Eu

Activists urge Italy to quit coal

Posted by jossc — 20 October 2008 at 10:21am - Comments

Activists fron Arctic Sunrise take the "Quit Coal" message to Sardinia

As the Rainbow Warrior arrives here to embark on the UK leg of of her worldwide "Quit Coal" tour, activists from another of our ships, Arctic Sunrise, have been busy putting coal in the hot seat in Italy.

"Small variations in global temperatures have vast consequences. The last Ice Age was only six degrees colder than today. A global rise of just 0.8 degrees has melted the Arctic."
Johann Hari: Don't kill the planet in the name of saving the economy »

Five of them scaled a 150 metre crane at a new coal-fired power plant in Civitavecchia, near Rome, to drop a banner highlighting the fact that Italian government policy effectively opposes the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile another five activists painted "No Carbon" and "Quit Coal" in giant letters on the power plant's dock from an inflatable boat.

Article tagged as: arctic sunrise, co2 emissions, coal, EU, italy, kyoto protocol

UK thwarts EU crack down on gas guzzlers

Posted by jossc — 10 October 2008 at 1:58pm - Comments

Cars are responsible for 12 per cent of all CO2 emissions across the EU Cars are responsible for 12 per cent of all CO2 emissions across the EU

Once again our government's green credentials have been put to the test and found wanting. Presented by the EU Parliament with a perfect opportunity to force Europe's motor industries to reign-in their gas guzzling, climate damaging ways, they opted instead to give in to the demands of the car lobby.

Article tagged as: climate change, co2 emissions, EU, gas guzzler

European Parliament votes to cut emissions from cars

Posted by jamie — 26 September 2008 at 10:57am - Comments

Activists from Greenpeace Spain climbed the Osborne Bull, an internationally known symbol of Spanish roads, to "protect" him from increasing CO2 emissions from cars Some great news has come in from Greenpeace lobbyists at the European Parliament, where the EU environment committee have given the thumbs up to reducing CO2 emissions produced by cars.

The group of MEPs resisted efforts by German car manufacturers to weaken down the proposals and have recommended that by 2012 all new cars should emit no more than 130g of CO2 per km (the current EU average is 158g). Even those this doesn't match the 120g level we and other groups were proposing, this is a big turnaround as when the committee went into session, it seemed certain a compromise package riddled with loopholes would get the nod.

Article tagged as: cars, climate change, co2 emissions, EC, EU

UK sabotages European renewables deal - again

Posted by bex — 26 September 2008 at 10:06am - Comments

Solar panels

Just under a year ago, we revealed that Gordon Brown was planning to scupper the vital, and binding, European climate change deal to generate 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

A brouhaha ensued; EU leaders were so furious at the UK's underhanded shenanigans that a red-faced Brown had to explicitly re-commit to the target soon afterwards.

Well, leaked documents (pdf) show it's happened again. This time, the man weilding the wrecking ball is John Hutton, the Business Secretary with an inordinate fondness for coal and nuclear power.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, energy, EU, renewable energy

Have you felt the forest love?

Posted by jamie — 25 September 2008 at 1:38pm - Comments

If you submitted your own Forest Love video in response to ours, you might catch a glimpse of yourself in the new video we've put together below which we're going to deliver to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso in Brussels. The commission are due to vote on legislation to ban illegal timber in Europe and hopefully that will take place in mid-October, but the date has changed several times over the past few weeks so who knows?

Article tagged as: deforestation, EC, EU, forests, illegal timber, videos

It's official: EU fishing policy is crazy

Posted by jossc — 14 August 2008 at 3:01pm - Comments

Norwegian coastguard video of the Shetland trawler Prolific dumping its catch in the North Sea

The crew of the Prolific discarding their catch

So at last the sheer waste involved in modern trawling has been captured on camera. Last week a Norwegian coastguard cutter filmed the crew of a Shetland trawler, the Prolific, openly dumping over 5,000 kg of cod and other dead white fish in UK waters. Now this footage is rightly causing a wave of revulsion in the media at the scale of unnecessary waste at a time of rapidly rising food prices and, ironically, when our own Prime Minister is telling us not to waste food.

Article tagged as: common fisheries policy, EU, ICES, marine reserves, prolific, trawling

Make some sweet forest loving

Posted by jamie — 31 July 2008 at 3:53pm - Comments


The bad news is that the vote on illegal timber amongst members of the European Commission has been delayed (they're looking at legislation to ban dodgy wood from Europe) and now probably won't take place until September. The good news is that it gives us all a chance to have some fun in the meantime (and do some creative campaigning at the same time).

We all love forests and we want you to show the powers that be in the EU just how much. The forests have already made their own effort, but here's what we'd like you to do:

Article tagged as: EU, european commission, forests, illegal timber, take action, videos, what you can do

Support laws to control illegal timber in Europe

Posted by jamie — 23 June 2008 at 10:19am - Comments

Greenpeace volunteers hang a banner from a crane at the new Home Office in 2002

Just one of the many actions we've taken to expose the government's shoddy approach to illegal timber

Over the past few years, we've done plenty of work to highlight the problem of illegally logged timber being imported and sold in the UK - remember the government's repeated foul-ups in this area? It's insane, but we still don't have any laws preventing illegal timber from places like the Amazon and south-east Asia reaching our shores, nor does any other country in Europe.

Article tagged as: deforestation, destructive logging, EU, forests, illegal timber, take action, what you can do

Yadda dabba don't: cavemen arrested in car protest

Posted by jamie — 27 May 2008 at 5:31pm - Comments

Six cavemen in a Flintstones-style car protesting about the car industry's lack of action on climate change

Protests by lorry drivers in London and Wales today show the strength of feeling surrounding fuel prices and, as oil hit US$135 a barrel last week, they're unlikely to fall anytime soon. Hauliers want the government to abandon proposed 2p tax increase and so ease the pain, but that would only be a short-term fix for a long-term problem - what's really needed is affirmative action on setting minimum fuel efficiency standards for road transport.

Which is why, if you happened to be in Brussels yesterday morning, you would have seen a bizarre site - six cavemen and women travelling the streets in Flintstones-esque car. (Don't believe me? Watch the video.) They were exposing the stone age thinking (geddit?) of the car industry who, lead by German car manufacturers, have been stifling attempts to improve car efficiency and reduce CO2 exhaust emissions for 17 years. First stop was the headquarters of the car manufacturer's lobby group, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), to deliver copies of a new report about the impact their industry is having on climate change.

Article tagged as: belgium, cars, climate change, co2 emissions, EU, fuel efficiency, transport
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