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#Budget2015: Welfare for Fossil Fuels, Austerity for the rest

#Budget2015: Welfare for Fossil Fuels, Austerity for the rest

This blog was written jointly with Greg Muttitt of Oil Change International Today, Osborne announced massive tax breaks and subsidies for North Sea oil companies. A new £1.3 billion in subsidies will be handed to oil companies, with the burden transferred to the public. £1.3 billion could cover the costs of employing another 20,000 nurses...
A manifesto for Energy beyond Neoliberalism

A manifesto for Energy beyond Neoliberalism

We’ve written a manifesto titled Energy beyond Neoliberalism: “This is a call for energy democracy. Not energy security or energy separation. A survivable and just energy future means breaking the grip of elite interests on our energy systems, ending dependency, increasing autonomy, building diverse power structures through which we can hold one another to account,...
Pumping Revenue into Israel's coffers: the Israeli-Jordan Gas Deal

Pumping Revenue into Israel’s coffers: the Israeli-Jordan Gas Deal

Our new report reveals just how much money Jordanian electricity users will be contributing to Israeli budgets – if the proposed gas import deal goes ahead. In September 2014, the Jordanian National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed an agreement with Noble Energy to import large quantities of gas from Israeli-controlled East Mediterranean waters. The proposed...
تقرير يكشف عن خسائر تقدر على الأقل بـ 10 مليار دولار نتيجة لفساد صفقات تصدير الغاز في عصر مبارك

تقرير يكشف عن خسائر تقدر على الأقل بـ 10 مليار دولار نتيجة لفساد صفقات تصدير الغاز في عصر مبارك

خسرت مصر نحو 10 مليار دولار من إيرادات الغاز من 2005 إلى2010، وفقا لتقرير صدر اليوم عن المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية و بلاطفورم بعنوان “فساد تعاقدات الغاز في عصر مبارك“، فقد سمحت العقود المبرمة في عصر مبارك بتصدير مليارات الأمتار المكعبة من الغاز إلى الأردن وأسبانيا وإسرائيل بأسعار بخسة. واستخدم تقرير المبادرة المصرية الصادر مؤخرا...

Egypt lost $10 billion in corrupt gas contracts, as daily blackouts spread

Egypt lost $10 billion in gas revenues from 2005-2011, according to a report launched yesterday by EIPR and Platform. Contracts signed during the Mubarak years allowed the export of billions of cubic metres of underpriced gas to Jordan, Spain and Israeli-occupied Palestine. Some of the individuals behind these deals were convicted of corruption. EIPR and...
Cameron's floods response? Drill baby, drill!

Cameron’s floods response? Drill baby, drill!

The flood-waters are slowly receding. Communities across the country are still struggling to regain a sense of normality after the wettest winter on record. Questions are being raised about extreme weather in the UK, how prepared we are to deal with it, and whether or not this is a taster of things to come. You’re...

Letter in Evening Standard on fossil fuel subsidies and floods

by Kevin Smith, Platform Unedited version of the letter here: Ed Milliband is entirely right to critique David Cameron for breaking his promise to deliver “the greenest government ever.” Failing to act now on climate change, like the government’s cuts to flood defences, is a prime example of how spending cuts don’t equate to saving...
التكالب على بترول مصر

التكالب على بترول مصر

فى مقر نادى مرتفعات القطامية، وسط المروج الخُضر المشذبة وملعب الجولف، ناقش مديرون تنفيذيون من جنسيات مختلفة، جنبا إلى جنب مع مسئولين حكوميين اتفاقيات من شأنها تحديد مآل مليارات الدولارات؛ هل تستقر فى خزائن خاصة أم تذهب للخزانة العامة. تغييرات بسيطة فى عقد واحد قد تؤدى إلى إحداث فارق يزيد على الخمسة مليارات من الدولارات،...
Osborne's tax breaks for North Sea oil and a Thatcherism flashback

Osborne’s tax breaks for North Sea oil and a Thatcherism flashback

Back in the 70s, the UK and Norway took two very different approaches to the roughly equal share of North Sea oil and gas that they had within their territorial waters. With state-owned oil company Statoil at the helm, Norway cautiously put aside profits and levies from other oil companies operating within its fields into...
Bust-up between Aliyev and BP reveals corporate profiteering as Azeri oil peaks

Bust-up between Aliyev and BP reveals corporate profiteering as Azeri oil peaks

Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, gave a speech last week accusing oil company BP of “false promises” and “gross mistakes”. In a country where regime and corporation are closely intertwined – and almost symbiotic – what is going on behind the political theatre? Why the public outburst? Aliyev revealed that Azerbaijan had lost $8 billion in...
Out in the Cold: Investor Risk in Shell's Arctic Exploration

Out in the Cold: Investor Risk in Shell’s Arctic Exploration

Royal Dutch Shell’s plans for Arctic exploration are exposing investors to a ‘spectrum of risks’, this new report by Platform, Fairpensions, and Greenpeace warns. Download the report (pdf) and investor briefing or read online below. The report highlights Shell’s failure to address key concerns for investors and environmentalists: • Spill response plans are inadequate –...

Uganda demands end to oil clause that freezes weak regulation

The Ugandan government is insisting that British oil company Tullow Oil, France’s Total and Chinese group CNOOC drop the stabilisation clause from their oil contract of Lake Albert before approving the $10 billion oil project. The original contracts were leaked by PLATFORM in 2010. Meanwhile Ugandan opposition MPs are unhappy that Museveni’s government allowed disputes...