Climate data has been ‘disappeared’ in the US – along with the jobs numbers
It’s not just the jobs numbers that the US president doesn’t like – sacking the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics when he didn’t like what they said. But now, according to Grist climate data has also been “disappeared”.
According to Grist 400 experts working on National Climate Assessments were recently sacked and not long after the entire website that monitors the way climate change affected every part of the US, had vanished.
That’s 25 years of data, composed of congressionally mandated reports.
Gretchen Gehrke, who monitors US federal websites with the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative said it was “by far the biggest loss we’ve seen” and the “most approachable” resource proving how climate change affects people’s daily lives.
(Free speech, but not for thee.)
NSW Mining is allegedly misleading consumers
The Climate Integrity and Environmental Defenders Office has brought a complaint about NSW Mining to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for publishing public disinformation in an ad on The Coalface newspaper, claiming coal has a role to play in the transition through “mining responsibly”.
The mining lobby said coal is needed for energy security and that NSW coal is high quality.
The complaint said the ad leads to a false belief that coal is needed for essential services and a stable electricity supply when half of Australia already relies on other energy sources, especially renewables.
These numbers are projected to rise to 82 per cent by 2030, with the national electricity market coal fleet forecasted to retire by 2034-35. The complaint also said that “describing coal as high quality is misleading when all coal contributes to significant climate harms.”
The advocacy group likened the tactic to “the tobacco industry playbooks.”
Between the 1930s and 50s, the tobacco industry paid doctors to appear in advertisements to reassure people that smoking was safe.
Indigenous community claims stake in battery project
First Nations community group Wambal Bila has taken a 5 per cent long term equity stake in a stage 1 Wellington battery energy storage system (BESS) in NSW’s central west allowing the Wiradjuri people to continue to receive benefits from the battery.
The newly formed group) is a community-led corporation established by the local Wiradjuri community to manage the equity ownership in the project which has been renamed Bulabul Battery, Wiradjuri for “two acting together”. The organisation provides training, support and manages and distributes other benefits from the battery project to invest in culture, social and economic priorities for the community.
The project is delivered by independent power producers, AMPYR Australia, who offered the community an equity stake, which will include the right to a preferred, fixed annual return and a share of ongoing equity returns alongside other investors. It will also provide $300,000 to support the indigenous organisation’s establishment, as well as a similar stake in stage 2 of the BESS.
Jobs news
Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has appointed Amy Hogan as its executive manager of group sustainability and climate action.
Hogan was previously the head of ESG and sustainability at road developers Transurban and head of sustainability at Stockland.
Hogan said the insurance industry was pivotal to the “pressing challenges of climate change” and resilience.