Earlier this year, China’s ministries of Commerce and Environmental Protection jointly issued new guidelines for the environmental practices of Chinese companies doing business abroad. The new guidelines are an important step toward improving China’s global green reputation – but ultimately fail to go far enough in compelling Chinese firms to abide by environmental or social safeguards.
China’s ministries issued this new policy to standardize environmental protection practices of Chinese companies operating abroad, and it…
With the reliance on coal declining in places like the U.S. and Australia, Big Coal has found another way to offload its dirty goods — by shipping it overseas. The global coal trade expanded by over 13 percent in 2010 and last year the U.S. hit a record in the amount of coal it shipped offshore. ClimateProgress reported that last year, US coal exports resulted in 292 million metric tons of carbon pollution “equivalent to…
“Frankenfish is a 2004 monster movie dealing with genetically engineered fish in the bayou.” -Wikipedia “European Union… measures governing the importation and use of GE (genetically engineered) products have resulted in substantial barriers to trade.” U.S. Trade Representative, 2013 report on sanitary measures In his 2013 State of the Union message, President Obama announced that the U.S. would move forward on negotiations with the European Union for the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment…
In February John Kerry took over at the State Department, providing a glimmer of hope to those demanding that the agency finally serve as an honest broker on the review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Kerry, a fierce advocate for bold action on climate change, certainly has his work cut out for him.
Since the Canadian pipeline company TransCanada first submitted its application in 2008, the State Department’s handling of the Keystone…
This week is always a special week for Friends of the Earth U.S. Around this time every year, the Goldman Environmental Prize announces the recipients of its prestigious award. Modeled after the Nobel Peace Prize, the Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots activists from six regions of the world for their extraordinary efforts to protect their community from environmental exploitation.
This year’s recipients are truly inspiring, collectively, this collection of six individuals with backgrounds as diverse…
This morning, I joined Representatives Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) as well as the leaders of Health Gap, National Nurses United, National Peoples Action, Demos and Vocal to announce the introduction of the Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2013 (H.R. 1579). The concept behind the Inclusive Prosperity Act is simple. When the banks and Wall Street were on the verge of collapse, taxpayers were forced to step…
Today, I stood with women’s health activists, BRCA-positive women and activists and organizations from across the country in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to express Friends of the Earth’s support and solidarity with Breast Cancer Action, the Association for Molecular Pathology, and the other plaintiffs in their arguments to invalidate the patents that Myriad Genetics holds on the Breast Cancer Susceptibility Genes 1 and 2 (collectively BRCA or BRCA1-2).
As we argued in…
To say that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- charged with ensuring the safe operation of the nation’s aging, degraded nuclear fleet -- is a paper tiger would be far too kind. Rather than just de-fanged and flimsy, on Wednesday, they went rogue -- disregarding the demands of federal legislators and acting as a law unto themselves -- in order to remove a critical regulatory barrier for restarting an incredibly damaged nuclear reactor, San Onofre Unit…
Though a number of wealthy countries attending a State Department-convened climate finance ministerial meeting on mobilizing private money have been trying to escape their obligation to use public funds to help the world’s poor confront the climate crisis (which, incidentally, the poor did not cause), Robin Hood found them today and demanded to be heard. He and his many supporters stood outside the hotel where the elite group had gathered in Washington, D.C. and loudly…
New Report from Friends of the Earth U.S. and Pan African Climate Justice Alliance This week in Washington, DC, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern is organizing the Ministerial Meeting on Mobilizing Climate Finance. This invitation-only event, hosted for finance and climate ministries of select donor countries, typifies the extraordinary emphasis rich governments are placing on private finance as the solution to meeting developing countries’ climate needs. Unfortunately, they are trumpeting the private…