Two swimmers entered the water around the cages carrying banners calling for a complete ban on the trade of this iconic species. The action (1) comes just days after the European Commission announced its support for a ban on trading North Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, under rules governing the trade of endangered species (2).

“Bluefin tuna is an endangered species. Yet, bluefin tuna can still be caged, fattened for market and then killed for profit,” said Banu Dokmecibasi, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Mediterranean. “Not only would it be unthinkable to treat a tiger or a mountain gorilla in such a way – it would also be illegal.”

The bluefin tuna crisis is a devastating example of the global failure to sustainably manage the world’s oceans and the urgent need for a global network of marine reserves to protect ocean life. Bluefin tuna has been brought to the brink of collapse by the repeated failure of the International Commission of the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to follow scientific advice, make sure bluefin quotas are complied with and regulate its fishing in the Mediterranean. Since 2006, scientists have been ringing the alarm bell on the dire state of the bluefin tuna stock. A so-called ICCAT recovery plan in 2008 still allowed quotas 47% above scientific advice (3). Bluefin tuna captured during the 2009 fishing season is currently kept in farms all around the Mediterranean, to be fattened, killed and traded as part of a largely uncontrolled industrial activity (4).

“Without urgent action the only place bluefin tuna will be seen is in historical documentaries about extinct species,” said Sebastian Losada, oceans policy advisor for Greenpeace International. “As a first step, all governments must support the calls for protection and then move to close spawning grounds with a view to designating a network of Mediterranean marine reserves.”

The Greenpeace ships Rainbow Warrior and Esperanza are currently sailing in the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean to highlight the urgent need for marine reserves now in order to preserve fish stocks in the future. reenpeace is campaigning for a global network of fully protected marine reserves, covering 40% of our oceans. They are essential to ensure clean and healthy oceans and protect marine life from overfishing and habitat destruction. Healthy oceans can also play a vital role in building resilience against the devastating effects of climate change.

Contacts:

Sebastian Losada, Oceans Policy Advisor at Greenpeace International: + 33 623 590 963 Yesim Aslan, Communications Officer at Greenpeace International: + 90 532 316 73 65 Greenpeace International Picture Desk: +44 7801 615889

Notes:

(1) The farm demarked by Greenpeace belongs to the Turkish company Akuadem. The licence of the farm in Gerence Bay was cancelled in June by the Turkish civil court due to violation of Turkish aquaculture regulations.

(2) Reacting to the dire state of the bluefin tuna stocks, Monaco put forward a proposal to list North Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna as an endangered species under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a move that would give Appendix I protection and lead to a ban on international trade until the species is no longer threatened. France, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Austria were among the countries supporting Monaco’s proposal. Earlier this week, the European Commission also announced its support for a ban on international trade of bluefin tuna. The CITES meeting takes place in March 2010.

(3) See ICCAT Rec 08-05 – Recommendation amending the recommendation by ICCAT to establish multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean:

http://www.iccat.int/Documents/Recs/compendiopdf-e/2008-05-e.pdf

(4) See the Greenpeace submission to ICCAT 2008:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/ICCAT-16

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Sao Paulo, Brazil, 12 June 2009 – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, has withdrawn a USD 90 million loan to Brazil’s cattle giant Bertin. The loan was used for the company to further expand into the Amazon region, which was causing destruction of the rainforest and fuelling global climate change.

“It is good news that the World Bank is withdrawing these funds, yet scandalous that it was feeding a company that causes Amazon deforestation and climate change in the first place.  It must now guarantee that it will not invest in such damaging projects in the future,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Brazil’s Amazon campaign director.

The move comes two weeks after a Greenpeace report, “Slaughtering the Amazon”(1), revealed that financial backing of the Brazilian cattle industry by the IFC and President Lula’s government -via its national development bank (BNDES) – has led the industry to become the largest single source of deforestation in the world(2) and a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions.

By helping Bertin to expand into the Amazon, the IFC has been driving further destruction of the rainforest, a haven for biodiversity and one of the world’s key defences against climate change. For a bank that portrays itself as the ‘knowledge bank’, this was a very ill-conceived and thoroughly destructive use of its resources.

The last USD 30 million hand-out from the IFC will no longer be given to Bertin and it is anticipated that the IFC will ask that the USD 60 million it has already invested in the company be returned earlier than previously agreed. The World Bank Group is set to lend another USD 1.3 billion to Brazil for ‘environmental protection’.

Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil ranks as the world’s fourth biggest climate polluter, largely because of Amazon destruction.

Greenpeace is calling on all Heads of State to take personal responsibility for securing an effective climate saving deal by attending the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December and guaranteeing a positive outcome. This would include providing USD 110 million a year for developing countries to tackle the climate crisis, USD 40 million a year of which should go towards forest protection in return for commitments to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2015 and by 2020 globally.

Contacts:

Judy Rodrigues, Greenpeace International forests campaigner  +31 646 166 299 (Europe)

Caroline Donatti, Greenpeace Brazil communications +55 92 8114 4497 (in Manaus, Brazil)

Notes to Editors:

(1) www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/slaughtering-the-amazon

The Greenpeace report also exposed how Bertin, JBS and Marfrig,  which supply the global market with cattle products for top brands and supermarkets worldwide,  buy cattle from Amazon farms involved in slavery, illegal deforestation and the invasion of indigenous lands.

(2) The cattle sector in the Amazon accounts for nearly 14% of annual deforestation (1.72 million ha/yr Amazon deforestation attributable to cattle and 12.57 million ha/yr of world gross deforestation). For more details refer to ‘Slaughtering the Amazon’ endnote 5 and endnote 85.

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Greenpeace calls on world leaders to act on climate change and save the Indian Monsoon

Mumbai, India, 4 June, 2009:  The Indian monsoon – the lifeline of the subcontinent – will be significantly affected by climate change, according to a Greenpeace report released on the eve of World Environment Day. As negotiators in Bonn try to revive stalled negotiations on a Climate Treaty, Greenpeace activists in India hung an 80-foot banner from the Mumbai-Thane bridge with the message “Dr Manmohan Singh, Save our Monsoon” to the Indian Prime Minister,

The stability and predictability of the monsoons are critical to India’s economy, society and ecology, and changes in the monsoon will have far-reaching impacts. The Greenpeace report, ‘Monsoon Wager’(1) is a compilation of current climate science on the Indian monsoon, and concludes that climate change could bring about significant changes to the intensity, geographic distribution and inter-seasonal breaks in the monsoon, which would have enormous social consequences(2). Mumbai and Thane are listed among the cities in South Asia most vulnerable to flooding, storm surges and sea-level rise.

“The lives of millions of Indians – farmers, city dwellers and even those trading on the Mumbai Sensex – depend on the monsoon. India cannot allow the delicate balance of the monsoon to be thrown awry; we cannot afford to adapt if the monsoons are impacted, we simply have to stop that from happening,” said Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India Climate & Energy campaigner.

The predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 4th Assessment Report suggest that warming is likely to be above the global average for South Asia, with an increase in summer precipitation and an increase in the frequency of intense precipitation in some parts. More extreme rainfall and winds may result from tropical cyclones. Rainfall will increase by some 20% overall in the summer monsoon, but it will not be spread evenly across the country.

“The longer the climate negotiators delay, the greater the threat to India’s one billion inhabitants will be. Either heads of state agree a new treaty at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December of this year or the foundation of Indian civilisation will be in peril,” Gopal continued.

If the current negotiation text (including President Obama’s target of bringing the US emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020) becomes the final deal, global temperature will more than likely rise 3°C(3). A rise of 3° by the end of the century could have, among other things, the following impacts(4):

•     1.2 – 3 billion people suffering from water shortage;

•     Increasing desertification in southern Europe and more heat waves as in the summer of 2003

•     Stronger cyclones and hurricanes, like cyclone Aila last month and Hurricane Katrina in 2005

•     Increased global sea-level rise which could threaten major urban centers like New York, Shanghai, and Hamburg 

•     125 million displaced people in South Asia (5).

Greenpeace is urging Dr. Singh to put India’s climate policy on track, and world leaders – including Obama, Hu, Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown and Lula – to put their negotiators back on track. So far the negotiations for a Copenhagen treaty have been slow and inadequate, and with only six months to go before the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, time is running out.

Notes to the editor:

(1)   Monsoon Wager: Climate Change and the Indian Monsoon – http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/india/press/reports/monsoon-wager.pdf

(2)   Sea-Level Rise and Storm Surges: A Comparative Analysis of Impacts in Developing Countries

published by the World Bank Development Research Group Environment and Energy Team in April 2009, http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2009/04/14/000158349_20090414102048/Rendered/PDF/WPS4901.pdf

(3)   Metz, et al (2007). Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of climate change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 39. & Rogelj, et. al. (2009). Evaluation of current country position: a bottom-up analysis. Berlin: PIK & Climate Analytics. 1-24.

(4)   Parry, et al (2007). Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Technical Summary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 66.

(5)   Sudhir Chella Rajan. (2008). Blue Alert. Available: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/india/blue-alert-report.pdf. Last accessed 3 June 2009.

For more Information and images:

Vinuta Gopal, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace India; +919845535418; vinuta.gopal@greenpeace.org Ankit Srivastav, Communications, Greenpeace India: +91 98671 68498; ankit.greenpeace@gmail.com _______________________________________________

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Neste Oil’s plans for global leadership in palm oil diesel will drive massive rainforest destruction and climate change

PORVOO, FINLAND – 12 May, 2009: This morning, 32 Greenpeace activists from Finland and Sweden are demonstrating in a palm oil diesel refinery of Neste Oil in Porvoo, Finland, where they hung a banner with the text ‘Neste Oil – destroying the rainforests’. Neste Oil, an oil refining company largely owned by the Finnish government(1), is set – over the next three years – to become the world’s largest consumer of palm oil. This expansion will lead to massive deforestation and contribute to global warming.

Palm oil production is the leading cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia; the clearance and burning of rainforests and peatlands for oil palm plantations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide. As a result, Indonesia is now the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.(2)  This rampant deforestation is also pushing species like the orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction. 

Greenpeace is urging the Finnish government to use its influence to stop Neste Oil using palm oil, and not to subsidise palm oil for fuel in the future. The most significant way to reduce transport emissions is to make cars more energy efficient and to develop a low-energy and low-carbon transport system.

Neste Oil uses palm oil as the main component of the NExBTL-diesel and markets it as an environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. This ‘green’ marketing contradicts the warnings that climate scientists issued last year that palm oil grown on deforested land is many times more damaging to the climate than conventional fuels.(3)

The company has publicly announced its plans to dramatically scale up its production and has recently invested in new NExBTL refineries in Finland, Singapore and the Netherlands, due online in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively.(4) If these plans go ahead, the company will require at least 1.5 million metric tons of palm oil a year, making it the biggest single consumer of palm oil worldwide. Based on current yields, this increase in demand would require at least 325,000 hectares of oil palm plantations, equivalent to an area significantly larger than Luxembourg.

 “Palm oil biodiesel is not a solution to climate change. It actually makes the problem worse if rainforests are cut down to grow the palm oil to fuel our cars. Neste Oil’s expansion plans are a major climate threat increasing the pressure for deforestation in Southeast Asia and endangering species like the orang-utan,” said Greenpeace Nordic palm oil campaigner, Maija Suomela.

“If the Finnish government is serious about tackling climate change, it must stop investing in forest destruction and instead invest in renewable energy solutions, such as waste-based raw materials, and provide significant funding for rainforest protection.”(5)

Neste Oil claims to source all of its palm oil from established plantations in Malaysia. When asked by Greenpeace, the company refused to provide any evidence of traceability in its entire supply chain from the plantation to the refinery. It is also failing to provide any indication of where it intends to source future palm oil supply. The Swedish gas company OKQ8 has already refused to sell Neste Oil’s palm oil diesel and a recent trial planned for Stockholm’s ferry traffic was cancelled in December.

Greenpeace is calling on Finland to contribute almost € 1 billion every year, by 2020, to developing countries such as Indonesia, so that they can better cope with the effects of climate change and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by protecting forests and developing clean energy supply.

This is its share of € 110 billion that the EU and other rich countries must invest as part of the new global climate deal in Copenhagen, to be agreed at the end of the year.(6)

For further info please contact:

Campaigner Maija Suomela +358 40 1809 303 Communications Manager Juha Aromaa +358 50 369 6202 Press officer Satu Pitkänen (photos and video) +358 50 546 1789

NOTES TO EDITOR

(1)   The Finnish government owns 50.1% of Neste Oil.

      http://nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1261;2357;4401

(2)   World Resources Institute, The Climate Analysis Indicators Tool

(3)   Fargione, J., Hill, J., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., Hawthorne, P. 2008. Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt, Science 1235-1238.

(4)   www.nesteoil.com

(5)   Deforestation causes a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire transport sector in the world. IPCC A R 4 (2007): WGIII Ch1

(6)   To see how much each EU country should contribute and how to raise the funds, see http://www.greenpeace.org/financing-eu-responsibility. The finance package should be divided as follows:

-     € 30 billion a year to stop deforestation through a ‘forests for climate’ protection fund (see www.greenpeace.org/forestsforclimate for details on Greenpeace’s proposed funding mechanism);

-     € 40 billion a year to shift developing countries onto a low emissions pathway;

-     € 40 billion a year to enable the most vulnerable to cope with climate change.

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The call comes after a Finnish TV current affairs programme broadcast details yesterday evening of a leaked letter from Finnish nuclear regulator STUK to Areva, the French constructor of the Olkiluoto 3 plant. The letter warns of a lack of ‘real progress’ in the ‘design of control protection systems’, which could lead to a halt in further construction work.1

Electronic control systems are among the most essential components of a nuclear power plant. They control everything in a reactor, from power levels to control rods and cooling systems, and are essential for ensuring the safety mechanisms of the reactor. Compliance of the design of the electronic control system designs with nuclear regulations should have been a precondition for the construction permit for the reactor, granted in 2005.

“We sounded the alarm bells back in 2005 that the design of the French prototype reactor was insufficient and that compliance with nuclear regulations could not be ascertained,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, Greenpeace Nordic’s Energy Campaigner in Finland. “Areva has taken full advantage of the naïveté of the Finnish authorities and has cut corners at every phase of the construction.”

The letter, sent to Areva’s CEO Anne Lauvergeon in December 2008 by STUK’s Director General Jukka Laaksonen, indicates a serious lack of professionalism in the building of the Olkiluoto 3 reactor, claiming that ‘the attitude or lack of professional knowledge’ of Areva’s representatives ‘prevents progress in resolving the concerns, and design errors are not being corrected’. According to the letter, STUK is still waiting for Areva to provide a ‘proper design that meets the basic principles of nuclear safety’.

“Areva never misses an opportunity to promote its unfinished nuclear reactor worldwide as safe, but apparently the essential safety features only exist in Areva’s sales brochures,” said Aslihan Tumer, Greenpeace International Energy Campaigner. “This should serve as a wake-up call for other countries still considering doing business with Areva.”

These revelations are just the latest blow in a series to hit the Olkiluoto 3 reactor since construction began four years ago. Faced with continuous problems, it is now three years behind schedule and 50% over budget. Time and time again, serious problems are being uncovered, yet the company remains silent. In light of this latest scandal, Greenpeace is calling for the construction permit to be cancelled.

Contacts:

Lauri Myllyvirta, Greenpeace Nordic Energy Campaigner in Finland: +358 50 3625 981 Aslihan Tumer, Greenpeace International Energy Campaigner: +31 6 461 62022

Notes to Editors:

1.A full copy of the leaked letter is available online at:

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2009/05/problems_with_olkiluoto_reacto.html

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Inspiring Action video is part of a recruitment drive to get 3 million more people signed up with Greenpeace as climate activists and taking action in an extremely important year for our climate – at the end of which will be the most important conference this century, the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, where deals will be struck that will determine our planet’s environmental future.

Shimonoseki, Japan, April 14, 2009: Greenpeace today met the returning Japanese whaling fleet factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, with placards reading “Southern Ocean Whaling: Cover-ups, lies, 1.2 billion yen in taxes”. The environmental organisation also sought to document the offloading of the ships cargo of whale meat, the by-product of the so-called scientific hunt in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, which is chopped and boxed on board the factory ship ready for market.

Last year, boxes of embezzled whale meat, some falsely labelled “cardboard”, were offloaded and couriered to the homes of the ship’s crew. Whistleblowers told Greenpeace that this was standard practice, but the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ), the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) and Kyodo Senpaku (KS) publically denied it. It was only later that the three managed to get their stories straight and claimed that the boxes of prime whale meat were approved as “souvenirs”.

It is now one year since Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki first exposed the embezzlement of whale meat from the fleet.

They are still on trial and facing up to ten years in prison, yet nothing has been done to address the scandal and the real criminals behind the embezzlement.

The FAJ promised greater transparency, but in January it again covered up the truth by heavily censoring documents containing whale meat sales data, released to Greenpeace following a Freedom of Information request. The FAJ, ICR and KS also denied another request to allow a Greenpeace documentation crew to monitor the whale meat being offloaded from the fleet this year.

“With the whaling fleet’s history of embezzlement, Greenpeace has requested that all whale meat offloaded be documented,” said Junichi Sato of Greenpeace Japan. “If the “souvenir” practice has been legitimised, the public should at least be told how much of the 1.2 billion yen it has spent subsidising the so-called scientific whaling expedition has been spent on buying gifts for the crew.”

At a time when Japan suffering its worst recession for a generation, the government’s massive subsidisation of an unwanted, unneeded, and increasingly secretive programme is a slap in the face for Japanese taxpayers. That it is still punishing critics such as Sato and Suzuki adds insult to injury.

“With warehouse full to over flowing with whale meat from previous years hunts, which can’t even be given away, this years catch of 680 whales is still 680 too many,”(1) said Sato. “The writing is on the wall for this economically and ecologically bankrupt practice. This must be the last of these so-called “scientific” whaling expeditions.”

Greenpeace is an independent, global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace.

Contacts:

Greg McNevin – Greenpeace International Communications, +81 (0)80 5416 6506, greg.mcnevin@greenpeace.org Kyoko Murakami – Greenpeace Japan Communications, +81 (0)80 5008 3048, kyoko.murakami@greenpeace.org

Photos and video of the fleet arrival are available. Please contact:

Greenpeace International video, Amsterdam:

video.production@int.greenpeace.org +31 (0) 646162015 Greenpeace International picture desk, Amsterdam:

picture.desk@int.greenpeace.org +31 (0)20 718 2470

Notes:

1) Fisheries Agency of Japan Press Release 13th April, 2009 http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/press/enyou/090413.html

2) Japan’s stolen whale meat scandal, Part 2: The cover up: available

from: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/assets/binaries/the-cover-up

3) Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were arrested on June 20th, 2008, and spent 26 days in custody before being charged. The case against them is still before the court, and the next pre-trial date is currently set for May 15. http://www.greenpeace.org/tokyo-two/

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The documents are supposed to detail whale meat sales as well as contracts between the FAJ and the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR). However, what the FAJ released on January 19 this year was so heavily censored almost every line was obscured, rendering the documents worthless.

“These blacked-out documents represent the level of secrecy surrounding the Government-funded whaling programme,” said Jun Hoshikawa, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director. “They are symbolic of the FAJ’s willingness to breach its own promise of transparency and accountability.”

Co-signed by Shokichi Kina, an Upper House Diet member from the Democratic Party of Japan, Greenpeace’s formal appeal comes as Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the Tokyo Two, prepare for the next stage of their court case in Aomori. The two are on trial for exercising their duty as concerned citizens and exposing wrongdoing inside a public organisation.

Despite the current economic crisis – the worst in a century in Japan

- the FAJ continues to subsidise the ICR’s so-called scientific whaling expeditions to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to the tune of ¥500 million (US$5 million) a year. Taxpayers are footing the bill for this unprofitable enterprise, yet the FAJ has denied the public the right to know how their money is being spent.

“The public has an overriding right to information on misconduct by government officials. By exposing an embezzlement ring inside the Japanese whaling fleet, the Tokyo Two acted within the long-standing traditions of international human rights, and in the best interests of the Japanese public,” said international human rights lawyer Richard Harvey.

The uncensored truth is that this taxpayer-funded whaling programme is scientifically bankrupt, ecologically and economically unsustainable, and neither needed or wanted by anyone outside the whaling industry and a handful of bureaucrats.

Greenpeace is an independent, global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace.

Contacts:

Greg McNevin – Greenpeace International Communications, +81 (0)80 5416 6506, greg.mcnevin@greenpeace.org Kyoko Murakami – Greenpeace Japan Communications, +81 (0)3 5338 9816, kyoko.murakami@greenpeace.org _______________________________________________

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