DOHA, QATAR, November 23, 2012 — While delegates from around the world prepare to meet for the annual United Nations climate talks in Doha next week, Friends of the Earth International expressed strong concerns over the continued lack of progress by developed countries which are supposed to take the lead to stop climate devastation and avoid catastrophic climate change.
BERGEN (NORWAY) / LAGOS (NIGERIA), November 4, 2012 — Friends of the Earth International Chair Nnimmo Bassey received the 2012 Rafto Prize for Human Rights in Norway on November 4.
THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS, October 11, 2012 — For the first time in history, a Dutch court verdict is expected about the case of a European company, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, which appeared in court today to account for damage it caused abroad, says Friends of the Earth International.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, June 22, 2012 — Friends of the Earth International today strongly condemned world leaders for selling out people and the planet in their Rio+20 declaration which falls far short of the action needed to tackle the planetary crisis we face, and does not include any of the real solutions demanded by the people at the alternative People’s Summit.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, June 22, 2012 — Commenting on the Rio+20 Summit closing day, Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International said: “World leaders failed at their Summit in Rio, mainly because of the undue influence that multinational corporations have on them and the UN. But the parallel People’s Summit demonstrated that real solutions to the current crises do exist and that people are successfully mobilizing around them.”
On June 19, Friends of the Earth (FoE) released a report critiquing the corporate capture of the United Nations. Corporate capture means that governments are not doing their job and that they have become advocates for the corporate agenda. Popular movements have risen to the occasion in a re-energized drive to democratize the political process and take back control over our lives and nature.
BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) / RIO DE JANERIO (BRAZIL), June 4, 2012 — Tomorrow, on World Environment Day, just two weeks before a major United Nations (UN) Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Friends of the Earth International starts a campaign urging the UN to limit the excessive influence of multinational corporations on its decision-making processes. Friends of The Earth International launches an online public petition asking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take the steps needed to reclaim the UN from corporate capture.
By my calculation, by the time Canada’s withdrawal kicks in one year from now, we will have had commitments under the Kyoto Protocol for five years less 19 days. Professor Nigel Bankes from the Faculty of Law at University of Calgary reviews law pertaining to withdrawal from an international environmental agreement in his blog.
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, December 13, 2011 — The UN climate talks in Durban were a failure and take the world a significant step back by further undermining an already flawed, inadequate multilateral system that is supposed to address the climate crisis, according to Friends of the Earth International.
(Ottawa, December 8, 2011) With Canada’s international environmental reputation at rock bottom at the Durban climate negotiations, Friends of the Earth Canada has decided to donate its services to help Canada. “Canada’s Minister of the Environment showing up in Durban without domestic regulations in place is shocking,” said Beatrice Olivastri, CEO, Friends of the Earth Canada. “So we’ve prepared a model regulation, Reduction of Releases of Toxic Substances Causing Global Warming, that mirrors exactly what our government needs to finally regulate greenhouse gas pollution from the largest emitters in Canada.”
