David Tong

How the oil and gas industry helped rewrite New Zealand’s drilling rules A paper trail shows just how far ministers went to accommodate the industry's wishlist, including giving it access to draft laws.

This is government for the benefit of big polluters. While excluding the public, Shane Jones and his advisors repeatedly consulted the oil and gas industry, resulting in a new decommissioning regime that shifts the risk back to taxpayers. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Oil Change International response to COP30 Presidency claims we don’t need public money for the energy transition - Oil Change International Bronwen Tucker, Public Finance lead at Oil Change International, said: “It’s distressing to hear the COP30 Presidency say we don’t need more public funding for the energy transition.

🚨 In the final days of #COP30, we need to be very clear:

📣A just transition away from fossil fuels needs public money, and rich countries need to pay their fair share 📣

The COP30 presidency risks derailing the entire negotiations by saying otherwise.

oilchange.org/news/oil-cha...

French energy giant Total faces war crimes allegations over Mozambique massacre TotalEnergies denies responsibility for the actions of local security forces involved in dozens of killings.

Today @ECCHR filed a criminal complaint in France against the Mozambique LNG project sponsor TotalEnergies, for complicity in war crimes and torture. www.bbc.com/news/article...

YouTube video by Ember Peak fossil Dissecting the IEA's World Energy Outlook

IEA, with very conservative scenarios show:
1. The transition is structural (ie unstoppable)
2. The cheapest for consumers.
= the faster govt’s invest in the future, the better for their economy.
Great listen,feat NZ’s own @davidxvx.bsky.social making huge sense:

youtu.be/1n9JJvw0vo8?...

🚨NEW @PriceofOil report launched at #COP30: Behind the Barrel: An Update on the Origins of Israel’s Fuel Supply. Between Nov 2023–Oct 2025, 25 countries shipped 21.2M tonnes of oil + fuel to Israel, including military jet fuel. 🔗 behindthebarrel.org
#BehindTheBarrel #StopFuelingGenocide

"If you read The Guardian today and the Financial Times, it's like the headlines are covering totally different reports. One focuses on steps. One focuses on CPS"

"If you were diagnosed with a chronic illness. Would you choose to take up smoking? That's what CPS is"

@davidxvx.bsky.social

The World Energy Outlook presents a stark & simple choice between radically different futures – and only one keeps the 1.5ºC survival limit alive. The WEO is @iea.org’s flagship report, guiding energy policy decisions.

Here’s what the fossil fuel industry wants to ignore 🧵

#WEO2025

Nigeria: Government must clear names of executed activists Ogoni Nine Marking 30 years since the Nigerian government’s brutal execution of nine leading environmental activists – the Ogoni Nine – for fighting to protect the Niger Delta from oil giant Shell, Amnesty Inter...

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Ogoni Nine who were executed by the Nigerian military government in November 1995 after campaigning against widespread oil pollution in the Niger Delta.

@amnesty.org calls for the Ogoni Nine to be fully exonerated.

www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

You're not wrong – and if the fossil fuel industry could magically cure the climate crisis (which they keep pretending to via CCS pipedreams etc), that might be the same.

But neither industry has invested in remedying the harms they've caused, right?

Would you want or expect big tobacco to cure lung cancer? Why should fossil fuel companies be any different?

But there's a deeper question behind this too: Do we want the oligopolistic, exploitative industry that has done the most to cause the climate crisis, that has a history bundled up in war, colonialism, & human rights violations to have a big stake in the renewable energy future?

Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. New numbers suggest otherwise. A new study shows that fossil fuel companies own less than 2 percent of renewable energy projects worldwide.

This is very useful, timely analysis built on Global Energy Monitor data, confirming that fossil fuel companies are not meaningfully investing in the energy transition. These companies are responsible for a tiny 0.1% of global renewable energy production.

grist.org/accountabili...

TotalEnergies Misled Consumers, Court Rules In Historic Greenwashing Judgment A French court has handed down a landmark ruling finding that the French oil major TotalEnergies misled consumers regarding its climate commitments. The company’s public-facing statements claiming to ...

The oil company's statements around being a major player in the energy transition & aspiring to reach net zero emissions by 2050 (while it plans to expand hydrocarbon production) were unlawful, a court ruled

#climatelitigation #greenwashing

www.climateinthecourts.com/totalenergie...

Fiiiiiiine

New report examines fossil fuel ties of dozens of Trump administration hires Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project found 43 fossil-fuel industry insiders among nominees and appointees to agencies charged with enforcing energy and environmental policy.

New report examines fossil fuel ties of dozens of Trump administration hires.

grist.org/accountabili...

#Politics #Oil #FossilFuel #Politics #Report #News

Government lowers methane target, rules out methane taxes The government is lowering its biogenic methane target for the next 25 years, a move welcomed by the industry but opposed by the Greens and environmental activists.

New Zealand’s far right, ass backwards government has unsurprisingly bowed to big agriculture industry lobbyists and slashed the country’s 2050 methane target. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Vanuatu working toward UN vote aimed at fighting fossil fuel industry influence Ralph Regenvanu, minister of climate change for the Pacific island nation said the step was on ‘behalf of everybody’

Vanuatu’s Climate Minister @rregenvanu.bsky.social says the fossil fuel industry is the greatest obstacle to tackling the climate crisis and implementing the International Court of Justice opinion that international law requires all states to protect the climate:

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Egypt's President Sisi pardons high-profile Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, al Qahera news says Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned high-profile Egyptian-British activist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, after a lengthy imprisonment and repeated hunger strikes that prompted international pleas for his release, Al Qahera news said on Monday.

Huge news. @freealaa.bsky.social pardoned.

Free Alaa. Free them all. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

I’m not sure Apple’s new “sleep score” is all that smart. I went to bed at almost 1am after hours of late Zoom calls.

Whatever the killer’s motives, it is clear that political violence is a problem that extends across ideology. Prominent conservatives, moderates and liberals have all been victims in recent years.

It's worth asking why every elite institution is issuing statements like this rather than pointing out the obvious fact that the institutional right commits and glorifies violence far more than the left. Is there a reason you feel you can't say that out loud?
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/o...

52/🚨The Court then delivers a powerful statement: failure of a state to take appropriate action to regulate fossil fuel consumption, the granting of fossil fuel licences, fossil fuel subsidies may constitute an internationally wrongful act which is attributable to that state

🌍 BREAKING: Climate impunity ends today - by order of the world’s highest court.

The International Court of Justice has spoken:
✅ States are legally obliged to act
✅ Inaction = human rights violation
✅ Polluters must be held accountable

This is a legal revolution for our planet.

🚨BREAKING: World’s Highest Court Tells Countries to Halt Emissions Faster and Protect the Climate

Press Release: oilchange.org/news/worlds-...

#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateJusticeAtTheICJ

A woman dances in floral clothing

In a landmark global victory, the International Court of Justice has ruled that governments must step up and protect our right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
act.gp/3IB7w3
...🧵

20/ The Court notes in particular the relevance of customary norms related to:
🔹duty to prevent significant harm to the environment
🔸duty to cooperate internationally!
👉 These norms are going to be critical to the responses of the Court to the questions before it.

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

🧵Historic milestone coming up, following the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights:

On July 23, the International Court of Justice – the world’s highest court – will deliver its much-anticipated ruling on States’ obligations to address #ClimateChange & uphold #HumanRights.

There are no rules any more. The political pendulum is now a wrecking ball OPINION: Compromise is out, consensus is dead, and the country is being governed by tantrum and teardown.

There is a lot to agree with in this Andrea Vance column.

But she misdiagnoses the problem and engages in unjustifiable both-sides-ism. MMP is not the problem. The populist far right is the problem.

www.thepress.co.nz/politics/360...

At the United Nations #JuneClimateTalks, leaders are expressing deep outrage about Israel’s brutal campaign of bombing, massacres, and starvation against Palestinians.

Great coverage of our 🆕report on funding the #JustTransition away from fossil fuels in the @FT today.

Say it with us: “Public money is a non-negotiable part of the green transition." 💸 www.ft.com/content/8e5f...