climate change

Responding to the news that the Government would not appeal the recent High Court judgement in Greenpeace's favour on the extent of the EU Habitat's Directive, Greenpeace climate campaigner Matthew Spencer said: "This is great news -We hope the Government will now implement the Directive fully. This means putting the needs of wildlife before the needs of oil exploration. Greenpeace can now confirm that we will invest any money that we receive from the Government in legal costs in renewable energy projects in Scotland."

Polar bears are under threat of starvation from climate change due to melting sea ice, a new study from scientists with the Canadian Wildlife Service concludes. The study, by Canadian polar bear scientists Ian Stirling, Nicholas J. Lunn and John Iacozza, found that the bears' main food source, ringed seals which live on the ice of Hudson Bay, are becoming less accessible because of a shorter ice season.

The Government was defeated in court today (5th November 1999) in a landmark legal ruling which protects coral reefs and whales and dolphins in Britain's North East Atlantic. Mr Justice Kay ruled that all future offshore oil licensing is illegal until the Government properly applies the EU Habitats Directive.
Justice Kay told the court that the Government had "clearly" not applied the Habitats Directive in initiating the next round of oil licensing in the North East Atlantic.

Powerful industrial lobby groups are attempting to undermine ratification and implementation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which committed industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Several of these industry groups will be represented during top level talks under the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn from Oct 26 to Nov 4. At this meeting more details of the Kyoto Protocol will be negotiated. (The Kyoto Protocol was agreed by more than 160 nations in Japan in 1997, it established legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets for each industrialized nation, with an overall reduction of -5.2% by 2008-2012).

BONN, October 1999 - Greenpeace described German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's unexpected call to have the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change ratified by the year 2002 as a step forward for the international climate negotiations but questioned Germany's own timetable for ratification and its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

Oslo, 22 October 1999 - Greenpeace today welcomed Phillips Norway's proposal to decommission onshore, all fourteen steel oil platforms from the North Sea "Ekofisk I" field, as a significant step that will boost the development of the onshore decommissioning industry. Today Phillips Norway released their proposal for the disposal of the "Ekofisk I" offshore field, by far the largest upcoming decommissioning project in the North Sea. Over the next few years, fourteen steel platforms and one concrete offshore installation will be decomissioned and have to be dismantled.

October 21st, 1999 - Greenpeace today joined Inupiat Eskimos living on Alaska's North Slope to file a lawsuit to challenge BP Amoco's drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's north coast. The lawsuit challenges the US Federal Government for permitting the project on the grounds that it lacks an adequate oil spill plan and jeopardizes the marine and coastal environment of the Arctic Ocean, and the Inupiat subsistence way of life.

Mr Justice Kay has indicated he will give his verdict within three weeks on Greenpeace's case against the Government for failure to apply the EC Habitats Directive to oil exploration in the Atlantic Frontier.

The case ended Thursday afternoon after Mr Justice Kay heard all the arguments from Greenpeace, the Government and the 10 oil companies. The QC representing the oil companies asked the judge to refer the case to Europe if he found in Greenpeace's favour on certain matters.

Ten oil companies today attempted to strip European citizens of the right to enforce powerful wildlife laws when their lawyers argued in the High Court that Greenpeace cannot make the Government enforce the European Union Habitats Directive.

Greenpeace's QC today branded the Government's main legal argument a breach of the organisation's human rights and an abuse of the legal process. The Government argues that Greenpeace delayed in applying for a judicial review of its oil licensing on the Atlantic Frontier and that Greenpeace should have made its application sometime over the last five years.