‘Very concerning’: BP dilutes net zero targets as global retreat from green standards gathers pace

The oil giant’s new focus on fossil fuels signals another defeat for environmental, social and governance aims and has angered campaignersIn early 2020, Bernard Looney had one clear goal as the incoming chief executive of BP: to convince the world to see the oil company differently. For a time, he did exactly that.In a glossy, high-concept London campaign launch, the BP boss set out 10 new aims for the company, the most significant being BP’s transformation to a net zero energy company by 2050.Within months, he reinforced the rebranding with a pledge to cut the company’s oil and gas production by 40% from 2019 levels by the end of the decade.At the time, his strategy even won the approval of Greenpeace – a feat few oil executives can boast

The EU needs Britain as much as Britain needs it. Where is Starmer’s solidarity? | William Keegan

‘There ought to be not only a national esprit de corps, but a European esprit de corps.”This plea by the renowned barrister and lord chancellor FE Smith – who became the first Earl of Birkenhead – was made in the wake of the devastation caused by the first world war. Birkenhead, a friend of Churchill’s, died in 1930, shortly before the rise of Hitler and the subsequent outbreak of the second world war. Alas, no European esprit de corps in the 1930s!After 1945 there was a serious attempt to engender a European esprit de corps, with the Marshall plan and the formation of what was then the European Economic Community (EEC), popularly known as the Common Market.One of the founding fathers of the EEC was the French statesman Jean Monnet

Starmer steps into cabinet row over P&O to rescue global summit in London

Keir Starmer expressed his full confidence on Saturday in the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, after an explosive cabinet row cast fresh doubt over his Downing Street operation and threatened to overshadow a key international investment summit in London.Government sources said the prime minister and Haigh had spoken and made up on Saturday after Starmer appeared to rebuke her on Friday for branding P&O Ferries a “rogue operator” in a statement and then calling for customers to boycott the company in a subsequent media interview.The comments – and a description by the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, of P&O’s behaviour as “outrageous” when it sacked nearly 800 workers without notice in 2022 – led to reports that P&O’s parent company, DP World, had pulled out of Monday’s investment summit and shelved a £1bn infrastructure project at the London Gateway.The workers sacked in March 2022 were told of their fate by the company in pre-recorded Zoom video. They were told: “I am sorry to inform you that your employment is terminated with immediate effect … your final day of employment is today

P&O owner to attend UK investment summit despite minister’s criticism

DP World, the parent firm of P&O Ferries, will attend the government’s international investment summit on Monday.There were reports the company had pulled out of the summit, where it was expected to announce a £1bn investment in the UK, after the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, called for a boycott of P&O.On Saturday the Department of Business and Trade confirmed DP World will attend.Earlier, Keir Starmer rebuked Haigh for her comments, in which she described the firm as a “rogue operator”.Announcing new worker protections, Haigh said on Wednesday that she had boycotted the ferry company and told the Department for Transport not to have any dealings with either it or its owning group

Calls for investigation of Uber Eats and Deliveroo after raid on Bristol caravan camp

Migrant workers living in a caravan encampment raided by immigration enforcement officers have accused the Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from the hidden economy.The Observer reported in August that about 30 mainly Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats were living in dilapidated caravans in the centre of Bristol. Many claimed they were, in effect, earning below the minimum wage and could not afford to rent in the city.Last week, it emerged their roadside encampment was raided by immigration enforcement officers on 3 October, with 17 people arrested and 13 people taken to detention centres in London. They now face potential removal from the UK even though some of them have lived in the country for years