Message From the Editor

A new investigation by our UK team reveals that growing global meat consumption is threatening to derail the Paris Agreement. But that hasn’t stopped the meat industry insisting it is part of the climate solution. Reviewing hundreds of documents and statements by companies and trade associations reveals how the industry has downplayed the impact of livestock farming on the climate and has cast doubt on the efficacy of alternatives to meat to combat the climate crisis. Read all about it here.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. our reporting has uncovered how the Department of Energy is quietly backing a plan for a carbon capture network larger than the entire oil pipeline system. Obama’s energy secretary Ernest Moniz and major labor group AFL-CIO are behind a “blueprint” for a multi-billion dollar pipeline system to transport captured CO2 — and offer a lifeline to fossil fuel plants. Sharon Kelly reports.

For decades, government officials encouraged Indigenous residents of Louisiana’s Isle de Jean Charles to permanently relocate from their shrinking Gulf Coast homeland, assuring them that the island would not be redeveloped if residents left. However, tribal leaders are feeling betrayed as new recreational development around the island risks further colonial displacement for a people labeled the first U.S. “climate refugees.” Nathan Jessee has the story.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmogblog.com.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you make it possible for DeSmog to hold accountable powerful people in industry and government. Even a $10 or $20 donation helps support DeSmog’s investigative journalism.

Investigation: How the Meat Industry is Climate-Washing its Polluting Business Model

— By Caroline Christen (15 min. read) —

In February last year, the head of a leading global meat industry body gave a “pep talk” to his colleagues at an Australian agriculture conference.

“It’s a recurring theme that somehow the livestock sector and eating meat is detrimental to the environment, that it is a serious negative in terms of the climate change discussions,” Hsin Huang, Secretary General of the International Meat Secretariat (IMS), told his audience. But the sector, he insisted, could be the “heroes in this discussion” if it wanted to.

DOE Quietly Backs Plan for Carbon Capture Network Larger Than Entire Oil Pipeline System

— By Sharon Kelly (12 min. read) —

An organization run by former Obama-era Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, with the backing of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 labor unions, has created a policy “blueprint” to build a nationwide pipeline network capable of carrying a gigaton of captured carbon dioxide (CO2).

The “Building to Net-Zero” blueprint appears to be quietly gaining momentum within the Energy Department, where a top official has discussed ways to put elements into action using the agency’s existing powers.

Tribal Leaders Raise ‘Serious Concerns’ About Plans to Turn Their Shrinking Louisiana Island Home Into a ‘Sportsman’s Paradise’

— By Nathan Jessee (7 min. read) —

For decades, federal and Louisiana state officials encouraged residents to permanently relocate from the Isle de Jean Charles — the shrinking traditional homeland of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw (IDJC) Tribe — and they assured them that the Gulf Coast island would not be redeveloped if residents left.

However, changes in plans for the island, which has been threatened by over a century of oil and gas extraction, flood control development on the Mississippi River delta, and now climate change, are leaving tribal leaders increasingly “unsettled” in the years after their plans helped the state of Louisiana secure federal funding for resettlement in 2016. The result is a growing feeling among tribal leaders that new investments and proposals to turn the region into a recreational destination may continue a long history of displacement and colonization.

European Business Groups Voice Support for New ‘Fit for 55’ Climate Agenda While Lobbying to Water It Down

— By Nick Cunningham (5 min. read) —

On July 14, the European Union (EU) announced a sweeping package of climate proposals that will help the continent cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030, from a 1990 baseline.

The so-called “Fit for 55” climate package includes a strengthening of the cap-and-trade system, an effective ban on gasoline and diesel vehicle sales by 2035, proposals to cut emissions from buildings, more renewable energy, and a tariff on imports of carbon-intensive goods from countries that aren’t sufficiently regulating emissions, among many other policies.

Ex-COP26 President’s Role at Fossil Fuel ‘Astroturfing’ Firm Approved

— By Rich Collett-White and Nikos Papanikolaou (5 min. read) —

Former UK Energy Minister and original COP26 President Claire O’Neill has been cleared to take up a role at a business consultancy known for running “astroturf” campaigns for fossil fuel companies, despite warnings from the body that approves such appointments.

FTI Consulting, which announced that O’Neill would be joining the company last month, has previously been revealed to monitor environmental activists in the US on behalf of a Texan oil company and has recently helped generate media interest around hydrogen as a potential climate solution.

Fossil Fuel Giants Ignoring IEA ‘Net Zero’ Report Despite Pledges, Analysis Finds

— By Theodore Whyte (4 min. read) —

Fossil fuel companies are pressing ahead with new oil and gas developments, despite a recent warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that this will make the Paris Agreement goals impossible to meet, an analysis has found.

According to the author of the analysis, the companies and industry bodies, most of which have made public statements in support of the world reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050, are “cherry-picking” IEA reports to suit their arguments.

Boris Johnson ‘Missing in Action’ Ahead of COP26 Climate Summit, Say Campaigners

— By Xindi Wei (3 min. read) —

Climate campaigners have called on the UK government to step up its action ahead of the COP26 UN summit set to take place in Glasgow in November, which they say is in “serious jeopardy”.

A hundred protesters gathered in Parliament Square this morning to mark 100 days before the talks begin, accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak of being “Missing in Action”. They held banners with the phrase “The climate needs you” and giant alarm clocks to emphasise the urgency of tackling climate change.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The Animal Agriculture Alliance

The Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) is a US-based non-profit organisation that “brings together farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, animal feed companies, animal health companies, processors, allied associations and others involved in getting food from the farm to our forks”, according to its website. The AAA monitors consumer, environmental and animal advocacy groups, including Greenpeace, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, totalling 170 profiles on groups as of 2020. At the AAA’s 2021 Virtual Stakeholders Summit, the organisation announced plans to “change the narrative and position animal agriculture as a solution to reducing our environmental footprint and improving our planet for generations to come.”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.