ENVIRONMENTAL campaign group Greenpeace has warned that its future is under financial threat because of legal action by oil giant Shell.
It says its work in Britain and internationally will be in jeopardy if it loses a court case in which the company is demanding $1 million (£803,000) in damages after activists occupied a drilling platform being towed in the Atlantic last year.
The occupation attracted international attention.
The case is due to go to trial in July.
Greenpeace says it is facing similar legal action by “Big Oil” companies in the United States and Italy and has launched an appeal for donations to help it fight in court.
Ian Duff, who heads Greenpeace’s “Stop Drilling, Start Paying” campaign, said: “Greenpeace is under attack globally like never before.
“Right now, our colleagues in Italy, the USA, and here in the UK are all targets of intimidation lawsuits from oil giants, strategically deployed with one aim: silence anyone brave enough to stand up to their planet-wrecking business.”
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“Let’s be clear — it’s not about the money,” he said. “Shell makes the $1 million it is suing us for every half an hour.
Peace campaigners blast Sir Keir for pledging to boost arms spending while backing austerity for public services
LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer faced backlash as he vowed to put billions into the pockets of war-hungry arms companies after claiming there are no funds for cash-starved public services.
Today, Sir Keir announced plans to boost Britain’s defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Matching the Tories’ current pledge, costs could amount to £9 billion.
He made the announcement ahead of a visit to a BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, where the next generation of Trident nuclear submarines are being built.
According to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, costs for the programme could spiral as high as £205bn.
During the visit he pledged to “triple lock” Labour’s commitment to Britain’s nuclear submarine programme, backing the building of the four new submarines.
He reiterated his support for Aukus, a security pact with Australia and the United States, which involves the development of nuclear submarines as part of Washington’s bid to encircle China with military alliances.
Phase 3 of the Atom Bomb explosion in the Lapoon of Bikini Island
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Starmer claims that we need nuclear weapons “in the face of rising global threats and growing Russian aggression.” Well, Britain is already deeply embroiled in a conflict involving Russia. Nuclear weapons have done nothing to avoid that conflict and indeed, the expansion of nuclear-armed Nato to the borders of Russia is a huge contributing factor.
If Starmer truly believed in advancing international security, he would be calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine now, alongside a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel (a nuclear-armed state) is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
However, the biggest lie in today’s announcement is the idea that investment in weapons of mass destruction will “build a secure future” for families in Barrow or elsewhere.
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If Labour really cares about the creation of secure well-paid jobs, it would take the money to be wasted on Trident and invest in rebuilding Britain’s manufacturing base, creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs for communities which has suffered the ravages of 40 years of deindustrialisation.
As former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said today, “Security is being able to put food on the table. It’s having a roof over your head.”
Construction of one of the two nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, UK. Credit: Anna Barclay/Getty.
Nuclear energy provides around 10% of electricity globally and around 25% of the world’s low-carbon electricity. With 439 operable reactors already in existence and a further 61 under construction, governments are investing in nuclear as a bridge in the energy transition.
However, according to Greenpeace director of policy Doug Parr: “Nuclear power can’t bridge the gap between anything and anything. It is too slow. It is too expensive. It is a massive distraction.”
Speaking about the role of nuclear energy in the UK’s transition, Parr tells Energy Monitor: “It doesn’t help with the kind of grid system that we need, which is going to be renewables heavy. I think the UK focus on nuclear power is now an obstacle to delivering net zero because it is sucking up time, energy and political bandwidth, which can be spent on more useful things.”
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Parr disagrees, arguing that governments should be investing in more immediate solutions. He points to investment in Sizewell C – the 3.2GW power station set to be built in the English county of Suffolk – where construction is set to commence this year. It is likely to take between nine and 12 years to complete, but delays at Hinkley C (of which Sizewell C will be a close copy) have stirred doubt.
“We will be putting a lot of money into something like Sizewell C, when actually we will find that it is a white elephant by the time it has opened,” he contends. “We will have spent all that time, energy and effort, which could have been put into improving our housing stock, improving our grid or improving the ability of electric vehicles to meet the needs of people through a proper charging network – things that would actually would deliver this decade, not in 15 years time. So, we would cut a lot more carbon, we would get something done that is useful and we wouldn’t have piles of messy radioactive waste that we still don’t know what to do with.”
“By the end of the summer, if we’re still looking at record breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic or elsewhere, then we really have kind of moved into uncharted territory,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told BBC News.
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March 2024 was 1.68C warmer than “pre-industrial” times – before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Greenpeace kayaktivists hold up a sign reading “stop deep-sea mining” during a November 2023 protest near a Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. exploration ship in the Pacific Ocean. (Photo: Martin Katz/Greenpeace/X)
“How can Greenpeace’s activists paddling on kayaks be a threat to the environment, but the plundering of the oceans be a solution to the climate catastrophe?”
As the International Seabed Authority kicked off its annual summit in Jamaica on Monday to discuss rules for extracting minerals from the ocean floor, Greenpeace—which could be expelled from the United Nations body over a demonstration targeting a mining company—is urging the ISA to “stop deep-sea mining, not protests.”
Representatives of 167 nations are gathering in Kingston to draft the regulatory framework for deep-sea mining, which ISA member states agreed to work out by July 2025. Although there are no current commercial deep seabed mining operations, the ISA has issued exploration licenses to state-owned companies and agencies in China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, and to private corporations including U.K. Seabed Resources, a subsidiary of U.S. military-industrial complex giant Lockheed Martin.
The Metals Company, a Canadian startup looking to make a big splash in deep-sea mining, has been targeted by Greenpeace “kayaktivists,” who last November boarded a ship belonging to subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. in the Pacific Ocean and occupied the vessel’s stern crane to draw attention to the potential harm that mineral extraction would cause to one of the world’s last untouched ecosystems.
That peaceful protest could cost Greenpeace its ISA observer status, as members will consider whether to punish the environmental group during this week’s conference. ISA Secretary-General Michael Lodge claimed that Greenpeace’s kayak protest posed a “serious threat” to company personnel and “the marine environment.”
Outrageous! While a few greedy companies are trying to plunder the seabed for profit, GREENPEACE could face expulsion from the UN body managing plans to begin deep sea mining 😡 Peaceful protest is a human right and we won't be silenced. #StopDeepSeaMininghttps://t.co/yJY71srI6W
However, last November a Dutch court rejected The Metals Company’s request for an injunction against the protesters, finding it “understandable” that Greenpeace took direct action in the face of “possibly very serious consequences” of the company’s mining plans.
Greenpeace plans to hold a side event at the ISA conference on Monday focusing on the right to protest.
“If Michael Lodge had put as much effort into properly scrutinizing deep-sea mining companies and ensuring transparent negotiations as he has chasing dissent, a pristine ecosystem would have a fair chance to remain undisturbed,” said Greenpeace International Deep-Sea Mining campaign lead Louisa Casson. “How can Greenpeace’s activists paddling on kayaks be a threat to the environment, but the plundering of the oceans be a solution to the climate catastrophe?”
This year’s ISA conference comes as two dozen nations are calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining and campaigners are urging the United States to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, under which the ISA was established.
“Over the past year, it’s been outstanding to see the growing call for a moratorium from countries in the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America,” said Casson. “Responsible nations at the ISA are listening to the mounting science that shows deep-sea mining would cause irreversible damage to the oceans… The momentum is on the side of a moratorium.”
🚨REMINDER: The deep sea mining industry wants to mine an area where over 5000 UNIQUE SPECIES were just discovered.
Anyone else think we should stop this industry before it starts?
There is also pushback. Last week, more than 350 former military and political leaders in the United States including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton published a letter urging the U.S. Senate to sign and ratify the Law of the Sea in a bid to boost deep-sea mining amid rising international competition for minerals.
“Almost everyone agrees that the United States should ratify the Law of the Sea—it’s a no-brainer and has been since the treaty was adopted over 40 years ago. This might be the only thing that Greenpeace and Big Oil agree with each other on,” said Arlo Hemphill, who heads the Oceans Are Life campaign at Greenpeace USA.
“Now, deep-sea mining corporation The Metals Company has jumped on the bandwagon, hoping it will increase their chances of making it big after several costly failed ventures,” Hemphill added. “With two dozen countries already on the record opposing the launch of deep-sea mining any time soon, there is little possibility it will be permitted.”
However, earlier this year Norway became the first country to green-light deep-sea mining, a decision one environmental campaigner warned will have “severe impacts on ocean wildlife.”
Gravestones in Victoria Tower Gardens, London, during a Greenpeace demonstration, March 13, 2024
FUEL poverty campaigners created a mock cemetery outside Parliament today to mark the deaths of tens of thousands of people who have died from cold-related illnesses since the government cut grants to help insulate homes.
Hundreds of headstones, made with insulation panels used to help people keep their homes warm, were erected in a royal park by Greenpeace and the Fuel Poverty Action campaign.
Greenpeace said that 70,000 people — on average 58 a day — have died from cold-related illnesses since the government slashed subsidies for loft and wall insulation in 2013.
Greenpeace UK fuel poverty campaigner Paul Morozzo said: “Thousands of people are literally freezing to death in their own homes during winter.
“And not only have successive governments failed to prevent this needless and shocking loss of life but they have fuelled this silent public health crisis by slashing insulation funding and failing to deliver a proper scheme to upgrade our cold, damp, draughty homes.”
