Search
34 RESULTS
-
Bill McKibben slams Shell sponsorship at Chatham House keynote on climate
More images available on request Contact: [email protected] — @platformlondon Speaking at the annual Chatham House climate change conference, keynote speaker Bill McKibben of 350.org said: I didn’t know Shell was sponsoring this conference when I agreed to do it, but I’m glad for the chance to say in public that Shell is among the most…
-
Shell’s climate marketing tricks
Have you seen all these new Shell ads? Billboards on high streets and tube stations celebrate Shell as a champion of climate action and “keeping-the-lights-on”. When she’s your age What’s the way to keep the lights on into 2050? Burn the rest of the world’s fossil fuels, of course. And look, she’s even got a…
-
Exciting week for ending the licence to spill
Why do BP and Shell need cultural institutions (Tate, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery), consumer brands (Lego, Waitrose) and universities? The simple answer is so that the rest of us think we need them. As the Tate’s lawyer explained BP’s sponsorship, if they didn’t think they were getting something out of it, they wouldn’t do…
-
BP and #IndyRef – the need to constrain corporate influence in our democracy
Around about 3.00 am on the morning of Friday 19th September, whilst anxiously watching the results come in on the Scottish Independence Referendum, we heard one of the commentators on STV ‘Scotland Decides’ explain his view that after months of the politicians being unable to help the voters make their decision, ‘business leaders’ had stepped…
-
Stolen dreams and the small people – BP, Russia & Deepwater Horizon
I’d wanted to to attend the BP AGM, but confined to my sick bed I had to make do with following it online. Watching the company webcast, reading the transcripts of the speeches and, most vitally, following the brilliant live-tweets of my colleagues Louise Rouse of ShareAction and Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace UK. In part…
-
Gas grabs and 5 questions to power at the Caspian Corridor Conference
The Euro Caspian Mega Pipeline is a massive infrastructure system designed to suck gas out of the Caspian into Western Europe. Construction of the pipeline involves politics and finance as much as it does concrete building materials, and the conference I’m about to go to is one in a series of events attempting to make…
-
Rich seams or dark pools? UCL and BHP Billiton
Last week we took part in an interesting afternoon of discussion at UCL called Rich Seams or Dark Pools? Fossil Fuel Funding and Research. The event was following in the wake of an internal controversy within UCL over Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton giving US $10 million to fund two new research bodies: the Institute…
-
9 Oct 2013 adminRepression in Azerbaijan
The London-based European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) is a well funded lobby group. The organisation is closely associated with the Aliyev regime and promotes the interests of this repressive government. TEAS use their wealth and connections to silence Azerbaijani voices. When they held a jazz reception at the Labour party conference Platform attended and brought with…
-
13 May 2013 annaThe battle of definitions: ‘no subsidies for the oil industry’
The oil and gas industry enjoys no subsidy from government, nor are we asking for any. – said last week by Oil&Gas UK CEO Malcolm Webb at the Oil Politics conference at Aberdeen University (I should mention that there were several more substantial conversations at this conference that I will take a little time to write…
-
Asking all the right questions? Tate à Tate Audio Tour
Last Tuesday, a group of 14 students from Middlesex University’s BA Fine Art course visited Tate Modern to do the Tate à Tate alternative audio tour. The group are studying on the module ‘Art and the Community’ with Loraine Leeson and Alberto Duman, and were booked in to come to Platform’s space afterwards for a…
