press releases

Greenpeace said today that the Government's new strategy to reduce radioactive discharges into the sea was not good enough to protect human health or the marine environment. In 1998 the UK signed up to the OSPAR Agreement, for the substantial reduction of radioactive discharges into the sea and in doing so claimed it was no longer the 'dirty man of Europe'.

Greenpeace says the new strategy fails OSPAR and the environment for three reasons:

Turbines off East Anglia coast could provide 25% of UK electricity

A quarter of Britain's electricity needs could be met by building wind turbines off the coast of East Anglia, according to a new report by a team of renowned energy experts. The vision is being backed by a group of companies - including power giant TXU - which have joined forces with Greenpeace to call for the plan to be realised.

The plan was set out today in a study by AEA Technology. The authors of the report - entitled Sea Wind East - found that a large scale East Anglian wind industry could create 60,000 jobs and attract investment of 20 billion pounds.

The Sea Wind East report will be launched today at an event in Great Yarmouth, where Greenpeace will begin a tour of the region to promote the plan. The environmental group is going on the road with a mobile cinema and a team of experts. They will be visiting sixteen towns in three weeks, telling local people how their region could become a world centre for clean energy.

Matthew Spencer of Greenpeace said: "This report nails the lie that renewable energy can't deliver on a large scale - just one technology in one region of Britain can deliver a quarter of our entire power needs. If implemented this plan would massively decrease energy pollution in the UK and make East Anglia a powerhouse of the global renewable energy industry."

The International StopEsso campaign has today set up a new and uncensored French language website in Texas, following Esso's legal action against Greenpeace France over its internet use of the company's logos. 

Greenpeace scientific report exposes a serious threat

A scientific report published by Greenpeace Mediterranean today shows that official plans to build a pipe by-passing the Kishon River in northern Israel will cause the Haifa Bay area to be poisoned by toxic chemicals.

Greenpeace reveals that the BNFL plutonium ships breached the Federated States of Micronesia's 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at 9.50 am local time this morning in direct contravention of that nation's stated wishes. The shipment of rejected plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel is in transit between Japan and the United Kingdom.

Greenpeace today welcomes the findings of the Cabinet Office investigation into the timber procurement for 22 Whitehall and welcomes the Cabinet Office commitment to fall in line with Government timber procurement policy to use only legal and sustainable timber products.

Tony Blair is under fire from environmentalists after new research exposed a staggering hypocrisy at the heart of Labour's global warming policy.

Blair had claimed to be in the vanguard of efforts to tackle climate change - but the new research reveals that his administration has funded the construction of coal plants in the developing world that cancel out half the emissions reductions the Prime Minister has boasted the UK will make under the Kyoto Protocol.

Government plans announced today, to deal with the rapidly increasing radioactive waste mountain could make the problem much worse Greenpeace warned. The creation of a new authority to bail out the nuclear industry from the £8 billion bill for cleaning up waste and decommissioning old power stations, will free the bankrupt British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) to expand its nuclear business and create more deadly radioactive waste.

Greenpeace's application to stop a dangerous cargo of faulty plutonium fuel from leaving Japan is to be heard at the High Court tomorrow morning (4th July 2002).

Hearing Time: 10.30am
Judge: Mr Justice Baker
Court number 10, High Court, The Strand.