BERLIN (AP) — Swiss environmentalists criticized the election Wednesday of a top car- and oil-industry lobbyist to the new government, calling it a “disaster for climate policy.”

Lawmakers picked Albert Roesti of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party as one of two new members of the Cabinet, or Federal Council.

The election was necessary following the retirement of two long-serving members in the seven-seat government, which traditionally includes politicians from all the country’s major parties.

Roesti was until recently the president of Switzerland’s fuel importer association Swissoil. He remains the president of Auto Schweiz, the association of car importers in Switzerland. As part of his lobby work, Roesti successfully campaigned against a bill designed to reduce the Alpine nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“In the middle of the climate crisis the Swiss Parliament has elected the top car and oil lobbyist to the Federal Council,” the group Climate Strike said in a statement. “This is a disaster not just for Switzerland, but our entire generation.”

It called on other members of the government not to let Roesti head the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Transport. That post became vacant with the retirement of Simonetta Sommaruga, one of two departing ministers.

Also elected to the council Wednesday was Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, a member of the left-leaning Social Democrats.

4 vessels carrying 149,300 tonnes of agricultural solutions for nations in Asia and Europe departed from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Wednesday, December 7.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — So, the dream is still alive for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Soccer’s most prolific modern-day scorer might yet, at the age of 37 and probably playing in his last World Cup, claim the one major title to elude him in a career like no other.

It didn’t quite feel that way, though, as he walked off the field alone at Lusail Stadium, leaving the rest of the Portugal team to celebrate getting through to the quarterfinals after a 6-1 rout of Switzerland on Tuesday.

In fact, it was a rather sad sight. A veteran in decline departing the scene as his teammates — some barely half his age — continued to party.

This has been a turbulent and bruising few weeks for Ronaldo.

First came the explosive interview with Piers Morgan that shaped the start of his fifth World Cup campaign. Then the fallout, which included the termination of his contract at Manchester United.

When the tournament started, he broke a record — becoming the first male player to score at five different World Cup — and then he underwhelmed, failing to score in back-to-back games and responding to a substitution against South Korea by showing his displeasure and angering his coach.

Then came Tuesday night and the moment that might be looked back on as the start of the end of his glittering, record-breaking international career. Not only was he dropped by his national team, but the 21-year-old player who replaced him — Goncalo Ramos — scored a remarkable hat trick.

Just imagine the thoughts going through Ronaldo’s head as he trudged off the field after playing around 20 minutes as a substitute?

This was one of Portugal’s greatest wins — indeed, it was the country’ largest margin of victory in a World Cup knockout game — and it felt like Ronaldo could hardly get off the field quick enough.

So where does this leave Ronaldo? Already without a club, he is now likely to be second choice for Portugal to Ramos, who only made his Portugal debut three weeks ago.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos threw Ronaldo a lifeline, saying he’d continue to select players according to the strengths and weaknesses of the team’s opponent. But it’s unthinkable that Ramos will lose his place now for the quarterfinal match against Morocco.

“I will use what I believe is the right strategy, as I have done my entire life,” Santos said, as bullish as ever.

Tellingly, Santos praised his team for playing with “a lot of fluidity” and “as a collective.” That style is harder to forge when Ronaldo, whose mobility is just not what it was, is the sole striker.

His goal that was ruled out for offside against Switzerland was an example of a player trying to steal a few meters to compensate for his lack of pace, and it’s not the first time that has happened at this World Cup.

Meanwhile, Ramos needed just 72 minutes in his first start at a World Cup — in fact, it was his first start in international soccer — to show he might be the future. His finishing, his link-up play and his work off the ball underlined why he is being spoken of as one of the next big things in Portuguese soccer.

Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes said “most people in the world had never heard about him” before the match against Switzerland.

Well, they have now, and expect Benfica to be busy fielding enquiries into a striker who has scored 21 goals for the team in 2022 and has just netted the first hat trick in a World Cup knockout stage since Tomas Skuhravy for Czechoslovakia in 1990.

While some of the top clubs might be beckoning for Ramos, Ronaldo looks to be heading for the obscurity of the Saudi Arabian league, even if that does come with an exorbitant salary.

For a man who spent last summer pushing for a move from United because he wanted to play in the Champions League, it is quite the fall.

Will he go there as a World Cup winner? Maybe, because Portugal produced a dynamic performance against Switzerland that was every bit as impressive as Brazil’s the previous night against South Korea.

And there remains that tantalizing prospect of a title match between Argentina and Portugal. One that will invariably be labeled a head-to-head between Ronaldo and his long-time rival, Lionel Messi.

But what might be eating away at the Portugal superstar, what he might have been thinking as he left the field at Lusail Stadium, is that while Messi is leading Argentina to that final frontier with goals and brilliant performances, Ronaldo is no longer the player carrying his national team.

Ronaldo might even be a burden, given the way Portugal performed without him against Switzerland.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LONDON (AP) — Environmental groups on Wednesday welcomed a decision by Britain’s Conservative government to lift its opposition to onshore wind farms. But they warned that any benefit would be erased if the government backs plans to open the U.K.’s first new coal mine in three decades.

Thursday is the deadline for a decision on the proposed mine in the Cumbria area of northwest England. Opponents say approving it will obliterate the U.K.’s image as a world leader in replacing polluting fossil fuels with clean renewable energy.

Wind produced more than a quarter of the U.K.’s electricity in 2021. But the Conservative government has since 2015 opposed new wind turbines on land because of local opposition. A majority of Britain’s wind farms are at sea.

While running for the Conservative Party’s leadership in the summer, Rishi Sunak, who is now prime minister, pledged to keep the ban. But amid growing calls for change from Conservative lawmakers, the government said Tuesday it could allow wind farms in areas where communities support them, pending a “technical consultation.”

“Decisions on onshore wind sites will continue to be made at a local level as these are best made by local representatives who know their areas best and are democratically accountable to the local community,” the government said in a statement.

Caroline Lucas, Britain’s only Green Party lawmaker, said ending the ban on onshore wind was welcome, though “the devil is in the detail.”

“But if this is meant to ‘buy off’ giving the greenlight to the Cumbria coal mine later this week, it would be totally & utterly shameless,” she wrote on Twitter.

Britain has taken steps to bolster its domestic energy supply since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring. The U.K. imports little Russian oil or gas, but its lightly regulated energy market leaves customers highly exposed to price fluctuations.

Many homes and businesses have seen bills double or triple in the past year, though a government price cap — due to end in April — has prevented even steeper hikes.

Environmentalists and some local residents have strongly opposed plans for a mine that would extract coking coal — a type used to make steel rather than for fuel — from under the Irish Sea and process it on the site of a shuttered chemical plant in Whitehaven, a town 340 miles (550 kilometers) northwest of London.

Opponents say the mine would undermine global efforts to phase out coal and make it harder for Britain to meet its goals of generating 100% of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035 and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“With the mine’s particular type of coal no use for the U.K. power or steel industries and the U.K. having led the global campaign to phase out coal, a lot rides on (Cabinet Minister) Michael Gove’s decision,” said Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a nonprofit organization.

Supporters say the mine would bring much-needed jobs to an area hard hit by the closure of its mines and factories in recent decades.

The invasion of Ukraine has made countries across Europe reconsider plans to cut their use of fossil fuels. Britain has also approved more North Sea oil and gas drilling, while the Czech Republic reversed a plan to stop coal mining in a key region.

France recently restarted a shuttered coal plant, abandoning an earlier vow by President Emmanuel Macron to close all coal-burning plants in the country by the end of this year.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the climate and environment: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment