Climate crisis will not be discussed at G7 next year, says Trump official.

Donald Trump.

The climate crisis will not be formally discussed at the G7 summit in June next year, Donald Trump’s acting White House chief of staff said on Thursday.

“Climate change will not be on the agenda,” Mick Mulvaney told reporters, without elaborating.

Mulvaney announced that the 2020 summit of seven of the world’s most powerful industrialised countries will take place at the National Doral Miami, one of the president’s golf resorts in Florida, despite widespread ethics concerns and an ongoing impeachment inquiry into Trump’s conduct.

From weakening regulation on vehicle emissions to blocking warnings about how coastal parks could flood and withdrawing funding for conservation programs, the Trump administration is accused of consistently ignoring, burying and undermining climate science.

Read the story from The Guardian by Emily Holden - “Climate crisis will not be discussed at G7 next year, says Trump official.”

Climate sceptic group IPA suggested as co-host of Australian visit by Trump's environment chief

An organiser of Scott Pruitt’s Australian
  visit suggested the Institute of Public
Affairs should be a co-host. 

The climate sceptic thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs was mooted as a co-host of an Australian visit by Donald Trump’s beleaguered Environment Protection Agency head, Scott Pruitt, which may have included discussion with local officials on whether environmental deals should be changed or cancelled.

Emails released to the US environment group the Sierra Club under freedom of information laws show that Matthew Freedman, a Washington consultant who describes himself as “a close personal friend” of the Australian environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, played a central role in organising Pruitt’s proposed August trip before it was cancelled when Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas gulf coast.

In the US, the emails are of interest as evidence that Pruitt relied on business figures and lobbyists to plan and justify his overseas travel. They were first published by the New York Times.

Read Adam Morton’s story from The Guardian - “Climate sceptic group IPA suggested as co-host of Australian visit by Trump's environment chief.”

‘Extreme' fossil fuel investments have surged under Donald Trump, report reveals

Bank holdings in “extreme” fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump’s first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found.

A Shell tailings pond at a tar sands operation
near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year with a return to energy sources dubbed “extreme” because of their contribution to global emissions. This included an 11% hike in funding for carbon-heavy tar sands, as well as Arctic and ultra-deepwater oil and coal.

US and Canadian banks led a race back into the unconventional energy sector following Trump’s promise to withdraw from Paris, with JPMorgan Chase increasing its coal funding by a factor of 21, and quadrupling its tar sands assets.

Chase’s $5.6bn surge in tar sands holdings added to nearly $47bn of gains for the industry last year, according to the report by NGOs including BankTrack, the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

Read the story from The Guardian by Arthur Nelson - “‘Extreme' fossil fuel investments have surged under Donald Trump, report reveals.”

Hey Earth, You Just Got Burned

"Donald Trump" at the Rose Garden.

Ten thoughts on Donald Trump’s middle finger to Mother Earth - “Hey Earth, You Just Got Burned.”