Greenpeace Activists Block Palm Oil Shipment in Indonesia

10 November 2008, If the remaining forests and peatland in Riau are destroyed, they will release the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of global emissions.

Dumai, Indonesia — In the latest stage of the Esperanza's Forests for Climate tour around south-east Asia, activists have arrived in Dumai, Indonesia to block a palm oil shipment from departing for Europe. The shipment was supposed to leave from Dumai, a large port on the eastern coast of Sumatra and Indonesia’s main palm oil export port. Activists from the Esperanza left to expose three palm oil tankers anchored in Dumai port. Despite the crew of one ship blasting the activists with fire hoses, the team managed to paint “Forest Crime” and “Climate Crime” on the hull of all three ships, as well as the side of a barge loaded with timber from the rainforest.

Peatland protection

The largest ship to receive a new coat of paint was the Gran Couva, bound for Rotterdam in the Netherlands with 27,000 metric tonnes of palm oil from Wilmar, one of the largest palm oil companies in indonesia. Much of Sumatra's forest has been destroyed but small pockets remain, including one critical area of Riau. This area of forest is similar in size to Switzerland or Taiwan, but it grows in a thick layer of peat. When drained and burnt to make way for oil palm plantations, the peat releases huge quantities of greenhouse gas, contributing to climate change. If the remaining forests and peatland in Riau are destroyed, they will release the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of global emissions.

Fixed anchor for Forests

Following the exposure of these forest criminals with the painting of the ships, an activist climbed the anchor chain of the Gran Couva, and has secured himself there. This means the ship - and the palm oil it is carrying - have been immobilised and will not be leaving the port. For updates on the situation, read the During the ongoing tour of Indonesia, the crew of the Esperanza has witnessed massive conversion of Papua’s tropical forests for palm oil plantations in a concession near Jayapura operated by Sinar Mas, the largest palm oil company in Indonesia. They have also exposed ongoing forest destruction for timber in Papua, and discovered fresh forest clearances in concessions in the peatland forests of Riau. Greenpeace is calling on the Indonesian government to enforce an immediate moratorium on deforestation, as well as on the international governments to create a funding mechanism to provide international funds for forest protection in Indonesia and other forest countries.

05 January 2009

Climate Rescue Station, Poland, November-December 2008. International — Here's a look at all the efforts for a green and peaceful future that our supporters made possible in 2008. In 2008, we took action around the world - helping to create a toxic-free future; defending our oceans and protecting our ancient forests; we helped protect the polar bear from the ravages of climate change and we discovered a new species. Most importantly of all, we took action to catalyse an Energy [R]evolution, showing the world how to get from where we are now to where we need to be. We need to see the world's carbon emissions finally peak by 2015 before being cut by over 50 percent by 2050 - and as 2009 dawns, we come one year closer to this critical deadline. It's not just been actions - everything we do, we back up with science and solutions. Our Energy [R]evolution scenario provides the practical blueprint for the world's renewable energy future; our new edition, released in November, was launched with the help of a world leader who knew how to aim high. Our Forests for Climate proposal provides for an international funding mechanism that can protect tropical forests. We also opened a new office: 2008 saw the launch of Greenpeace Africa, with offices in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. With an office in Senegal to follow in the early part of the New Year, our presence in Africa furthers our efforts to be a truly global organisation.

Protecting our ancient forests

Destruction of the world's tropical rainforests has been one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time. Indonesia's 'paradise forests' are being felled at a faster rate than in any other major forested country - and this wholesale destruction is being driven by the world's largest food, cosmetics and biofuels producers. In 2008, Greenpeace took direct action against Unilever, one of the largest users of palm oil. This included a hugely successful online parody of Unilever's ad for its Dove soap product, which staggered the business world and reached the pages of The Wall Street Journal. Unilever announced in May that it would support our call for a moratorium - good news for the climate, good news for the orang-utan that calls the paradise forest its home, and good news for the indigenous peoples who depend on the forests for their livelihoods. 2008 also saw good news for the Brazilian Amazon, and worrying news for the forests of the Congo Basin.

Defending our oceans

During the summer, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza was busy defending the Western Pacific from pirate fishers and the world's largest tuna destroyer, while the Arctic Sunrise was defending the Mediterranean; although the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas rendered itself incapable of managing the recovery of bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, at the end of the year there was at least a glimmer of hope for Pacific bigeye and yellowfin tuna. In order to save fish for the future we've been calling on retailers and fish purchasers to stop buying all species that are overfished or caught using fish aggregation devices. We've been taking action to prevent destructive bottom-trawling in the North Sea. We've been tackling the pirates. And, we launched two new websites: one that supplies a list of those seafood species at high risk of being sourced from overfished stocks or being caught using destructive fishing methods, and one that provides an online database of fishing vessels involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the companies that own them. We'll continue to push for a global network of fully protected marine reserves covering 40 percent of our oceans. This will help to buffer our seas from the ravages of climate change, restore the health of fish stocks and protect ocean life from habitat destruction and collapse.

Creating a toxic-free future

In February, our report 'Toxic Tech: Not in Our Backyard' showed how the fate of large quantities of electronic waste is unknown. Ghana was one place where our investigations uncovered high-tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution. We've been pressurising the biggest electronic companies to phase out toxic chemicals and introduce global recycling schemes. Both of these are vital to tackle the growing tide of toxic e-waste. Some companies are making progress towards taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. However, Philips is one company that stood out in 2008 for refusing to accept responsibility for recycling its old products, and we've been there to demand that it lives up to its motto of 'Sense and Simplicity' and joins with other companies in stopping the dumping of e-waste in developing countries left to face the toxic legacy.

Catalysing an Energy [R]evolution

The Rainbow Warrior and the Arctic Sunrise spearheaded our call on the world to "Quit Coal", essential to a meaningful deal to save the climate. In a year in which Al Gore said, "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants" we were doing precisely that. And, in an unprecented court case in the UK, leading climate scientists came to our defence when the so-called Kingsnorth Six were tried for - and subsequently acquitted of - criminal damage to a coal-fired plant. The jury found our actions justified when considering the damage to property caused around the world by CO2 emissions from the plant. The need to quit coal was just one message we brought to governments in the run up to key climate negotations that took place in Posnan, Poland, in December. We continued to highlight the false solution of nuclear power - enjoying a hugely significant success in Turkey - and we put pressure on the EU to curb emissions from gas-guzzling cars. And, during the climate negotiations, we set up a Climate Rescue Station in Posnan to make sure they knew - as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reminded delegates when he opened the high-level segment of the UN Climate Change Conference - that the world would be watching. While we were disappointed with the lack of progress made at the UN climate negotiations, together with a depressingly diluted EU climate package, at least the pressure we all (and we mean everyone who sent a message, signed a petition, uploaded a photo for Greenpeace or any organisation) generated was enough to stop them from going backwards! The road towards the next UN climate meeting in Copenhagen in December, 2009 is a long one - but we'll be campaigning for an Energy [R]evolution and we're going to need your help to make it successful!

The Tokyo Two

Finally, to one of the major stories of 2008. Our year started with the Esperanza protesting the hunting of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by the Fisheries Agency of Japan. We exposed scandal after scandal, and on May 15 our undercover investigations exposed the smuggling of large amounts of prime-cut whale meat from the whaling ship Nisshin Maru. Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki - the 'Tokyo Two' - took a box of intercepted whale meat to the Tokyo public prosecutor as evidence of the whaling industry's embezzlement. However, in an absurd inversion of justice, they themselves were arrested and charged for stealing the box of whale meat, and the scandal investigation was dropped. Constant pressure on Japan's whaling industry by the international community reduced the fleet to sneaking out of port for the 2008-2009 whaling season in a fog of crisis and scandal, desperate to avoid attention. The obvious disarray within the whaling industry, the announcement of a 20 percent reduction in the number of whales to be hunted ths year and the extreme over-reaction by the authorities towards Junichi and Toru shows that we are successfully pulling the rug out from under the whaling industry's feet. It's the beginning of the end, and it's time for Japanese taxpayers to demand their government stop subsidising this bankrupt programme. More than 250,000 of you sent protest emails to the Japanese prime minister, asking for the release of the Tokyo Two. After 26 days in custody, they were released but are still awaiting trial. As the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we took a delegation of people to Japan to declare the arrest of Junichi and Toru an act of political censorship. We told the authorities that we, too, were complicit in working to save the whales. We want to take a lot of you along on this mission. With your help, we will put whaling on trial, and demand justice for the Tokyo Two in 2009. Let's make 2009 a year for success. With your help - whether you make a donation, support us with actions, volunteer, or simply help spread the news - we can continue our work to change attitudes and behaviours, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace. Here's to 2009!

Sending out an SOS for Pacific tuna

08 December 2008 Time and tuna are running out! Busan, Korea, Republic of — Our activists together with Korean environmental group KFEM created a huge human "SOS Tuna" banner on the shores of a beach in Busan, Korea, as a key regional meeting in Korea began this week. This extremely critical meeting will decide the fate of valuable tuna stocks in the Pacific, which are now seriously threatened due to overfishing. The Pacific ocean is rich in marine life and home to over 20 Island Nations. Today, the Pacific supplies over 6 percent of the world's tuna. But overfishing in other areas of the world means more and more boats are moving in, and chasing fewer and fewer fish. Huge industrial tuna boats, capable of catching as many tuna in one trip as some of the countries are able to take in a year, are plundering this vulnerable region at a rate that means trouble for the tuna as well as the people whose livelihoods and futures depend on them. These boats originate from countries like Korea, Japan and Taiwan and feed the ever-increasing appetites for tuna in the luxury Asian, European and US markets.

It's not just about saving some fish

The lives and economies of Pacific Islanders and Pacific Island nations are in peril as big eye and yellow fin tuna stocks are threatened from overfishing. Pacific communities are at the mercy of unscrupulous foreign fishers and our growing global appetite for tuna is in the grip of unfair and unsustainable fishing. We are calling on delegates at this week's Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting in Korea to implement measures for a sustainable and profitable fishing industry. The WCPFC must start putting words into action by agreeing on strong and effective measures. A precautionary and ecosystem-based approach is needed to preserve the rich marine diversity of the Pacific Ocean.

Reduce, protect and reject

There must be an immediate halving of fishing, a closure to fishing in the high seas pockets and an immediate halt to the transfer of fish at sea to discourage piracy. The WCPFC must ensure decisions are not hijacked again by a small minority of nations that are not acting in the best interest of Pacific people, their valuable tuna resources and the health of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean ecosystem. We have one last chance to ensure the bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks do not face the same fate as bluefin tuna of the Mediterranean. The Commission has to be prepared to face the consequences if negotiations break down to governments and industry ruthlessly bargaining for the last tuna. Our ship, the Esperanza, is present in Korea to bear witness to the WCPFC's decisions, which will dictate the future of Pacific tuna.

Korea should lead by example

We have joined forces with Korean environmental group KFEM to ensure that Korea, as the host nation and key player in the fishery, takes the lead in making sure that this meeting takes action. We need marine reserves which will fully protect the most vulnerable breeding grounds of the tuna from exploitation. We need sustainable management measures outside those areas that will secure a future for this fishery and for the future of the millions of Pacific island people that depend on this resource for their livelihood.

Global day of action - 08 December 2008

Greenpeace activists in India, taking part in the 2008 Global Day of Action for the climate. International — People across the world took to the streets for a Global Day of Action on Saturday, to tell the governments meeting in Poznan, Poland for crucial UN climate negotiations, that the world is watching them. Greenpeace volunteers in 23 countries from Australia to Italy to Mexico to the Philippines to Turkey to the US joined or led a series of protests, demonstrations and outreach events to ensure that Ministers arriving in Poznan listen to the will of their citizens, and get serious about climate action. Here’s a video of the action day in Poznan itself. "The world is watching governments in Poznan" said Mareike Britten, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner. "Saturday’s actions clearly show that people across the world recognise that it’s time for governments to get serious about climate action." From a flash mob of people in swimming gear in Amsterdam, to protests in Red Square, Moscow to banner messages on Aztec pyramids in Mexico, to installing solar panels in Thailand, and giving a solar powered Parol (a Filipino Christmas lantern) to the Philippine senate, to a giant postcards reading "Dear World Leaders, we are ready to save the climate" in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco, to a boat protest on the Ganga River in India, our map below highlights key Greenpeace activities across the world. Take action! The global day of action is over, but it’s not too late for you tell your government you are watching them. Join activists from around the world by to be projected at the Poznan meetings

Nuclear renaissance meets reality at UN climate talks Mickey Mouse power exposed 10 December 2008

Poznan, Poland — The nuclear industry has had fifty years of massive subsidies and state help – but has delivered only unsafe, expensive power, contamination and waste that will last for thousands of generations. In Poznan, over 350 non-governmental organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF told delegates at the UN climate talks that nuclear power is not a climate solution but a dangerous distraction from investment in renewable power and energy efficiency. Representing millions of members in 48 countries, the organisations have proclaimed nuclear power a “Mickey Mouse climate solution” and delivered a global call to keep it out of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Unable to pass up the chance of ever more state support and win more taxpayers’ money, the nuclear industry is presenting itself as a practical solution to climate change. One of the privileges this dirty and dying industry wants now is to become eligible for support under Kyoto Treaty mechanisms. If that goes through, a country such as France could finance the construction of a reactor in a developing country by a French firm - giving money to its own companies and claiming “emission allowances” for itself so that it doesn’t have to reduce its own domestic greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal to include nuclear power in the Kyoto Protocol CDM is currently being discussed at the UN Climate talks in Poznan These talks coincide with a run of bad news for the nuclear industry that makes its claims of clean cheap power even harder to justify. Following the news of soaring costs for the European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) in France and Finland and in the estimated budgets for reactors planned in the US, came the news that South-Africa – till now seen as one of the most promising candidates for a so-called nuclear “renaissance” – is backing off for a while: the planned French reactors are simply too expensive. When the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) presented its pro-nuclear case in Poznan last week, we were there to confront them with reality. And the IAEA had no defence other than to say that things would get better in the future! This is something that we and our parents have been hearing for fifty years now. The IAEA needs to stop dreaming - the climate will not wait and we need to get serious about combating climate change. In order to bring some facts to the debate, Greenpeace has prepared a briefing. Together with other NGOs, we also organised our own official “side event” in Poznan - a specialised session that exposed the facts behind the nuclear “renaissance” smokescreen: nuclear power has been in decline in recent years, with more reactors being closed than built; escalating costs combined with the recent financial crisis are having a devastating effect on the nuclear industry's reputation with financial institutions and bankers. We were delighted to see a crowd of over 100 press and country delegates getting detailed facts on the poor performance of the nuclear industry, something the nuclear industry has been trying to hide from them. This side event alone isn’t going to stop the nuclear lobby trying to sneak in by the backdoor to get its grubby hands on climate mitigation funding. But it’s clear there’s a very depressed mood in the nuclear industry’s camp, and that negotiators and press from all over the whole world are beginning to understand that the nuclear “renaissance” hype is over.