Energy bosses meet with Grant Shapps amid debate over future of net zero
UK energy chiefs will gather in Downing Street today to discuss net zero as a debate rages in both main parties about the future of green policies.
Industry leaders from EDF, SSE, Shell and BP will meet Grant Shapps, the energy security secretary, just days after the government announced it would grant more than 100 new oil and gas licences off the coast of Scotland – a move critics claim would drive “a wrecking ball through the UK’s climate commitments”.
Mr Sunak has defended the new licences, arguing that using domestic oil and gas saved “two, three, four times the amount of carbon emissions” than “shipping it from halfway around the world”.
However, he was criticised by those in his own party, including former energy minister Chris Skidmore, who said it was “the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time, when the rest of the world is experiencing record heatwaves”.
Mr Shapps is expected to highlight the government’s North Sea announcement as well as well as the steps it has taken to bear down on protests groups such as Just Stop Oil – whom the Tories are keen to portray as closely aligned to the Labour Party.
He is expected to say: “We need to send the message loud and clear to the likes of Putin that we will never again be held to ransom with energy supply. The companies I am meeting in Downing Street today will be at the heart of that.
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“Energy industry leaders can see that this government will back homegrown, secure energy – whether that’s renewables, our revival in nuclear or our support for our vital oil and gas industry in the North Sea.”
According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Shell UK plans to invest £20-25bn in the UK energy system over the next 10 years, while BP intends to invest up to £18bn in the UK to the end of 2030.
SSE plc have also announced plans to invest £18bn up to 2027 in low carbon infrastructure and National Grid plc will be investing over £16bn in the five-year period to 2026. EDF has outlined plans to invest £13bn to 2025.
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Oil drilling ‘consistent with net zero plan’
The meeting with Mr Shapps comes just weeks after the Uxbridge by-election sparked a debate within both parties over how to sell green policies to the public, after Labour’s narrow defeat was blamed on Sadiq Khan’s ultra low emission zone’s (ULEZ) planned expansion to outer London.
The result has prompted MPs on the right of the Conservative Party to appeal to the PM to rethink the government’s net zero commitments, with calls for delays to a number of targets – including putting back the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.
Another pressure bearing on Mr Sunak is over whether the government should keep its oil and windfall tax after BP last week reported £2bn in net profits.
The £2bn figure was in fact half the $5bn (£4bn) profit the firm achieved in the preceding three months in the first quarter of 2023.
The Liberal Democrats said that nevertheless, the “monster profits” would be a “nasty shock to families who couldn’t afford to heat their homes this year”.
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The party’s Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “The government shouldn’t be hoodwinked to remove the windfall tax by this profit drop. Let’s be frank, these are still huge.
“No family should go cold next winter because the government backed down on taxing the likes of BP.
“It is time to put the needs of struggling families and pensioners over the wallets of global oil firms.”
The government has said it will end the windfall tax on bumper oil and gas profits in 2028 if prices drop.
The windfall tax – 75% of North Sea oil and gas production profits – will continue for the next five years but if prices fall to historically normal levels for six months, the tax rate for oil and gas companies will return to 40%.
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Companies do not pay the full 75% or 40% rate as they can offset tax liabilities on investment they make.
The windfall tax, which is also known as the energy profits levy, has raised around £2.8bn to date and is expected to raise almost £26bn by March 2028, according to the government.
Asked about BP’s profits during a visit to Teesside’s transmission system gas terminal on Tuesday, Mr Shapps said: “I think what people want to know is that they [BP] are being properly taxed, and we’ve been taxing them 75% of their profits through this windfall tax, and that we’ve used that money to pay about £1,500 per household to cover people’s energy bills this last winter.
“It may not have felt that way, but [bills] would have been £1,500 on average higher if we hadn’t taxed the energy companies,” he added.
New filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal that several cryptocurrency firms and their executives made significant contributions to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund after the results of the 2024 election.
According to FEC filings made public on April 20 by the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams donated more than $245,000, Solana Labs donated $1 million, and software firm Consensys sent $100,000 in January 2025 to support the then-president-elect’s inauguration. Many major crypto firms had previously announced their support of Trump through donations to the inaugural fund, including Coinbase, Ripple Labs, Kraken, Ondo Finance, and Robinhood.
Altogether, the fund reported more than $239 million in net donations between Nov. 15 and April 20 from companies and individuals. These included $1 million from McDonald’s, $1 million from Meta, $1 million from Apple CEO Tim Cook, $1 million from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and various contributions from Delta Air Lines, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Nvidia, PayPal, Target, and Coca-Cola.
Since Trump took office on Jan. 20 and appointed Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency has dropped multiple investigations and enforcement actions against crypto firms, including those that donated to the president’s 2024 campaign or inauguration fund. In February, Uniswap reported that the SEC had dropped its probe into the firm, and Consensys founder Joseph Lubin said the agency had agreed to end a separate lawsuit.
Memecoins, stablecoin issuers, and future elections
Trump’s memecoin, launched on Jan. 17 on the Solana blockchain — along with his wife Melania’s, which was available a few days later — has many in the crypto industry and the US government questioning the president about conflicts of interest by capitalizing on his position. The president’s family is also behind the launch of World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm responsible for a US dollar-pegged stablecoin at a time when lawmakers are considering legislation to regulate the technology.
In addition to the Consensys case, the SEC said it intended to drop enforcement actions or investigations into Ripple, Kraken, Robinhood and Coinbase. The three firms donated a combined $9 million to the inauguration fund.
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The 2024 US election cycle saw crypto-backed political action committees (PACs) spending more than $131 million to influence races in crucial congressional districts. The Fairshake PAC has already said it had more than $100 million available, in part from contributions from Coinbase and Ripple, to spend on the 2026 midterms.
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Crypto casinos generated more than $81 billion in revenue in 2024, even as regulators in key jurisdictions continued to block access to the platforms, according to a new report.
Citing data from the anti-online-crime platform Yield Sec, the Financial Times reported that wagers paid in crypto in 2024 generated $81.4 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR). This metric refers to the difference between bets taken and winnings paid out.
Yield Sec data also showed that the annual revenue for crypto casinos has increased five times since 2022, despite gambling sites being blocked in the United States, China, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Crypto casino Stake rivals traditional betting platforms
Betting platform Stake reported that its GGR in 2024 was around $4.7 billion, up 80% since 2022. This puts it on a par with some of the biggest gambling groups, such as Entain and Flutter. Entain reported $5 billion, while Flutter reported $14 billion in revenue in 2024.
Stake offers traditional casino games, including blackjack, roulette and slots. The platform also allows users to bet on sports. Users on the betting platform generally transact in crypto, with account balances being deposited and withdrawn directly into crypto wallets.
In 2023, the crypto betting platform was hacked, with $41 million withdrawn from its wallets. On Sept. 4, 2023, security firms flagged suspicious outflows from the platform. The company then confirmed the hack through social media, saying there were unauthorized transactions from its Ethereum and BNB Chain hot wallets.
On Sept. 7, 2023, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said the $41 million hack was executed by the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
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Gamblers access illegal sites through VPNs
Even though crypto gambling sites are officially blocked in many jurisdictions, users can access them by bypassing geo-blocking restrictions with VPNs, which allows users to place bets on sites blocked in their country.
Former players and crypto users told the FT that many online guides show people how to bypass geo-blocking restrictions to access a crypto gambling platform. Cointelegraph confirmed that some influencers offer online tutorials that teach people how to access blocked gambling sites.
“Ready-to-gamble” crypto casino accounts are also reportedly being sold on social media platforms, according to Sanya Burgess, journalist at The i Paper.
Users sell accounts that have already passed through betting sites’ registration processes. On Jan. 31, Sky News reported that some users sell pre-verified crypto casino accounts for as little as $10. These ready-to-gamble accounts are reportedly sold on social media sites like Facebook.
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El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, is working with the computer chip giant Nvidia to implement artificial intelligence for national development.
El Salvador signed a letter of intent to collaborate with Nvidia on “sovereign AI to drive innovation and economic growth,” the National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) of El Salvador announced on X on April 21.
As part of the collaboration, El Salvador will benefit from Nvidia’s AI tools, resources and expertise, enabling the development of sovereign AI capabilities targeting priorities related to culture, language, environment and economy.
“El Salvador will focus on building domestic AI infrastructure, upskilling the workforce, and creating solutions to address local challenges such as improving healthcare delivery, advancing education, and boosting economic productivity,” the announcement said.
AI training for state officials and developers
El Salvador’s latest collaboration with Nvidia marks the country’s commitment to encouraging AI usage to optimize multiple processes within the government and society.
With its new AI push, El Salvador intends to establish AI training programs for developers, researchers and government officials to “ensure the nation has the talent to sustain its AI ambitions.”
One example includes the creation of AI-driven models to forecast weather and rainfall, which would support emergency response, protect residents in landslide-prone areas and optimize hydroelectric power management.
Not the first AI initiative for El Salvador
El Salvador’s Nvidia partnership adds to a growing list of AI-focused initiatives.
In March 2025, the ONBTC announced Salvador’s university-level public education AI program CUBO_ai, touting it as the “only national education program bringing in top-tier field experts.” The program was announced with support from major Bitcoin bull Cathie Wood, who is expected to give the first lecture as part of the program.
Last year, Wood predicted that El Salvador’s Bitcoin (BTC) and AI plans may boost GDP tenfold by 2029.
Related: Only 11% of El Salvador’s registered Bitcoin firms operational
While El Salvador has been aggressively introducing AI initiatives, its Bitcoin ambitions have been somewhat deterred.
In early March, the International Monetary Fund moved to restrict further Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador as part of an extended $1.4 billion funding arrangement with the country. However, the government has continued stacking 1 Bitcoin a day, raising questions about the implications of the deal with the IMF.
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