Ben Stockton

Trump nominee at U.S. export bank withdraws amid scrutiny of Russia ties Bryce McFerran is a senior executive at a steel-trading business co-owned by one of Russia’s richest oligarchs and is married to a member of a Russian family with extensive ties to the Kremlin.

And our @climatereport.bsky.social and WaPo report from a few weeks ago here ⬇️

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Read the full letter here ⬇️

www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

NEW | Democrat members of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to the head of Exim and WH Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to ask why, following our reporting with The Washington Post about a Trump appointee's extensive ties to Kremlin-linked Russians, he was allowed to remain in post?

Trump nominee at U.S. export bank withdraws amid scrutiny of Russia ties Bryce McFerran is a senior executive at a steel-trading business co-owned by one of Russia’s richest oligarchs and is married to a member of a Russian family with extensive ties to the Kremlin.

Evraz is part owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. But the Trump appointee's ties to Russia didn't end there.

Read @climatereport.bsky.social and The Washington Post's story here ⬇️

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

ICYMI | Trump's pick for a senior role at Exim withdrew from the nomination process just days before he was due to appear before the Senate last week.

Federal filings showed he'd spent most of the past decade working for a subsidiary of Evraz, the metals giant sanctioned by the UK in 2022.

My latest for CCR and Rolling Stone ⬇️

Inside the small agency with a grand plan for Trump’s global energy dominance – Centre for Climate Reporting The U.S. Trade and Development Agency is working to push gas to emerging markets as part of Donald Trump’s plans for global energy dominance.

Read it here! climate-reporting.org/ustda-plan-f...

Latest for @climatereport.bsky.social w/ Rolling Stone

I wrote about a US agency you've probably never heard of and the quiet work it's doing to lay the groundwork for Trump's vision of American energy dominance globally

Inside the small agency with a grand plan for Trump’s global energy dominance – Centre for Climate Reporting The U.S. Trade and Development Agency is working to push gas to emerging markets as part of Donald Trump’s plans for global energy dominance.

NEW | How a small US government agency is planning to push US gas to emerging markets around the world, as part of Trump's energy dominance agenda.

climate-reporting.org/ustda-plan-f...

ICYMI ✍️ I guest edited a newsletter for my alma mater @tbij.bsky.social the other week, looking at the impact of our work digging into COP28 conflicts of interest

⬇️ Read it and sign up for The Spark here!

Transparency International and Partners call for immediate action to… Transparency International & 250+ groups urge COP30 to ban polluter lobbyists, boost transparency and ethics in climate talks.

www.transparency.org/en/press/tra...

Fossil fuel industries and corporate lobbyists have long undermined the integrity of COPs, preventing effective climate action. Their heavy influence and privileged access to decision-makers shapes agendas and outcomes with previous host countries closely tied to the fossil fuel sector, and with observers and state delegations being packed with high polluter industry lobbyists. This has sidelined the urgent need for bold, science-driven climate action, turning COPs into platforms for fossil fuel diplomacy instead of advancing transformative climate policies.

Transparency International and 250+ other organisations calling for "dramatic overhaul" of COP negotiations to protect them from the influence of high polluting industries

Cop30 in talks to hire PR firm that worked for lobby seeking weaker Amazon protections Revealed: Edelman worked for Brazilian trade group accused of pushing for environmental rollbacks in Amazon

Read the story here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

NEW by me for @climatereport.bsky.social / @theguardian.com

Edelman is in talks to work on the Cop30 climate summit being held in the Amazon. We dug into the agency's work developing a comms strategy for a Brazilian soy industry group seeking to weaken deforestation protections

Living on Earth: US Ducks World Climate Meetings The Trump Administration barred government scientists from attending a key UN climate science meeting in February 2025. What’s more, it seems the customary US task force including officials from the S...

🎙️ ICYMI I was on Living on Earth talking about @climatereport.bsky.social's story with The Guardian on how US officials have been skipping climate meetings under Trump.

🔈 Listen here! www.loe.org/shows/segmen...

Working in international climate diplomacy? My Signal is benstockton.01

US officials have been absent from global climate forums during Trump 2.0 Exclusive: The ‘deeply troubling’ move comes amid concerns US ignoring international climate ramifications

NEW | US officials appear to have missed a number of climate meetings since Trump took office, marking a potentially significant shift from his first term.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Story by @benrst.bsky.social & @theguardian.com

US officials have been absent from global climate forums during Trump 2.0 Exclusive: The ‘deeply troubling’ move comes amid concerns US ignoring international climate ramifications

US officials appear to have missed a number of climate meetings since Trump took office. Surprising? Perhaps not, but it marks a potentially significant shift from his first term.

NEW by me for CCR and The Guardian today www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Extinction Rebellion protesting outside McKinsey UK HQ after our story with the Guardian last year which dug into the extent of the firms work boosting fossil fuels worldwide. Five arrested so far, XR says.

Read it here: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Heritage Foundation in 2016: "Musk and his companies (Tesla, among others) have had their share and benefitted from an array of government handouts in the forms of government loans and special tax breaks, all without any say from the taxpayer."

Musk: "The federal loan was very helpful... what the government loan really did was accelerate our progress."

www.energy.gov/sites/prod/f...

Heritage Foundation in 2016: "Musk and his companies (Tesla, among others) have had their share and benefitted from an array of government handouts in the forms of government loans and special tax breaks, all without any say from the taxpayer."

Heritage Foundation Head Says Washington Needs 'Creative Destruction' Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts talks about how his organization's Project 2025 is influencing the Trump administration and Elon Musk government efficiency drive. (Source: Bloomberg)

Heritage Foundation in 2025: "We're celebrating at Heritage the first phases of the unearthing of the grift and corruption that has happened in this city... having someone with the success of Elon Musk be a partner in this is really good."
www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/...

More on McKinsey and its climate pretenses. Go Guardian.

Revealed: McKinsey clients had ‘rising share of global emissions’, internal analysis shows Consulting giant had said it engages with clients to help them transition to cleaner energy even as it knew they were in line to exceed climate targets

REVEALED | Internal McKinsey forecasting found clients were set to bust global climate goals.

"We are serving a client portfolio that is likely on the 3 to 5 degrees warming... this portfolio contains more than half of the world's worst polluters."

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Revealed: McKinsey clients had ‘rising share of global emissions’, internal analysis shows Consulting giant had said it engages with clients to help them transition to cleaner energy even as it knew they were in line to exceed climate targets

🚨NEW🚨

"We are serving a client portfolio that is likely on the 3 to 5 degrees warming trajectory… this portfolio contains more than half of the world's worst polluters."

Internal 2021 McKinsey forecasting found clients were set to bust climate goals

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘A little dirty’: inside the secret world of McKinsey, the firm hooked on fossil fuels Interviews and analysis of court documents show how the world’s most prestigious consulting firm quietly helps fuel the climate crisis Two giant, mirrored walls are set to rise out of the sands of the Arabian desert. They will run parallel for more than…

‘A little dirty’: inside the secret world of McKinsey, the firm hooked on fossil fuels

‘A little dirty’: inside the secret world of McKinsey, the firm hooked on fossil fuels Interviews and analysis of court documents show how the world’s most prestigious consulting firm quietly helps fuel the climate crisis

NEW | @hajmedd.bsky.social and I spent the last several months digging into McKinsey's work with its fossil fuel clients. Here's our story with the Guardian, ft. Koch Industries, China and a controversial Saudi government program to hook poor countries on oil www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Inside the campaign that put an oil boss in charge of a climate summit – Centre for Climate Report... Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, mobilized a PR army to secure the COP28 presidency despite concerns over his green credentials.

NEW: @amywestervelt.bsky.social and I dug into the PR machine that has worked with Al Jaber throughout his career and ultimately helped put an oil boss in charge of COP climate-reporting.org/al-jaber-cop...