climate change

Greenpeace climbers scaled the Treasury building on the eve of the government's spending review, to hang a banner urging Chancellor George Osborne to create a Green Investment Bank which could create tens of thousands of new jobs by funding low-carbon programmes across the country.

A few moments ago, four of our activists scaled the Treasury building where George Osborne works to deliver him a reminder: Green Bank = New Jobs. Right now he’s finalising the package of government cuts and spending that’s going to be released tomorrow, but we don’t want to see the potential for a green economy and new jobs squeezed out by the spending review.

A few moments ago, four of our activists scaled the Treasury building where George Osborne works to deliver him a reminder: Green Bank = New Jobs

Right now he’s finalising the package of government cuts and spending that’s going to be released tomorrow, but we don’t want to see the potential for a green economy and new jobs squeezed out by the spending review.

Now that I'm out of the water, off the Esperanza and back on dry land, I've been thinking about what it takes to stop not just one oil rig but all of them.

There's no dodging the fact that the oil industry is immense. In the North sea, where we confronted Chevron, companies have spent more money on extracting oil in the region than NASA spent putting a man on the moon. In the Gulf of Mexico, where BP's Deepwater Horizon platform exploded this summer, there are over 3,500 other rigs ready to bore away at the seabed.

Tcktcktck's Paul Horsman delivers a traditional Chinese stamp to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres to mark the wall in support of collective action against climate change.

Michelle Meideros writes from Tianjin, where the latest round of climate talks have just ended. She has been living and working in Beijing for 6 months and tells us how her perspective has changed this year.

I haven't been to a climate talk since Copenhagen and not a whole lot has changed inside the negotiations. One thing that has changed is how I see this US/China "I won't, until you will" rhetoric. In the US our government is always pointing its finger at China, now the largest emitter in the world, claiming China is to blame, all the while hiding from its own lack of ambition.

Scrubbing the toilets this morning a bizarre thought crossed my mind: I’m going to miss this. The squeaky whiteboard, with our names for the 8am cleaning rota, reads: Messroom/Leila, Lounge/Frank, Showers/Victor, Alleyways/Elena, Laundry/Ben and Toilets … James.

A strange thing to miss perhaps, cleaning the ‘heads’ – my ship lingo is rapidly expanding – but it’s another part of the daily routine that has defined the communal life on board our floating Esperanza.

This is a working ship and everyone is busy pretty much all the time. Whether it’s in the engine room, the galley, the fitter’s workshop, the Radio Operator’s room, up on the bridge or out on deck, there are always things to do, just to keep a ship going.

Everyone’s got their personal reasons for taking action. For me, deciding to jump in front of a moving drill ship was not only about protecting the environment and stopping climate change, it was also about peace. Our addiction to oil fuels conflict, corrupts governments and destroys lives.

Today BP’s got a new boss, Mr Bob Dudley.  Like anyone who starts a new job, he could do with a bit of advice.

Taking over from the gaffe-prone Tony Hayward - who headed the company during the Deepwater Horizon disaster - Bob’s hoping to draw a line under the world’s biggest oil spill and start again.

And we want to help him. We want to like BP. We believe it could be the kind of company that pioneers clean energy technology and doesn’t invest in dirty fossil fuels.  It could be a company that deserves a green sunflower as its logo.

It seems that Sinar Mas hasn’t learnt from last month’s mistakes and is labouring on with a strategy of hiring auditors to distract attention from their ongoing involvement in forest and peatland destruction.

This week Sinar Mas's pulp and paper arm – Asia Pulp and Paper - released a new 'independent audit' that purports to prove that Greenpeace investigations are wrong and our evidence of forest destruction unfounded. The people behind the audit are, shall we say, a little less independent than they claim. Alan Oxley and his consultancy International Trade Strategies Global (ITS) are an Australian outfit who have a track record of working for companies engaged in unsustainable business practices - including logging companies.