press releases

Visit the town at www.greenpeace.org.uk/efficiencity

Greenpeace has launched an interactive virtual city showcasing how towns and cities across the UK are fighting climate change and enjoying a cleaner and more secure energy future - without relying on new coal or nuclear power stations.

BP's full year results released today, show that the company carries a responsibility for emission of 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 [1], but the press release hides that worse is yet to come. Greenpeace and PLATFORM have discovered that BP is making a dramatic shift 'back to petroleum'.

Since the appointment of Tony Hayward as Group Chief Executive, BP has invested heavily in Canadian tar sands [2] and the company has substantially deprioritised BP Alternative Energy.

Top chefs Raymond Blanc and Tom Aikens will be joining forces with Greenpeace tomorrow (30 January) to urge other chefs to use only sustainable seafood on their menus.

They'll also be urging food writers to drop unsustainably caught fish from their recipes.

And the campaign has already attracted the backing of multiple Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The next twelve years will see Britain embark on an unprecedented push to build clean energy projects as ministers across Europe prepare to embrace new, more ambitious renewable energy targets.

Greenpeace understands that,under figures to be announced tomorrow, the UK will be required to generate around 15 per cent of its total energy (electricity, heat and transport) from renewables by 2020. Different EU countries have been allocated different targets depending on their circumstances.

The environmental credentials of "first generation" biofuels were today thrown into serious doubt after the European commissioner, DEFRA's chief scientist and the Royal Society all expressed concern over their sustainability and effectiveness.

Buried in the nuclear white paper published today is a commitment by the government to bail out nuclear power if something goes wrong.

Reacting, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:

"After all the promises from ministers that the private sector would pay the full costs of new nuclear power stations, we find it wasn't true. Buried in the small print of their announcement is the revelation that tax payers will foot the bill if something goes wrong. Much about the government's nuclear spin has been fundamentally dishonest."

Reacting to suggestions that the government will announce support for new nuclear power stations this week, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:

The renowned NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen today challenged Gordon Brown to end UK moves to build new coal-fired power stations.

Energy giant E.ON is currently seeking permission to build the country's first new coal-fired plant for more than thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent. Now Hansen is writing to Brown explaining why he thinks it is crucial that Britain rules out the plan.

Speaking at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the largest gathering of the year for Earth scientists, Dr Hansen said:

Responding to the news that the UK government is set to commit £15m to a World Bank scheme which aims to reduce tropical deforestation, John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK said:

"It would be unthinkable for the next phase of the Kyoto protocol not to address tropical deforestation, which is one of the biggest drivers of climate change. But world leaders can't use this as an excuse to avoid slashing emissions in their own countries - we urgently need to do both.

The government was today issued with a fresh legal threat from Greenpeace over a new fleet of nuclear power stations.

Greenpeace lawyers have contacted the government, saying "it would not be lawful" for the government to make a decision in favour of building new nuclear power stations.