Message From the Editor

This week, Sharon Kelly reports that climate science denial is still being pushed at a shale gas pipeline industry conference in Pittsburgh. But even an industry lawyer was questioning how long that approach will work with the public.

Reporting from Argentina, Nick Cunningham shows how the nation is trying to kick-start an American-style fracking boom, with considerable support from both the U.S. and Argentine governments. However, the U.S. industry’s failure to turn a profit doesn’t bode well for the even shakier situation in Argentina, he reports.

Meanwhile, Sophie Yeo reports from the UN climate talks in Madrid, which have wrapped up amid growing anger from climate activists over the disconnect between momentum on the streets and the slow progress of the global negotiations.

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

Blame Sunspots: Climate Science Denial Continues at Shale Gas Pipeline Industry Conference

— By Sharon Kelly (7 min. read) —

Last month, 11,258 scientists from virtually every country in the world published a study on climate change, writing that they collectively declared “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.”

Despite this widespread scientific agreement, shale pipeline executives attending this year’s Marcellus Utica Midstream conference last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, heard a very different message on the climate.

Argentina Wants a Fracking Boom. The US Offers a Cautionary Tale

— By Nick Cunningham (13 min. read) —

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez takes office in the midst of an economic crisis. Like his predecessor, he has made fracking a centerpiece of the country’s economic revival.

Argentina has some of the largest natural gas and oil reserves in the world and “possibly the most prospective outside of North America,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. If some other country is going to successfully replicate the U.S. shale revolution, most experts put Argentina pretty high on that list. While the U.S. shale industry is showing its age, Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale is in its early stages, with only 4 percent of the acreage developed thus far.

COP25: Anger Over Lack of Action for Vulnerable States as Climate Talks Conclude

— By Sophie Yeo (5 min. read) —

Climate activists have found plenty to be angry about at this year’s UN climate talks, which are scheduled to conclude in Madrid tonight. From youth groups to indigenous people, civil society has been more riled than in previous years, as the disconnect grows between momentum on the streets and the slow progress of the negotiations.

“It’s like two parallel worlds,” says Sara Shaw, part of the Friends of the Earth International delegation at the meeting, known as COP25. “It’s so stark, the contrast between climate breakdown, the potential of massive expansion of fossil fuels, using markets to game the system, the access polluters have to these talks when civil society is really marginalised. I think it’s just coming together in a huge amount of frustration at the injustice of it all.”

New Film Dark Waters Shines Light on Chemical Pollution History in Ohio River Valley

— By Sharon Kelly (8 min. read) —

Dark Waters, the new film starring Mark Ruffalo as attorney Rob Bilott, is set in the Ohio River Valley city of Parkersburg, West Virginia — a place about 150 miles downstream from where Shell is currently building a sprawling plastics manufacturing plant, known as an “ethane cracker,” in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Ruffalo’s film, directed by Todd Haynes, debuted to critical acclaim, earning a Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating of 91 percent, with The Atlantic calling it a “chilling true story of corporate indifference.”

COP25: Over 40 Gulf State Delegates Are Current or Former Employees of Fossil Fuel Companies

— By Richard Collett-White (3 min. read) —

Gulf states have sent at least 42 current or former employees of the fossil fuel industry to the UN climate summit in Madrid as part of their official delegations, DeSmog analysis shows.

More than half of the delegation from Kuwait and almost a third of Saudi Arabia’s representatives attending the Madrid meeting, known as COP25, are associated with the oil and gas industry. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar collectively sent at least 16 delegates associated with the fossil fuel industry.

COP25: Climate Science Deniers Attend on Behalf of Trump-Affiliated Lobby Group

— By Richard Collett-White (4 min. read) —

A US thinktank with close ties to Donald Trump has obtained accreditation for a delegation of climate science deniers to the UN summit currently underway in Madrid.

Organisations accredited to attend on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received significant funding from oil giant ExxonMobil and the Koch family, include the UK’s Centre for Policy Studies, the Chicago-based Heartland Institute and the European Institute for Climate and Energy.

COP25: Polluting Companies Blamed for Slow Progress at UN Climate Talks

— By Sophie Yeo (4 min. read) —

Big polluters are to blame for slow progress in the annual UN climate negotiations in Madrid, Spain, according to activists — with several companies sponsoring the talks in exchange for tax breaks.

Sponsors of the talks, known as COP25, include the electrical utilities company Iberdrola, which produced 24.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, and Endesa, which through its operations produced 61.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to analysis.

Since Paris Agreement, Global Financial Firms Have Sunk $745 Billion into New Coal Plant Development

— By Dana Drugmand (3 min. read) —

BlackRock, Vanguard, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase are among the top global financers of new coal development, according to new research presented during the United Nations climate summit in Madrid.

That research, published by the German NGO Urgewald along with BankTrack and 30 partner organizations, reveals and ranks the financial institutions sinking money into the dirtiest form of fossil fuels in the three years since the Paris Agreement was signed. The research shows hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed to 258 coal plant developers between January 2017 and September 2019 in the form of loans, investments, and underwriting.

Carbon Majors Can Be Held Liable for Human Rights Violations, Philippines Commission Rules

— By Isabella Kaminski, Climate Liability News (5 min. read) —

The world’s biggest polluters could be held legally liable for their contributions to climate change, a major national inquiry into the links between climate and human rights has concluded.

The Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights announced its conclusion on Monday following a nearly three-year investigation into whether 47 of the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms — known as the Carbon Majors — could be held accountable for violating the rights of its citizens for the damage caused by global warming. The commission was responding to a 2016 petition from Greenpeace South-East Asia and other local groups.

Mark Mathis is the president of Clear Energy Alliance (CEA), a company that produces videos and documentaries promoting fossil fuels and comparing climate change to Y2K. Mathis is a former TV news reporter and anchor and has done consulting work for the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico. He has a history of claiming “we have no idea” what impact fossil fuels have on the climate, which he continued at a recent shale gas pipeline industry conference in Pennsylvania.

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