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Doug Parr

@dougparr.bsky.social
11K followers 1.1K following 1.7K posts

@greenpeaceuk.bsky.social chief scientist, policy director View are all my own, except those I've borrowed

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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 6h
A frequent lens on North Sea oil & gas exploitation has been about jobs on N Sea platforms, which UNITE & GMB represent But climate change makes 'jobs' like firefighter, teachers, nurses much worse Now their unions are saying stop exploiting more fossil fuels www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...
independent.co.uk
Ten unions call on Burnham to reject drilling at Rosebank oil field
The UK Government has still to announce if drilling at the Rosebank oil field – the largest untapped field in the North Sea – can go ahead.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 7h
"What do we do with all this money?" isn't a question most have to worry about But the oil companies do! (Thanks Donald...) "After... payments to shareholders rise, companies are likely to come under pressure to divert extra cash into boosting their oil & gas reserves" www.ft.com/content/9d70...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
EU Commission is preparing to delay a key climate law by a year, as a concession to the fossil fuel sector, Trump administration & some EU member countries. Already Big Oil is pushing for more drastic changes to gut the proposed legislation www.politico.eu/article/big-....
politico.eu
Big Oil persuaded EU to delay methane rules. It’s not stopping there.
Brussels has yielded to pressure on the climate law, but companies and capitals still aren’t satisfied.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
War on nature effectively being conducted by successive UK govts is working, with continued bird decline Supplemented by recent avian flu in seabirds Farmland bird decline owing to loss of mixed farming, increased pesticide & fertiliser use, removal of hedgerows www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Brutal takedown of European response to China's electric vehicles "BYD operations were refined in a ferociously competitive Chinese EV market. Meanwhile, European car manufacturers were eking out incremental engineering advances in obsolescent internal combustion engine" www.ft.com/content/52a1...
ft.com
How not to revive Europe’s auto industry
The electric vehicle market shows how legacy EU companies continue to fail when it comes to countering Chinese competition
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
3 weeks ago Trump promised to allow offshore wind construction to proceed, in exchange for Democrat support on a Bill going through congress Now? Filing court case to review permits You couldn't run a chip shop like that, never mind long term energy projects www.ft.com/content/4cb3...
ft.com
Donald Trump revives effort to halt construction of Ørsted’s offshore wind farm
Move comes after US president said he would drop opposition to renewable energy projects to win support for permitting bill
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Countries led by Saudi Arabia & Russia are pressing climate scientists to delay publication of a report, so it's not ready for a major evaluation of country commitments on cutting emissions Even in scientific processes the fingers of oil interests cause trouble www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
IPCC is under pressure to delay publication of key global climate report
AR7 report was scheduled for 2028 in time for Cop33 summit but some petro-states and major developing countries want to postpone it
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Errr.... right, so UK is having to find more money for defence against Russia... by cutting funding for heat pumps that get us off gas... thereby keeping us dependent on an energy commodity *weaponised* by Russia & international conflict. Smart thinking guys www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ministers preparing to slash heat pump subsidies to fund defence spending
Exclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
yes, basically. We need each calorie to count more in terms of the micronutrients supplied. And it seems the only way this can reasonably be done is to restore soil health
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Due to **declining soil quality**, nutrients in fruit & vegetables are sharply lower Researchers at Deep Science Ventures found twice the fruit & veg need to be eaten today to get the same level of minerals like potassium, magnesium or copper than 60 yrs ago www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
independent.co.uk
Vegetables are half as nutritious than 60 years ago. Experts now know why
Fewer than a third of wheat varieties used in bread released since the 1960s meet the recommended zinc target, due to poor soil quality
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Oh yeah, and in addition to doing the maths wrong, they used a Climate Change Committee report from 2020. But the numbers were updated (and much smaller) in their 2025 report So the numbers are both out-of-date and wrong Can you imagine what it'd be like if they ran the Treasury?
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Reposted by Doug Parr
Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 09/10/2026
FACTCHECK: UK Conservatives double the ‘cost of net-zero’ after spreadsheet blunder The Tory "Right Way" booklet makes an erroneous claim about the cost of cutting emissions, possibly taken from a Jan26 thinktank report, and deffo the most idiotic error I've seen for a while 🧵
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The party of business and sound financial management? Give me a break Badenoch pamphlet seems to have made this ridiculous claim about net zero delivery by copying am erroneous spreadsheet from one of the right-wing junktanks www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Tories overstate net zero cost by nearly £500bn in apparent spreadsheet error
Exclusive: Badenoch’s flagship conference policy document cites £957bn estimate, twice the total in climate advisers’ data
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
That's a very high proportion of people who find out what the real state of play is with climate change, who then think "Christ we should really do something about that" www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Britons kept in dark about scale of climate crisis, say viewers of ‘first-of-its-kind’ emergency briefing
Nine out of 10 people felt motivated to act after watching film outlining threats to food security, economy and public health
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Is there something peculiarly British about celebrating wildlife species on banknotes but only grudgingly (or not at all) doing things to avert their decline? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Bank of England reveals the four animals to feature on banknotes
The decision comes after nearly half a million people voted on a shortlist of 18 creatures.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Breaching limits but going up “The trifluoroacetic acid on the Earth today will be on the Earth for the next thousand years, and the TFA concentrations we see now are probably the lowest we’ll see in your lifetime” says Professor Hans Peter Heinrich Arp, Norwegian University of Science &Technology
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Trifluoro acetic acid persists in the environment for 1000s of years It's a breakdown product of refrigerant gases, & of pesticides like flufenacet Present in all England's surface waters, nearly 90% of groundwater 2/5 water sites tested breached new limits set by EU inews.co.uk/news/forever...
inews.co.uk
Forever chemical linked to fertility issues found in rivers in England
Data shared exclusively with The i Paper reveals trifluoroacetic acid has been detected in areas that supply drinking water
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Expert analysis of Tory claim stripping 'net zero regulation' from new homes saves £50,000 concludes it only makes sense if: 1. Every new heat pump is most expensive available 2. All insulation stripped out 3. Someone at CCHQ still failed their GCSE in Maths www.businessgreen.com/opinion/4536...
businessgreen.com
Tory claims dropping the Future Homes Standard will save buyers £50,000 simply don't add up
Andrew Warren explains how the Shadow Chancellor's claim weakening building standards will result in more affordable homes is based on some deeply questionable assumptions and ignores the cost savings more efficient homes deliver
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Provisions include abandoning reviews, so there's a much weakened mechanism for banning pesticides if evidence starts to show problems, Also taking into account crop yields when considering restrictions on use, thus reducing the drive for innovation for safer products
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Documents obtained by Freedom of Information requests show that parts of the 'simplification drive' have ended up closely reflecting the demands of fertiliser & chemical companies to roll back environmental & health safeguards Insects in EU have declined 75% in 3 decades www.ft.com/content/3c86...
ft.com
Chemical groups succeed in watering down EU pesticide rules
European Commission and leading MEPs side with industry demands for laxer standards
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
tbh the proposed programme is almost indistinguishable from a climate denialist govt None of the key delivery policies would be left in place in electricity, transport, buildings. Not clear in industry or agriculture - but then the policies in those spaces aren't very strong anyway
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Stanlow refinery is now owned by EET Fuels Documents obtained by investigative journalists describe breaches with cyanide, benzene and heavy oils regularly spilled into waterways & groundwater. Permitted levels for chemical releases were exceeded 100s of times. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK oil refinery broke toxic pollution limits dozens of times
Pollution was spilled into local rivers and protected sites, documents shared with the BBC suggest.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
PS @jamesdyson.bsky.social from E3G on the Tories proposed scrapping of new homes regulations: "By scrapping this standard the Tories would in effect be introducing a £1000 annual 'New Homes Tax' and damaging the mission to make the UK energy independent by tackling our addiction to high-cost gas"
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It's impressive in a way just how wrong you can be in a single press release ENDS
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
4. And the unequivocal 'go ahead for Heathrow 3rd runway' says they aren't that interested in humans. The govts Impact Assessment says the Net Present Value for UK residents ranges from -£23.4 bn to -£62.5 bn over 60 years It's bad for people, because of -£58-82bn in noise, air pollution etc
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
3. They have swallowed idea (as has current govt tbf) that planning regs are to blame for high cost of nuclear power & construction But things like nukes & rail are expensive to build in UK once planning is done. Expert analysis says issue is lack of planning expertise, not the regs per se
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
2. Intelligence chiefs now say nature loss is a national security issue. Yet the proposition is that regulators of pollution and nature damage are 'scrapped' Not clear how they expect to comply with existing law, or whether they'll repeal it
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Latest announcement from Tory shadow chancellor strongly suggests a party stuck in an idealogical rut, unable to learn 1. Scrapping regulations on low carbon home building - was done in 2015 by Tory govt, ended up costing UK many ££ billions in fuel & retrofit www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England
Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Upshot of US diesel export ban "Trump has been talking about a possible diesel export ban... during recent UN meeting I heard non-US execs & govt officials outlining plans to protect themselves from a fossil fuel squeeze by “diversifying”, ie embracing renewable energy" www.ft.com/content/3ae1...
ft.com
Trump’s diesel threats could go very wrong — just look at the soyabean
Yes, Nixon’s export ban did briefly suppress domestic prices but it had a huge long-term cost
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"In India, the government held an auction in August for renewable power delivered round the clock, with bidders required to match the typical supply of coal plants. It secured 1GW of solar and storage capacity at a lower cost than recent coal power contracts" www.ft.com/content/b847...
ft.com
The trouble with China’s bigger, better batteries
It’s the world’s fastest-growing power technology — and Beijing is dominant
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Water company for Devon & Cornwall to pay *record fine* of £8m for hundreds of sewage spills Incl untreated sewage gushing through a harbour wall for 10 hours on a bank holiday weekend Pennon Group, owner of SW Water, returned £138mn to shareholders last year www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
South West Water fined £8m for hundreds of sewage spills in Cornwall and Devon
District judge orders record fine for region and says incidents of pollution cannot be tolerated
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
HSBC & Barclays were among global banks pledging in 2021 to cut emissions from loans Driven mainly them, loans by UK banks to the coal industry rose 17% from 2022 to 2025, EU banks nearly halved coal financing. Banks in Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan also cut theirs www.ft.com/content/52e5...
ft.com
UK banks stick with coal financing, campaign report finds
Barclays and HSBC led in support of the industry since the war on Ukraine, study shows
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Internal documents show European Commission ignored its own advice to maintain a bloc-wide combustion engine ban in cars and instead caved to automakers & national capitals Short-termism at work as tech wave rolls out. So China will dominate 21st century car-making www.politico.eu/article/comm...
politico.eu
EU Commission ignored its own advice before weakening car CO2 rules
An internal document warned that it was too early to call the 2035 target unachievable, despite arguments from carmakers that they needed relief.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
thanks David - does it mention that on the website? A quick scan couldn't locate where it said so. I think it's a good & interesting project
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Crown Estate is the owner of England's seabed and charges offshore wind farms to use it But the way it has charged in the past has raised costs and looks like monopoly profiteering And it will add up to £38 to energy bills in the future, according to Oxford Uni www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
thetimes.com
Crown Estate sea bed auctions could add £38 a year to energy bills
The business that manages the King’s land has put wind farm projects at risk with move away from capped fees for developers, a University of Oxford study warns
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Based on current building patterns 115,000 new homes will be built in England’s flood zones in the next 10 years Many could become uninsurable in the future due to the risk of flooding, says Insurance company Aviva Which would make those houses essentially useless www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Aviva boss warns more homes will be uninsurable due to flood risk
Aviva boss Amanda Blanc said England was "for sure" building homes that might be uninsurable at some point in the future.
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In 2020 Starbucks, in a public letter, said “sustainability has been at Starbucks’ core since the beginning...a great business that scales for good” Targets to cut water use & waste now abandoned, & likely climate targets The public letter is no longer on their website www.ft.com/content/f537...
ft.com
Starbucks retreats from green goals amid $2bn cost drive
Early corporate champion of climate action scales back or reviews targets to halve emissions, waste and water use
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Fuel cost of running an electric vehicle vs petrol was always significant, now factor of 9 for diesel New EVs inevitably flow into second-hand market where ££ savings are made by all societal segments UK Govt plans to dilute the mandate for EVs will stop that www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-evs...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Objections to giant water- and energy-guzzling datacentres are holding back Britain, says ex-politician-for-hire whose job it is to get datacentres built www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
OpenAI’s George Osborne says datacentre nimbys holding back Britain
Former chancellor, now senior figure at OpenAI, says UK needs datacentres to maintain ‘sovereignty’ over AI tech
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
EU feels diesel pain “We run road transport on internal combustion engines, we’re reliant on a commodity we have no control over" say @transportenvironment.org “As long as we are dependent on imported fossil fuels, our energy prices [will] be volatile ” @ec.europa.eu www.ft.com/content/76b5...
ft.com
Diesel surge costs European drivers €203mn per day
Motorists are spending 40% more each time they refill their tank, compared with the start of the year
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New analysis from US climate scientists says 450,000 deaths from El Nino heat stress It's a “postcard from our future” as world warms past 1.5C "we will see never-before-experienced heat extremes, with consequences on health, food security, water stress" www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“It’s a race against time for scientists to identify new species before deep sea mining threatens to wipe out fragile ecosystems for ever. Scientists estimate only 0.001% of deep sea floor – where sunlight fades to total darkness – has been observed by humans” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Meet Barbie Pig: new documentary reveals the wonders of life on the Pacific seabed
A magical new film captures the secret life of the deep sea in a stretch of the ocean at risk from industrial mining
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Latest data show the current El Nino is already bringing sea surface temperatures rises - 3.07C - greater than ever before, and they are going to get much higher yet This sea warming will change atmospheric dynamics, bringing droughts & floods across the world www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A more accurate headline would be “Oil pipeline-owning billionaire tax exile say UK should tax rich people less and allow more oil &gas drilling” Then we could understand the self interest at the heart of it, masquerading as disillusionment
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
First scientific study of Nepal flood disaster says unusually warm conditions before the glacier broke off probably weakened it The glacier collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people Climate change was, therefore, a key cause www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Climate crisis likely behind devastating Nepal-Tibet floods that killed more than 1,300, first study finds
Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in August
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
UK Government climate change advisers say expanding Heathrow airport is incompatible with climate targets To make it so, the aviation industry should pay for carbon removals & sustainable aviation fuel Trouble is neither of those meaningfully exist www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Airlines should pay for CO2 removal if Heathrow expands, say climate advisers
Climate Change Committee says government cannot expand airport without requiring aviation industry to clean up its emissions
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Clean Power plan 2030 is roughly doubling pv capacity by 2030 Yes to grid scale storage - need to see longer duration scaled
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
alas no - MCS dashboard helps - shows 53k domestic battery installations (MCS certified) in 2026 so far. So about 1/4 of solar installations That says nothing about whether they are co-located but I'd expect the vast majority to be. Way below the German 80% level, but we don't subsidise!
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
UK is on track to install around 300,000 solar rooftops this year That'll break records and on its own add at least 1GW of solar to UK generation For scale, UK maximum demand is around 50GW www.businessgreen.com/news/4535700...
businessgreen.com
'Unprecedented numbers': Solar industry on track to smash rooftop record
MCS tracker reveals number of small-scale solar installations completed this year has already surpassed long-standing 2011 record
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Energy Transfer gas facility at Shreveport, Louisiana, emits 1.56t methane per hour Climate impact of that over next 20 years is 1mn tonnes CO2, bigger than entire emissions of the Seychelles Top 10 US sites emit equivalent (almost) to CO2 from Albania www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
US ‘super-emitters’ of planet heating methane identified by satellite analysis
Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a major Trump donor, named as biggest single methane producer in new rankings
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