The New York Times reports that a North Dakota judge has approved a $345 million verdict against Greenpeace in a suit over its protests against a pipeline. “Greenpeace has said the verdict could bankrupt it. The lawsuit was over the group’s role in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. . . . The verdict was reached last year after a bruising trial brought by the pipeline company Energy Transfer over Greenpeace’s role in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, an 1,172-mile pipeline that carries oil from North Dakota to Illinois.” The Guardian writes: “The jury found Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, including conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious [wrongful] interference. . . . The lawsuit stems from the pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017, when thousands of people demonstrated and camped near the project’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline as a threat to its water supply.” The Guardian is not behind a paywall – it’s worth reading the entire news item.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) reports that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on February 25th that would repeal a $4.5 billion programme that helps low- and moderate-income Americans reduce their energy bills through energy-saving upgrades. “H.R. 4758 would repeal the authorization for the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program, which covers part of the upfront expense of improvements, including adding insulation and air sealing, installing an efficient heat pump or heat pump water heater, or purchasing a very efficient clothes dryer. The rebates, administered by states and tribes, are specifically for low- and moderate-income households.”
A Financial Times newsletter wrote about the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. You may remember that most of that sector’s biggest names signed up to support the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. “It turned out that some of them were more committed to that ambitious journey than others. Last January, NZAM suspended operations following a series of exits by several of its biggest members, pending consultations on a new approach.” Well, all is not lost. “On Wednesday NZAM published an updated list of 254 members who have signed up to its revised commitment statement. That’s well down from the 331 it had at the start of last year. . . . Most of the big US asset managers are now conspicuously absent amid a Republican backlash against “woke” investing. This is a big loss, considering the unrivalled scale of the US asset management sector. The US is home to 15 of the world’s 20 biggest asset managers. . . . But most of the biggest ones outside the US are still members.” Asset managers have not followed the lead of their banker and insurer cousins. “The obvious answer is pressure from their big clients: long-term institutional investors such as pension funds, known in the trade as “asset owners”, which outsource much of their investment work to asset management companies. . . . While many in business and finance have tired of the net zero agenda, asset owners — especially in Europe — are growing more concerned about climate risks. In recent weeks, 53 of them, with an aggregate $3.7tn under management, signed an open letter to asset managers urging them to stay part of NZAM.”
Many relevant events are coming up – you can see the latest list in a post this week. If you know of an upcoming event that EiD readers should know about, please contact us. Let us know your view.
In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:
- The Man in Seat Sixty-One explains how to travel comfortably & affordably by train or ferry, rediscovering the pleasure, romance & adventure of the journey.
- Check out the Good Night Train website for the unique way to travel through Europe while you sleep. Check out this video: Sleeper trains — the future of travel? A Berlin startup is developing compact sleeper cabins, designed to make night trains cheaper and greener.
- World Walks provides us with walking holidays in Europe
- For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine in Europe and Australia, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website/
- Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 best cycling holidays in Europe in 2026‘
Carson McCullers (1917-1967), an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet known for her novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, gives us a lovely message this week: “There’s nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- Austrian aluminium maker AMAG receives €75 million EIB loan for cutting-edge research and development
- New EEA briefing on modernising Europe’s energy-intensive industries
- Europe’s carbon market under fire: industry pushes to weaken the EU ETS
- Applying Islamic finance can be a practical and ethical framework for financing the green transition
- Ukraine’s costly lesson: Europe’s energy security depends on local renewables
- Economists and environmental scientists: “You can’t agree on the route if you don’t agree on the map.”
- How models of open governance are being applied to climate finance
- S. retreat creates an opportunity for a new environmental alliance in the Americas
- Concrete without the carbon: how new materials could cut construction emissions
- China’s shift: “Climate action not a burden, but economic chance”
- Fossil fuels built much of the world in the 20th century but in this century we have better alternatives
Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 