Sustainable Trade

December 22, 2009

TODAY: Brown blames COP-Flop on China, US; Mexican cars take a dive and Climate heroes spend Christmas in jail

Posted by Anne-Marije at 11:23 AM

This the first in a trial series

Unsurprisingly, the biggest story in environment and Greenpeace news this week has been the disappointing outcome of the COP15 summit as major NGOs are turning focus on Mexico in 2010. Only US media seems careful to judge the summit as harshly as the European Press.

There are some interesting new names for the Copenhagen summit floating around in the media. Which was first Hopenhagen is now Flopenhagen or Brokenhagen in French media.

L'Express reports that the last two weeks have seen "45000 accreditations, 12 days of negotiations and 46,200 tonnes of carbon only to lead to "a crime against humanity" the major NGOs have turned to Mexico in 2010, are angry after the flop of Copenhagen." Kumi Naidoo was quoted saying, The Copenhagen Accord has "holes so big you could cross them with the Air Force One!"

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Posted by Anne-Marije at 11:23 AM | | Comments (3)


November 27, 2009

The Buzz about GE Rice in China.

Posted by Anne-Marije at 4:26 PM

rice.jpg

Reports from the Reuters news agency that China, the world's largest producer and consumer of rice, has issued a biosafety certificate for a locally-developed strain of genetically-modified rice that would pave the for large-scale production in 2 to 3 years, are a cause for grave concern..

However, it is not as simple nor as complete as the Reuters report implies. Approval for the Bt-63 strain of GE rice has only been given by the Chinese Biosafety Committee. This means it would still need a crucial approval from the Ministry of Agriculture.

There is a precedent that shows us full cultivation can still be avoided. In 2004, a similar certificate was issued for GE rice but Greenpeace China together with other stakeholders successfully blocked its commercialization.

We are calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to safeguard the interest of over 20 percent of the world’s population from this dangerous genetic experiment.

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Posted by Anne-Marije at 4:26 PM | | Comments (1)


June 6, 2007

Choose the right biofuel or the orang-utan gets it

Posted by Jamie at 7:36 PM

Last month in the UK, we launched a campaign with several other organisations for rigorous controls on biofuels. Governments across the EU are trying to force fuel companies to supply more biofuels and so cut carbon dioxide emissions, but while biofuels could make a small contribution in the battle against climate change, they could in fact do more harm than good.

If rainforests are cut down to make way to grow 'green fuels', it will not only destroy homes for animals like orang-utans, it will also be catastrophic for the climate by releasing more greenhouse gases by destroying forests than we will save using biofuels. The link between deforestation has been well documented so clearing forests to grow biofuel crops makes absolutely no sense.

Anyway, the campaign launched with a cheeky press ad (here's a PDF version) warning of the perils of biofuels, which has now been made into a short, sharp shock of a film which is playing above. Enjoy.

Posted by Jamie at 7:36 PM |