Around The Web

Activists block trade at Billingsgate fish market and target headquarters of energy company Shell to ‘raise awareness’

Climate protesters on Saturday intensified efforts to disrupt life in London, and targeted sites including Billingsgate fish market and Shell’s headquarters. They said police took at least 28 of their supporters into custody. That number means that more than 1,200 Extinction Rebellion activists have been arrested in London since their protests, over the government’s “failure” to act over climate change, were launched last Monday.

And those detained include Belgian Princess Esméralda who was taken into a police van for questioning and held for about five hours after she joined a sit-in at Trafalgar Square on Thursday. “The more people from all sections of society protest, the greater the impact will be,” the 63-year-old said. Other protests launched on Saturday included one by more than 50 healthcare professionals – wearing scrubs and singing the Extinction Rebellion anthem – who gathered outside Shell’s headquarters before they marched to Parliament Square. “We are meeting outside Shell because they are one of the biggest companies involved in the oil and energy industry, and they have real power to decarbonise that industry,” said Alex Turner, 36, a paediatric and emergency doctor from Bristol. “We are protesting illegal levels of air pollution.”

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State Street chief says it could use shareholder powers to force boards to act on climate

The world’s biggest fossil fuel companies must take action on climate change or their directors could face being voted out of their jobs, the head of one of the world’s leading asset managers has warned.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Ron O’Hanley, the chief executive of State Street, said his firm could consider taking the radical step of voting against the reappointment of entire company boards if they were not taking sufficient action to deal with the climate crisis.

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Everything you need to know about the polluter portfolios worth hundreds of billions

Asset managers invest other people’s money with the aim of growing their client’s wealth and protecting them from financial risk. By pooling lots of investors’ money they can reduce the risk to them by spreading it across a range of asset classes: stocks, property, bonds, commodities and other funds. Asset managers make money by taking a fee for providing these services to their clients.

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Ambitious plans have not been matched by progress, but there may finally be signs of change

• Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions

It was the largest renewables project ever announced: $200bn (£158bn) worth of solar panels stretching across hundreds of square kilometres of the Saudi Arabian desert.

The massive solar initiative was billed by the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as a “huge step in human history” when it was unveiled in March last year. It was cancelled by October.

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Data reveals crucial role of BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard in climate crisis

The world’s three largest money managers have built a combined $300bn fossil fuel investment portfolio using money from people’s private savings and pension contributions, the Guardian can reveal.

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, which together oversee assets worth more than China’s entire GDP, have continued to grow billion-dollar stakes in some of the most carbon-intensive companies since the Paris agreement, financial data shows.

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At rally in Denver, Swedish activist again scolds leaders for ignoring science

Young people must be prepared to strike for a long time for action on climate change and not back down, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has told a rally in Denver.

Thunberg said she and fellow youth activists would not beg those in power to act because she expected leaders to keep ignoring them.

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Dyson abandoned multi-billion dollar plan to build its own “fantastic” electric vehicles in Singapore.

The post Dyson abandons multi-billion dollar electric vehicle project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Four people, all aged 77, among nine protesters arrested and charged at Launceston protest

Four Tasmanians aged in their late 70s are among a swag of climate activists charged over a protest in Launceston.

About 100 people attended the Extinction Rebellion protest in Launceston on Friday and police say most were well-behaved, but nine refused to move on when the demonstration’s permitted time ran out.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

The UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) passed two noteworthy milestones this month, as countries prepare to determine whether to wind up the project-based carbon finance programme.

California regulator ARB may not begin the process of updating its WCI forestry protocol until next year as it completes work on various regulatory priorities in the final quarter of 2019, several sources told Carbon Pulse.

This week, how actual straw could replace straws in the war on waste; how one farmer is recovering from the devastating NSW fires; and how debt is crippling parts of rural and regional Australia.

The EU is battling to curb surging illegal imports in potent Chinese-made F-gases, with smugglers set to bring in products this year with more global warming impact than the greenhouse gas emissions of a mid-sized European country.

Drought policy debate stretches on, dam debate kicks on, water meetings hear community concern, new plant burger.

As a week of civil disobedience comes to an end, protesters explain the environmental fears that have driven them to action

As Extinction Rebellion held protests in cities around Australia this week, Guardian journalists tracked down protesters to find out who they were and why they were taking part in acts of civil disobedience. Here, 11 people who took part in protests in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne explain what motivated them to take to the streets.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford violated environmental law when he abruptly cancelled the Canadian jurisdiction’s WCI-linked ETS last summer, a provincial court said in a split ruling on Friday that will not have a material impact on the province’s current climate policy.

Activists say corporation’s ‘silence is deadly’, while Met commissioner faces criticism of police tactics

Camped outside the main entrance of New Broadcasting House on Friday morning, Extinction Rebellion (XR) supporters called on the broadcaster to “tell the full truth” about the climate crisis, as the number of arrests linked to its protests since Monday rose to more than 1,100.

Protesters held a banner stating: “BBC, your silence is deadly”, and chanted: “Whose BBC? Our BBC”, and: “BBC, can’t you see, this is an emergency”.

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The experts tell us that small, easy changes alone will not be enough to combat climate change.

The "necklace" injuries, many caused by discarded plastic waste, are becoming more common, says the RSPCA.

A stockpiling squirrel, a lolling black bear, and a greater bilby is returned to the wild

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