SourceMaterial

‘Game of greenwashing’ – SourceMaterial The World Bank has picked Accra, Ghana, for a plastic credits scheme. For the city’s waste picker workers, it’s a false solution.

Here's SourceMaterial's version:

www.source-material.org/game-of-gree...

Ghana’s waste pickers brave mountains of plastic – and big industry Accra has been picked by a World Bank bond to end the waste crisis. But for informal recyclers, it is a false solution.

NEW: SourceMaterial's investigation into a World Bank-backed plastic credits scheme shows it has sparked controversy in Accra, Ghana.

Waste picker associations say they are 'sick and tired' of the 'false solution'.

With @ajenglish.bsky.social:

www.aljazeera.com/features/lon...

Shadow crews As Ukraine’s troops battle Russia’s invading army, EU and Ukrainian companies are supplying sailors to help keep Putin’s shadow fleet afloat

This is the first time crewing agencies have been subject to sanctions, just a few months after we reported that Ukrainian and European companies were supplying sailors to help keep Putin's shadow fleet afloat.

www.source-material.org/russia-oil-s...

Starmer tightens screws on Putin with raft of fresh sanctions against Russia Keir Starmer said his sanctions would choke off Putin’s ability to continue his war

Keir Starmer said he's "tightening the screws" on Putin as he announced a raft of new sanctions, including two companies involved in crewing and managing ships involved in Russia's illegal oil exports.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

TotalEnergies abandonne en catimini un projet de compensation carbone au Congo Après l'avoir lancé en grande pompe, TotalEnergies abandonne en silence un projet de plantation de forêt pour compenser ses émissions en République du Congo. 12 % des arbres promis y ont été plantés, ...

You can read the latest update on the project from @reporterre.net here reporterre.net/TotalEnergie...

Total’s Congo offsetting project ‘snatched our land’ Farmers say oil giant’s tree-planting scheme has barred them from their fields and threatens livelihoods.

The French oil giant Total has quietly abandoned its offsetting project in the Republic of Congo, @reporterre.net reports.

Back in December 2022, farmers told us the tree-planting project had barred them from their fields and threatened their livelihoods.

www.source-material.org/total-oil-co...

Fresnillo faces $630m demand to restore 'illegally-mined' gold – SourceMaterial The goldmining giant lost access to a Mexican mine in 2013 — now a court-appointed review says it must return $630m of gold it mined there.

Earlier this year a court-appointed expert said Fresnillo owed $630m, reflecting the gold it mined on the community's land.
Fresnillo's shareholders had been told nothing of the expert report, until SourceMaterial and The Times began asking questions. www.source-material.org/fresnillo-so...

Fresnillo is a goldminer worth £8bn, listed on the London Stock Exchange and majority-owned by the billionaire Baillères family. For years it has been locked in a bitter dispute with the Bajío agrarian community on whose land it encroached in the desert of Mexico's Sonora state.

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

Last month, we revealed that the driest state in the US is not the only one of the world's most arid areas that is seeing rapid data centre expansion:

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

The data center boom in the desert The AI race is transforming northwestern Nevada into one of the world's largest data-center markets—and sparking fears of water strains in the nation’s driest state.

The data centre boom in the desert: in Nevada, tech companies are transforming the landscape by building huge data centres and using vast amounts of water in the process.

Read @jtemple.bsky.social's long-read for @techreviewjp.bsky.social here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

Recycling of Tyres - Hansard - UK Parliament Hansard record of the item : ' Recycling of Tyres' on Tuesday 29 April 2025.

Full Hansard script available here:

hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025...

Burning Rubber – SourceMaterial Millions of used UK tyres are being shipped to India to make dirty fuel harming people and the environment

This week MPs debated UK waste tyres illegally burned in India following our investigation with BBC File on 4 Investigates.

"Investigators used GPS tracking devices in several consignments of waste tyres" to expose the trade, says MP
@tessamunt.bsky.social.

www.source-material.org/waste-tyre-p...

Francis survived the attacks, going on to appoint 82 more cardinals before his death—many of whom will take part in the conclave to elect his successor.

The voting will determine whether Francis was able to secure his reformist legacy, or if Burke’s conservative allies regain the Holy See.

Bannon courted conservative critics of Francis, like Cardinal Raymond Burke, and planned to build a Catholic institute to act as a ‘gladiator school’ for the populist right.
SourceMaterial and others exposed irregularities surrounding the institute’s headquarters, sparking a legal spat.

It uncovered a closed-door meeting where Donald Trump’s top adviser, Steve Bannon, urged Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini to attack Francis

Salvini returned to Italy and intimated that Francis’s papacy was illegitimate and that his still-living predecessor, Benedict XVI, was the true pope.

How Pope Francis became a hate figure for the far right On a mountain outside Rome, Steve Bannon’s anti-immigrant populism joins forces with Catholic extremists who say a “gay plague” has infected the Vatican.

Pope Francis was a pontiff in a new mould: an advocate for migrant rights and global action on climate change. Those positions won him powerful enemies. In 2019 our investigation The Heretic in the Vatican revealed the extent of the plot against him. www.source-material.org/the-heretic-...

We're incredibly excited to welcome @rosafurneaux.bsky.social to our team.

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

NEW: SourceMaterial's investigation identified 38 active data centres operated by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in parts of the world already facing water scarcity, as well as 24 more under development.

Read the full story here: www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

“The question of water is going to become crucial,” says @lopalasi.bsky.social, founder of The Ethical Tech Society, as our investigation reveals data centres are being developed in the driest parts of the world.

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

“They're using too much water. They're using too much energy,” said Aurora Gómez of the campaign group Tu Nube Seca Mi Río—Spanish for ‘Your cloud is drying my river’—commenting on our investigation into data centres in Aragon.

Read the full story here: www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continents

Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas

A really clever data story from @source-material.org and the Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continents

You can also read this story on The Guardian's website: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

NEW: Big Tech’s data centre push will take water from the world’s driest areas, our investigation with the @theguardian.com has found.

We saw examples from five continents of the strain data centres are putting on communities already short of water.

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.

The Carbon Offset Trap: BBC File on 4 has taken an in-depth look at the current state of carbon markets.

Our reporter @lukewbarratt.bsky.social spoke to them about some of their findings.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Burning Rubber – SourceMaterial Millions of used UK tyres are being shipped to India to make dirty fuel harming people and the environment

Read our full report here: www.source-material.org/waste-tyre-p...

Waste tyre review after BBC reveals millions sent to Indian furnaces Environment Agency review waste tyre exports after BBC probe reveals millions sent to furnaces in India.

Impact: Our investigation with File on 4 Investigates has led to action!

The government is reviewing UK tyre exports to India after our report showed they end up in highly polluting pyrolysis plants, with officials "very keen" to investigate the claims.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Singapore’s 'blueprint for disaster' threatens global climate targets An ambitious plan to re-engineer the carbon market could play havoc with net zero goals and raises questions about human rights.

In October 2023, we investigated claims that one of the plan's flagship projects involved human rights abuses in Cambodia, in a story involving a motorbike chase and a wedding.

www.source-material.org/singapore-ca...

Analyzing the first credits transitioning to the Article 6.4 Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism Calyx Global carbon credit ratings, research and insights so you can learn about carbon credit quality.

18 months ago, we reported on a "blueprint for disaster"—a plan to bring controversial carbon offsets into the Paris Agreement.

Now the first credits issued as part of this plan have been placed in one rating agency's lowest category.

calyxglobal.com/research-hub...

A fire rages after an explosion at a tyre pyrolysis plant in Wada, north of Mumbai (Credit: Kalpesh Patil)

Then Indian buyers pretend to recycle the tyres, but in many cases flog them on to illegal pyrolysis plants.

Then the tyres reach the final destination: unsafe tyre pyrolysis plants. We spoke to people who know children who have died inside them.