Centre for Climate Reporting

A Trump administration nominee has abruptly withdrawn his candidacy for a senior role at an international trade agency amid scrutiny of his relations by marriage to a Russian family with extensive ties to the Kremlin and work for a major steel company co-owned by one of  Russia’s richest oligarchs.

The campaign chief credited with masterminding Donald Trump’s 2024 victory claimed to have secretly advised the conservative Liberal Party on strategy ahead of Australia’s upcoming general election, according to footage obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and German non-profit media outlet, Correctiv.

But that didn’t stop Hardy, who also served as acting director for three years during Trump’s first term, from attending CERAWeek in March. He told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that the agency was already shifting its focus: “Our approach is looking at all energy projects and not being hamstrung by only renewables as happened in the last four years,” he said.

Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

US officials have missed recent international climate forums sparking concerns about a potentially significant shift from Donald Trump’s first term, a review of meeting records and interviews with meeting attendees by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the Guardian show.

The world’s biggest consulting firm found that its clients were on a trajectory to bust global climate targets, details of internal forecasting in 2021 uncovered by the Centre for Climate Reporting and the Guardian reveal. McKinsey & Company has worked with some of the world’s biggest emitters, including many of the largest fossil fuel producers.

Two giant, mirrored walls are set to rise out of the sands of the Arabian desert. They will run parallel for more than 100 miles from the coast of the Red Sea through arid valleys and craggy mountains. Between them, a futuristic city which has no need for cars or roads will be powered completely by renewable energy. This engineering marvel, its creators say, will usher in “a revolution in civilization”.

Since 2019, McKinsey has submitted hundreds of pages of declarations while seeking to act in five cases in the US courts for clients which are navigating bankruptcy. Each one offers a snapshot into the firm’s vast rolodex of current and former clients. During the course of the bankruptcy proceedings, McKinsey is given a list of companies identified as “interested parties” in the case to ensure it can work with the “debtor” without conflict.

Last month, in the Presidential suite of a five-star hotel in Georgetown, Washington DC, two men – members of a wealthy family from New Mexico – anxiously awaited an important guest. The family’s patriarch, Joe, had hoped to be at the meeting but he was recuperating from surgery. He sent his brother, Tom, and his son-in-law, Edward, in his absence. Joe is a deeply religious man, concerned about the direction of America.

The president of  Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal. Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.