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Greenpeace victories
March 7, 2007: The New Zealand government announces cancellation of proposed coal-burning power plant Marsden B. Greenpeace and local activists had mounted a four-year struggle which 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 15, 2007: In a major blow to the UK government's plans to reinvigorate nuclear power, the High Court rules their decision to back a programme 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 27, 2006: Estonia launches an investigation into the 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. After dumping its deadly cargo, the ship simply sailed to Estonia unhindered until Greenpeace took action. More.
July 25, 2006: McDonald's agrees to stop selling chicken fed on soya grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, then becomes instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, ASDA and Waitrose, to sign up to a zero deforestation policy as well. But it goes even further than that, and pressure from all these companies forces their suppliers, the big multinational soya companies such as Cargill, to agree a two-year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested areas. More.
June 26, 2006: Dell becomes the latest company to promise to remove the worst toxic chemicals from it products, closely following the move of its rival HP. Both companies have been pressured by us to make their products greener and help tackle the growing mountain of toxic e-waste. More
May 31, 2006: Despite heavy lobbying by the nuclear power industry, Spain has confirmed that the country's 8 operating plants will be phased out in favour of clean, renewable energy. Spain joins Sweden, Germany, Italy and Belgium as the fifth European country to abandon nuclear power. More.
April 3, 2006: After months of pressure, consumer actions, online activism and more than 100,000 emails from Ocean Defenders everywhere, seafood suppliers Gorton's, Sealord and parent company Nissui withdraw their active support for Japanese whaling. Whalers announce that the 32 percent share in whaling operations owned by these commercial corporations will be transferred to a "public interest entity." The retreat isolates whaling economically and probably scuppers plans to find new markets for whale products. More
March 9, 2006: Electronics giant Hewlett Packard commits to a phase out plan for a range of hazardous chemicals in its products. More
February 16, 2006: French President Chirac announced the dramatic recall of the asbestos-laden warship Clemenceau -- it will be turning around and going back to France. Our actions, emails to Chirac and an embarrassing international scandal left France with little choice but to abandon the misguided attempt to dump its own toxic mess on India. More
February 14, 2006: An area twice the size of Belgium has been given greater protection in the Amazon after a Presidential decree. The decree by President Lula of Brazil to create the 6.4 million hectare (around 16 million acres) conservation area is a great victory for the people of the Amazon battling landgrabbers, cattle ranchers and loggers. The decree calls for around 1.6 million hectares to be permanently protected and totally off limits to logging and deforestation. More
February 7, 2006: Take ten years of difficult, dangerous, and at times, heartbreaking work. Add thousands of activists from around the world -- some who sent emails, some who stood on the blockades, some who voted against destruction with their wallets. Some who were beaten, some who were sued, some who were arrested. But eventually common sense has prevailed and one of the world's treasures, the Great Bear Rainforest, is saved from destruction. More
January 13, 2006: Our Argentine Ocean Defenders hit Nissui in their pockets. Nissui own about one third of Kyodo Senpaku -- the people who run the Japanese whaling fleet. Our cyberactivists convinced a major Nissui client in Argentina not to buy from a corporation involved in the killing of whales. More
Noveber 28, 2005 - Swiss voters vote no in a referendum to determine whether genetically engineered (GE) crops and animals can be grown in the alpine nation during the next five years. Their verdict in each and every one of the three main languages was the same, nein, non, no, to GE. More
November 24, 2005 - The city of Buenos Aires announces plans to implement a zero waste policy after a campaign by Greenpeace in Argentina. The plan aims to reduce dramatically the 4-5000 tonnes of waste the city dumps every day. Buenos Aires is the largest city so far to announce a zero waste plan. More
27 October, 2005 - The intervention of some home-grown celebrities to finally tips the balance in favour of protecting the forests of northern Argentina after a long fight by Greenpeace and the indigenous Wichi people. More
October 4, 2005 - Electronics giant Motorola and health and body care companies L'Occitane, Melvitacosm and Alqvimia are the latest companies to drop the most toxic chemicals from their products. More
August 17, 2005 - Electronics giant LG announces that it is committing to eliminating toxic chemicals from their entire consumer electronics range. More
July 5 , 2005 - Bad Barbies, toxic Teletubbies and rotten rubber ducks could have been slowly poisoning small children. The very chemicals that made these toys so soft and tempting to teething toddlers have been shown to damage organs in animals. But the European Parliament has banned manufacturers from using six of these toxic chemicals, freeing Europe from many toxic toys for good. More
April 29, 2005: Sony Ericsson announces that it will be phasing toxic chemicals out of its products. This is the result of the thousands of participants in our online action to pressure electronics companies to come clean. Sony Ericsson joins Samsung, Nokia and Sony as electronics companies who are phasing toxic chemicals out of all their products. More.
March 22, 2005: Photocopy giant Xerox agrees to stop buying timber pulp from StoraEnso, the Finnish national logging company which is cutting down one of Europe's last remaining ancient forests. Following pressure by Greenpeace cyberactivists, the company agrees a new procurement policy, ensuring that suppliers do not source timber from 'old-growth forests, conservation areas or other areas designated for protection.' More
The Arctic Sunrise campaigning for the extractive reserves in 2003. The announcement by the Brazilian government to create 2 million hectares of extractive reserve is a major victory for our campaign.
November 4, 2004: Bayer conceded to Greenpeace India that ALL its projects on genetically engineered (GE) crops have been "discontinued" in a letter sent by Aloke V. Pradhan, head of Bayer's Corporate Communications in India. This announcement followed earlier actions by Greenpeace outside Bayer's headoffice in Mumbai. More
October 29, 2004: MQ Publications (MQP) in the UK becomes the first UK publisher to publicly announce its collaboration with the Greenpeace Book Campaign. MQP has committed to phasing out paper that is not 'ancient forest friendly'. Their next five books, including 'The Armchair Environmentalist' will be printed on 100 percent recycled paper. They have also publicly challenged all UK publishers to follow suit. More
October 29, 2004: Greenpeace efforts to achieve tighter controls on the notorious shipbreaking industry result in an international agreement to treat obsolete ships as waste. Treaty committments by 163 nations can be expected to increase demands for decontamination of ships prior to export to the principle shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and Turkey. It will also create new demand for the development of "green" ship recycling capacity in developed countries. More
Marking the Kyoto Protocol's becoming law in Bangkok, Thailand.
September 30, 2004: Cyberactivists in Japan halt introduction of recycling-unfriendly and unreturnable plastic bottles when beer manufacture Asahi bows to citizen pressure. More
September 1, 2004: Ford Europe announce a reversal of the decision to scrap its fleet of fuel efficient electric Th!nK City cars, and instead investigate sending them to eager customers in Norway. Pressure applied by Greenpeace and web-based cyberactivists convinced Ford to Th!nk Again. When charged by electricity from renewable sources, these cars help fight the biggest threat to our planet: climate change. More
July 20, 2004: Queensland Energy Resources announce an end to the Stuart Shale Oil Project in Australia. Greenpeace campaigned against the project, which would have produced oil with four times the greenhouse impact as oil from the ground, since 1998. The project cost millions of dollars in government subsidies which should have been spent on renewable energy. More
June 22, 2004:
Unilever, Coca Cola and McDonalds promise to phase out climate-killing
chemicals in their refrigeration equipment. In 1992 Greenpeace launched
Greenfreeze with the help of two scientists who pointed out how to
avoid HFC's altogether. We found an old fridge factory, appealed to our
supporters to pre-order enough units to finance a refit, helped build
the market and Greenfreeze was born. Today there are over 100 million
Greenfreeze refrigerators in the world, produced by all the major
European, Chinese, Japanese and Indian manufacturers. More
Samsung annouces phase out of hazardous chemicals.
June 1, 2004: Iceland steps back from plans to kill 500 minke, sei, and fin whales over two years, announcing 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 US$ 60 million in tourist spend, against a whaling programme which generated 3-4 million in profits, the pledge dramatically illustrated that whales are worth more to Iceland alive than dead. More
May 11, 2004:
Thanks to years of pressure from environmental groups, the consumers,
our cyberactivists and Greenpeace, we can celebrate a victory for the
environment following the announcement by Monsanto that it would
suspend further development or open field trials of its genetically
engineered, Roundup Ready wheat. Monsanto stated that it was defering
all further efforts to introduce the crop and that it was discontinuing
breeding and field-level research of the wheat. This follows a similar
announcement in 2003 when the company announced its withdrawal from the
development of pharmaceutical crops. More
April 2, 2004:
The UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) designate the Baltic
sea as a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area," a decision which 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
March 31, 2004: Following the controversial UK government approval of genetically engineered (GE) maize for commercial planting, the only company authorized to grow GE maize withdraws its application. In a victory for activists and consumers across Europe who lobbyed for tougher legislation and boycotted GE products, Bayer CropScience, a German company authorised to plant an herbicide-resistant variety of maize known as Chardon LL, said regulations on how and where the crop could be planted would make it "economically non-viable." Chardon LL was the crop pulled up by Greenpeace UK activists in 1999. The activists were acquitted of charges of criminal damage when the court agreed they were acting in the interest of protecting the environment.More
February 18, 2004: The Stockholm Convention comes into force following years of lobbying by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. A key feature of the Convention calls for the elimination of all Persistent Organic Pollutants. They include intentionally produced chemicals, such as pesticides and PCBs, as well as by-products such as cancer-causing dioxins that are released from industries that use chlorine and from waste incinerators.More
Culture jamming the Esso logo at the entrance to a large station near the Germany-Luxembourg border in Wasserbillig.
November 2003:
Thanks to intensive lobbying by cyberactivists around the world,
Greenpeace prevails against and attempt by Flag of Convenience States
to remove the organisation from the International Maritime
Organisation, the UN body charged with regulating shipping worldwide.
Greenpeace action against unsafe oil tankers, such as the Prestige, had
led to the ouster attempt on purported "safety" grounds. More
August 2003:
The Deni, indiginous peoples of the Amazon, celebrate the end of an
18-year campaign to mark their land as protected from logging. 13
Greenpeace volunteers, including a member of the cyberactivist
community, used GPS technology and a helicopter for a month to create
an "eco-corridor" around 3.6 million hectares of land. More
May 2003: Intense lobbying efforts by Greenpeace and Global Witness results in UN Sanctions on Liberia for illegal logging. More
February 26, 2003:
A French court agrees to lift an injunction against Greenpeace for
creating a parody version of the Esso logo. In July Greenpeace was
ordered to remove the logo from its website. 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 create the largest anti-war protest in the history of humankind. More
February 7, 2003:
McDonalds in Denmark bows to pressure and takes a leadership position
in opening its first restaurants that use no climate-killing checmicals
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 declares a moratorium on export of Mahogany following revelations of the extent of illegal logging and timber trade. Greenpeace actions around the world help enforce the ban. More
2002: The European Union, followed by Japan, ratifies the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Intensive Greenpeace lobbying must continue because, for the protocol to enter into force, 55 parties to the convention must ratify it.
2002: Greenpeace helps 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 turns 30 years old in September. The environmental group has grown from a small band of inspired volunteers to an international environmental organisation with offices in 30 countries. As always, Greenpeace thrives on committed activism and widespread, growing public support.
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 is adopted.
Mouth of Lockhart/Gordon Creek, Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada.
2001: Greenpeace lobbying, together with earlier expeditions to the Southern and Atlantic Oceans exposing flag of convenience (FOC or "pirate") vessels, are 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 tests products, collects information about food products and policies and exposes contamination cases.
2000: Further to Greenpeace's April-May expedition exposing pirate fishing in the Atlantic, an import ban is 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, is finally cancelled in July 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 is adopted in Montreal, Canada. It aims to protect the environment and human health from risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) by controlling international trade of GMOs. Greenpeace has campaigned to stop the irreversible release of GMOs into the environment and to protect biodiversity from genetic pollution since 1995. More
1999: Nine countries ban the use of harmful phthalates in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) toys for children under three and the EU introduces an "emergency" ban on soft PVC teething toys.
1999: Japan is 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 comes into force. More
1998:
A historic accord, the OSPAR Convention, bans the dumping of offshore
installations at sea in the North-East Atlantic. The Convention also
agrees on the phasing-out of radioactive and toxic discharges, as
proposed by Greenpeace. More
1998: The oil company Shell finally agrees 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 agrees 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 driftnetting 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 announces it will phase out 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 industrialised nations adopt the Kyoto Protocol agreeing to set legally-binding reduction targets on greenhouse gases.
1997: Greenpeace collects 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) is adopted at the United Nations. More
Greenpeace stopped the dumping of the Brent Spar and other at-sea installations, in a campaign against using the oceans as a dumping ground.
1995: Greenpeace actions to stop French nuclear testing receive wide international attention. Over seven million people sign petitions calling for a stop to testing. France, UK, US, Russia and China commit to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
1995 Following a submission made with Greenpeace support, UNESCO designates 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, is approved by the International Whaling Commission.
1994 Greenpeace actions exposing toxic waste trade from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries culminate in government negotiation of the Basel Convention banning this practice.
1993 The London Dumping Convention permanently bans the dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste world-wide. More
1992 France cancels this year's 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 comes into force.
1991 Major German publishers go chlorine-free after Greenpeace produces chlorine-free edition of Der Spiegel as part of campaign against chlorine-bleaching.
1988 Following at sea actions, and submissions by Greenpeace, a world-wide ban on incinerating organochlorine waste at sea is agreed by the London Dumping Convention.
1985 French nuclear testing in the South Pacific again becomes 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 call for a moratorium on radioactive waste dumping at sea. As a result of Greenpeace's repeated actions against ocean dumping, this is the first year since the end of the second world war where officially no radioactive wastes are dumped at sea.
1982 After at sea actions against whalers, a whaling moratorium is adopted by the International Whaling Commission.
1982 EC bans import of seal pup skins in response to public criticism triggered by Greenpeace actions in Canada.
1975 France ends atmospheric tests in the South Pacific after Greenpeace protests at the test site.
1972 After the first Greenpeace action in 1971, the US abandons nuclear testing grounds at Amchitka Island, Alaska.
See also: Greenpeace Annual Reports
