June 24th 2024, marked the third Anniversary of the wrongful arrest and imprisonment in Vietnam of the environmental lawyer and climate justice advocate, Dang Dinh Bach.
June 1st, 2024, the grand opening day, came and went —but nothing actually happened. It was the latest of many proposed start dates that have come and gone over the years.
The highly controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was meant to start a year ago, then last month, and finally, on June 1st. Again, that deadline was missed.
Tokyo is hosting the “Japan Energy Summit” this week, from June 3-5th. Even in the hyperbolic world of high-level meetings, this summit has lofty ambitions. It promises to accelerate “Japan’s energy transition through innovation and global connections.”
The disconnect is terrifyingly stark. Last week, the Guardian newspaper reported that the “World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, with the planet heading for at least 2.5C of warming “with disastrous results for humanity."
Japan is continuing to drive the expansion of fossil fuels across Asia and is derailing the transition to renewable energy. This harms communities and ecosystems, undermines energy security, and worsens the climate crisis. The facts speak for themselves.
Last month, it was widely reported that another chapter in Shell’s dirty and disastrous eighty-seven-year operations in the Niger Delta was coming to an end, with the company selling its onshore business.