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AFSA is set to open its Continental Convening on Strengthening African Civil Society Climate Action on Food Systems and Agriculture Towards COP31 and COP32, bringing farmers, pastoralists, government officials and policymakers from across the continent together in Addis Ababa

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — September 7, 2026 — The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), the continent’s largest civil society movement working on food systems, food sovereignty and agroecology, is set to open today its Continental Convening on Strengthening African Civil Society Climate Action on Food Systems and Agriculture Towards COP31 and COP32. Organised by AFSA in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Planning and Development, the three-day gathering runs from September 7 to 9, 2026, at the Inter Luxury Hotel in Addis Ababa, and is shaping up to be one of the continent’s most significant climate convenings this year, bringing together farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous communities, youth and women’s networks, researchers, negotiators, government officials and policymakers from across Africa.

Government officials and policymakers are integral participants in the Convening, not merely guests at its opening. The programme’s official opening features H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopia’s Minister for Planning and Development, delivering the official opening address, alongside remarks from H.E. Demeke Mekonnen, Nutrition Ambassador and former Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia. A keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, Chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN). Government representatives continue to participate alongside civil society throughout the three days, including a dedicated Day Two panel with government representatives on national priorities for COP31 and COP32.

Addis Ababa carries particular weight for this gathering: the city is set to host COP32, bringing the United Nations Climate Change Conference back to African soil once again. This Convening marks the formal start of AFSA’s process to build a unified African position, bringing civil society and government together, ahead of COP31 and laying the groundwork for COP32, developed by the communities already living the climate crisis and advancing the solutions.

Over three days, delegates, government representatives and policymakers will address the issues shaping Africa’s climate future together: adaptation and the Global Goal on Adaptation, climate finance, a Just Transition for the continent, and agriculture’s place within the UNFCCC process. Agroecology will sit at the center of the discussions, reflecting a decade of evidence from across Africa that farmer-led, ecologically grounded food systems are not a fallback option but a credible pathway to cooling the planet, restoring degraded land, and feeding communities with dignity. The Convening builds on AFSA’s Agroecology4Climate Action campaign, running continentally since 2019 under AFSA’s Climate Change and Agroecology Working Group.

“For too long, Africa’s response to the climate crisis has been shaped far from the communities who live it every day. This Convening is Africa defining its own terms of engagement, grounded in the knowledge of the farmers, pastoralists and indigenous communities who are already building the solutions. Agroecology is not a fallback; it is Africa’s most credible pathway to a just and livable future, and it will be at the center of what we carry from Addis Ababa to COP32.”

— Dr. Million Belay, AFSA General Coordinator

“Africa cannot afford another climate process where our voices arrive only after the decisions have been made. Over these three days, we are building a unified continental position, rooted in agroecology and in the lived realities of the people who feed this continent, so that our negotiators walk into COP 31 AND COP32 carrying the mandate of Africa’s own communities.”

— Karen Nekesa, AFSA Climate Change and Agroecology Working Group Chair

The Convening will close with a unified African civil society position and a coordinated roadmap toward COP32. AFSA is inviting media, partners and the public to follow proceedings live across its Social Media Channelschannels on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube, and to join the conversation using #Agroecology4Climate, #AfricaClimateConvening, #COP31 and #COP32.

About AFSA

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is the largest civil society organisation network on the continent, representing major social movements working on food sovereignty, agroecology and climate justice across Africa. AFSA advocates for agroecology as a viable pathway for climate adaptation, mitigation and a just climate transition for the continent.

Media Contact

Kirubel Tadele, Communications Coordinator, AFSA 
kirubel.tadele@afsafrica.org

Money does grow instead of trees Channel News brendan 7th September 2026 Teaser Media

Tim Ryan argues Australia is trying to build a 21st-century, consumer-led electricity system while preserving retailers as compulsory ‘middlemen.’ But retailers are businesses that have little incentive to help households use less electricity or pay less for it.

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Slot Maxwin kini tampil dengan wajah baru yang jauh lebih dinamis, mengedepankan visual sinematik dan antarmuka yang responsif terhadap setiap momen permainan. Transformasi ini bukan sekadar perubahan estetika, melainkan evolusi desain yang menjadikan tampilan sebagai bagian integral dari mekanisme permainan itu sendiri.

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Sebagai ilustrasi, edisi terbaru dari permainan klasik seperti Fruit Shop menunjukkan pergeseran drastis: dari grafis 2D datar tahun 2011 menjadi presentasi sinematik dengan pencahayaan dramatis, efek partikel, dan animasi yang terikat pada setiap fitur bonus. Layar tidak lagi pasif; ia menjadi sistem umpan balik hidup yang mengkomunikasikan progres, memicu ketegangan, dan memperkuat momen kemenangan besar.

Konsep Baru Slot Maxwin: Narasi Visual dan Identitas Artistik Kuat

Konsep desain SLOT MAXWIN kini dibangun di atas narasi visual yang koheren dan identitas artistik yang khas. Pengembang tidak lagi hanya menggambar simbol; mereka menciptakan dunia mini dengan karakter, alur, dan suasana yang konsisten.

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Pendekatan ini mengubah SLOT MAXWIN dari sekadar mesin taruhan menjadi pengalaman hiburan yang memiliki identitas visual tak terlupakan.

Perubahan Tampilan Game Slot Maxwin: Antarmuka Adaptif dan Fitur Interaktif

Perubahan tampilan pada SLOT MAXWIN juga mencakup revolusi pada antarmuka pengguna (UI) dan pengalaman pemain (UX). Platform modern kini menerapkan sistem navigasi berbasis hover multi-level, di mana submenu muncul secara kontekstual saat kursor melayang atau layar disentuh. Fitur ini mempercepat akses ke pengaturan, informasi pembayaran, atau mode bonus tanpa mengacaukan tampilan utama.

Selain itu, elemen interaktif semakin dominan. Karakter dapat melangkah ke depan layar saat fitur bonus aktif, soundtrack berubah mengikuti intensitas permainan, dan lingkungan virtual bergeser seiring progres putaran. Dalam Hercules Abyssways, papan permainan bahkan bergerak vertikal, mengubah tata letak simbol secara dinamis. Sementara Treats of Terror menggunakan efek layar berkedip dan tiga tahap fitur Free Spins dengan presentasi visual berbeda di setiap fase.

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THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 6 SEPTEMBER 2026 SLF-2007-049 The Sakhalin Papers XXXIX: The Survey Before the Platform — WGWAP Helps Sakhalin Energy Search for PA-C While Refusing to Endorse It Before Sakhalin Energy could decide whether to build a third offshore platform, it first had to establish where that platform might safely stand. That meant another seismic operation beside the Western Gray Whale feeding grounds. The resulting episode exposed one of the most difficult questions in the entire WGWAP experiment: could independent scientists help Shell’s Sakhalin venture conduct the survey more safely without becoming part of the machinery advancing the very development they had warned should not yet proceed?

Archive reference: SLF-2007-049
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal scientific records: Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, Report of the Eleventh Meeting, February 2012; WGWAP Noise Task Force records, November 2011; Report of the Twelfth Meeting, November 2012
Contemporaneous reporting: WWF campaign material, February 2012; AFP, 9 February 2012
Later scientific record: IUCN, “Keeping whales safe in sound”, January 2014
Evidence standard: The South Piltun/PA-C development remained under study during the principal period examined. WGWAP was an independent scientific advisory body, not a regulator. Its participation in survey design and mitigation is not characterised as approval of the proposed platform. WWF statements concerning extinction risk and lender responsibility are identified as campaign positions.

Introduction

Before a third platform could be built, Sakhalin Energy had to determine exactly where it might stand.

That required another seismic operation.

The South Piltun high-resolution 2-D site survey was originally planned for summer 2011.

It did not happen on schedule.

Russian approvals delayed the work into 2012. The WGWAP Noise Task Force recorded that the postponement resulted from delays in obtaining Russian Federation approval for the geophysical component of the operation. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

When the plan returned, the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel faced an uncomfortable dilemma.

Should independent whale scientists help Sakhalin Energy design a safer seismic survey when that survey existed to advance a platform development about which they had already expressed serious reservations?

The Panel’s answer was yes.

But with a warning attached.

Its cooperation on survey monitoring and mitigation was not approval of PA-C.

That distinction would become one of the defining features of this stage of the Sakhalin story.

1. PA-C had moved from concept to seabed investigation

The previous Shell Leaks Files instalment examined the emergence of South Piltun and PA-C.

Sakhalin Energy had concluded that hydrocarbons lying between the existing PA-A and PA-B platforms could not readily be recovered using the drilling reach available from those structures.

A third platform increasingly appeared to the company to be the practical solution.

But a platform cannot simply be placed at a convenient point on a map.

The seabed and shallow geology have to be understood.

The planned site survey was intended to investigate matters including shallow gas, seabed hazards and the geological and geotechnical conditions at possible platform locations.

The WGWAP record shows that the survey was therefore not exploratory seismic work in the conventional sense of looking broadly for an unknown petroleum accumulation.

The hydrocarbon development was already known.

This survey was about the physical location and engineering feasibility of the infrastructure required to exploit it. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

That made its environmental significance unusually clear.

The survey was not PA-C.

But it was a necessary step towards PA-C.

2. The 2011 survey slipped into 2012

The work had originally been scheduled for summer 2011.

By November, WGWAP’s Noise Task Force recorded that it had been postponed until summer 2012 because Russian Federation approvals for the geophysical portion had not been obtained in time.

The revised programme was broader than South Piltun alone.

Surveys were also to cover possible relief-well locations associated with PA-A, PA-B and Lun-A. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

This enlargement reflected another major event far removed from Sakhalin:

the Deepwater Horizon/Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

At its February 2012 meeting, WGWAP recorded Sakhalin Energy’s explanation that the scope of the seismic and acoustic survey had been modified to identify potential relief-well locations following a review of company operations prompted by Macondo and wider industry concern about blowout response. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

Thus two quite different risk regimes were now being superimposed.

One concerned whales and underwater noise.

The other concerned well control and catastrophic oil-spill preparedness.

Both influenced the same survey.

3. WGWAP was prepared to help

There would have been a simple way for WGWAP to avoid any appearance of complicity.

It could have refused to participate.

It did not.

Instead, the scientists worked with Sakhalin Energy on monitoring and mitigation arrangements intended to reduce acoustic exposure to the whales.

That decision is important because it shows what WGWAP actually was.

It was not an anti-oil campaign organisation.

Nor was it a company environmental department.

Its function was to provide independent scientific advice to reduce the risks created by Sakhalin Energy’s operations.

That sometimes meant advising against an activity.

At other times it meant accepting that an activity might occur and trying to make it less harmful.

The PA-C site survey forced those two roles into direct contact.

4. But the scientists drew a boundary

WGWAP had already anticipated the problem.

Its earlier reports expressly stated that willingness to cooperate in producing a robust monitoring and mitigation programme for the South Piltun 2-D seismic and acoustic surveys was not to be interpreted as endorsement of the overall South Piltun project.

At its February 2012 meeting it repeated the point.

The Panel also reminded Sakhalin Energy that it had already recommended against commencement of new construction until more progress had been made in understanding the effects of PA-B construction noise and cumulative effects more generally. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

That distinction deserves emphasis.

WGWAP was effectively saying:

We will help you reduce the environmental risk of finding a platform site.

That does not mean we agree that you should build the platform.

It is difficult to imagine a clearer attempt to preserve scientific independence while remaining engaged with an industrial operator.

5. Sakhalin Energy relied on that engagement too

Sakhalin Energy did not ignore WGWAP’s reservations.

According to the Panel’s February 2012 report, the company responded to the earlier recommendation by pointing to its early engagement with WGWAP on South Piltun and assuring the Panel that the eventual project Environmental Impact Assessment would address cumulative effects. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

Company officials also clarified that the environmental assessment for the 2-D seismic and acoustic site-selection surveys was separate from the future environmental assessment for the South Piltun development itself.

This was procedurally logical.

But it also illustrated precisely the fragmentation that had worried WGWAP.

The site survey could be assessed as one activity.

The platform could later be assessed as another.

Pipelines, shipping, drilling, construction noise and other consequences could each appear in their respective documents.

WGWAP’s concern was that the whales experienced the combined industrial environment, not a stack of separate environmental assessments.

6. The platform location itself was still moving

The seismic work mattered for another reason.

Sakhalin Energy had not yet fixed the location of PA-C.

Possible sites were being compared.

The technical questions included seabed conditions, shallow gas and the relationship of the platform to existing infrastructure.

That meant the survey potentially had a genuine conservation benefit.

If a technically acceptable location could be found farther from the principal feeding area, advice provided by WGWAP might materially reduce future disturbance.

This is precisely why the apparent contradiction in the Panel’s role should not be oversimplified.

Helping Sakhalin Energy choose a less damaging site could advance the project.

It could also materially improve the environmental outcome if the project eventually went ahead.

Both statements can be true.

7. February 2012: WWF takes the dispute to the banks

While the scientists wrestled with mitigation, WWF opened another front.

Finance.

In February 2012 the organisation called upon three European banks associated with Sakhalin II financing:

BNP Paribas

Credit Suisse

Standard Chartered

to oppose the proposed third platform. (Banktrack)

WWF’s argument was straightforward.

The Western Gray Whale population remained exceptionally vulnerable.

The proposed additional offshore structure would lie close to an important feeding area.

The banks financing Sakhalin II therefore had leverage and, in WWF’s view, responsibility to intervene.

AFP reported WWF saying there were fewer than about 130 Western Gray Whales and only around 26 breeding females at the time.

Those population figures and the associated extinction warning were WWF’s campaign position and should be treated as such.

But the campaign succeeded in shifting PA-C beyond the world of scientists and petroleum engineers.

The lenders were now being asked to take a position.

8. A whale appeared on the Thames

WWF chose a publicity method unlikely to be missed.

As part of its thelast130 campaign, the organisation floated a life-sized representation of a gray whale on the River Thames.

The target was not primarily Sakhalin Energy.

It was the European financial community.

Later IUCN material reviewing the history of WGWAP recorded that WWF’s 2012 campaign specifically urged European Sakhalin II lenders BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered to oppose the additional platform. (WWF International)

The symbolism was deliberate.

An obscure development proposal off the Russian Far East had been transported, visually and politically, into London.

9. The lenders were due to meet the scientists

Contemporaneous reporting said representatives of the three banks were expected to meet whale specialists and Sakhalin Energy in Geneva.

That development mattered.

The Sakhalin II financing structure had long made environmental performance more than a bilateral matter between company and regulator.

International financial institutions had imposed environmental and social requirements on the project.

The lenders therefore had an institutional route through which questions about the proposed expansion could be raised.

WWF’s strategy was to use that route.

The significance of this should not be exaggerated.

The banks were not regulators of Sakhalin Island.

Nor does the evidence examined here show that WWF possessed a contractual veto over PA-C.

But the campaign demonstrated that the financial architecture surrounding Sakhalin II had become part of its environmental governance.

10. WGWAP still had a more fundamental objection

The lender controversy did not displace the Panel’s underlying scientific concern.

At WGWAP-11 in February 2012, the scientists again addressed what they regarded as a difficult contradiction.

Sakhalin Energy was contemplating another major construction project directly offshore of Piltun Lagoon while simultaneously reducing elements of its gray-whale research and monitoring programme.

The Panel said nothing presented at that meeting caused it to change its earlier assessment.

It found it difficult to reconcile a potentially expanding industrial footprint with scaled-back general monitoring. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

That criticism went beyond PA-C.

WGWAP had repeatedly stressed that long-term monitoring was necessary to detect changes in whale abundance and distribution and, where possible, connect those changes with environmental and human influences.

The logic was uncompromising.

More industrial development required more knowledge.

Not less.

11. The site survey proceeded

The 2012 survey eventually went ahead.

And here the documentary record becomes particularly interesting.

The work comprised high-resolution and ultra-high-resolution seismic surveying, analogue seabed survey operations and geotechnical investigation.

According to Sakhalin Energy’s report to WGWAP later that year, the work was completed without a Health, Safety and Environment incident.

Seismic operations were completed before 15 July, in accordance with WGWAP’s recommendation, thereby reducing overlap with the period when greater numbers of whales were expected in the feeding area. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

This was exactly the type of mitigation WGWAP’s participation had been intended to produce.

The scientists had not stopped the survey.

They had influenced how and when it occurred.

12. And the survey changed the proposed PA-C location

The data produced a concrete result.

Sakhalin Energy told WGWAP that interpretation of the survey information confirmed the suitability of what had previously been called the “blue location.”

That site lay farther offshore than the location earlier favoured.

It consequently had two important characteristics.

It was farther from the Piltun feeding area.

And it was closer to existing pipelines.

Earlier concerns about shallow gas beneath that location were not confirmed by the survey. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

This is perhaps the strongest evidence of why WGWAP had chosen engagement rather than withdrawal.

Scientific and environmental input did not merely produce paperwork.

The proposed platform site moved farther offshore.

13. But moving PA-C was not the same as approving PA-C

The distinction established before the survey remained intact afterward.

WGWAP had helped establish mitigation measures.

The survey had been completed.

The survey had produced information favouring a location farther from the nearshore feeding area.

None of those facts converted the Panel’s cooperation into endorsement of the development.

PA-C still required further engineering, regulatory approvals, environmental assessment and an eventual investment decision.

And WGWAP’s earlier concerns about cumulative effects had not disappeared merely because the preferred location had moved.

This is the point at which the documentary record becomes more nuanced than either side’s campaigning rhetoric.

WWF wanted the banks to oppose the platform.

Sakhalin Energy was trying to establish whether and how the resource could be commercially developed.

WGWAP occupied the difficult ground between them.

It worked to make the industrial activity safer while repeatedly reserving judgment on whether the larger development should proceed.

14. The eventual seismic programme became an international case study

There is an important later postscript.

In January 2014 IUCN publicised scientific work based on the Sakhalin seismic-survey experience and described the monitoring and mitigation programme as an unusually comprehensive approach to reducing the effects of seismic operations on whales.

IUCN said the survey had been completed on schedule with its monitoring and mitigation measures successfully implemented and that subsequent analyses had not revealed significant direct impacts on the whales from the operation.

The resulting technical approach was proposed as a model that could be adapted for seismic work in other environmentally sensitive areas. (IUCN)

One of the co-authors was Koen Bröker of Shell Global Solutions, alongside WGWAP scientists and other specialists.

That later scientific outcome should neither be ignored nor overinterpreted.

It supports the proposition that cooperation between Sakhalin Energy and WGWAP produced sophisticated seismic mitigation.

It does not retrospectively establish that the PA-C development itself was environmentally acceptable.

They were different questions.

WGWAP had insisted upon that distinction from the beginning.

15. This is what genuine independent advice looks like

The South Piltun episode is useful precisely because the participants did not fit neatly into opposing camps.

WGWAP did not simply say no.

Sakhalin Energy did not simply disregard the scientists.

The Panel criticised the proposed industrial expansion.

It questioned cumulative impacts.

It objected to reductions in whale monitoring.

It recommended that new construction should not begin until important uncertainties had been addressed.

Then it helped the company design the seismic survey.

The survey subsequently helped move the potential platform farther offshore.

That is neither corporate environmental public relations nor conventional campaigning.

It is independent scientific engagement with an industrial project.

And it inevitably created tension.

The better WGWAP became at reducing the environmental consequences of each preparatory activity, the easier it could become for the wider development process to continue.

But refusing to participate might simply have meant that the activity proceeded with poorer mitigation.

There was no comfortable answer.

Documentary Findings Established

Sakhalin Energy planned a high-resolution 2-D seismic and associated site survey as part of its investigation of possible locations for the proposed South Piltun/PA-C platform.

The survey was originally intended for summer 2011 but was postponed until 2012 because of delays in obtaining Russian Federation approvals for the geophysical component. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

The scope was expanded to include relief-well location surveys after Sakhalin Energy reviewed its operations in light of the Deepwater Horizon/Macondo disaster. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

WGWAP cooperated with Sakhalin Energy in designing monitoring and mitigation measures for the seismic and acoustic work.

The Panel repeatedly stated that such cooperation was not an endorsement of the overall South Piltun development.

WGWAP continued to recommend against commencement of major new construction until more progress had been made in understanding previous construction noise and cumulative effects. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

In February 2012 WWF called upon BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered, all associated with Sakhalin II financing, to oppose the proposed additional platform. (Banktrack)

The 2012 site survey was completed, and Sakhalin Energy subsequently reported that the data supported a farther-offshore location for PA-C, the “blue location”, which was farther from the Piltun feeding area and closer to existing pipeline infrastructure. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

Sakhalin Energy’s Position

Sakhalin Energy continued to investigate South Piltun as a possible means of recovering hydrocarbons that it considered difficult or impossible to reach economically from the existing PA-A and PA-B platforms.

The company emphasised early engagement with WGWAP and said cumulative effects would be addressed in the eventual South Piltun Environmental Impact Assessment.

The site-survey environmental assessment was separate from the future EIA for the platform development itself.

The company had not yet made the final investment decision required to construct PA-C during the period principally examined here. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

WGWAP’s Position

The Panel was willing to assist Sakhalin Energy in reducing the environmental risks associated with site-selection surveys.

It explicitly refused to allow that cooperation to be construed as support for the platform itself.

It remained concerned about cumulative industrial impacts and about the inconsistency it perceived between possible major new development and reductions in the long-term whale research and monitoring programme. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

WWF’s Position

WWF opposed PA-C more categorically.

It argued that an additional offshore platform near the feeding area posed unacceptable risk to a very small and vulnerable Western Gray Whale population.

Its February 2012 campaign sought to persuade European Sakhalin II lenders to use their financial influence against the proposal. (Phys.org)

Those were advocacy positions rather than judicial or regulatory findings.

Shell’s position in the project

Shell’s role requires the same precision applied throughout this archive.

At the time, Shell held a 27.5 per cent interest in Sakhalin Energy.

Gazprom held the controlling interest.

The survey and PA-C planning were undertaken by Sakhalin Energy, not by Royal Dutch Shell plc acting independently.

But Shell was neither a detached observer nor a minor outside contractor.

It was a substantial shareholder in Sakhalin II, and Shell technical personnel participated in the scientific work that eventually emerged from the seismic mitigation programme. IUCN’s later account specifically lists Shell Global Solutions among the affiliations represented in that work. (IUCN)

The accurate formulation remains:

PA-C was a Sakhalin Energy proposal within a project in which Shell held a substantial minority economic and technical interest.

Why SLF-2007-049 matters

The importance of this file is not simply that another seismic survey occurred.

It exposes the central tension in the WGWAP model.

Independent scientists had warned that Sakhalin Energy should not begin another major construction project before unresolved environmental questions had been addressed.

Yet those same scientists helped the company take one of the preparatory steps required to advance that project.

Was that contradiction?

Or was it responsible environmental intervention?

The documentary record supports a more complicated answer.

Without WGWAP involvement, the survey might still have occurred.

With WGWAP involvement, its timing and mitigation were altered.

And the resulting data helped identify a potential platform location farther from the principal feeding area.

The scientists therefore influenced the development without endorsing it.

The distinction was not semantic.

It was the basis upon which WGWAP preserved its independence while remaining inside the decision-making process.

But by 2012 another group had concluded that mitigation was no longer enough.

WWF had gone to the banks.

The question was changing from:

How can PA-C be made less dangerous?

to:

Should the institutions financing Sakhalin II allow PA-C to proceed at all?

Source Record

The principal primary record for this instalment is the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel Report of the Eleventh Meeting, February 2012. It records the continuing South Piltun planning process, the modified seismic and acoustic survey, the link with post-Macondo relief-well planning, WGWAP’s repeated refusal to allow participation in the survey to be treated as endorsement of PA-C, and its continuing concern about reduced whale monitoring while industrial development might expand. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

The WGWAP Noise Task Force report of November 2011 confirms that the site survey originally planned for summer 2011 had been postponed to 2012 because of delay in obtaining Russian Federation approvals for the geophysical work. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

The WGWAP Report of the Twelfth Meeting, November 2012 records completion of the survey and Sakhalin Energy’s conclusion that the resulting data supported the farther-offshore “blue location” for the proposed platform. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

Contemporaneous reporting of 9 February 2012 records WWF’s call for BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered to oppose the third-platform proposal and the planned Geneva discussions involving lenders, whale specialists and Sakhalin Energy. (Phys.org)

Later IUCN material confirms both WWF’s lender campaign and the subsequent scientific significance of the Sakhalin seismic mitigation programme. (WWF International)

Archive disclaimer: PA-C remained a proposed development during the period under examination. WGWAP recommendations constituted independent scientific advice rather than legal prohibitions. Cooperation between WGWAP and Sakhalin Energy on seismic monitoring and mitigation is not represented as approval of the South Piltun development. WWF statements are attributed as advocacy positions. No finding is made here that the 2012 site survey caused population-level harm to Western Gray Whales.

Next Archive File SLF-2007-050 — The Sakhalin Papers XL: The Survey Finds a Safer Site — PA-C Moves Offshore, but the Larger Question Remains

The scientists had helped Sakhalin Energy conduct the survey.

Now the survey produced an answer.

The preferred site moved farther offshore.

Earlier fears about shallow gas beneath the alternative location were not substantiated.

For whale protection, that looked like a tangible success.

But it did not answer the larger question.

Should PA-C be built at all?

By late 2012 the project had accumulated more engineering data, a potentially less damaging location and increasingly sophisticated mitigation.

It had also accumulated more scrutiny.

The next instalment will examine what Sakhalin Energy learned from the completed survey, why the “blue location” became preferred, what WGWAP thought had been achieved — and why moving a platform farther from the whales was still not the same thing as resolving the argument over another major industrial development beside their feeding grounds. (IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group)

This restored version is suitable for publication as the 6 September instalment. I would retain SLF-2007-049 / Sakhalin Papers XXXIX exactly as shown, so tomorrow’s sequence can continue cleanly with SLF-2007-050 / Sakhalin Papers XL.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 6 SEPTEMBER 2026 was first posted on September 6, 2026 at 8:12 pm.
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No decision is expected this month (September 2026) on controversial plans for expansion and long-term production at the Horse Hill oil site in Surrey, the county council has confirmed.

Horse Hill drilling plans. Source: planning application

A council spokesperson told DrillOrDrop the planning committee meeting, scheduled for Wednesday 23 September 2026, would not consider the Horse Hill application.

The spokesperson also said the council was “not in a position to confirm a date yet as work on the application is still ongoing”.

The Horse Hill plans were at the centre of a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in 2024.

A successful legal challenge, by campaigner Sarah Finch and the Weald Action Group, required decisionmakers to take into account the carbon emissions from the use of extracted oil.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Horse Hill planning permission, granted by Surrey County Council in 2019, was unlawful because it had not done this. The consent was quashed immediately.

Four months later, HHDL announced it was voluntarily stopping oil production, although oil continued to be extracted in the following month.

The company submitted a revised planning application in June 2026.

This revealed that the site was expected to produce more than 600,000 tonnes of oil over the next 20 years and release about two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

The company concluded that emissions from use of the oil were “not significant” for climate change.

But campaigners have argued that the assessment was “flawed” and have questioned its competence.

HHDL is seeking permission for four new production wells, bringing the total at the site to six. The plans also include expanding the site from 2.08ha to 2.8ha, allowing 20 years of oil production, and adding a new oil processing area, tanker loading facilities and a water reinjection well.

HHDL’s parent company, formerly UK Oil & Gas, now renamed UK Energy Group plc, is seeking to sell Horse Hill to energy B.

New directors of Union Jack Oil will give their views next week on the proposed takeover by Reabold Resources, according to a statement to investors.

Craig Howie and John Americanos replaced the previous directors at a general meeting last month (24 August 2026).

They told shareholders on Friday (4 September 2026) the Union Jack board was “considering its position” on the Reabold Resources offer. The statement added:

[the board] “would set out its views, together with the independent financial advice it had received, in a circular to be published during the course of the week commencing [Monday] u7 September 2026.”

Two crucial dates in the offer process have been reset, Union Jack also said.

It said day 60 – the latest date by which the conditions of the offer must be satisfied or waived) – would be reset to the 21st day following publication of the Union Jack circular. Day 46, the latest date on which Reabold may publish a revised offer, would also be reset.

The Union Jack statement followed an announcement from Reabold Resources (also on 4 September 2026) on support for the takeover bid. Reabold said it had received acceptance from 5.70% of the Union Jack shareholding by day 35 of the offer.

In the UK, Union Jack has interests in the Wressle oil site in North Lincolnshire and the West Newton oil and gas field in East Yorkshire.

UK Oil & Gas, the company behind controversial expansion plans at the Horse Hill oil site in Surrey, has changed its name.

A listing on the Companies House website reveals that the company name, usually abbreviated to UKOG, is now UK Energy Group plc.

Companies House said the certificate for change of name was issued on Friday 4 September 2026. It has not yet been published online.

UKOG still has an account on X and the company’s UKOGplc.com website is still working.

The company announced in June 2026 that it was seeking to sell Horse Hill to energy B. The deal must be approved by the industry regulator and energy B’s shareholders.

Horse Hill was the company’s sole remaining oil and gas site.

This is the fifth name change for the company, according to Companies House.  

For two months, from 2004-20005, it was called Pinco 2231 plc. It became Sarantel Group plc in 2005. In 2013, the company was renamed UK Oil & Gas Investments plc. The name changed to UK Oil & Gas plc in July 2008.

The directors remain the same, according to Companies House. They are: Stephen Sanderson (the longest-standing director from 2015), Nicholas Mardon Taylor, Allen Howard II, Guzyal Mukhametzhanova (secretary) and Kristopher Bone.

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 30, 2026 thru Sat, September 5, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category:

Climate Change Impacts (6 articles)

• When a mountain falls: How ice and rock triggered Nepal`s catastrophic flood - and why climate change is raising the risks The Conversation, Umesh Haritashya, Aug 29, 2026.
• Climate crisis pushes French winemakers to bet on warmer future in Brittany and Normandy An important part of the French economy is chased north by climate change but successful adapatation is not a certainty. France 24, France 24 staff, Aug 31, 2026.
• Coral Reefs Are Running Out of Time to Recover, Research Finds Rising sea temperatures mean reefs don’t have enough time to bounce back between intense heat waves, a new report warns. New York Times, Quinn Glabicki, Aug 31, 2026.
• Nepal`s glacial collapse foreshadowed a future of climate disaster | Michael Mann The deluge capped a summer of extreme climate events, from deadly heatwaves to wildfires. We must take action now The Guardian, Michael Mann, Sep 01, 2026.
• UN finally admits global warming will shoot past 1.5 ºC climate limit According to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the best the planet can hope for on its current emissions trajectory is warming of about 1.8 ºC above pre-industrial levels this century. Nature, James Dinneen, Sept 2 2026.
• Canadians should prepare for a 5 C hotter future, report warns The second edition of Canada's Changing Climate Report, a synthesis of the science on the impact of a warming planet on Canadians, confirms with greater confidence that burning fossil fuels, or what the report calls "human activities," are responsible for climate change. CBC Canada News, David Thurton, Sep 04, 2026.

Climate Science and Research (6 articles)

• How the greenhouse effect was discovered A video about the first paper detailing the greenhouse effect and examining the role of varying levels of carbon dioxide was released back in 1896. Youtube, Simon Clark, Aug 29, 2026.
• As super El Nino strengthens, study suggests that climate change is intensifying El Ninos Phys.org, Seth Borenstein, Aug 30, 2026.
• Forests didn't fare well during an ancient global warming event, offering a 'cautionary' tale about today's climate change Smithsonian Magazine, Sarah Hashemi, Aug 30, 2026.
• Explainer: The CMIP7 emissions scenarios - and how they explore future climate change Every six to seven years, climate modelling groups around the world run a coordinated set of simulations that explore how the climate could change in the future. Carbon Brief, Zeke Hausfather, Aug 31, 2026.
• EXPERT REACTION: Quick action needed as the world is set to get hotter than we hoped Rapid expert reaction to the UN's belated acknowledgement of committed overshoot of the previously agreed acceptable 1.5°C global warming threshold. Australian Science Media (scimex), Australian Science Media Centre staff, Sept 2, 2026.
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #36 2026 Highlighted articles in our latest weekly climate research scan focus on various forms of reality-denial, purposefully for profit or as unconscious obedience to political ideology. Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Sep 03, 2026.

Public Misunderstandings about Climate Solutions (4 articles)

• Rebutting 38 False Claims About Solar, Wind, Electric Vehicles, and Battery Storage In this report, the Sabin Center identifies and examines 38 of the most pervasive false claims about solar energy, wind energy, and electric vehicles, with the aim of promoting a more informed discussion about energy modernization Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Andrew Kieffer, Sep 02, 2026.
• Energy In, Motion Out EVs waste miles less energy than their fossil-fuelled counterparts. Climate Trunk, John Lang, Sep 02, 2026.
• How to respond to disinformation about clean energy, at scale David Roberts interviews Leah Qusba about scalable methods for leveling the playing field when countering organized energy modernization disinformation campaigns. Volts, David Roberts, Sep 02, 2026.
• Widespread Local Opposition, Often Driven by Misinformation, Continues to Hamper Renewable Energy Development Opposition frequently stems from, and/or is heightened by, mis- and dis-information about renewable energy development which is often spread by the fossil fuel industry and its supporters. Climate Law Blog, Ivonne Norman, Andrew Kieffer and Romany Webb, Sep 03, 2026.

Climate Education and Communication (3 articles)

• The Earth is sizzling, but climate isn't a hot topic for Democrats in this year's campaigns Climate change has become a less prominent election-year issue for Democrats as voters say concerns such as affordability are more pressing ABC News, Nicholas Riccardi, Jennifer McDermott, Leah Willinghanm, Aug 29, 2026.
• Inside the passage of America`s biggest climate law In a new memoir, author Leah Stokes takes readers behind the scenes of U.S. democracy – and shows how people can still have an outsize impact by working together. Yale Climate Connections, Michael Svoboda, Sep 02, 2026.
• Who decides what climate change caused? Critical analysis of climate change attribution in press coverage of disasters finds generally good results, advises guarding credibility without underplaying the role climate change is playing in amplifying havoc. Atmos, Miranda Green, Sep 03, 2026.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation (2 articles)

• Vycarb Successfully Stores Low-Purity CO2 In Seawater Some fairly easy chemistry not only can handle impurecombustion gas streams but also offers a side-benefit for at least somewhat offsetting ocean acidification. CleanTechnica, Larry Evans, Aug 29, 2026.
• Guest post: Why tough methane cuts are crucial for keeping warming `well-below` 2C A new study highlights that, to limit peak warming to well-below 2C, net-zero CO2 targets must be complemented by stringent methane emissions cuts. Carbon Brief, Konstantin Weber, Prof Reto Knutti, Dr Cyril Brunner, Sep 01, 2026.

Public Misunderstandings about Climate Science (2 articles)

• Koonin`s Temperature of the LOL Stratosphere Longest-running climate blog does a forensic deconstruction of a ''climate skeptic'' claim, presented as part of the US Department of Energy's ''Climate Working Group'' misinformation workshopping. RealClimate, RealClimate Group, Aug 31, 2026.
• How climate denialism finds its way to the US 's highest office The Guardian on Youtube, Dharna Noor, Sep 3, 2026.

Climate Policy and Politics (2 articles)

• Heathrow expansion would make UK `overshoot` climate targets, report suggests New modelling says UK aviation industry is already forecast to exceed limits in the seventh carbon budget, even before third runway is built The Standard News, Tom Place, Sep 02, 2026.
• Oil lobby tanking climate Superfund bills in Oregon, 11 states despite public support, study finds Brown University researchers found that a small amount of testimony from fossil fuel lobbyists opposing polluter pay laws has had greater power than massive public support. Oregon Capital Chronicle, Alex Baumhart, Sept 3, 2026.

Miscellaneous (2 articles)

• 2026 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #35 A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 23, 2026 thru Sat, August 29, 2026. Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler & Doug Bostrom, Aug 30, 2026.
• Readers reply: If all car tyres were filled with CO2, would this cut atmospheric carbon significantly? Newspaper readers answer an intriguing question; one reader goes through the numbers quantifying correct intuition. The Guardian, Guardian Staff, Aug 31, 2026.

Climate Law and Justice (1 article)

• Science, Attribution Studies, & Identifying Climate Criminals CleanTechnica, Steve Hanley, Aug 31, 2026.

If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!