Germany to eliminate nuclear power plants

By Gein Moulson

Berlin, Germany, June 11— Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies formally signed an agreement Monday to shut down Germany’ s 19 nuclear power plants within the next 25 years, making it the world’ s largest industrialized nation to willingly forgo the technology.

Though it could take decades to complete, the plan underscores the divide between Europe and the United States on environmental policy. President Bush last month unveiled measures to promote the building of more nuclear plants, and many now operating are expected to apply to extend their operating license.

After the signing ceremony in Berlin, Schroeder said that while it was up to every country to design its own energy policy, “ naturally we would hope that many follow our example.”

The pact limits nuclear plants, which provide nearly a third of Germany’ s electricity, to an average 32 years of operation. That would likely see the most modern plants close around 2021 and see Germany join nations such as Italy and Austria in abandoning nuclear power.

Still, some environmentalists say that timetable is far too long while German conservatives argue that abandoning atomic power is a mistake. Power company executives say they haven’ t given up hope that a future government would scrap the plan.

The nuclear shutdown still must be approved by the Cabinet and parliament, where Schroeder’s Social Democrats hold the majority along with the environmentalist Greens.

Eliminating nuclear power is a pet cause of the Greens, who for years backed protests focused on halting nuclear waste transports, which the pact will end by mid-2005.

Police deployed thousands of officers Monday to protect the latest shipment from demonstrators while the environmentalist group Greenpeace placed containers of contaminated soil from reprocessing plants in France and England outside the headquarters of the Social Democrats and Greens.

About 30 anti-nuclear activists beat drums and erected a model nuclear reactor that belched orange fumes during the signing ceremony at the new chancellery in Berlin.

The leading opposition party, the conservative Christian Democrats, argued that eliminating nuclear energy would force Germany to use dirtier power sources. That could make it more difficult to curb emissions as outlined by the landmark 1997 Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases.

Source: Associated Press

Multinational corporations face Kyoto-related boycott

By Brian Kenety

Brussels, Belgium, June 7 (IPS)— Gerd Leipold has a simple message for corporate sponsors backing US President George W. Bush in opposing the Kyoto Protocol on climate control: You will be held accountable.

“We are putting pressure on companies, informing our supporters, and we will be doing what Greenpeace does best: direct action against climate criminals,” the organization’s recently named international executive director said.

Washington’s announcement in late March that it would abandon the Kyoto climate agreement sparked a wave of calls from European environmentalists and Green politicians for consumers to boycott US firms.

A Green-sponsored resolution before the European Parliament singling out the US-based oil firms ExxonMobil, Texaco and Chevron for a consumer-driven campaign was soundly defeated in April. Nevertheless, various pressure groups on this side of the Atlantic have taken up the call.

Several weeks ago, Greenpeace sent letters to the ‘Fortune 100’ firms, warning that they would “face the consequences from concerned consumers, institutions and organizations from around the world,” should they fail to meet Kyoto Protocol targets on reducing ‘greenhouse gases’ believed to contribute to global warming.

“We simply asked whether they agreed that climate change is an urgent environmental problem and if they supported the ratification of Kyoto,” said Leipold.

To date, Greenpeace has received more than 30 responses to its ‘Corporate 100’ campaign. The organization has published the list of replies on the Internet and urged the public to continue to pressure the companies, which helped put Bush in power, to declare their stand on climate change.

“What they had to say was disappointing. The top oil companies - ExxonMobil, Texaco, Chevron, Conoco and Philips - all oppose the protocol,” said Leipold.

Greenhouse gases - including carbon dioxide, which is emitted by the combustion of fossil fuels like wood, coal and oil - are believed by most scientists to be responsible for the accelerating warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the last century. The US emits about one-quarter of the world’s total greenhouse emissions.

The Kyoto agreement of December 1997 commits the world’s industrialized countries to cutting their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The Bush administration has argued that US businesses could not afford to implement it unless poor countries were required to make similar cuts during the same period.

Leipold noted that while the majority of US companies claim not to have a position on the Kyoto Protocol, many are members of industry lobby groups, such as the US Council for International Business, that actively promote and shape the Bush administration’s environmental policy.

Leipold said that Greenpeace would be launching actions against other specific targets over the next five weeks, prior to a follow- up meeting in Bonn, Germany to the United Nations climate control talks, known as ‘COP-6’, which collapsed in The Hague last November.

For more information: www.greenpeace.org

Bush administration joins industry in promoting genetically engineered corn

Guadalajara, Mexico, June 6, (ENS)— Bush Administration officials joined lobbyists from Monsanto and other genetic engineering firms at the First Trilateral Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology to urge Mexico to allow commercialization of gene altered crops.

The two day meeting, which also included Canadian government representatives, could affect the future of corn farming around the world, said environmental activists. Mexico is now the global center of corn biodiversity, but many corn varieties could be lost if engineered corn wins as large a share of the Mexican market as it enjoys in the US.

“The Mexican people, not foreign industries and governments, should decide the future of this vital natural resource,” said Hector Magallon, a genetic engineering campaigner for Greenpeace Mexico. “The Bush Administration would endanger the world’s genetic reserve of corn germplasm for the short term gain of a few huge biotech firms.”

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity gives countries sovereignty over their biodiversity.

While representatives from almost every major biotechnology company participated in the meeting, no citizens groups were invited other than Greenpeace, which was allowed to make a short presentation.

Critics of genetically engineered corn varieties warn that their engineered genes could be spread to some of the 300 local varieties that live in Mexico. In the US, an unapproved variety of engineered corn, planted on fewer than one percent of all corn acres, contaminated millions of bushels of natural corn last fall, leading to over 300 food product recalls and major market disruptions for US corn farmers.

In Mexico, such genetic contamination could cause the extinction of wild corn relatives such as teocinte, which serves as a genetic reserve for corn farmers around the globe.

Greenpeace raids tanker in anti-Bush protest

Paris, France, June 11— Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace boarded an oil tanker off the French coast on Sunday, preventing it from delivering a cargo of US oil to the nearby port of Le Havre, maritime authorities said.

A Greenpeace spokesman said the protest was mainly aimed against US President George Bush, who has infuriated many Europeans by rejecting the Kyoto global warming pact and is due to begin his first official visit to the continent this week.

Eight Greenpeace protesters boarded the Norwegian-owned tanker “Anna Knutsen” at around 11:00 am and prevented a pilot from boarding the ship to guide it to port.

They draped a huge banner over the side of the tanker reading “Bush + Chevron + Conoco = Climate Killers.”

A spokesman at a local French maritime office said the tanker’s captain had anchored some 10 nautical miles off Le Havre and had radioed saying the protesters were endangering his vessel. A police patrol boat was heading to the area.

“Our aim is to send a very clear message to Bush and US companies that they cannot continue with business as normal while they continue to ruin the environment,” Greenpeace spokesman Paul Horsman said by telephone from a Greenpeace boat near the tanker.

Greenpeace’s main grievance against Bush is his decision to pull out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty that calls for industrialized nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Source: Reuters