Führer, funneled support, and Shell’s German subsidiary Rhenania-Ossag obligingly purged Jewish board members and played ball with the regime. Shell fuel helped power both sides of the war in the finest “we’re just a neutral energy company” tradition. Modern Shell prefers not to dwell on this chapter. MSQ’s brief: “Make the 1930s look like a charming period of energetic European collaboration.”

Then came the 2004 reserves scandal – the corporate equivalent of claiming you had a full tank when you were actually running on fumes and lies. Shell overstated proved reserves by roughly 4.5 billion barrels (about 20–23%). Top executives exited stage left. Regulators handed out record fines. Shareholders sued. The company’s dual-board structure collapsed under the weight of its own creative accounting. MSQ’s challenge: “Position this as an early example of radical transparency and bold leadership.”

Sakhalin-2 deserves its own chapter in the “How Not to Do International Business” handbook. Shell poured years and billions into the Russian LNG project, only to watch Moscow gradually strong-arm it out of majority control. After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Shell announced a dramatic exit… and walked away with essentially nothing as Putin’s decree transferred the asset to a new Russian operator. Gazprom eventually scooped up the former Shell stake. MSQ’s task: “Frame the multi-billion-dollar write-down as a principled stand for democracy, preferably with soft lighting and a hopeful piano soundtrack.”

Nigeria remains the gift that keeps on litigating. Decades of oil spills in the Niger Delta, the Ogoni struggle, the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine, ongoing English High Court cases over pollution in communities like Bille and Ogale, settlements, denials, and more spills. Shell has paid out, fought jurisdiction battles all the way to the UK Supreme Court, and still faces fresh claims. Recent internal documents disclosed in litigation have not exactly helped the “we’re responsible operators” narrative. MSQ’s mission: “Turn chronic environmental catastrophe and human rights controversies into a heartwarming story of community partnership and continuous improvement.”

Worker safety? Shell reports Goal Zero ambitions while contractors keep dying or getting crushed, burned, or maimed. Fines for crushed feet on North Sea gangways, propane releases causing severe burns, explosions at facilities, and ongoing process safety events form a steady drumbeat. MSQ’s creative brief: “Safety is our highest priority – please ignore the body count and the HSE prosecution records.”

And then there is the spying. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shell (alongside BP) used private intelligence firm Hakluyt – staffed with former MI6 types – to infiltrate and monitor Greenpeace and other campaigners. Agents posed as filmmakers and left-wing sympathisers. The goal: neutralise inconvenient activism. More recently, Shell has reached for SLAPP-style lawsuits against Greenpeace over peaceful platform occupations, demanding millions and permanent protest bans before eventually settling. MSQ’s assignment: “Portray rigorous competitive intelligence and robust legal defence of critical energy infrastructure. Soft focus. Preferably no trench coats.”

The MSQ Challenge, Ranked by Difficulty

1. Convince the public that a company with this track record is suddenly the face of the energy transition.
2. Make “we’re investing in lower-carbon solutions while still maximising oil and gas returns” sound coherent.
3. Produce campaigns that survive five minutes of fact-checking by anyone with internet access and a functioning memory.
4. Keep the account without the entire creative team developing stress-related facial tics.

Industry observers note that MSQ already has experience with fossil clients (including BP). Experience, however, is not the same as a miracle.

One anonymous PR veteran put it best: “This isn’t reputation management. This is reputation archaeology – carefully excavating layer after layer of scandal while trying to convince everyone the skeleton underneath is actually a green hydrogen pioneer.”

### Suggested Headlines for the Coming Campaigns

– “Shell: Powering Progress Since the 1930s (Some Chapters May Contain Historical Inaccuracies)”
– “From Reserves Overstatement to Net-Zero Ambition: A Journey of Continuous Learning”
– “Nigeria: Where Every Spill Is an Opportunity for Dialogue”
– “Sakhalin-2: The Exit Strategy That Wrote Itself”
– “We Used to Spy on Greenpeace. Now We Just Sue Them. Progress!”
– “Safety First (Results May Vary by Contractor Status and Geography)”
– “MSQ + Shell: Because Even the Most Toxic Brands Deserve a Second, Third, and Twenty-Seventh Chance”

In the end, one almost feels sorry for the creatives at MSQ. Almost. They signed up to sell the idea that one of the world’s most historically compromised oil majors is a force for good. That is not a communications brief. That is a dare.

Good luck, MSQ. You’re going to need every ounce of joined-up thinking, every influencer, every carefully worded press release, and possibly a time machine.

Shell, meanwhile, continues to produce oil, gas, profits, and – with any luck – slightly better headlines than the ones history keeps writing for it.

The satire writes itself. The PR, unfortunately, does not.

Shell Hires MSQ: The PR Firm That Promised the Impossible – “Make Us Look Nice, or at Least Not Actively Evil” was first posted on September 21, 2026 at 11:15 pm.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LONDON Agency’s newly created “Cosmic Eraser & Vibe Realignment” department promises to reframe a century of corporate blunders into modern lifestyle aesthetics. LONDON — In what industry insiders are calling “the ultimate test of human optimism vs. historical reality,” global marketing group MSQ has formally accepted the monumental task of polishing the reputation of oil giant Shell. The landmark appointment—following a grueling six-month pitch process codenamed Operation Febreze—will see MSQ agencies tackle what experts describe as the advertising equivalent of vacuuming an active volcano. “We know what the skeptics are saying,” said an MSQ spokesperson while frantically adjusting an industrial air scrubber. “They look at Shell’s history and see ‘unmitigated disaster.’ We look at it and see an untapped goldmine of narrative reframing! The past isn’t a liability; it’s just content that hasn’t been properly filtered yet.” The Strategy: Bucket-by-Bucket Modernization According to leaked strategy decks, MSQ plans to tackle Shell’s most notorious corporate friction points using cutting-edge TikTok trends, soothing sepia tones, and high-frequency corporate doublespeak:

• The 1930s Nazi Germany Chapter: Rather than dwelling on former chief Sir Henri Deterding’s enthusiastic support for the Third Reich, creative teams are developing a retro “Extreme Longevity & Heritage Logistics” campaign. Soft-focus reels will celebrate “pioneering cross-border supply chains,” gently blurring the distinction between Allied and Axis fuel lines under a warm, vintage Instagram filter.
• The 2004 Reserves Scandal: When executive Walter van de Vijver famously emailed that he was “sick and tired of lying” after Shell artificially inflated its proven oil reserves by 3.9 billion barrels, it was viewed as a major fraud. MSQ is re-launching this on LinkedIn as an “Early Corporate Wellness & Radical Executive Vulnerability” milestone. The missing 3.9 billion barrels will be rebranded as a pioneer project in “Virtual Asset Architecture.”
• The Sakhalin-II Siberian Debacle: Environmental protests and endangered whale disruptions in the Russian Far East will be transformed into a calm, ASMR-infused eco-travel series titled “Siberian Whispers.” The series will focus exclusively on digitally rendered cranes nesting near deactivated drill bits to a lo-fi beats soundtrack.
• The Nigerian Conduct & Ogoniland Litigation: Decades of devastating oil spills, human rights controversies, and ongoing litigation in Ogoniland will be addressed through an ambitious “Earth-Element Synergy & Local Hydration” narrative, accompanied by limited-edition artisanal mud masks packaged in recycled Shell-branded canisters.
• Worker Safety & Offshore Records: High-risk offshore operations and safety infractions will be gamified via branded VR headsets for rig workers. The headsets will overlay serene tropical rainforests and singing birds directly onto heavy drilling machinery, ensuring workers enjoy a tranquil sensory environment during manual turbine startups.

Hazard Pay and On-Site Support Acknowledging the extreme mental strain on account managers required to pitch “carbon-neutral crude” with a straight face, MSQ has reportedly updated its workplace benefits. Account managers assigned to the Shell account will receive mandatory hazard pay, complimentary burn cream, and unlimited sessions with corporate-sponsored spiritual healers. “When you’re hired to perform PR for a house fire while the fire department is still arguing over who brings the hose, you need a strong team,” noted one senior strategist. “We aren’t just shifting paradigms—we’re bending reality.” (Disclaimer: No historical facts were harmed in the making of this campaign, though several were heavily re-edited for vibe optimization.) MSQ Launches ‘Project Extreme Gloss’ After Winning Shell PR Account was first posted on September 21, 2026 at 11:03 pm.
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In our latest, we talk with journalist Adam Federman about Arctic politics as the Trump administration moves to fast track drilling. Listen in: Guest Bio// Adam Federman (@adamfederman) is a…

The following is understood to be an internal document circulated to new starters on MSQ’s Shell business. We cannot verify its authenticity, but we also cannot stop laughing.

In a move surprising absolutely no one who has watched the energy giant cycle through PR partners the way other companies cycle through printer ink, Shell has confirmed — or at least not denied loudly enough — that MSQ is now steering the wheel of its global reputation management. It is, by any honest measure, one of the more ambitious contracts in modern advertising history, roughly equivalent to being hired to do the PR for a house fire while the fire department is still deciding whether to show up.

Anyone drafting MSQ’s onboarding deck faces an unusual challenge: where, precisely, does one begin a “brand journey” for a company whose corporate lineage runs through Nazi-era Germany, a 2004 reserves scandal so severe it triggered boardroom resignations and regulatory fines, the multi-billion-dollar fiasco of Sakhalin-2, decades of litigation over oil spills and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, and a worker safety record that has, at various points, made headlines for exactly the wrong reasons? A normal rebrand starts with a mood board. This one might need a legal disclaimer.

Industry sources — by which we mean anyone who has read a newspaper since 1998 — note that Shell’s approach to reputational crisis has traditionally followed a reliable four-step formula: acknowledge nothing, commission a sustainability report, sponsor something green-sounding, and wait for the news cycle to move on. MSQ, to its credit, appears to specialize in precisely this kind of narrative alchemy — the agency’s own promotional materials speak fondly of helping brands “celebrate who they really are.” Whether Shell’s marketing team has fully thought through the implications of that phrase remains, charitably, unclear.

A satirical read of the pitch deck might go something like this: Slide one — “Shell: Powering Progress.” Slide two, in much smaller font — “Progress Toward What, Exactly, Is Still Under Discussion.” Slide three is presumably several hundred pages of historical footnotes, delivered separately, under embargo, by courier.

One imagines the MSQ creative team’s first internal meeting went something like: “So they want warmth, trust, and an emotional connection with the customer.” “Right. And the Ogoni Nine litigation?” “We were told not to bring that up unless someone else does first.” “And Sakhalin?” “Reframe as ‘ambitious international expansion.'” “And the Nazi thing?” “…We’re going to need a bigger meeting.”

To be fair to MSQ, this is not their first rodeo with a controversial energy client, and PR agencies have never been shy about taking on difficult accounts — that’s rather the point of the profession. But there’s difficult, and then there’s “decades-deep archive of primary-source documents maintained by aggrieved former business partners who have made it their life’s work to fact-check every press release in real time.” Shell’s critics didn’t get the memo that the rebrand was supposed to make this easier.

Welcome to the team.

Congratulations on joining the Shell account. You were selected for this role because you either (a) have a strong stomach, (b) have never used a search engine, or (c) both. This document will help you get up to speed quickly.

Section 1: Things you are not to Google on your first day

We know the instinct. Don’t. HR has asked us to remind you that “just doing some background reading” is not covered by your onboarding budget and may result in a mandatory wellness session.

Section 2: A brief, upbeat history of the brand

Founded in the early 20th century, Shell has weathered — and we cannot stress this enough, weathered — a series of what we internally call “legacy narrative opportunities.” These include a period of historical fuel-supply diversification during a regrettable European conflict, a 2004 accounting recalibration involving several billion barrels that were there and then, through no fault of anyone in particular, weren’t, an ambitious Siberian infrastructure project that came in only mildly over budget (four times, but who’s counting), and multiple decades of what affected communities have unhelpfully insisted on calling “litigation” rather than “engaged stakeholder dialogue.”

Section 3: Key talking points to memorize

• If asked about worker safety, pivot to “our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.”
• If asked about Nigeria, pivot to “our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.”
• If asked about literally anything else, also pivot to “our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement.” It is, our research shows, remarkably weatherproof.

Section 4: Creative do’s and don’ts

DO lean into resilience, heritage, and “energy for a changing world.”
DON’T use the word “changing” near the word “climate” without three rounds of legal sign-off.
DO use soft lighting.
DON’T use soft lighting anywhere near an actual drilling platform, a courtroom, or a 1930s photograph.

Section 5: A note on morale

Some colleagues have asked whether it’s ethically complicated to build a “trust and warmth” campaign for a client with this particular back catalogue. We’d remind the team that MSQ has a long and proud history of finding the emotional truth in difficult briefs — oat milk, budget airlines, the occasional bank. This is simply the next one. A slightly bigger one. With its own Wikipedia category tree.

Welcome aboard. Your NDA is attached separately and is, we’re told, considerably longer than this document.

MSQ Takes the Shell Account: A Job Description That Should Have Come With Hazard Pay was first posted on September 21, 2026 at 10:37 pm.
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