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Generating 80% of electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind power

Increasing the number of electric vehicles (EVs) to around 1 million by 2030, including 1,500 electric buses

Increasing the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources for heating homes and businesses

Reducing emissions from the public sector by 51% by 2030 with Green Teams in every public body

Increasing land that is farmed organically to 350,000 hectares

Reducing the use of chemical nitrogen fertiliser to 325,000 tonnes per year

Reducing food waste by 50% by 2030

(Citizens Information, 2021)

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Whole species of plants and animals face extinction if current trends continue.

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hen Royal Dutch Shell published its annual environmental report in April, it boasted that it was investing heavily in renewable energy. The oil giant committed to installing hundreds of thousands of charging stations for electric vehicles around the world to help offset the harm caused by burning fossil fuels.

On the same day, Shellissued a separate report revealing that its single largest donation to political lobby groups last year was made to the American Petroleum Institute, one of the US's most powerful trade organizations, which drives the oil industry's relationship with Congress.

Contrary to Shell's public statements in support of electric vehicles, API's chief executive, Mike Sommers, has pledged to resist a raft of Joe Biden's environmental measures, including proposals to fund new charging points in the US. He claims a "rushed transition" to electric vehicles is part of "government action to limit Americans' transportation choice".

Shell donated more than $10m to API last year alone.

And it's not just Shell. Most other oil conglomerates are also major funders, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, although they have not made their contributions public.

The deep financial ties underscore API's power and influence across the oil and gas industry, and what politicians describe as the trade group's defining role in setting major obstacles to new climate policies and legislation.

Critics accuse Shell and other major oil firms of using API as cover for the industry. While companies run publicity campaigns claiming to take the climate emergency seriously, the trade group works behind the scenes in Congress to stall or weaken environmental legislation.

Earlier this year, an Exxon lobbyist in Washington was secretly recorded by Greenpeace describing API as the industry's "whipping boy" to direct public and political criticism away from individual companies.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and strident critic of big oil's public relations tactics, accused API of "lying on a massive industrial scale" about the climate crisis in order to stall legislation to combat global heating.

"The major oil companies and API move very much together," he said.

Whitehouse said the oil and gas industry now recognizes it is no longer "socially acceptable" to outright deny climate change, and that companies are under pressure to claim they support new energy solutions that are less harmful to the environment. But that does not mean their claims should be taken at face value.

"The question as to whether they're even sincere about that, or whether this is just 'Climate is a hoax 2.0', is an unknown at this point," he added.

Shell has defended its funding by saying that while it is "misaligned" with some of API's policies, the company continues to sit on the group's board and executive committee in order to have "a greater positive impact" from within. The petroleum firm claims that its influence helped manoeuvre API, which represents about 600 drilling companies, refiners and other interests such as plastics makers, toward finally supporting a tax on carbon earlier this year.

With Biden in the White House and growing public awareness of global heating, there are signs API's influence may be weakening as its own members become divided on how to respond.

The major oil companies and API move very much together

Sheldon Whitehouse

The French oil company Total quit the group earlier this year over its climate policies. Shareholder rebellions are pressing Exxon and Chevron to move away from dependence on oil. Top clean energy executives at Shell quit in December over the pace of change by the company.

API is also fighting a growing number of lawsuits, led by the state of Minnesota, alleging that the trade group was at the heart of a decades-long "disinformation campaign" on behalf of big oil to deny the threat from fossil fuels.

But despite threats to API's lasting influence, Whitehouse argues the trade organization represents the true face of the industry. Instead of using its considerable power to push for environmentally friendly energy laws, API is still lobbying to stall progress with the oil industry's blessing.

"Their political effort at this point is purely negative, purely against serious climate legislation. And many of them continue to fund the fraudulent climate denialists that have been their mouthpieces for a decade or more," Whitehouse said.

Since API was founded in 1919 out of an oil industry cooperation with the government during the first world war, it has evolved into a major political force with nearly $240m in annual revenue.

Its board has been dominated by heavyweights from big oil, such as Rex Tillerson, the Exxon chief who went on to become Donald Trump's secretary of state, and Tofiq Al Gabsani, the chief of Saudi Refining, a subsidiary of the giant state-owned Aramco oil giant. Al Gabsani was also registered as a lobbyist for the Saudi government.

API also hired professional lobbyists, including Philip Cooney, who went on to serve under George W Bush as chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality until he was forced to resign in 2005 after tampering with government climate assessments to downplay scientific evidence of global heating and to emphasise doubts. Shortly afterward, Cooney was hired by Exxon.

API came into its own as the realities of the climate crisis crept into public and political discourse, and the industry found itself on the defensive. The trade group, which claimed to represent companies supporting 10m jobs and nearly 8% of the US economy, played a central role in efforts to combat new environmental regulations.

In many cases, API was prepared to carry out the dirty work that individual companies did not want to be held responsible for. In 1998, after countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to help curb carbon emissions, API drew up a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign to ensure that "climate change becomes a non-issue". The plan said "victory will be achieved" when "recognition of uncertainties become part of the 'conventional wisdom'".

Much of this is the basis of several lawsuits against API. The first was filed last year by the Minnesota attorney general, Keith Ellison, who accuses the group of working alongside ExxonMobil and Koch Industries to lie about the scale of the climate crisis. The suit alleges that "previously unknown internal documents" show that API and the others well understood the dangers for decades but "engaged in a public-relations campaign that was not only false, but also highly effective" to undermine climate science.

The city of Hoboken in New Jersey is also suing API, claiming that it engaged in a conspiracy by joining and funding "front groups" that ran "deceptive advertising and communications campaigns that promote climate disinformation and denialism".

A protest against Shell in Zurich in 2015. Photograph: Reuters/Alamy

The lawsuits allege that API funded scientists known to deny or underplay climate changes, and gave millions of dollars to ostensibly independent organisations, such as the Cato Institute and the George C Marshall Institute, which denied or downplayed the growing environmental crisis.

"API has been a member of at least five organizations that have promoted disinformation about fossil-fuel products to consumers," Ellison alleges in Minnesota's lawsuit. "These front groups were formed to provide climate disinformation and advocacy from a seemingly objective source, when, in fact, they were financed and controlled by ExxonMobil and other sellers of fossil-fuel products."

It wasn't always this way.

When Terry Yosie joined API in 1988 as vice-president for health and environment, the trade group had spent years funding scientists to research climate issues after hearing repeated warnings. In 1979, API and its members formed the Climate and Energy Task Force of oil and gas company scientists to share research.

Yosie, who moved to API from the Environmental Protection Agency, controlled a $15m budget, part of which he used to give workshops on climate change by EPA officials and other specialists.

"I brought them together in front of oil industry senior level executives for the sole purpose of making sure this industry had some understanding as to what other significant stakeholders thought about climate change, where they saw the issue evolving, what information they were relying on," he said.

When Yosie left API in 1992, he believed oil the lobby group was still serious about addressing the growing evidence of climate change. But a year later, it disbanded the task force at the same time that Exxon abandoned one of the industry's biggest research programmes to measure climate change.

Yosie believes that confronted with the true extent of the looming disaster, API and the oil companies ran scared, choosing instead to pursue an agenda informed by climate denialism.

"As the climate issue began to move from the periphery to the centre stage, I think there was a collective loss of confidence in the entire industry, a fear that this was not a debate that was winnable," he said.

API and its financial backers founded a front organisation, the deceptively named Global Climate Coalition, to drum up purported evidence that the climate crisis was a hoax. In the late 1990s, the GCC's chairman, William O'Keefe, was also API's executive vice-president, a man who falsely claimed that "climate scientists don't say that burning oil, gas and coal is steadily warming the earth".

API and the GCC led attacks on Bill Clinton's support for the Kyoto protocol with a "global climate science communications plan" that misrepresented the facts about global heating.

The relationship between API and big oil remained exceptionally close throughout. Exxon's chief executive served on the lobby group's executive committee for most of the past three decades, and the two worked together in promoting denialism over the climate crisis.

The focus of API's efforts were on Congress, where it led the industry's opposition to policies, such as the 2009 cap-and-trade legislation to control carbon emissions.

"Most of the funding for the Republican party, and probably a very considerable amount of the big dark money funding behind the Republican party, comes out of the fossil fuel industry," said Whitehouse. Last year, API indirectly gave $5m to the conservative Senate Leadership Fund to back Republican election candidates (many of whom question climate science), and to the campaigns of members of the energy committees in both houses of Congress.

Growing public disquiet, and the departure of oil-friendly Donald Trump from the White House, shifted the ground for API. In March it launched a Climate Action Framework, which for the first time endorsed policies such as carbon pricing. It also stated its support for the Paris climate agreement.

API called the plan "robust" but others noted the lack of specifics and its sincerity was called into question when an Exxon lobbyist was caught on camera earlier this year saying that a carbon tax will never happen and that support for the measure was a public relations ploy intended to stall more serious measures.

And between API's lost support from Total, and the Shell executives who resigned in December over what they regarded as the company's foot-dragging on greener fuels, there are signs of shifting attitudes within the industry itself.

Shell and BP have said they will continue to review their support for API. Shell said that where it disagrees with API's position, the company "will pursue advocacy separately".

However, Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is sceptical that there has been any significant change in direction.

"I think it's fair to say that API and its prominent member companies have have a broadly shared goal, which is to keep the social licence of the oil and gas industry operating, and therefore enabling them to continue to extract oil and gas for as long as possible, as profitably as possible," he said.
This story is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of news outlets strengthening coverage of the climate story

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How a powerful US lobby group helps big oil to block climate action

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hen Royal Dutch Shell published its annual environmental report in April, it boasted that it was investing heavily in renewable energy. The oil giant committed to installing hundreds of thousands of charging stations for electric vehicles around the world to help offset the harm caused by burning fossil fuels.

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Consequences of Inaction or Insufficient Change

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Consequences of Inaction or Insufficient Change

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It is important to recognise that climate change is a real problem that is here NOW. We can no longer think of it as something that is years away from becoming a problem. Callaghan et al. (2021) estimate that 85% of the world's population are already affected by climate change.

Environmental consequences:

More frequent and intense drought

storms

heat waves

rising sea levels

melting glaciers

warming oceans

(World Wildlife Fund, 2022)

Frozen soil known as permafrost will also begin to melt as a result of higher temperatures. Although methane accounts for a lower proportion of global emissions, it is found in abundance underneath this permafrost and once melting begins this methane will be released into the atmosphere creating an even larger greenhouse effect.

Climate change will eventually be felt by all of us but unfortunately those who suffer the most will be those who have contributed the least to the problem. We all have a responsibility to address this issue immediately in our daily lives and to advocate for change when when politicians fail to meet environmental goals.

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Callaghan, M., Schleussner, C.-F., Nath, S., Lejeune, Q., Knutson, T. R., Reichstein, M., Hansen, G., Theokritoff, E., Andrijevic, M., Brecha, R. J., Hegarty, M., Jones, C., Lee, K., Lucas, A., Maanen, N. van, Menke, I., Pfleiderer, P., Yesil, B., & Minx, J. C. (2021). Machine-learning-based evidence and attribution mapping of 100,000 climate impact studies. Nature Climate Change, 11(11), 966–972. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01168-6

Citizens Information. (2021). Ireland's targets to reduce air pollution. The Climate Action Plan. https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/air/ireland's_targets_to_reduce_air_pollution.html

Climate Action Tracker. (2020). Global update: Paris Agreement Turning Point. https://climateactiontracker.org/publications/global-update-paris-agreement-turning-point/

Climate Change Performance Index. (2022). CCPI ranking 2022. https://ccpi.org/ranking/

Colorado Oil & Gas Association. (2019). Everyday products made possible by oil and natural gas. https://www.coga.org/factsheets/everyday-products-uses#comments

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. (2021). EU and International Climate Action. https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/428b3c-eu-and-international-climate-action/#

Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections 2020-2040.  Key Trends – Emissions projections out to 2030, p.8. https://www.epa.ie/publications/monitoring--assessment/climate-change/air-emissions/EPA-Irelands-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions-Projections-report-2020-2040v2.pdf

Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Ireland will not meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Action is needed now to meet 2030 EU targets. https://www.epa.ie/news-releases/news-releases-2021/ireland-will-not-meet-its-2020-greenhouse-gas-emissions-reduction-targets-action-is-needed-now-to-meet-2030-eu-targets.php

European Commission. (2020). Causes of climate change. Climate Action. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/climate-change/causes-climate-change_en

Iberdrola. (2022). How is climate change affecting the economy and society? https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/impacts-of-climate-change

King County. (2019). Climate change impacts in King County. https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/climate/our-changing-climate/impacts.aspx

McGreal, C. (2021). How a powerful US lobby group helps big oil block climate action. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/19/big-oil-climate-crisis-lobby-group-api

NASA Climate Kids. (2022). What is climate change? Earth Science Communications Team. https://climatekids.nasa.gov/climate-change-meaning/

Shafqat, W., Naqvi, S. A., Maqbool, R., Haider, M. S., Jaskani, M. J., & Khan, I. A. (2021). Climate Change and Citrus. In M. S. Khan, & I. A. Khan (Eds.), Citrus - Research, Development and Biotechnology. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95488

United Nations. (2022). Greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest levels in 2 million years. Climate Action. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change

United Nations. (2022). What is climate change? Climate Action. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Causes of climate change: Human vs natural. https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2021). Overview of greenhouse gases. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

What's Your Impact?. (2020). What is climate change? https://whatsyourimpact.org/climate-change

World Wildlife Fund. (2022). Effects of climate change. Impacts. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change#:~:text=More%20frequent%20and%20intense%20drought,on%20people's%20livelihoods%20and%20communities.&text=As%20climate%20change%20worsens%2C%20dangerous,becoming%20more%20frequent%20or%20severe.

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Now is the time to make a change. On an individual level we need to show initiative and take it upon ourselves to make lifestyle changes whether that be simple things like buying less imported foods, not shopping online and walking and cycling instead of using the car or selling our cars in order to buy electric and installing solar panels.

We must advocate and hold politicians and companies responsible if they are failing to act on climate policy or show urgency in making environmentally friendly changes.

There needs to be more dialogue between policy makers and those in food production, particularly farmers, in order to establish common ground. Change should not be seen as a threat by farmers but in order to avoid the sense of vilification, strategies should be put in place to allow for an adapted, climate friendly production process with subsidies o incentivise.

We, collectively, have the whole world in our hands and we must come together to ensure the next generations are introduce to a environmentally safe and sustainable world.

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Ireland have failed to meet our 2020 goal for cutting emissions. We are currently projected to cut emissions by 16.42% by 2030 which is well short of the 40% goal. The EPA (2021) believes the 2030 goal can be achieved but only if all the Climate Action Plan and policies are fully implemented.

The Climate Action Plan is still in its early stages so more time is needed to see if these goals are being met. There is an argument to be made that the 2030 targets are too far away to make a real impact. Lots of projected goals have been missed and it might be too late to reverse the damage if we aim for 2030.

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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (2021) recognises that climate change can be caused by natural processes These naturally occurring processes are:

Changes in the Earth’s Orbit and Rotation

Variations in Solar Activity

Changes in the Earth’s Reflectivity

Volcanic Activity

Changes in Naturally Occurring Carbon Dioxide Concentrations

Measurements of "ice cores, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, and by studying changes in the earth’s orbit around the sun" (EPA, 2021) have provided scientists with historical records of past climate trends dating back hundreds of years.

However, since the 1960s humans have overtaken natural causes in terms of influencing global temperatures with trends showing an increasing rise in temperature which can be directly attributed to human activity.

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Paris Agreement
This legislation from 2015 is a "legally binding, global agreement on climate change". The goal of the agreement is to keep global temperature increases to below 2°C. This number was chosen as it correlates to the temperatures that existed before the industrial age. The nations have also indicated their intention to achieve emission neutrality by 2050. Failure to meet the goals between now and 2050 can result in large fines for nations who do not make sufficient changes. The ultimate goal is to get warming to below 1.5°C.
2020 and 2030 Climate Targets
Binding annual GHG emission targets for Member States for the period 2013-2020. The targets concern emissions from transport, buildings, agriculture and waste sectors. The target that Ireland was aiming for in 2020 was a 20% reduction in emissions compared with the 2005 level. The 2030 target is to reduce emissions by 40%.
EU Emissions Trading Scheme

This scheme is currently in its fourth phase and is aimed at airlines, power stations and industrial plants that contribute large amounts of harmful emissions to the atmosphere. It involves a financial incentive to reduce greenhouse gases by putting a yearly cap on the amount that can be emitted. This cap decreases over-time with the goal of significantly reducing emissions.

(Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, 2021)

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Causes of Climate Change - Human Activity

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Causes of Climate Change - Human Activity

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The way we live our lives is contributing to the climate emergency we face today. Both humans and industry have failed to adapt to the need for new approaches to everyday living from transport to food consumption to fashion and beyond.

Minor changes have been made in recent years but, for the most part, we are still heavily relying on fossil fuels to keep the world turning economically and from a "healthy living" perspective. The reality is that this way of living is not sustainable in the long-term as evidenced by the average increase in global temperature of 0.2°C per decade (European Commission, 2020).

The daily negative human contributions to climate change are:

Burning of fossil fuels

Food production/mass consumption of meat

Importing of goods - clothing, food

Transport using

Deforestation

Air travel

Industries play a large part in blocking changes from being made. This comes from a business mindset where corporations are afraid of financial losses. This feeds into a short term outlook on climate change and undermines the severity of the issue.

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The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (2019) displays the above image on their website as a justification for the continued use of fossil fuels.

"Because of the wide variety of products made possible by oil and natural gas, the U.S. consumed approximately 7.3 billion barrels of petroleum in 2017."

Their acknowledgement of the large volume of oil consumption in America is frightening, especially when it is framed behind a message that aims to skew public opinion of oil and gas extraction and procurement. This paints a clear picture of the economic greed of corporate America which can be applied to other non-renewable energy conglomerates worldwide.

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"Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time" (NASA Climate Kids, 2022).

This means...
Weather patterns are changed by the warming of the earth's atmosphere, leading to extreme weather that threatens human existence.

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The greenhouse effect essentially means that natural and human related emissions of the greenhouse gases prevent the sun's heat from escaping earth's atmosphere. This causes an increase in the global temperature which in turn destabilizes the climate. The effects of this can be seen in the short term through extreme prolonged weather events such as droughts, flooding and strong winds.

The main Greenhouse Gases and their sources:

Carbon Dioxide - Burning fossil fuels, Deforestation, Solid waste

Methane - Farming and agriculture, production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil

Nitrous Oxide - Agricultural, Land use, Industrial activities, Combustion of fossil fuels and Solid waste

Fluorinated Gases - Industrial processes

(EPA, 2021)

"Greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest levels in 2 million years" (United Nations, 2022)

Greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in a 1.1°C temperature increase since 1800. The problem is getting worse and urgent action is needed to curtail emissions.