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Greenpeace alerts MPs to constitutional blunder

March 10, 2010

Greenpeace today urged Members of Parliament (MPs) from across the political spectrum to live up to their responsibilities. As elected representatives of the people of India they must reject the proposed Civil Liabilities for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009. In case of a nuclear disaster the bill limits the damage liability of the operator and the supplier. “Our people expect better from their leaders who conspire to peg the life of an Indian citizen at less than what victims of the Bhopal Gas tragedy got 20 years ago, which in itself was a miscarriage of justice” said Karuna Raina, anti nuclear campaigner, Greenpeace.

Samsung = Broken Promises

March 03, 2010

Greenpeace climbers today scaled the Benelux headquarters of the Korean electronic giant Samsung, sticking the message “Samsung = Broken Promises” in giant letters onto the front of the building. The peaceful protest is challenging the company for breaking its promises to eliminate key toxic substances from its products.

The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India bill to be tabled

March 01, 2010

The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India [BRAI] bill is to be tabled in the ongoing Budget session of the parliament. Responding to the content of the draft bill Jai Krishna, Sustainable Agriculture campaigner, Greenpeace said “It’s outrageous that the government is trying to lower the bar for bio-safety tests of GM food crops through the proposed regulatory system.”

Tokyo Two whale meat trial starts, 10,000 Indians join call for justice

February 16, 2010

As the trial of two Greenpeace activists for exposing a stolen whale meat scandal involving the Japanese government-sponsored whaling programme commenced in Aomori, Japan, Greenpeace India presented the Japanese embassy in New Delhi with a pledge signed by 10,000 Indians. The pledge calls on the Japanese government to ensure that Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki receive a fair trial, and that the investigation into the whale meat embezzlement scandal is reopened.

India — Greenpeace welcomes the minister’s decision not to allow Bt brinjal to contaminate Indian agriculture.


The minister must now reassure the nation that the moratorium will not lead to a back door entry of Bt brinjal or the 41 other food crops which are in different stages of trial in the country.

Stringent monitoring measures should be immediately put in place to ensure that no releases of GM crops happen and a strong message be sent out by making GM developers liable for any accidental or illegal releases.

The moratorium is a good step towards charting the path for sustainable agriculture and food security for our country.



Notes to Editor

The report of the minister is available at
http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/minister_REPORT.pdf

Vision, video, photos, report information

Rajesh Krishnan, campaign Manager, Sustainable Agriculture Campaign, Greenpeace- Mob: +91-98456 50032, email: rajesh.krishnan@greenpeace.org Dr. Seema Javed-Sr.Media Officer Greenpeace -91-99100 59765

Wipro marches ahead of Dell and Samsung to the Toxics free punch

In a classis case of David and Goliath, one of India’s biggest IT service provider (but relatively small PC manufacturing company), Wipro, has beaten giants like Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and LGE to the finish line in producing a computer, which is first major electronic product in India, free of worst toxic chemicals. This announcement marks another clear success for our green electronics campaign driving tech companies around the world to clean up their products.

Copenhagen Accord recycles old climate commitments, leaving the world heading for catastrophic climate change

February 01, 2010

With the passing of the Copenhagen Accord's 31 January deadline for its supporters to submit their pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the absence of strengthened commitments has failed to meet the Accord's stated objective of taking action to limit global warming to under 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), a critical threshold for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.(1)

India

Right now, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is deciding if he'll allow corporations with American interests to genetically engineer India's King of Vegetables—the brinjal.  The U.S.-backed companies say that Bt Brinjal will be free from pests, but Indian farmers have successfully grown brinjal for thousands of years without this toxic gene.

Moreover, there have been no tests to prove its viability for human consumption. Rats fed on Bt Brinjal had diarrhoea and liver weight decrease.  If Bt Brinjal is grown in India, it could contaminate traditional brinjal farms as well, thus tainting India's food supply forever.

The introduction of Bt Brinjal has been rejected equivocally at all the public consultations that have taken place so far. But Jairam Ramesh is yet to give his verdict on this issue. 

Greenpeace is launching a new campaign to persuade Mr. Ramesh to protect India's brinjal: We're going to make the World's Biggest Baingan Bharta, in Delhi! 

The baingan bharta will have one brinjal for every person who signs our petition. We will present the names of all the signers to Mr. Ramesh. Our goal is 10,000 brinjals. 

The petition says: "India should not allow our brinjals to be contaminated by corporations with American interests."

Add a brinjal by signing our petition today and ask your friends and family to do the same. 
http://greenpeace.in/safefood/the-biggest-baingan-bharta-ever/

Add a Baingan now

Donate to Help us make the Bharta

India

New Delhi, 25 January 2010 - Greenpeace welcomes the position taken by Ministers of the BASIC group of countries (Brazil, China, India and South Africa), who met yesterday in New Delhi, to continue negotiations on a fair and ambitious climate agreement within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, Greenpeace emphasised that such an agreement needs to be legally binding in order to ensure its implementation.

In their joint statement, ministers from the four leading emerging economies called for meetings of the climate convention's working groups on long-term co-operative action and the Kyoto Protocol to be held in March 2010. They also want the working groups to meet at least five times before the next major UN climate conference which is scheduled to start on 29 November 2010, in Mexico.

The Ministers underlined that UN climate talks occupy a central position and they called for all negotiations to be conducted in an inclusive and transparent manner. They also outlined their desire for better South-South scientific co-operation and support for vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.Greenpeace is encouraged by the willingness of the BASIC group to support vulnerable countries, both by ensuring their participation in open and transparent negotiations and by providing technological and or financial support.

However, Greenpeace is calling on the BASIC countries to make this support more tangible by the time of its next meeting that the South African government is to host in April 2010.

Greenpeace also noted the further consolidation of the BASIC countries as a group and urges them to assume the responsibilities that go with an alliance of such influential economic powers.

Though the BASIC countries demonstrating leadership in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, Greenpeace wants them to exert pressure on industrialised counties to

urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make their own appropriate contributions in emission reductions.

"Continued inaction by governments would allow global warming to engulf us all," said Siddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Policy Officer, Greenpeace India. "If we are to keep this demon at bay and avoid dangerous climate change, industrialised countries must cut their emissions together, 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and provide massive financial and technological support to enable developing nations as a whole to reduce their projected growth in emissions by 15-30% over the same timescale. It's not easy but the consequences of failure would be among our worst nightmares," he said.
— James North

New Delhi, India

New Delhi, January 24,2010: "Greenpeace welcomes the position taken by the Ministers of the BASIC group that met today in New Delhi to continue negotiations on a fair and ambitious climate agreement within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However Greenpeace wants to insist to the BASIC countries that such an agreement also needs to be legally binding in order to ensure its implementation.

Greenpeace is encouraged by the willingness of the BASIC group to support vulnerable countries, both by ensuring their participation in open and transparent negotiations and by providing technological and or financial support. However Greenpeace calls upon the BASIC countries to make this support more tangible by its next meeting in April.

Greenpeace also notes the further consolidation of the BASIC countries as a group and calls upon these countries to ensure they take the responsibility that comes along with the renewed power from their alliance. Greenpeace expects these countries to demonstrate leadership, both in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, and in terms of both pushing industrialized counties to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions and making their own appropriate contributions in emission reductions, in order to avoid dangerous climate change."

For further information, contact:
Siddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Policy Officer, Greenpeace India
Tel: +91 99 0288 3738
E-mail: siddharth.pathak@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace urges the BASIC countries to pick up the pieces from the failure of Copenhagen

January 20, 2010

Within a week, ministers from the four main emerging economies- Brazil, South Africa, India and China will gather in New Delhi to discuss a joint strategy for the climate negotiations which will be the first official multilateral meeting since the collapse of COP 15. The quartet, known as BASIC, proved to be one of the most influential groups at December’s climate negotiations.

Copenhagen, India — World leaders have failed us. They have walked away from the global summit in Copenhagen without a treaty to save the climate. They still have a chance to get it right and we will not let them fail. The future of 6.5 billion people is at stake… You are one of them. They are not done yet, and neither are we. Together with other environmental and social justice groups, we are building the biggest movement civil society has ever witnessed to demand our leaders take action against climate change. Send your message to leaders telling them that they are NOT DONE YET!

World leaders have failed us. They have walked away from the global summit in Copenhagen without a treaty to save the climate. They still have a chance to get it right and we will not let them fail. The future of 6.5 billion people is at stake… You are one of them.

They are not done yet, and neither are we.

Together with other environmental and social justice groups, we are building the biggest movement civil society has ever witnessed to demand our leaders take action against climate change.

Send your message to leaders telling them that they are NOT DONE YET!

Fabric of Hope unfurled in Delhi

December 12, 2009

New Delhi, 12th December 2009: In response to the uncertainty in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, citizens stepped out onto the street to voice their demand for a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty to avert catastrophic climate change. The colorful and noisy citizens march included civil society groups, artists, and youngsters from schools and colleges who joined to “Bajao” for the Global Day of Action (1).

Threatening levels of Chemical fertilisers in Punjab groundwater: Greenpeace study

November 26, 2009

Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the medical fraternity today raised concern over the discovery of high levels of nitrate contamination of drinking water based on a Greenpeace study. The study, ‘Chemical fertilisers in our Water(1), conducted in farms across Muktsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana showed that most wells were contaminated with nitrates, and 20 percent of all sampled wells had nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg per litre as established by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission has potential

November 23, 2009

Greenpeace welcomed the Government’s ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), which was released today, a few days before the Climate summit at Copenhagen.

Farmers and youth from Vidarbha demand Energy Justice

November 19, 2009

On the eve of the winter parliament session, more than 100 farmers and young people representing all eleven districts in Vidarbha, held a protest at the doorstep of the Ministry of Social Justice to highlight the injustice of the energy sector in their region and country. Carrying banners and lanterns and singing songs of revolution, they queued up to file their grievances on electricity poverty with this ministry. “We have waited long enough for electricity to reach us. We don’t believe that the current system will ever deliver us power. Even living next to a coal plant means nothing, I still get less than 12 hours of power in day”, says Ravi Gavai, Maharashtra Yuva Parishad. “That’s why I am here to ask Mukul Vasnik if he thinks this is justice?!