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August 2009: In a tremendous victory for ancient forests, Kimberly-Clark, the company that makes popular brands like Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle, announced a new policy that places it among the industry leaders in sustainability, bringing our Kleercut campaign to a successful completion. More

February 2009: Philips announced a change in its recycling policy, taking responsibility for the cost of recycling its own products. Greenepace had been calling on Philips since 2007 to stop actively opposing laws that would oblige electronics producers to accept financial responsibility for the recycling of their own products. More

January 2009: The U.S. Minerals Management Service issued a favorable Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Cape Wind project, a windfarm of 130 turbines to be built in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This was the final federal environmental report needed for the long-delayed and much scrutinized project to finally move forward. More

November 2008: A 20 percent reduction in the number of whales targeted in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary hunt this year was announced — the first reduction by Japanese whalers since 1987. More

September 2008: Greenpeace teamed up with Ben & Jerry's to bring climate-friendly freezers to the United States. The GreenFreeze technology was developed by Greenpeace in 1992 as one of our first direct market interventions and has already reshaped the refrigeration and cooling industries of Europe and Asia. We're proud to have helped bring the technology to America. More

July 2008: In an exciting victory for children in the United States, President Bush signed into law national product-safety legislation. The new law ensures that toys and child-care products will be free from brain-damaging materials like lead and several types of phthalates. This issue had a large amount of public support, with thousands of Greenpeace activists taking action and writing their members of Congress.  More

July 2008: In a huge victory for the oceans, it was announced that two large supermarket chains will stop selling shark, orange roughy, and Chilean sea bass until their populations rebound. This announcement came on the heels of our supermarket ranking report in which Greenpeace called on 20 of the top U.S. supermarket retailers to improve their seafood purchasing practices and stop selling destructively and overfished seafood. Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, and shark were at the top of our "red list."  More

May 2008: Just five days after Greenpeace launched a new campaign against Unilever, which makes Dove beauty products, the company announced plans to support our call for a moratorium on rainforest destruction in Indonesia. This was fantastic news for the highly endangered orangutan, whose forest home has been destroyed at an alarming rate, in large part due to the production of palm oil, a key ingredient in many of Unilever food and cosmetic products. More

April 2008: Greenpeace discovered a new species of sponge living in the Bering Sea. The new sponge species, Aaptos kanuux, is named for the Aleut word for "heart" and was discovered in the deep underwater canyons of the Bering Sea.  We journeyed to the Bering Sea in 2007 to document previously unexplored canyon habitats to strengthen the case for protecting these important areas. These findings underscore the unique nature of these canyons. More

January 2008: Dugongs, relatives of manatees, scored a temporary victory against the United States military when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the Department of Defense is in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act for failing to consider the impacts of a new airbase on the dugong in order to avoid or mitigate any harm. More

December 2007: In a victory for forests, the World Bank's private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), decided to sell its equity stake in Olam International Limited. Olam's  involvement in illegal timber trade was first detailed in our Carving up the Congo report.  More

December 2007: The Irish Government announced what will be the EU's first ban on energy-wasting incandescent lightbulbs, to be implemented by as early as January 2009. This simple but historic step came as governments met in Bali to discuss next steps on tackling the global climate emergency. More

November 2007: Target Corporation agreed to reduce its use of PVC in packaging and children's products, such as lunch boxes, bibs, shower curtains and fashion accessories. Greenpeace supporters and activists had rallied behind our call to Target to get toxic PVC out of our stores. More

November 2007: Together with other environmental groups, Greenpeace got 1.5 million signatures of support and pushed through Argentina's first federal forest protection law. The new law included a nationwide one-year moratorium on clearing of native forests while forest management regulations are put in place.  More

August 2007: After six years of working on chemical security, Greenpeace had a major win as Congress approved an amendment that increases public safety by re-routing ultra-toxic rail cargo around densely populated areas, which President Bush signed the bill into law. More

May 2007: After four years of Greenpeace campaigning to bring an end to deep-sea bottom trawling, representatives from countries around the world gathered in Chile to carve out a fisheries agreement for the South Pacific region.  More

May 2, 2007: Apple announced a phase-out of the most dangerous chemicals in its product line in response to our Webby-award winning online campaign and the thousands of Apple fans worldwide who took action. The "Green My Apple" campaign challenged Apple to become a green leader in addressing the electronic waste problem. More

March 2007: The New Zealand government announced cancellation of a proposed coal-burning power plant. Greenpeace and local activists had mounted a four-year struggle that involved a nine-day occupation, high court challenges, protest marches, a record numbers of public submissions, Surfers Against Sulphur, public meetings, and a pirate radio station. More

February 2007: In a major blow to the UK government's plans to reinvigorate nuclear power, the High Court ruled their decision to back a program of new nuclear power stations was unlawful on the basis that they had failed to adequately consult citizens and groups who oppose nuclear power as a dangerous distraction from real solutions to climate change. More

September 2006: Estonia launched an investigation into the practices of the cargo ship, Probo Koala following three days of blockade by the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. It is the first official action against the ship, which poisoned thousands and killed eight in the Ivory Coast when it dumped a cargo of toxic waste that had been refused by the Netherlands.   More

July 2006: McDonald's agreed to stop selling chicken fed on soy grown in newly-deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, then became instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets to sign up to a zero deforestation policy as well. Pressure from all these companies  forced their suppliers, big multinational soy companies such as Cargill, to agree to a two-year moratorium on buying soy from newly-deforested areas. More

June 2006: Dell became the latest company to promise to remove the worst toxic chemicals from its products, closely following the move of its rival HP. Both companies have been pressured to make their products greener and help tackle the growing mountain of toxic e-waste. More

May 2006: Despite heavy lobbying by the nuclear power industry, Spain confirmed that the country's eight operating plants will be phased out in favor of clean, renewable energy.  More

April 2006: After months of pressure, consumer actions, online activism and more than 100,000 emails, seafood suppliers Gorton's, Sealord, and parent company Nissui withdrew their active support for Japanese whaling. More

March 2006: Electronics giant Hewlett Packard committed to a phase-out plan for a range of hazardous chemicals in its products. More

February 2006: French President Chirac announced the recall of the asbestos-laden warship Clemenceau. Our peaceful direct actions, thousands of emails to Chirac, and an embarrassing international scandal left France with little choice but to abandon the misguided attempt to dump its toxic mess on India and bring the ship back to France. More

February 2006: An area twice the size of Belgium was given greater protection in the Amazon after a Presidential decree. The decree created a 16 million acre conservation area and was a great victory for the people of the Amazon. More

February 2006:  The British Columbian government announced full protections of one-third of the Great Bear Rainforest will be implemented by 2009. An area of over five million acres will be protected from all logging.  More

January 2006: Our Argentine Ocean Defenders hit Nissui—the people who run the Japanese whaling fleet—in their pockets. Our cyberactivists convinced a major Nissui client in Argentina not to buy from a corporation involved in the killing of whales. More

November 2005: Swiss voters voted no in a referendum to determine whether genetically engineered crops and animals can be grown in their country during the next five years.  More

November 2005: Officials in city of Buenos Aires announced plans to implement a zero waste policy after a campaign by Greenpeace in Argentina. Buenos Aires was the largest city at the time to have announced a zero waste plan. More

October 2005: Forests in northern Argentina scored a victory after a long fight by Greenpeace and the indigenous Wichi people. 22,000 hectares of forest are to be set aside as a preserve. More

October 2005: Electronics giant Motorola and health and body care companies L'Occitane, Melvitacosm, and Alqvimia were the latest companies to drop toxic chemicals from their products. More

August 2005: Electronics giant LG announced that its commitment to eliminate toxic chemicals from their entire consumer electronics range. More

July 2005: The European Parliament banned toy manufacturers from using toxic chemicals. More

April 2005: Sony Ericsson announced plans to phase toxic chemicals out of its products. This was the result of the thousands of participants in our online action to pressure electronics companies to come clean. Sony Ericsson joined Samsung, Nokia, and Sony as electronics companies who are phasing toxic chemicals out of all their products. More

March 2005: Photocopy giant Xerox agreed to stop buying timber pulp from Stora Enso, the Finnish national logging company. Following pressure by Greenpeace cyberactivists, the company agreed to a new procurement policy, ensuring that suppliers do not source timber from "old-growth forests, conservation areas or other areas designated for protection." More

November 2004: Following years of campaiging in the Amazon by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations, the Brazilian government created two massive protective reserves. The presidential decree protected five million acres of the Amazon forest by creating the Verde Para Sempre and Riozinho do Anfrisio extractive reserves. More

November 2004: Bayer conceded to Greenpeace India that ALL of its projects on genetically engineered (GE) crops have been discontinued. This announcement followed actions by Greenpeace outside Bayer's head office in Mumbai. More

October 2004: MQ Publications (MQP) became the first UK publisher to publicly announce its collaboration with the Greenpeace Book Campaign. MQP committed to phasing out paper that is not "ancient forest friendly." They also publicly challenged all UK publishers to follow suit. More

October 2004: Greenpeace efforts to achieve tighter controls on the notorious ship breaking industry resulted in an international agreement to treat obsolete ships as waste. Treaty committments by 163 nations were expected to increase demands for decontamination of ships prior to export to the principle shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and Turkey. More

October 2004: A decade of lobbying, scientific research, and direct non-violent action by Greenpeace and environmental groups around the world came to fruition as Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol, bringing to force the world's sole global effort to address the dangers of global warming. More

September 2004: Cyberactivists in Japan halted the introduction of nonrecyclable and unreturnable plastic bottles from beer manufacture Asahi. More

September 2004: Ford Europe announced a reversal of the decision to scrap its fleet of fuel efficient electric Th!nK City cars, and instead investigated sending them to eager customers in Norway. Pressure applied by Greenpeace and web-based cyberactivists convinced Ford to Th!nk Again. More

July 2004: Queensland Energy Resources announced an end to the Stuart Shale Oil Project in Australia. More

June 2004: Unilever, Coca Cola, and McDonalds promised to phase out climate-killing chemicals in their refrigeration equipment.  More

June 2004: Consumer power scored a victory following the announcement from electronics giant Samsung that it plans to phase out hazardous chemicals in its products. Seeing its brand-name products graded red - as containing hazardous chemicals - on the Greenpeace database, prompted the company to do the right thing on dangerous chemicals. More

June 2004: Publishers of 34 Canadian magazines pledged to shift away from paper containing tree fiber from Canada's ancient forests thanks to ongoing pressure from the Markets Initiative coalition, of which Greenpeace Canada played a key role. 

June 2004: Iceland stepped back from plans to kill 500 minke, sei, and fin whales over two years, and announced a quota of only 25 minkes for the year. Greenpeace web activists fueled domestic opposition by gathering 50,000 worldwide signatures to a pledge to visit Iceland if the government would stop whaling. With a potential value of more than $60 million in tourist spending, measured against a whaling program that generated $3-4 million in profits, the pledge dramatically illustrated that whales are worth more to Iceland alive than dead.More

May 2004: Thanks to years of pressure from environmental groups, consumers, and cyberactivists, Monsanto announced that it would suspend further development or open field trials of its genetically engineered Roundup Ready wheat. More

April 2004: The UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) designated the Baltic sea as a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area," a decision that Greenpeace advocated for years. The IMO regulates shipping worldwide, and the new designation means tougher restrictions on oil tankers and other dangerous cargo vessels. The move was vehemently opposed by the shipping and oil industries. More

March31, 2004: Following the controversial UK government approval of genetically engineered (GE) maize for commercial planting, the only company authorized to grow GE maize withdrew its application. More

February 18, 2004: The Stockholm Convention came into force following years of lobbying by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations. A key feature of the Convention called for the elimination of all Persistent Organic Pollutants. They include intentionally produced chemicals, such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as byproducts such as cancer-causing dioxins that are released from industries that use chlorine and from waste incinerators.More

February 4, 2004: Esso (also known as Exxon/Mobil) lost its court case against Greenpeace in France. As part of our "Don't buy Esso, Don't buy Exxon/Mobil" campaign, we developed a parody of Esso's logo with a double dollar sign: E$$O, which the oil giant attempted to censor. In a victory for freedom of expression on the web and for our campaign against the world's #1 environmental criminal, the French court defended the logo as an exercise in free speech. More

November 2003: Thanks to intensive lobbying by cyberactivists around the world, Greenpeace prevailed against an attempt by Flag of Convenience States to remove the organization from the International Maritime Organization, the UN body charged with regulating shipping worldwide. More

August 2003: The Deni, indiginous peoples of the Amazon, celebrated the end of an 18-year campaign to mark their land as protected from logging. Thirteen Greenpeace volunteers, including a member of the cyberactivist community, used GPS technology and a helicopter for a month to create an "eco-corridor" around nine million acres of land. More

May2003: Intense lobbying efforts by Greenpeace and GlobalWitness resulted in UN Sanctions on Liberia for illegal logging. More

February 26, 2003: A French court agreed to lift an injunction against Greenpeace for creating a parody version of the Esso logo. On appeal, the court agreed the depiction on a website branding the oil giant Environmental Enemy Number One was protected speech. More

February 15,2003: 30 million people worldwide created the largest anti-war protest in history. More

February 7, 2003: McDonalds in Denmark bowed to pressure and took a leadership position in opening its first restaurants that used no climate-killing chemicals for refrigeration. A campaign by Greenpeace cyberactivists three years ago had led to a similar decision by Coca Cola to phase out HFC/HCFCs and adopt Greenpeace's innovative "GreenFreeze" technology. More

2002: Brazil declared a moratorium on export of Mahogany following revelations of the extent of illegal logging and timber trade. Greenpeace actions around the world helped enforce the ban. More

2002: The European Union, followed by Japan, ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.     

2002: Greenpeace helped defeat a major drive by pro-whaling nation Japan and its supporters to re-introduce commercial whaling through the International Whaling Commission. The re-introduction would have been disastrous for whales, which are now protected under the 1982 commercial whaling ban.

2001: Greenpeace turned 30 years old. 

2001: After years of negotiations and pressure from Greenpeace, a global agreement for the elimination of a group of highly toxic and persistent man-made chemicals (Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPs), became a reality in May 2001 when a UN Treaty banning them was adopted.

2001: A historic agreement with logging companies was reached on the conservation of Canada's remaining coastal rainforest. The agreement was subsequently approved by the government of British Columbia. This followed years of campaigning by Greenpeace targeting the trade and investments of companies involved in logging the endangered Great Bear Rainforest. More

2001: Greenpeace lobbying, together with earlier expeditions to the Southern and Atlantic Oceans exposing flag of convenience (FOC or "pirate") vessels, were instrumental in the adoption of an "international plan of action" to combat illegal fishing in international waters.

2000-2001: An ever-increasing and significant number of European retailers, food producers, and subsidiaries of multinational companies guaranteed to keep genetically engineered ingredients out of their products due to consumer pressure. Thanks to its consumer networks in 15 countries, Greenpeace tested products, collected information about food products and policies and exposed contamination cases.

2000: After Greenpeace's April-May expedition exposing pirate fishing in the Atlantic, an import ban was adopted on all bigeye tuna caught by FOC vessels in the Atlantic.

2000: Turkey's plans to build its first nuclear reactors at Akkuyu as part of a larger project to construct 10 reactors by the year 2020 was canceled after eight years of campaigning by Greenpeace and others. The only remaining market for all major western nuclear companies is China.

2000: The Biosafety Protocol was adopted in Montreal, Canada. It aimed to protect the environment and human health from risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) by controlling international trade of GMOs. Greenpeace campaigned to stop the irreversible release of GMOs into the environment and to protect biodiversity from genetic pollution since1995. More

1999: Nine countries banned the use of harmful phthalates in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) toys for children under three and the EU introduced an "emergency" ban on soft PVC teething toys.

1999: Japan was ordered to stop"experimental" fishing of Southern Bluefin Tuna by the International Law of the Sea Tribunal.

1998: The Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty came into force. More

1998: A historic accord, the OSPAR Convention, banned the dumping of offshore installations at sea in the North-East Atlantic. The Convention also agreed on the phasing-out of radioactive and toxic discharges, as proposed by Greenpeace. More

1998: The oil company Shell finally agreed to bring its infamous offshore installation, the Brent Spar, to land for recycling. Greenpeace campaigned since 1995 to persuade the oil company not to dump disused installations in the ocean. More

1998: After 15 years of campaigning by Greenpeace, the EU finally agreed to phase out driftnet fishing by its fleets in EU and international waters by the end of 2001. France, Italy, the UK and Ireland, continued drift netting in the North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean after Japan, Taiwan and Korea stopped driftnet fishing on the high seas when the worldwide ban came into force at the end of 1992.

1998: Logging giant MacMillan Bloedel announced a phase-out of clearcut logging activities in British Columbia, Canada.

1997: After campaigning for urgent action to protect the climate since 1988 by Greenpeace and others, ministers from industrialized nations adopted the Kyoto Protocol, agreeing to set legally-binding reduction targets on greenhouse gases. More

1997: Greenpeace collected the UNEP Ozone Award for the development of GreenFreeze, a domestic refrigerator free of ozone-depleting and significant global warming chemicals.

1996: The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted at the United Nations. More

1995: Following a high profile action by Greenpeace, and public pressure, Shell UK reversed its decision to dump the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic Ocean. More

1995: Greenpeace actions to stop French nuclear testing received wide international attention. Over seven million people signed petitions calling for a stop to testing. France, UK, US, Russia, and China commited to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

1995: Following a submission made with Greenpeace support, UNESCO designated Russia's Komi Forest as a World Heritage Site.

1994: After years of Greenpeace actions against whaling, the Antarctic whale sanctuary, proposed by France and supported by Greenpeace, was approved by the International Whaling Commission. More

1994: Greenpeace actions exposed toxic waste trade from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries culminating in government negotiation of the Basel Convention banning this practice.

1993: The London Dumping Convention permanently banned the dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste world-wide. More

1992: France cancelled nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll, following the Rainbow Warrior visit to the test zone, and vows to halt altogether if other nuclear nations follow suit.

1992: Worldwide ban on high seas large-scale driftnets came into force.

1991: The 39 Antarctic Treaty signatories agreed to a 50-year minimum prohibition of all mineral exploitation, in effect preserving the continent for peaceful, scientific purposes.

1991: Major German publishers went chlorine-free after Greenpeace produced a chlorine-free edition of magazine Der Spiegel as part of a campaign against chlorine-bleaching.

1989: A UN moratorium on high seas large-scale driftnets was passed, responding to public outrage at indiscriminate fishing practices exposed by Greenpeace.

1988: Following at-sea actions, and submissions by Greenpeace, a world-wide ban on incinerating organochlorine waste at sea was agreed by the London Dumping Convention.

1985: French nuclear testing in the South Pacific again became the subject of international controversy, particularly following the sinking of Greenpeace's ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by the French Secret Services.

1983: The Parties to the London Dumping Convention called for a moratorium on radioactive waste dumping at sea. As a result of Greenpeace's repeated actions against ocean dumping, this was the first year since the end of the second world war where officially no radioactive wastes were dumped at sea.

1982: After at-sea actions against whalers, a whaling moratorium was adopted by the International Whaling Commission.

1982: EC banned import of seal pup skins in response to public criticism triggered by Greenpeace actions in Canada.

1978: Greenpeace actions halted the grey seal slaughter in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

1975: France ended  atmospheric tests in the South Pacific after Greenpeace protests at thetest site.

1972: After the first Greenpeace action in 1971, the U.S. abandoned nuclear testing grounds at Amchitka Island, Alaska.

See also: Greenpeace Annual Reports