Tag Archives: fossil fuels

Mark Hofman

COP29 Petition: The time has come to end fossil fuel advertising

By Mark Hofman | Sat 9th November 2024 - 11:00 am

Just over 50 years ago, the last cigarette commercial aired on American television. It marked the end of an era where tobacco companies could freely advertise their products despite knowing the devastating health effects they caused. Today, we face a similar watershed moment with fossil fuel advertising.

As world leaders gather in Azerbaijan for COP29, we should be stressing the parallels between Big Tobacco’s marketing tactics and those of the fossil fuel industry are striking. Both industries have spent decades promoting products they knew were harmful, while simultaneously casting doubt on scientific evidence. Both have used sophisticated marketing to associate their products with freedom, success, and adventure. And both have targeted younger generations to secure future customers.

The tobacco advertising ban has saved countless lives. Research shows that restricting tobacco advertising and sponsorships has been one of the most effective tools in reducing smoking rates, particularly among young people. Now, as we face a climate emergency, isn’t it time we apply the same logic to fossil fuel advertising?

The Science is Clear

The scientific consensus on climate change is overwhelming. Fossil fuels are the primary driver of global warming, leading to rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and the disruption of ecosystems. The consequences are already evident and will only worsen if we continue on this path.

When you see an SUV commercial showing a vehicle powering through a sleek city centre or a family’s home being kept toasty by a gas boiler, consider the irony: the very products are being advertised are contributing to that areas poor air quality, smog stained buildings and premature deaths. These advertisements normalise and glorify the use of fossil fuels at a time when we need to be rapidly transitioning away from them.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Wera Hobhouse – UK must commit to phasing down fossil fuels for good

By NewsHound | Wed 4th January 2023 - 7:30 am

In an article for Politics Home, Lib Dem spokesperson for climate change Wera Hobhouse argued that 2023 must be the year that the UK finally commits to a timescale for phasing down fossil fuels for good.

This year we witnessed the consequences of climate change first hand. The British summer saw temperatures of over 40 degrees and Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine left us exposed to volatile international markets, unveiling the true cost of our dependence on fossil fuels.

Evidence shows the phasing down of fossil fuel production being vital to preventing temperatures rises above 1.5 degrees. But the United Kingdom is the second largest producer of oil and gas in Europe and is actively encouraging greater North Sea extraction.

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Tom Arms

How to help Ukraine Part 2 – Knit a Jumper

By Tom Arms | Sun 6th March 2022 - 10:15 am

You can do it. You can hit the Russians where it hurts—in their pockets. Russian oil and gas is still flowing westward. This is because a strict embargo would hurt Europeans as much, if not more, than the Russians. Europe has to keep producing and trading to become Ukraine’s arsenal for democracy.

So the East-West energy trade has been compartmentalised—for now, and the money being paid for Russian fossil fuels is being used to buy artillery shells that kill Ukrainians.

The continued energy trade smacks of political and economic common sense. But that does not mean that individuals—YOU—cannot use your own initiative to reduce Russia’s income from oil and gas sales.

Cut your energy consumption. Wear an extra sweater and maybe even a heavy woollen scarf indoors. Ask Aunt Agatha to quickly knit you a jumper in the bright sky blue and sunshine yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. Then put it on and turn down the thermostat.

But there is more. Stop baths. Take showers. Even better, shower with a friend or reduce the number of your showers and increase your usage of deodorant. You can be certain that a million-plus Ukrainian refugees are not showering twice a day, and they won’t be seeing a bath tub for the foreseeable future.

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David Brunnen

DON’T PANIC: Responding to our Climate Emergency – The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

By David Brunnen | Fri 19th November 2021 - 8:29 am

Just when we reach for it, we realise The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy can only be found on the Fiction shelves. F – not SF – with barely a hint of science warped to suggest credibility. But, oh, how we chuckled at the patently preposterous existential crisis for a planet Earth where no-one had bothered to read the planning notices.

But today our self-inflicted existential crisis is no comedic platform. Novelists prefer the dystopian where borders blurred by reality are fading into climatic irrelevance. COP26 (or COPout26 as some insist) reduced COP President, Alok ‘down, but not out’ Sharma, to tears and moved manipulative mindsets to imagine novel ways of avoiding reality. But, as Jason Hickel writes, “If we accept the facts of climate change, we also have to accept the radical changes necessary to address it.”

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Ed Davey says private capital must switch from dirty to clean

By Mary Reid | Fri 27th August 2021 - 3:25 pm

Now here’s an interesting thought. Why not ban any new listings of fossil fuel companies on the London Stock Exchange?

Ed Davey flags up this idea in an interview with The Guardian today to mark his first year as Party Leader.

Under the plan outlined to the Guardian by the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, another immediate policy would be to stop new bonds being issued in London to finance oil, coal or gas exploration.

Fossil fuel firms already listed in the UK would then have two years to produce a coherent plan about how they would reach net zero emissions by 2045, or risk being struck off the LSE.

In the longer term, pension funds would have to disinvest from fossil fuels by 2035, with all companies with fossil fuel assets removed from the exchange by 2045.

Ed said:

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The Voice

LibLink … Ed Davey: Britain must signal the beginning of the end for coal investment

By The Voice | Wed 18th March 2015 - 12:00 pm

Ed Davey Social Liberal Forum conference Jul 19 2014 Photo by Paul WalterEd Davey writes in the Guardian:

For over 200 years, modern civilisation has been built on fossil fuels; now climate science says we must phase out fossil fuel pollution in just a few decades. That’s a colossal challenge – especially if we are to keep anything resembling current lifestyles while also ending the poverty that blights the lives of more than 1 billion fellow human beings.

We are already seeing a significant shift in thinking. The Rockefeller Foundation is divesting from coal and tar sands. Oxford University is considering similar action. And the Bank of England is analysing the impact on financial systems of fossil fuel investments becoming “stranded assets” – in other words worthless – if the world gets its act together on climate change.

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Cara Jenkinson

Opinion: Insulation not fossil fuel subsidies

By Cara Jenkinson | Thu 29th January 2015 - 10:38 am

Earlier this week parliament overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill calling for a moratorium on fracking.

The challenge that the UK faces is that we are particularly dependent on natural gas. The vast majority of us have gas boilers and heating makes up much of the gas used in the UK. Weaning ourselves off gas boilers isn’t easy. There are renewable alternatives such as heat pumps but these only work in very well insulated homes. And there’s the rub. Around 70% of homes in the UK are still not well insulated, and a good portion of those have solid walls which are difficult and expensive to insulate.

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NewsHound

Davey: We need to look at rules on transparency of fossil fuel investments

By NewsHound | Thu 11th December 2014 - 10:59 am

The Financial Times reports:

Britain’s energy secretary has called for tougher rules to be applied to companies holding “risky” fossil fuel assets that could plunge in value because of global action to tackle climate change.
Ed Davey’s move makes him one of the first senior politicians to weigh into a growing debate on the future of oil, gas and coal companies as governments work on sealing a global climate deal in Paris next year.

“We’re seeing a move from a carbon economy to a climate economy,” Mr Davey told reporters on the sidelines of UN talks in Lima shaping the Paris agreement.

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Simon Oliver

Opinion: How the market will decide our energy future

By Simon Oliver | Fri 12th August 2011 - 9:49 am

Recently articles from both the TUC and CBI have bemoaned the burden of increasing energy costs on energy intensive businesses. Both organisations make the rather obvious error in thinking that a carbon price will inevitably drive the cost of energy upwards. In fact, the opposite is true. The stronger the price signal, the faster the market works to balance supply with demand.

The supply of fossil fuels is finite. Conventional oil has already peaked its supply (as admitted by the chief economist of the IEA) and tar sands and fracking are far too damaging to the environment to continue as …

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