A new biofuel factory in Australia was at the forefront of BP’s efforts to go green under former boss Bernard Looney.

Indeed, BP Australia’s boss Frederic Baudry describes the country as the ‘poster child’ of the FTSE 100 giant’s highly ambitious global energy transition strategy.

So what becomes of the plant in Kwinana south of Perth following Looney’s departure last week – for failing to disclose personal relationships with staff – will say much about BP’s future under new leadership.

For 65 years, the site provided a steady source of employment, and fuel, to generations living in this small industrial offshoot in Western Australia. 

But with planes grounded and cars sitting idle in driveways during the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for fuel collapsed, further squeezing profit margins.

BP shut the plant, laying off 600 workers, and converted the site into an import terminal to ship in cheaper fuel from overseas.

Two years on, the site is on the cusp of being repurposed again to spearhead the oil major’s pivot from hydrocarbons to renewable energy. 

It has been earmarked for a new generation of fuel refinery, one which makes sustainable aviation fuel with raw materials such as used cooking oil or household waste, and renewable diesel using vegetable oils, animal fats and other biowaste products.

With construction expected to get under way next year, BP hopes it will be its first global biofuel project off the blocks, powering planes, trucks and cars.

If all goes to plan – and it’s a big if – BP reckons it will be producing hydrogen from 2026 and at a sufficient scale to begin exporting it by the end of the decade. 

With its natural bounty of sun, wind and space, Australia is seen as an ideal place to generate wind and solar power, despite its remoteness.

During Looney’s tenure, Australia moved up the pecking order, behind the US and the UK, with projects worth tens of billions of dollars in the pipeline.

Some of the projects being planned are mind-boggling in scale, and would be out of the question in smaller, more densely populated European countries. 

One of the biggest is being spearheaded by BP in the Pilbara region of North Western Australian, best known as the country’s iron ore heartlands.

In June last year BP bought a 40.5 per cent stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, which envisions covering around 2500 square miles of outback, an area roughly the size of Devon, with more than 1,700 wind turbines up to 950 feet high, and 18 giant solar farms. 

And all dedicated to generating electricity to produce ‘green hydrogen’, before adding nitrogen to convert it into ammonia to make it easier to export.

The renewables push has been encouraged by Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labour government, which swept to power last year on the back of bold pledges to tackle climate change.

The firm has already received $70million in federal government funding for the hub in Kwinana.

But at an event in London earlier this year, Baudry warned the Albanese government that more government support is required to give BP the confidence to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into turning its ‘shovel ready projects’ into a reality.

But with the departure of Looney, the driving force behind the company’s green ambitions, some shareholders dismayed by BP’s focus on renewable energy, which they believe has come at their expense, have been offered a glimmer of hope.

BP has been the worst performer of all the global oil majors, with its shares rising 10 per cent since Looney became chief executive in February 2020 compared with a rise of more than 25 per cent at Shell.

David Hewitt an analyst at Liberum said the company now has the opportunity to ‘reverse the overzealous pivot to lower returning renewables’ and refocus on what BP does best.

BP has already watered down its energy transition plan to an extent, announcing earlier this year that it would aim to cut oil production by a quarter by 2030 instead of by 40 per cent.

Russ Mould from AJ Bell believes a further retreat is off the cards for now, particularly with Murray Auchincloss – Looney’s former finance chief – as interim chief executive. 

But Mould speculated that BP may temper its green ambitions if oil prices remain elevated for a long time, or if high inflation deters households and businesses from switching to more expensive, and potentially less reliable, forms of renewable energy.

BUSINESS LIVE: Fears of 3,000 job losses at Port Talbot’s Tata steel plant

By Live Commentary

Updated: 02:51 EDT, 15 September 2023

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Beyond Meat sales plunge as demand for plant alternatives fades

• Reported revenue was down by 30.5% year-to-year at $102.1m from April to June 
• California-based company adjusted its full-year revenue forecast to $360-380m

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 09:40 EDT, 8 August 2023

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A teen was left with a blister as big as an orange and struggling to dress himself after a moment of contact with ‘Britain’s most dangerous plant’.

Ross McPherson reckons he brushed past the dreaded giant hogweed while cycling near his home in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland.

A few hours later, he noticed his hand turning red – and soon after it erupted in painful blisters that needed hospital treatment.

The blisters then had to be removed without anaesthesia, subjecting the 16-year-old to so much pain that he fainted.

‘I was riding my bike and I must’ve just brushed past it,’ said Ross. ‘It would’ve been seconds.

‘When I first noticed it, my hand was just red and slightly painful. I didn’t know what it was. It felt warm.’

Soon after, the blisters emerged.

He said: ‘The skin was swollen around my hand, it felt warm and it hurt.

‘It impacted daily life quite a lot: I couldn’t put clothes over it and, because it was over my joints, I couldn’t really use my left hand.

‘It felt like having a giant balloon on my hand that was susceptible to pain at any point in the day.’

He added: ‘I could barely get my coat off, I could barely put jumpers or t-shirts on; it was unusable basically – I couldn’t do anything with it.

‘I had smaller blisters over the knuckles, so moving my fingers was also excruciating, so I didn’t really do that either.’

Ross said his hand was initially assessed by his GP, who diagnosed contact dermatitis.

But he would ultimately be treated at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary after visiting its A&E department.

The teenager had a mixture of second and third-degree burns.

He described the pain as ‘absolute hell’.

He said: ‘The person we saw thought originally that we would have to go to the burns unit in Livingston to get it done.

‘But they told her just to do it in the Royal Infirmary, so she cut like a line in it and drained the fluid.

‘Some of it was jelly so she opened it up and pulled the jelly out, and she cut around all the dead and blistered skin, and pulled it off – there was quite a lot of it.

‘You’re not on anaesthetic because they need to make sure the nerves aren’t damaged and that you’re feeling it – because in the more serious cases that can happen.

‘It was absolute hell. It hurt so much. I fainted during it, it was that bad.’

When it was burst, the biggest blister was the size of an orange.

Ross said: ‘The largest one was seven centimetres by eight centimetres. It was like an orange.

‘It was heavy; I could feel the weight of it on my hand continuously.’

The giant hogweed’s sap stops the skin protecting itself against the sun’s rays, leading to gruesome burns when exposed to natural light.

Part of what makes it so dangerous is that it usually causes no immediate pain, so its victims can continue to burn in the sunshine heedless of any problem.

And it only takes a moment of exposure for the sap to do its work.

Now Ross’ hand is healing up, but he’ll be living with the after-effects for some time.

He said: ‘It’ll remain sensitive for years and years, but they can’t give an exact number.

‘They said put factor 50 sunscreen on it for the next couple of years, or a glove in the winter if possible.’

The giant hogweed is native to the Caucasus, but was introduced to Britain as an ornamental plant in 1817, and its spread has now got out of control.

Mike Duddy, of the Mersey Basin Rivers Trust, said in 2015 that the giant hogweed was ‘without a shadow of a doubt, the most dangerous plant in Britain’.

If exposed to the plant, you should thoroughly wash the area that made contact and keep it out of sunlight for a few days, the Woodland Trust advises.

Ross was unambiguous that it was giant hogweed he encountered, but a spokesperson for East Lothian Council said they’d been unable to locate it.

They said: ‘Suspected giant hogweed was reported to us in Dunbar and on investigation of the location provided it was concluded it was in fact common hogweed.

‘Every report of giant hogweed is fully investigated and actioned if it is on council land.

‘Members of the public are requested and encouraged to report giant hogweed to us via the website or calling the council contact centre so that these plants can be dealt with as they appear.’

A spokesperson for NHS Lothian said they could not comment on a patient’s care without their consent.

Russia may be plotting to blow up Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Kyiv has warned, after explosions at a major dam and hydroelectric plant caused mass flooding in the Kherson region and sparked a humanitarian disaster.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant is the largest nuclear power facility in Europe, and sits roughly 80 miles up the Dnieper river from the Kakhovka dam, which was heavily damaged in explosions on June 6. 

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, fears of a nuclear disaster have been sparked on several occasions when the plant was shelled and was temporarily disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid some six times.

Those fears rose again when Ukrainian officials said the Zaporizhzhia power plant may be affected by the destruction of Kakhovka dam, whose water provides vital cooling for the nuclear reactors. 

Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom later assuaged those fears when it declared that the Zaporizhzhia facility’s cooling pond was full and had enough reserves to manage. 

But Zelensky‘s top security official Oleksiy Danilov later said Putin’s next step may be to attack the Zaporizhzhia plant, which could result in catastrophic nuclear consequences.

With the help of Darya Dolzikova and Jack Watling of the RUSI think-tank, MailOnline examines whether Russia could – or would – risk destroying Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. 

Could Russia blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant?

Yes. The power plant – Europe’s largest – sits on ground that is currently occupied by Russia and its troops are stationed at the plant. They are thought to have mined it, and have stored ammunition and explosives in and around the reactor buildings.

In April this year, a Russian mine exploded near the engine room of the fourth nuclear reactor, according to Ukraine’s nuclear power agency.

As Ukraine has built up towards its counter-offensive, more Russian units have been moved to the plant and defensive positions have been built on the roof. There are currently more troops at the plant than civilian staff.

Russian forces could therefore set off either a deliberate or accidental explosion at the site.

Would Russia blow up the plant?

Potentially. Russian officials responsible for the occupation of Ukraine do think in these terms, they have debated it, and it could offer some value to them.

The fact that it would cause suffering to Ukrainian civilians, Russian soldiers at the plant, and potentially fallout inside Russia itself should not be viewed as a deterrent.

Russian authorities have repeatedly warned about the risks of a dirty bomb attack in Ukraine or false-flag attacks on the plant, creating a pretext to blame Kyiv for any disaster.

There is no indication that Moscow has decided whether or not to sabotage the plant, but it does indicate Kremlin military planners are keeping the option on the table.

Why would Russia blow up the plant?

If Ukraine’s troops were to break through Russian defensive lines in the south, then sabotaging the plant could help to slow or stop the advance.

Blowing up the plant would force Ukrainian troops to deal with the fallout – which would almost certainly affect several major cities – rather than continue their attack.

The effects of the fallout could also deny Ukrainian troops an avenue of advance for future attacks.

Or Russia could stop short of causing an explosion.

Setting in motion events that would lead to disaster – such as turning off power to the cooling systems – would force Ukrainian troops to divert to deal with it, slowing them down.

Russia may also reason that threatening destruction of the power plant may be enough to force Ukraine to alter its battle plans to avoid the area.

Moscow could use the threat of disaster at the plant as a way to pressure Ukraine’s western allies, without having to resort to nuclear weapons.

The possibility that Russia may manufacture a radiological incident at the power plant to spoil a Ukrainian offensive should not be disregarded.

What would be the fallout from the disaster?

While the Chernobyl nuclear disaster looms large in people’s minds, the effects of a disaster at Zaporizhzhia would likely be in line with what happened at Fukushima.

In that incident, an earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of several reactors at the Japanese plant and an explosion which breached one of the containment buildings.

Though not on the scale of the Chernobyl blast of 1986, it still resulted in the evacuation of 100,000 as a result of radioactive contamination in the areas around the reactor.

In the case of Zaporizhzhia, the nuclear plant is located less than 10 miles from the city of Nikopol which had a pre-war population of 115,000 and would almost certainly be affected.

The city of Zaporizhzhia itself is less than 35 miles away and housed 750,000 people before the war, while Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih – which together accounted for some 1.5million people – are within a 70-mile radius.

Experts have previously warned that prevailing winds at the plant could easily carry the fallout into Russian-occupied areas, and potentially into Russia itself.

Fears of a nuclear meltdown are growing in Ukraine as Vladimir Putin evacuates towns near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, amid warnings that his troops have placed explosives and artillery at the site.

Moscow has evacuated 1,680 citizens, including 660 children, from areas around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ahead of Kyiv‘s much-anticipated counteroffensive to drive the Russian president’s troops back.

More than a dozen towns and villages have been evacuated near the front line in southern Ukraine, including the town of Enerhodar, which is home to the plant’s workers and their families. It was seized in the early days of Putin’s invasion.

Experts have warned that by placing weapons at the site, Russia is risking the plant being struck by Ukrainian artillery – and thus risking a nuclear meltdown.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said: ‘We must act now to prevent the threat of a severe nuclear accident and its associated consequences for the population and the environment.

‘This major nuclear facility must be protected,’ he said.

The warning from the UN came as Moscow launched a fresh wave of drone, missile and air strikes across Ukraine, hitting Kyiv and other key cities on Monday.

Moscow appears to be stepping up attacks while preparing for its cherished Victory Day holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

As many as 16 missile strikes had targeted the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, in addition to 61 airstrikes and 52 rocket salvos on Ukrainian positions and populated areas, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its morning update on the fighting.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed all 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones Russia had launched, the military said.

Kyiv’s mayor said at least five people were wounded in the capital amid damage to a fuel depot, cars, buildings and infrastructure.

‘Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded civilians, high-rise buildings, private homes and other civilian infrastructure were damaged,’ the military said.

A food warehouse was set ablaze in the Black Sea city of Odesa.

As air-raid sirens sounded across the country on Monday, Dr Patricia Lewis – a nuclear physicist who leads the international security program at Chatham House – also issued a warning about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

She said that there are concerns that Russia could attack Ukrainian positions from around the plant, prompting Kyiv’s forces to fire back.

‘The IAEA – the director general – reported just a few days ago that they’ve been seeing weapons and artillery and explosives being moved into the power plant,’ she said, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

‘This is the real worry that we have – that they will fire from the power plant and then what will the Ukrainians do? Because they do not want to fire at the power plant.’

The IAEA said earlier that such clashes around the plant threaten catastrophe.

Dr Lewis explained that if power to the plant is cut for example if power line to the plant is struck by a shell, this risks a nuclear meltdown.

The plant has back-up power sources, including diesel generators, which have kicked into gear on previous occasions when the site lost power.

However, these can only last so long. In the event that they run out of fuel and the plant is left without any source of power, a disaster could occur.

‘There is a lot of equipment [the mitigate this risk of disaster]. Some of it can be done automatically but of course making decision in the heat of battle is the critical thing,’ Dr Lewis said. 

‘You only have a limited supply of diesel. You’d have to make sure that you were able to bring in more diesel which you might not be able to,’ she told the programme.

‘So the big worry then is that the power supply would fail. And according to [Petro Kotin] who is the head of the Ukrainian atomic energy establishment – he said it would take a few hours to a day for things to get really serious and possibly have some melting in the reactor. Before we have a Fukishima.’

‘This is really irresponsible of Russia to do this,’ she added.

For months, both sides fought tirelessly around Europe’s largest power station, which remained staffed by Ukrainian employees under Russian control until September.

The plant at Zaporizhzhia is one of the ten biggest in the world and was responsible for nearly half the nuclear output of Ukraine’s four reactors. 

Ukrainian forces had little luck trying to recover the plant after the initial invasion, with rockets from both sides coming dangerously close to hitting the station.

Ukraine has warned since that damage to the structure risks a ‘Chernobyl-style’ catastrophe.

In September, the IAEA were able to inspect the integrity of the plant. 

Both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of trying to sabotage the IAEA mission.

Mr Grossi, who has continued to visit the site for Russian-organised inspections, has said the ‘plant and physical integrity of the plant’ had been ‘violated several times’.

In April, it was reported that dissenting plant workers – who refused to keep the plant active for Russian forces – had been the victims of torture during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Zelensky last week called for Putin to be tried in the Hague for ‘criminal acts’. 

The news comes as Ukraine gears up for a spring counter-offensive, breaking the winter deadlock with a push into occupied regions in the south and east. 

Writing earlier this morning, Mr Fedorov said that ‘Under the guise of a contrived ‘evacuation’, the occupiers are preparing real provocations. 

‘The humanitarian catastrophe caused by the sick fantasy of the Rashists [‘Russian fascists’] is no less real.’

He added later that ‘the occupiers promise the residents of the front-line territories golden mountains – comfortable accommodation at the captured recreation centres of Kyrylivka and Berdyansk.’

MailOnline was unable to verify the evacuation of Ukrainian refugees to the seaside beach-facing settlements – though eyewitnesses have echoed the reports.

LB.ua reported Saturday that locals were hiding their children as Russian occupants tried to evacuate them, in some cases without their parents, to recreation centres in Kyrylivka and Berdyansk.

The independent Ukrainian outlet said law enforcement agencies had confirmed the claims.

Mr Fedorov added: ‘In fact, only [some] of the evacuees are brought to the coast – they are settled among the collaborators and the military. Others are taken to continental Russia.’

He said that Ukrainians evacuated from Kherson last year had found themselves later unable to return to Ukraine.

Russian state media confirmed the evacuation of the 18 occupied regions on Friday.

Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive this spring to break to winter stalemate.

In April, Pentagon leaks revealed American officials doubted the ability of Ukraine to wage an effective assault.

But in recent days, Russian confidence has looked more exposed as Wagner Group threatened to withdraw from the contested city of Bakhmut in the east.

Russia has said it is ready to replace Wagner Group forces with Akhmat special forces from Chechnya in recent days – though experts warn the effectiveness is likely overstated.

The fresh attacks come as Moscow prepares for Tuesday’s Victory Day parade, a key event for President Vladimir Putin who has evoked the spirit of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, having accused Ukraine of being in the grip of a new kind of fascism.

Ukraine and its allies say the accusation was a baseless pretext for Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February, 2022, which resulted in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two, killing thousands and forcing millions to flee the country.

‘We must always be prepared for enemy treachery and defence,’ Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia stepped up shelling of Bakhmut, hoping to take it by Tuesday, Ukraine’s top general leading the besieged city’s defence said, after Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from it.

Three people were injured in blasts in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two when drone wreckage fell in the Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s centre, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Kyiv’s military administration said drone wreckage fell on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of the capital’s two passenger airports, drawing emergency services there, although there was no fire.

Drone debris seemed to have hit a two-storey building in the central district of Shevchenkivskyi, causing damage, it added.

Reuters witnesses said they heard numerous explosions in Kyiv, with local officials saying air defence systems were repelling the attacks.

Flames had completely engulfed a large structure identified as a food warehouse in pictures posted on Telegram by Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, after what he said was a Russian attack.

After air raid alerts blared for hours over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, media said explosions sounded in the southern region of Kherson and southeastern Zaporizhzhia.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Zaporizhzhia, said Russian forces hit a warehouse and Ukrainian troops’ position in the small city of Orikhiv. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.

Separately, Russian forces shelled eight spots in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, the regional military administration said in a Facebook post.

Strikes have also intensified in the past two weeks on Russian-held targets, especially in Crimea.

Ukraine has not confirmed any role in those attacks but it says destroying enemy infrastructure is preparation for its long-awaited ground assault.