Biodegradable and compostable plastics do not prevent plastic pollution and should not be an excuse to keep consuming single-use plastics, the European Parliament recognised in a vote today. The Parliament voted to strengthen the European Commission’s plans to slash plastic pollution, under the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy launched in January 2018.
In this blog for GreenWorld, climate justice and energy campaigner Clémence Hutin writes about the significance of Europe's heatwave of 2018, and how it should be a wakeup call not for a #fossilfree Europe and for tackling summer energy poverty.
1978 saw a number of significant happenings. The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz was wrecked off Brittany, Pluto's moon Charon was discovered and the Space Invaders arcade game was launched. As well as these excitements, Friends of the Earth Scotland came into being, separating from Friends of the Earth UK, which had existed since 1970.
Over the last four decades staff, volunteers, local groups and activists have campaigned doggedly and creatively on a vast range of issues starting with protecting otters all the way to last year's massive victory in getting fracking banned.
Norway is famous for its rich, untouched nature – and for its fish. Shockingly, the Norwegian government has put both at stake with a controversial decision in 2015 to permit dumping of vast amounts of mine waste in the pristine Førdefjord.
The EU's top court ruled today that a controversial new generation of food genetic engineering techniques should be subject to EU safety checks and consumer labelling.
In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice confirmed that new techniques to modify genetic material in plant or animal cells – so called 'GMO 2.0' – must undergo the same safety checks for their impacts on the environment and human health as existing genetically modified foods (GMOs).
For more than 20 years, civil society, farmers, politicians and the food sector have successfully fought for GMO-free fields and the right to choose food without GM ingredients in Europe.
But this could be about to change. On July 25, the EU's top court will rule whether new genetically modified (GM) seeds and foods – so-called 'GMO 2.0' – should be subject to safety checks under EU law.
When we run campaigns at Friends of the Earth, we often call for regulations, policy, legislation, laws – but why bother? What are we doing it for, and for who?
These are big questions worth reflecting on. And so we set out to find the stories of people who could answer them.
The European Parliament's environment committee today voted to strengthen the European Commission's overall plans to cut plastic pollution, under the so-called Plastics Strategy. [1]
Friends of the Earth Europe's new analysis of the EU-Indonesia CEPA trade deal gives it a score of 4.5/20 for sustainability
While public discourse is focussing on tariff fights between US and China, the EU Commission continues to negotiate non-transparent and harmful trade deals.
For the past 7 years, residents of Lancashire in North West England, supported by allies from across the UK and Europe, have led a remarkable campaign to protect their communities from fracking. Local businesses, health groups, trade unions and others have joined them.