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Greenpeace welcomes Swedish oil giant's decision not to use palm oil

Coal is the worst climate offender Enlarge Image

Stop climate change

The world's leaders meet at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen to determine the fate of the climate. They could set us on the path to a deep emissions cuts or they could lock the planet into catastrophic, irreversible climate change.

Temperature change 1765-2100: Graph excerpted from the IPCC's Third Assessment Report showing past and predicted changes to global temperature. Enlarge Image

Science

Climate change is a reality. Today, our world is hotter than it has been in two thousand years. By the end of the century, if current trends continue, the global temperature will likely climb higher than at any time in the past two million years. While the end of the 20th century may not necessarily be the warmest time in Earth's history, what is unique is that the warmth is global and cannot be explained by the natural mechanisms that explain previous warm periods. There is a broad scientific consensus that humanity is in large part responsible for this change, and that choices we make today will decide the climate of the future.

The US based Cargill corporation burns large areas of rainforest to prepare for soya plantations. Enlarge Image

Deforestation

Deforestation and forest degradation are both a cause and a result of climate change. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and use it to grow, but when they decay or burn the carbon dioxide is released again. Decaying plants also produce methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide emissions and the carbon cycle. Enlarge Image

CO2 emissions

The primary human source of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels for energy production and transport. Changes in land use and deforestation also contribute significantly. Trees, for example, are natural 'carbon sinks' - they absorb carbon dioxide while alive and when they are destroyed, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, most of the carbon dioxide stays there for 50 to 200 years, and some of it stays there indefinitely.

Greenpeace Czech Republic marks Kyoto coming into force with a large banner reading "Kyoto for the Earth" in the front of famous National Museum in the centre of Prague. The museum is a place marking historic and symbolic events in recent Czech history. Enlarge Image

Kyoto

On 16 February 2005, in the culmination of ten years of sometimes exhausting and often frustrating negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol became law. Thirty-five industrialised countries along with the European Union are now legally bound to reduce or limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenpeace negotiators and members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development call for action on climate change at the Johannesburg Earth Summit. Enlarge Image

International negotiations

This page is intended primarily for policy makers, journalists and others who attend or report on international meetings about climate change. Hopefully though, it is also useful to anyone who wants better understanding of what goes on at these meetings, and what is at stake from their results.

Greenpeace observer checking heavy ice floes beside Arctic Sunrise. Enlarge Image

Expeditions and special projects

Here you can find the special weblogs and tour sites we put up for particular projects. Past project sites are archived, and no longer updated.

Bioenergy

Bioenergy (aka biomass energy) is using organic matter (plants, etc.) as fuel via technologies such as gas collection, gasification (converting solid material to gas), combustion and digestion (for wet wastes).

The Sellafield... or is it Springfield?... Nuclear Power Plant Enlarge Image

Solutions myths

Questions about solutions answered, and some myths debunked.

Nomadic Penan leader Along Sega and his grandchild examine a tree stump near their village in the Sungai Nyakit area of the Sarawak rainforest in Malaysia. He is 60, a father of nine and grandfather of 30. Enlarge Image

Protect ancient forests

Forest destruction produces about one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than that emitted from all the cars, planes, and trains in the world.

Visit our new Climate Defenders Camp in Indonesia!

Clearcutting of Canada's temperate rainforest, Tofino Creek, Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. Enlarge Image

Threats

Eight thousand years ago, large tracts of ancient forest covered almost half the earth's land area. Today, only one fifth of the original forests remain as large areas of ancient forest, the rest having been destroyed, degraded or fragmented by relentless human activity.

Rubber tappers in Jurua Extractive Reserve, Amazon, Brazil. Enlarge Image

Solutions

Few can dispute the irreplaceable damage caused to forests from illegal and destructive logging around the world, but what can be done to effectively address the problem and reverse the increasing trend of ancient forest destruction?

Go to your national site

World websites

General media enquiries:
+31 (0)20 718 2096.

Hotline:
+31 (0)20 718 2470

For EU related:
Mark Breddy
+32 2 2741 903(p)
+32 496 15 6229(m)
mark.breddy@greenpeace.org

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