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Christopher Columbus points the finger at US for blocking climate deal

06 November 2009

As the last day of climate talks before the Copenhagen summit drew to a close, Greenpeace attached a banner reading “Climate chaos: who is to blame?” to Barcelona’s iconic statue of Christopher Columbus, which stands at the bottom of the famous “Ramblas” street and points to America.

Greenpeace statement on Merkel speech in US congress and EU-US summit

03 November 2009

In an address to a joint session of the United States (US) congress today that preceded an EU-US summit in Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the US to tear down the walls of the 21st century, to commit to the goal of staying below a two degrees Celsius global temperature increase and to make binding commitments in the Copenhagen climate negotiations. The US is currently falling behind the rest of the world in the fight against climate change by refusing to make concrete commitments to cut carbon emissions ahead of the global climate conference taking place in Copenhagen in December.

On Wednesday 28 October, Greenpeace activists stopped operations for one of the biggest gantries at a transit point where coal is re-loaded from Russian trains onto Polish trains. Russian coal is burnt in Polish power stations causing CO2 pollution. Greenpeace activists called on Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other European leaders to show climate solidarity at the EU summit in Brussels and to commit EU climate funding for developing countries. Enlarge Image

EU leaders back global climate funding for developing countries but fail to put their money where their mouth is

30 October 2009

At the EU summit today, European leaders backed funding for climate action in developing countries in preparation of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. But while Europe has put its weight behind global public funding for the developing world of up to €50 billion per year by 2020, it lacked the nerve to commit to the EU’s share of the funding.

Barroso backtracks on vans legislation

28 October 2009

After months of delay, the European Commission today presented a bitterly disappointing proposal to reduce CO2 emissions from light commercial vehicles. Greenpeace accused the Commission of blatantly ignoring its own decarbonisation strategy.

Environment ministers fail to salvage EU climate leadership

21 October 2009

European environment ministers meeting today in Luxembourg agreed on the EU’s position going into December’s global climate summit in Copenhagen. But the failure to bring commitments on emission cuts in line with scientific requirements means that the EU’s position is not strong enough to unlock the stalled negotiations, said Greenpeace. The meeting of heads of state and government in Brussels next week is the last chance the EU has of giving the global climate negotiations a much-needed boost.

Greenpeace reactive statement on outcome of EU finance ministers meeting

20 October 2009

Talks broke down today at a crucial meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg, with ministers failing to reach any agreement on climate funding for developing countries, in preparation of the global meeting in Copenhagen in December. This means that the decision will once again be postponed until the European heads of state and government meet at the EU summit on 29 and 30 October in Brussels.

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