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Fossil Fuels

No, The US Doesn’t Need Fossil Fuels To Win ‘An AI Arms Race’

As the U.S. braces for a surge in artificial intelligence (AI)–related electricity demand, the natural gas industry has a message for the public: Fossil fuels must power the future’s data centers, the computer-filled warehouses where AI models like ChatGPT primarily train and deploy.  A range of oil and gas industry groups and industry-friendly nonprofits are making the case that AI’s growing hunger for power requires a robust fossil-energy scale-up, DeSmog has found. This massive deployment of dirty power is a national security necessity, they say. And Trump administration officials have embraced this message. But experts on renewable energy economics and deployment say this narrative is misleading. They posit that a new era of gas-powered data centers is neither necessary nor inevitable. 

Activists Target Starmer’s Back Yard Over Toxic Fossil Fuel Project

On Saturday 6 September, activists protested against Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oil field. Describing it as “toxic”, Fossil Free London (FFL) have warned that even ignoring the climate concerns, drilling Rosebank would be financially detrimental to UK citizens. They’ve also highlighted the links Fossil Free London drew attention to the protest in the London Borough of Camden, which is where you find Starmer’s constituency of Holborn and St Pancras. The group said in a press release: The action in Camden saw over a hundred activists gather outside council buildings in Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency with a giant melting planet earth ice-cream, as part of a coordinated effort across the country to send a clear message to the Prime Minister: pull the plug on the toxic Rosebank field for good.

Join Michigan Tribal Nations In Opposing Line 5 Tunnel

Canadian oil corporation Enbridge is proposing a massive, six-year construction project to build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac—a location of immense ecological, cultural, and spiritual significance. The plan includes installing towering 400-foot cranes, flooding the area with round-the-clock artificial lighting, and disrupting one of the most pristine freshwater environments in North America. The consequences would be severe. Critical fish habitats would be destroyed, access to fishing—both commercial and subsistence—would be limited, and the construction site would cast light pollution across a designated dark sky park. The towering machinery would be visible from iconic landmarks like Mackinac Island.

The Global Plastics Treaty Process Has Fallen Flat

Progress towards a legally binding global treaty on plastics pollution stalled and went into reverse this week. The United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, ran overtime. It’s likely to conclude this evening, without agreement. This is an incredibly disappointing result. As a member of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, I was hoping for action to genuinely curb plastic pollution. Our priorities included considering the whole life cycle rather than just disposal, setting targets to reduce plastic production, and regulating the use of harmful additives to reduce risks to human health. Unfortunately, vested interests hijacked the negotiations.

Launching A Global Campaign Against The Insurers Of Israel’s Genocide

This September, activist groups across five continents plan to strike two of the world’s most powerful insurance companies: AXA and AIG. Together, they are launching a powerful wave of global resistance with a synchronised campaign of disruption. The aim is to expose the companies’ role in fueling genocide, climate destruction, and social collapse. Under the banner ‘Insure Our Survival‘, thousands of campaigners in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas will take action from 8 September. Organisers are calling the wave of action a “coordinated global backlash” against the insurance giants underwriting fossil fuel expansion and weapons war criminal states are using in mass atrocities – particularly in Palestine.

New York Finalizes Rule For New Buildings To Be Electric

New York is now the first state in the U.S. to require new buildings to be built entirely electric, without hookups to fossil fuels including gas, the New York State Assembly reported. The rule was initially passed in 2023 as the All-Electric Buildings Act and was finalized with the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council’s approval in late July 2025. According to the new mandate, residential buildings up to seven stories tall and commercial or industrial buildings up to 100,000 square feet with building permit applications for initial construction approved on or after Dec. 31, 2025 will be required to meet the requirements by that date.

BlackRock Pivots From Sustainability Evangelists To Fossil-Fuel Funders

In 2016, Larry Fink, CEO of investment firm BlackRock, had no doubts about the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG): “Over the long term, ESG issues – ranging from climate change to diversity to board effectiveness – have real and quantifiable financial impacts”, he wrote in a letter on corporate governance in 2016. The CEO of the world’s largest asset-management company has since changed his mind: “The reason I backed away from using the term ESG is that it means something different to everyone. It’s so undefined that it’s become unmentionable”, Fink said in 2023, as a guest on the Wall Street Journal podcast “Free Expression”.

Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Giant Eni Can Move Forward

This week, Italy’s highest court ruled that a climate lawsuit brought by Greenpeace Italy and advocacy group ReCommon against Eni can move forward. In the decision, released on Monday, the court rejected Italian oil and gas company Eni’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, and ordered that the case be heard on its merits by the Court of Rome. “This decision means that the lawsuit is legitimate, that the plaintiffs have the right to bring it, and that the Italian judge has a duty to rule on it,” Alessandro Gariglio, lawyer for Greenpeace Italy, said in an interview with DeSmog.

While JP Morgan Promises ‘Net Zero,’ Billions Flow To Big Oil

Assume you are an existing JP Morgan (JPM) customer, or you are interested in the bank’s sustainable-investment strategy. Googling the words “sustainable” and “JP Morgan” will bring up a number of blog posts from the JPM website, along with others on specialised media outlets that relay the company’s press releases. One article published on the company’s website in October 2020 is titled “JPMorgan Chase Adopts Paris-Aligned Financing Commitment.” The investment firm declared that it would align not only its investments but also its operational footprint with the Paris Climate Agreement.

UN Expert Urges Criminalization Of Fossil Fuel Disinformation

United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights Elisa Morgera on Monday presented a new report to the General Assembly calling for the criminalization of spreading disinformation regarding the climate crisis, as well as a complete ban on fossil fuel lobbying and advertising by the industry. In The imperative of defossilizing our economies report, Morgera argues that the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and other rich fossil fuel countries are legally bound by international law to phase out gas, oil and coal by the end of the decade, in addition to compensating communities for the harms caused.

Climate Activists Protest At Headquarters Of Global Ad Giant WPP

Climate campaigners turned out on Wednesday in London to occupy the lobby of UK-based communications giant WPP, demanding that the company stop working for the fossil fuel industry. As demonstrators inside staged a “die-in” — wrapping themselves in shrouds emblazoned with logos of Shell, BP, and other WPP clients — a grim reaper figure in front of the building climbed atop a mock-up of an oil rig and set off a plume of black–coloured smoke. Protesters also unfurled a 15-metre banner in front of the building which declared “WPP are climate criminals, ban fossil fuel advertising”.

Three Years Could Be Left To Limit Warming To 1.5 Degrees

Leading climate scientists are warning that the timeframe to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is shrinking, and the world could have just three years left to prevent breaching this limit. Experts warn the threshold could be passed within the next few years, with Piers Forster, director at the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at University of Leeds, noting that “Things are all moving in the wrong direction” with global heating and sea level rise, as reported by BBC. Forster lead a recent study with more than 60 leading climate scientists from around the world that determined countries have continued to “burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests,” which has left the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement at risk.

Family Sues Fossil Fuel Giants For Wrongful Death

In a legal first, a Washington state woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, seeking to hold them accountable for the death of her mother during an unprecedented heatwave that scientists say would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change. Misti Leon filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court against ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company. She alleges the companies are liable for the death of her mother, Juliana Leon, who died of hyperthermia after being exposed to extreme heat in June 2021.

Youth Sue Trump Administration To Block Fossil Fuels Over Renewables

A new youth climate lawsuit by 22 Americans aged seven to 25 alleges that the Trump administration is engaging in unlawful executive overreach by issuing executive orders that intentionally boost the production of fossil fuels while frustrating the growth of renewable energy. In Lighthiser v. Trump, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, the youth plaintiffs say the administration’s actions violate their constitutional rights to life, health and safety and breach congressional mandates to safeguard public health and ecosystems. “Trump’s fossil fuel orders are a death sentence for my generation,” said named plaintiff Eva Lighthiser in a press release.

Green Goals, Dirty Fuel: Europe’s Fertiliser Industry Bets On Shale

The coastal city of Freeport, Texas is a dense tangle of metal pipes, tanks and towers. Located 60 miles south of Houston, it’s home to a sprawling petrochemical complex – one of the largest and most polluting in the United States.    Among its facilities is a plant dedicated to the production of ammonia, a colourless compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, and a key ingredient in fertilisers widely used on industrial arable farms – including on fields of barley, wheat and maize across Europe. Chemicals giants Yara and BASF opened the “world-scale” factory to great fanfare in 2018, promising “cost-efficient” and “sustainable” ammonia production.
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