Phoebe Cooke

Europe’s Waterways Under Threat from Mining Lobby The EU’s flagship water law is under threat amid a concerted lobbying blitz from the mining industry. New analysis by DeSmog reveals sector meetings with EU officials tripled in the year before the re...

🔴 NEW 🔴

Europe’s Waterways Under Threat from Mining Lobby

Industry meetings w/ EU officials tripled ahead of release of EU Commission strategy doc pledging to 'review and revise' the Water Framework Directive

📝 by @rachelsherrington.bsky.social w/ @euobserver.com

www.desmog.com/2026/03/10/e...

How the ‘Galapagos of West Africa’ was Plundered by Floating Fishmeal Factories The only ice factory in Bubaque is out of service. Local fishermen, like Pedro Luis Pereira, are forced to source ice from factories on the mainland in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, some 70 kilometres a...

🚨 NEW 🚨
How the ‘Galapagos of West Africa’ was Plundered by Floating Fishmeal Factories 

www.desmog.com/2026/03/08/h...

📝 @damancini.bsky.social

With @desmog.com in collaboration with @theguardian.com

Nigel Farage To Be Paid £27,000 to Speak at Pro-Trump U.S. Think Tank Nigel Farage is preparing to fly more than 3,000 miles from his UK constituency to address an anti-climate U.S. think tank with close ties to Donald Trump’, DeSmog can report. For an estimated 12 hour...

🔴 NEW 🔴

Nigel Farage Paid £27,000 to Speak at Pro-Trump U.S. Think Tank

www.desmog.com/2026/02/26/n...

📝 @phoebecooke.bsky.social & @adambarnett.bsky.social

Tory-Linked Climate Denial Group Seeks Funds in Trump’s America An anti-net zero lobby group with ties to the Conservative Party held an event in the United States to raise funds for its pro-fossil fuel agenda, DeSmog can report.  Net Zero Watch (NZW), which campa...

🔴 NEW: Tory-Linked Climate Denial Group Seeks Funds in Trump’s America

www.desmog.com/2026/02/24/t...

📝 @adambarnett.bsky.social

AI vs. Net Zero: The UK’s Next Climate Battle As a data centre construction boom sweeps the UK, creating soaring electricity demands that threaten to decimate climate targets, opportunist politicians and commentators are using this new phenomenon...

🔴 AI vs. Net Zero: The UK’s Next Climate Battle

Opponents of climate action are taking advantage of the AI boom to attack the government’s clean energy goals.

@rtakver.bsky.social

Reform Candidate Matthew Goodwin’s MAGA Network Matthew Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election, has ties to influential groups in the orbit of U.S. President Donald Trump. Goodwin, a GB News presenter and forme...

🔴 NEW - Reform Candidate Matthew Goodwin’s MAGA Network

“Anti-elite” GB News presenter standing in Gorton and Denton has ties to powerful anti-climate groups allied to Donald Trump.

📝 @adambarnett.bsky.social

Trump Accused of Trying to ‘Divide and Destabilise’ Europe Through New MAGA Fund Plans by the Donald Trump administration to fund right-wing groups in Europe have been slammed by policymakers and campaigners as an effort to “usurp European democracy”. According to the Financial Ti...

🔴 NEW - Trump Accused of Trying to ‘Divide and Destabilise’ Europe Through New MAGA Fund

UK and EU leaders have been called upon to “reject” MAGA’s “foreign interference”.

📝 @adambarnett.bsky.social, @clarecarlile.bsky.social & @writesbright.bsky.social

MAGA Gathers in European Parliament to Attack EU Laws BRUSSELS – Groups aligned with Donald Trump’s administration rallied against “online censorship” and “extreme environmentalism” as they took to the stage at an event held in the heart of the European ...

🔴 NEW - MAGA Gathers in European Parliament to Attack EU Laws

The European far-right rubbed shoulders with pro-Trump groups in Brussels.

I was in the room so you didn’t have to be (and be glad you weren’t)

For @desmog.com

www.desmog.com/2026/02/06/m...

MAGA Gathers in European Parliament to Attack EU Laws BRUSSELS – Groups aligned with Donald Trump’s administration rallied against “online censorship” and “extreme environmentalism” as they took to the stage at an event held in the heart of the European ...

🔴 NEW - MAGA Gathers in European Parliament to Attack EU Laws

The European far-right rubbed shoulders with pro-Trump groups in Brussels.

📝 @joeygrostern.bsky.social

EU Plans to Weaken Pesticide Rules ‘Unlawful’, Experts Say Plans by the European Commission to scrap routine checks on pesticide safety would break EU law, according to a new legal opinion published today (27 January).  The Commission announced plans in Decem...

🔴 NEW | EU Plans to Weaken Pesticide Rules ‘Unlawful’, Experts Say

Parliament has “a legal and moral obligation to reject these dangerous proposals”, says Dutch MEP @anjahazekamp.bsky.social following today’s legal opinion

📝 @clarecarlile.bsky.social👇

www.desmog.com/2026/01/27/e...

Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads Amsterdam city council has passed a legally binding ban on advertising for fossil fuels and meat products across public spaces in the city, becoming the first capital in the world to prohibit such ads...

🔴 NEW: Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads

www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...

📝 @ellen-ormesher.bsky.social

Number of UK newspaper editorials arguing for more (blue) and less (red) climate action, 2011-2025. Some editorials also present a “balanced” view, which is categorised as advocating for neither “more” nor “less” climate action. These editorials are not represented in this chart. Source: Carbon Brief analysis.

NEW – Analysis: UK newspaper editorial opposition to climate action overtakes support for first time | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @sylviahayes.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/eAPkvkx

‘Utterly Shameless’: Tory Energy Chief Backs ‘Nonsense’ Anti-Net Zero Reports Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has endorsed two new anti-climate reports that have been rejected by experts and government bodies. On 12 January, Coutinho launched a report by en...

🔴 NEW - ‘Utterly Shameless’: Tory Energy Chief Backs ‘Nonsense’ Anti-Net Zero Reports

The people behind the reports are tied to the fossil fuel industry and climate science denial groups.

📝 @adambarnett.bsky.social

Nigel Farage Accepted £10,000 Gifts from Petrostate Reform UK leader Nigel Farage received freebies worth £10,000 from the Abu Dhabi government, new records show. Farage’s latest register of interests shows that he accepted flights and accommodation to...

🔴 NEW - Farage accepted £10k in gifts from the Abu Dhabi government.

The UAE is a petrostate and Farage is a climate science denier leading a pro-oil party...

🐟 NEW 🐟

Salmon giant Mowi is a market leader in Scotland, where it operates 48 farms in ‘cold and clear’ Highland waters

But locals & fishers living nr several sites complain of ‘invasive’ noise & smells, and say the company just doesn’t ‘give a damn'

@brigitte-whl.bsky.social for @desmog.com👇

🔴 NEW 🔴

The world’s largest salmon producer Mowi stands accused of a charm offensive in the Scottish Highlands that distracts from its “polluting, smelly and invasive” fish farms, say local residents and fishers, in what used to be “pristine” Highlands lochs.

with @desmog.com

This is what you don't hear every time this junktank appears on the BBC.
*Why not?*
Great exposure by Sam and @desmog.com

The Institute of Economic Affairs Banked £640,000 from Oil Giants and Murdoch The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) – the anti-state, anti-climate pressure group – received more than £640,000 from fossil fuel companies and Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate between 1957 and ...

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The Institute of Economic Affairs Banked £640,000 from Oil Giants and Murdoch

“Groundbreaking investigation” reveals how the IEA has campaigned against climate action after taking cash from fossil fuel firms.

📝 @writesbright.bsky.social

🔵 As Trump critiques Europe's ‘decaying’ countries, this epic map joins the dots between his allies at the US climate science denial group Heartland Institute and its deep connections in Europe…

📝 by @adambarnett.bsky.social for @desmog.com

‘Divide and Conquer’: Inside the Oil and Gas Strategy to Thwart EU Green Laws A public relations firm for major U.S. polluters worked to dismantle EU laws that require large corporations to make plans for cutting emissions. The PR company Teneo undertook its work on behalf of t...

🔴 ‘Divide and Conquer’: Inside the Oil and Gas Strategy to Thwart EU Green Laws

U.S. fossil fuel majors led efforts to ensure corporations would not have to introduce climate action plans.

📝 @clarecarlile.bsky.social

NEW | A single carbon removal project at a biomass power station In the UK could cost £30 BILLION in government subsidies.

This would cost more than the UK government plans on spending for carbon capture programmes over 25 years.

https://loom.ly/XibxT4k

EU conservatives vote with far right to weaken forest protections It’s the second time the EPP has sided with far-right groups to weaken environmental rules this month.

The center-right European People's Party voted with right-wing and far-right lawmakers in the European Parliament today to back a proposal to delay by a year and weaken the EU's anti-deforestation law.

If you read one thing today…

Incredible months-long investigation by @lauravilladiego.bsky.social for @desmog.com & @euobserver.com delves deep into the ‘sustainability’ claims of EU’s 1.5 billion euros exports scheme, exposing a string of deeply misleading narratives.

Dive in here 👇

Pesticide Industry 'Hijacked' Climate Stage at COP30, Campaigners Say Syngenta and other pesticide companies used the COP30 climate conference in Brazil to promote programmes to recover damaged pastureland that campaigners fear will drive increased use of toxic…

🚨New: At COP30, the pesticide industry has been making big pledges to fight deforestation by turning Brazil's over-grazed pasturelands into new areas to grow crops. Small-holders fear it's all just a ploy to sell more of the toxic chemicals poisoning nature and harming human health. buff.ly/Yc8qocr

Backed by Industry, Brazilian Hosts Seek COP30’s Blessing for Biofuels With the clock running down at the COP30 climate talks, the Brazilian hosts are working hand-in-hand with industry groups to secure backing for biofuels in the final text – despite fears that scaling ...

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Backed by Industry, Brazilian Hosts Seek COP30’s Blessing for Biofuels

📝 @clarecarlile.bsky.social & Maximiliano Manzoni

www.desmog.com/2025/11/20/b...

More Than 300 Lobbyists for Industrial Agriculture Attend COP30 Presence of high-polluting companies erodes trust in the UN process, say campaigners.

NEW: > 300 lobbyists representing industrial agriculture have attended this year’s UN climate talks taking place in the Brazilian Amazon, where the industry is the leading cause of deforestation 1/
👇
www.desmog.com/2025/11/18/m...

More Than 300 Lobbyists for Industrial Agriculture Attend COP30 Presence of high-polluting companies erodes trust in the UN process, say campaigners.

🔴 NEW 🔴

More Than 300 Lobbyists for Industrial Agriculture Attend COP30

Presence of high-polluting companies erodes trust in the UN process, say campaigners.

www.desmog.com/2025/11/18/m...

📝 @rachelsherrington.bsky.social & @ninalakhani.bsky.social 👇

Cop30: calls for new urgency to talks as studies show global warming may reach 2.5C – latest updates As the summit goes into its second week, complex issues remain with anxiety growing over conference outcomes

Absolutely terrible news of another Indigenous land defender killed in Brazil as #COP30 takes place

- Vicente Fernandes Vilhalva, a 36-year-old Guarani Kaiowá leader, was shot dead on Sunday morning

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Overhauled EU Climate Law Faces New Threat from Consultancy Giants This investigative work had been supported by the Centre for Investigative Journalism The European Parliament voted on Thursday (13 November) to significantly dilute key elements of Europe’s climate a...

🔴 Overhauled EU Climate Law Faces New Threat from Consultancy Giants

After MEPs voted to gut Europe’s flagship climate transparency law, concerns are mounting that the Big Four will dominate and dilute corporate sustainability audits.

U.S. Oil Executives Flock to COP30 Top American oil and gas producers are using trade groups to gain access to this year’s COP30 climate summit in the absence of an official U.S. delegation, DeSmog can report. ExxonMobil and Chevron — ...

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U.S. Oil Executives Flock to COP30

Access by major polluters ExxonMobil and Chevron to the summit is proof that Big Oil still holds “a dangerous sway” over the climate process, campaigners say.

📝 @phoebecooke.bsky.social

www.desmog.com/2025/11/14/u...