Greenpeace Blog

Greenpeace will soon have a new leader. Kumi Naidoo will take up the role of Executive Director of Greenpeace International on the first of November 2009, when Gerd Leipold steps down after nine years as our activist-in-chief. Kumi was part of the successful struggle against apartheid in his native South Africa. He is an activist and a Rhodes Scholar. For ten years he was the General Secretary of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. Today he sits on the board of Greenpeace Africa and chairs the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA).

He was one of the founders of Global Call to Action Against Poverty, which has grown since 2005 into a coalition of anti-poverty campaigners from over 100 countries. They apply public pressure on leaders to fulfil promises on aid, trade, debt, climate change and gender equality.

Some of the YANC team outside Leeds Town Hall before the planning meeting

Good news in from Leeds last week, where a group of energised anti-coal campaigners with the marvellous acronym YANC (Yorkshire Against New Coal) pulled off a fairly stunning coup by persuading the local council to turn down plans for a climate-wrecking open cast coal mine.

It's all gone a bit tuna crazy in the media over the last couple of days. What with the launch of The End of the Line, the Nobu protests and the Pret a Manger announcement, coverage of the plight of bluefin tuna has accelerated faster than one of the mighty fish themselves (which as we all know by now, is quicker off the mark than a Porsche 911).