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Monday 20th April, 2026, Scotland. At 6.30am this morning, as the first of the day’s golfers were arriving at the Trump Turnberry Golf Club, a team of Greenpeace activists installed a windfarm on the green of the 4th hole, together with a sign reading ‘Choose wind, dump Trump’. 

Lily-Rose Ellis, Climate Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:

“Donald Trump wants to keep us as lifetime members of his Gulf Club, where every time he starts an illegal war, bills go through the roof while his fossil fuel backers make billions. But we don’t need to stay stuck in his sand trap – the renewables Trump hates are the best insurance policy against the chaos he’s unleashed. Wind and solar farms built since the start of the Ukraine war have saved us seven million pounds every day since Trump attacked Iran and drove gas prices back up again [1]. More clean energy that doesn’t rely on the Strait of Hormuz or Russian pipelines can save us money, boost our security and tackle climate change. It’s a hole in one.”

Three Greenpeace activists carried six model turbines, each around ten feet tall, along the beach to the course and erected them around the green. As the first golfers approached the first green, they dismantled the turbines and removed them from the green so as not to impede the game.

On Tuesday last week President Trump posted on social media urging Britain to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!!’ in the North Sea, and ‘NO MORE WINDMILLS!’ (sic). Polling shows that roughly two-thirds of Scottish voters (65%) believe Britain should not follow US President Donald Trump’s calls for increasing oil and gas extraction and should instead focus on boosting renewable energy. [2]

That public preference is supported by research showing that if both the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields were exploited, it would only reduce our gas imports by about 3%. [3] But while more drilling wouldn’t help bill payers, research shows Trump’s war in Iran could increase the total profits made by the oil and gas industry this year by $234 billion, or $30 million an hour. [4]

ENDS

Contact

Pictures and footage available here.

Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes

1.https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/clean-power-fortifies-britain-against-gas-price-shocks/ 

2.https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/britain-should-not-follow-donald-trumps-energy-policy-say-scots 

3.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/04/new-north-sea-drilling-jackdaw-rosebank-uk-gas-imports 

4.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/big-oil-huge-war-windfall-consumers 

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On 14 February 2025, a Russian Geran-2 drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the roof of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The NSC acts as a protective shield, preventing radiation leaking from the ageing concrete sarcophagus encasing nuclear reactor 4. The report concludes that without urgent repairs to the NSC, the sarcophagus is at risk of collapse. 

The drone attack ripped a 15 m2 hole in the roof of the NSC, with shrapnel causing additional damage across a 200 m2 area. Fires continued smouldering in the inner membrane layer of the NSC’s roof for three weeks after the attack, leading to a loss of humidity and temperature control. This could lead to corrosion and may reduce the 100-year design life of the structure if humidity control is not restored by 2030.

Russia’s ongoing attacks against Ukraine have hampered international efforts to fix the damage to the NSC, with the plant under constant threat from Russian missiles and drones, including loss of essential electrical power. Despite ongoing investigations and damage assessments, it will be nearly impossible to start the major engineering works needed at the site under current conditions.

The report’s author Eric Schmieman, a civil engineer who worked as a senior technical adviser on the original design and construction of the NSC, said: “It’s almost impossible for people to grasp the magnitude of the lethal conditions inside the Sarcophagus. Tons of highly radioactive nuclear fuel, dust and debris. My colleagues and I spent years investigating inside the ruins of Chornobyl reactor 4. We designed and built the New Safe Confinement to protect the environment and people of Ukraine and Europe. It is urgent that all measures are taken to find a way to restore as much of the critical functions of the facility as possible”.

Greenpeace plans to submit the report to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine as independent evidence of potential Russian war crimes. 

Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine said:

“In April 1986, Ukraine and the world suffered the worst nuclear disaster in history. Today, decades later, the radioactive hazards at Chornobyl remain – with all efforts being made to contain and manage its toxic legacy. These are incredibly complex challenges. The Russian drone strike has now increased the risk that the Sarcophagus will collapse before it can be carefully dismantled. Greenpeace has a simple and clear message: the Russian crime of attacking Chornobyl must be punished, including maximum sanctions against its nuclear agency, Rosatom”. 

Activists from Greenpeace Ukraine held a protest inside the NSC calling for continued international support for Ukraine and for maximum sanctions against Russia’s state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom, which it believes to be complicit in the military campaign. 

Ends

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office –  press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes:

The full report, including executive summary, is available here. 

Pictures and video of the Greenpeace protest at Chornobyl can be downloaded here.

The report author Eric Schmieman led the Battelle Memorial Institute team during the conceptual design of the NSC from 2001 to 2014. He served as the Manager of Environmental Safety and Health Department of the Chornobyl NSC Project Management Unit (PMU), and was the Senior Technical Advisor to the PMU Director. He lived in Slavutych, Ukraine from 2006 to 2013. While employed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, he contributed to projects funded by the US Department of Energy, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the International Atomic Energy Administration, and other government agencies.

On the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, personnel from Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, were part of the attack and occupation of Chornobyl nuclear plant. Four years later Rosatom still illegally occupies the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Despite this, all efforts to secure international sanctions against Rosatom have been blocked, principally by Hungary and France, while billions of euros are traded in their contracts with Rosatom, directly funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

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With only two days left of PrepCom, the key ocean treaty talks happening at the UN HQ this week, Greenpeace UK is calling on the UK government to ask its delegates in New York to completely reject the new text proposed.

Megan Randles, Greenpeace’s head of delegation to the UN talks, said:

“The organisations that have presided over decades of destruction on the high seas have made a completely unacceptable power-grab which would dramatically weaken the Treaty’s ability to protect the ocean.

“They are attempting to re-write the Treaty in favour of fishing industry vested interests. These organisations want to be able to block and derail conservation progress, like the creation of marine protected areas, and these amendments would give them power to do just that.

“We urgently need governments to reject these proposals before key ocean treaty talks end. If they don’t, they risk failing in their commitment to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 with catastrophic consequences.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

1. Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) are attempting to weaken the High Seas Treaty text to give themselves additional powers that would significantly restrict ocean protection measures. Campaigners are sounding the alarm on this proposed text where RFMOs have made significant amendments, the relevant sections are: Para 1(b), (c), (g bis), (g ter), (i), Para 4, Para 5. These amendments would shore up RFMOs own supremacy, and stall and derail ocean protection measures like sanctuary proposals.
2. The current language of the text goes far beyond the existing article 5 of the Treaty.

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UK MPAs are designated to protect marine wildlife and fragile ocean habitats but, as the analysis of European fisheries landings data [1] proves, these designations are currently nothing more than lines on a map. 

Of the 1.3 million tonnes, over 1 million were caught by pelagic trawlers – vessels that use enormous nets up to 240 metres wide and 50 metres long, scooping up everything in their path. 250,000 tonnes were caught by bottom-towed gear, including bottom trawlers, which drag heavy, destructive nets across the seabed, devastating marine ecosystems. [2]

Campaigners say the findings expose the stark gap between political promises and reality at sea. Large-scale industrial fishing continues to devastate areas that are supposed to be safe havens – even though the UK government has had the powers to change this since Brexit.

Chris Thorne, Senior Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: 

“Just beneath the surface of our seas, right here in the UK, lies an extraordinary world of marine life – from shoals of colourful fish to dolphins to seahorses – but it’s facing a level of vandalism greater than we’d ever accept on land.

“The government claims vast areas of UK waters are protected, but the reality is a national scandal. Since 2020, more than 1.3 million tonnes of fish have been caught inside the UK’s so-called marine protected areas. 

“Protection means nothing if these hulking industrial trawlers are allowed to devastate crucially important areas. MPAs should be safe havens where our incredible marine life and ecosystems can recover and thrive. Instead they remain protected only on paper and precious ocean life is being pushed to the brink.”

A process to ban bottom trawling across the MPA network began in 2020 [3], and this analysis highlights the cost of delay. Various governments have dragged their feet in implementing it, allowing industrial vessels to continue dragging heavy, destructive nets across the seabed, devastating marine ecosystems. Almost one fifth of the total catch (250,000 tonnes) was caught using bottom-towed gear. 

Even if a bottom trawling ban was fully implemented, the revelation that 1 million tonnes of fish caught was caught in MPAs using pelagic gear – which would not be restricted by current bottom-trawling proposals – makes it clear that marine life and habitats inside UK MPAs would remain exposed and vulnerable.

Chris Thorne continued: 

“Since leaving the EU, the UK government has had full powers to properly protect our marine protected areas – a measure that’s needed not only for marine life itself but also to support local fishing communities. Yet many remain little more than lines on a map.

“Banning bottom trawling in some sites would be a step forward, but other destructive fishing methods would still be allowed and much of the MPA network would remain vulnerable.

“If the government wants to show real leadership on ocean protection, it must stop all industrial fishing in UK MPAs and work with other states to properly protect 30% of the wider Atlantic Ocean by 2030, including the Sargasso Sea. This is the only way to ensure our oceans can recover and sustain future generations.”

ENDS

Notes to editor

[1] UK fisheries data: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-sea-fisheries-annual-statistics-report-2024 

EU fisheries data: https://stecf.ec.europa.eu/data-dissemination/fdi_en

[2] 250,000 tonnes were caught by bottom-towed gear, including beam trawls, demersal trawls, dredges and demersal seines. These are all covered by the proposed MPA bans on bottom-towed gear. 

[3] The Marine protected areas process has 4 stages. We are currently in the middle of Stage 3. 

• Stage 1, which began in 2020, focused on the initial review and introduction of byelaws for four offshore MPAs to protect specific features. 
• Stage 2 targeted 13 specific MPAs, primarily focusing on protecting “rock, and rocky and biogenic reef features” from the impacts of bottom-towed fishing gear. 
• Stage 3 aims to manage remaining fishing activities in MPAs not covered by Stage 1 or 2, and will cover parts of 42 further MPAs. We are currently waiting for the MMO to release the results of their analysis of the consultation on this stage.
• Stage 4 covers the impacts of fishing on MPAs with highly mobile species features. These are two MPAs protecting harbour porpoise, and three MPAs protecting certain bird species. The consultation on this stage is still to come. 

Methodology: 

A full brief on the method used in this analysis is available here

A breakdown of the data is available on request.

Video content:

Archive footage from 2020-2024 featuring supertrawlersfishing inside UK MPAs and supertrawlers that have previously fished inside UKMPAs plus Greenpeace supertrawler/ MPA protests: https://media.greenpeace.org/Detail/27MZIFJVQZYOW

February 2026 footage from Greenpeace UK’s latest monitoring tour of UKMPAs in the English Channel is available for download via WeTransfer here.

Key findings: 

• 1.347 million tonnes of fish were caught inside UK offshore MPAs
• More than 1 million tonnes were caught using pelagic gear, which will not be restricted by proposed bottom-trawling bans
• 250,000 tonnes of fish caught using bottom-towed fishing gear
• EU vessels caught around 800,000 tonnes, while UK vessels caught around 545,000 tonnes

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The five largest North Sea oil and gas companies have received a staggering £73 billion boost to the value of their shares in the month since the first US-Israeli attacks on Iran, new analysis by Greenpeace UK shows. 

The sharp rise in the value of their stocks means fossil fuel producers are now expecting a huge “war windfall”, prompting campaigners to call for a strengthening of the windfall tax.

One month of Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran has resulted in death and destruction and turmoil in global energy markets, pushing up UK petrol prices and threatening higher bills and inflation. At the same time, the sudden spike in oil and gas prices has led to a huge increase in the market value of many fossil fuel companies.

Analysis by Greenpeace shows that in just four weeks, the combined market capitalisation of Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Equinor and Harbour Energy has jumped by £73.5 billion. Shell and Equinor top the list, with each company’s total market value soaring by around £20 billion and Shell’s share price hitting an all-time high last week.

The market shock from the conflict in the Middle East is set to deliver a multi-billion-pound boost to oil giants’ profits. Despite this, the industry has been lobbying ministers to scrap the Energy Profits Levy, the government’s main tool to tax fossil fuel firms’ unearned profits. 

Shell and Equinor are also attempting to capitalise on instability in global oil and gas supply by pressuring ministers into greenlighting the controversial Rosebank oilfield. A 95,000-tonne production ship, the Petrojarl Rosebank, is currently sailing to the UK despite the companies having no permission to start production at the site.

Greenpeace is calling on the Government to resist industry pressure, reject Rosebank, strengthen the windfall tax on fossil fuel profits and champion a global profit tax on international oil companies.

Paul Morozzo, senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace UK, said:

“These oil giants are about to cash in a huge windfall from Trump’s illegal war, yet the industry is shamelessly lobbying for tax cuts. While UK households face eye-watering energy bills, fossil fuel producers are in line for a multi-billion-pound war windfall they’ve done nothing to earn. Shell and Equinor are pressuring the government to open up a major new oilfield in the North Sea – they keep making huge profits while UK households are held hostage to volatile fossil fuel markets.”

“The government must not cave in to industry lobbying but should tax every penny of these war profits. This crisis shows why we need to ramp up efforts to wean ourselves off fossil fuels by doubling down on renewables. More wind and solar can cut the UK’s reliance on gas imports much faster than issuing new North Sea licences. Renewables are our best insurance policy against the fallout from Trump and Putin’s wars – we should go all in.” 

ENDS

Contact: Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Notes for editors:

The Greenpeace analysis looked at the variation in the companies’ share prices based on FT markets data from 28 February to 25 March.

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As the Rosebank oil field was being discussed in Parliament yesterday in an Opposition Day debate[1], Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior III caught up with the PetroJarl Rosebank, the huge oil industry ship heading to the field near the Shetland Islands, as it left Walvis Bay in Namibia after refuelling. Activists from the Warrior in RHIBs (rigid hulled inflatable boats) and kayaks protested the Rosebank’s plans for the second time in five days. 

Four activists from the Warrior managed to reach the PetroJarl Rosebank in a RHIB and paint ‘THEY PROFIT, WE PAY’ down the side of the hull.

Six more activists in kayaks and RHIBs surrounded the Rosebank with banners protesting their plans, reading ‘OIL WAR PROFITEERS’, ‘STOP ROSEBANK’ and ‘SHELL + EQUINOR PROFIT, WE PAY‘, while the Warrior displayed a giant banner hung between its masts reading ‘STOP ROSEBANK’.

Shell, Equinor and Ithaca, the three oil companies behind the project, have seen their combined market value soar by billions of pounds since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.[2] 

Angharad Hopkinson, a campaigner from Greenpeace UK currently aboard the Warrior, said:

“These oil companies think they can carry on ignoring the reality of climate change and profiteering from disastrous oil wars as their industry always has. But their time dominating global politics is coming to an end. We have the technologies needed for real energy security and independence. Renewables are already providing far more of our electricity than fossil fuels and as the economy electrifies the role and influence of companies like Shell and Equinor will continue to shrink. 

“But we’re still paying over the odds for our energy because we still let fossil fuels set our prices. To protect bill payers, as well as the climate, we need to quit our oil and gas addiction as quickly as possible. The government must stick to their guns on Rosebank and refuse to allow these climate vandals to bounce them into making a big, dirty and very expensive mistake.”

The PetroJarl Rosebank is a 95,000-tonne ‘floating production, storage and offloading’ (FPSO) vessel operated by Adura, a Shell and Equinor joint venture based in Aberdeen. The ship was renamed the ‘PetroJarl Rosebank’ and reflagged to the UK in January while being refitted in Dubai, having previously been the ‘PetroJarl Knarr’ and flagged to the Bahamas. It is being towed to UK waters by large ocean-going tugs. All this activity has taken place despite the Rosebank oilfield not having final permission to operate from the UK government.

The oil and gas resources in the North Sea have been thoroughly explored and around 90% of them have already been extracted and used[3]. What remains is difficult and expensive to extract. But the UK can replace dwindling North Sea fossil fuel supplies with renewable energy more quickly and cheaply than with new drilling licenses. By 2030 the renewable sources commissioned in the last auction round alone should be supplying nearly six times more energy than the extra domestic gas production in 2030 if new licences are issued for North Sea drilling.[4]   

Equinor had to submit a revised Environmental Impact Assessment for Rosebank including carbon emissions from burning the field’s oil (scope 3 emissions) after the permission given by the last government was judged unlawful in a 2025 court case brought by Greenpeace and Uplift. The estimated scope 3 emissions of the field are 249 million tonnes of CO2e – more than the combined annual emissions of Ireland, Belgium and Greece.

Ed Miliband, Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, described the last government’s decision to give permission to drill in the Rosebank field as ‘colossal waste of taxpayer money and climate vandalism’[5]. This chimes with the views of the UK public where, according to polling from YouGov, 54% of UK voters think that increasing renewables is the best way to ensure energy security, while only 25% think it is drilling for new oil and gas.[6]

Pictures, video footage, drone and phone footage of the protest are all available here.

Spokespeople are available for interview.

ENDS

Contact

Please call 07801 212 960 for queries or interviews.

Greenpeace UK Press Office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255

Pictures, video footage, drone and phone footage of the protest are all available here.

Notes

1. MPs voted against a Conservative opposition day motion to end the UK Government’s ban on new oil and gas licences for the North Sea, end the windfall tax on energy giants and approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields by 297 to 108 votes. https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/mps-vote-against-tory-motion-on-new-north-sea-oil-and-gas-projects-6220509 
2. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/15/oil-company-shares-soar-to-all-time-highs-as-middle-east-war-turbocharges-price-per-barrel https://www.ft.com/content/e37bed88-adfa-472d-a86b-2167dc7ca705 
3. https://eciu.net/media/press-releases/around-90-of-uk-north-sea-oil-and-gas-already-drained-dry-analysis 
4. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-clean-energy-will-cut-uk-gas-imports-by-more-than-north-sea-drilling/ 
5. https://x.com/Ed_Miliband/status/1639587552553213953?s=20 
6. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kHctDrTv4-331OsTlWGadZO50W3YIlUf4kbUQhhfPCE/edit?slide=id.g3cc67ac0edb_0_171#slide=id.g3cc67ac0edb_0_171  

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The talks are expected to have a crucial impact on the power of destructive industrial fishing activity on the high seas, which campaigners say could have “catastrophic” consequences.[1]

Megan Randles, head of Greenpeace’s delegation to the talks, said:

“The fishing industry has been lobbying to weaken the Ocean Treaty for years. We need governments to curb corporate influence now, stop kowtowing to industry pressure, and stop the process from being tied up in delays. If they don’t, the result will be catastrophic for ocean protection. 

“The organisations that manage fishing in the high seas have always protected industry interests, that’s why we’re calling for a limit on how much influence they would have on sanctuary proposals, which are urgently needed for the ocean to recover. Governments must not allow the fishing industry’s influence to hold the Treaty process to ransom.”

Fully protected sanctuaries would cordon off huge areas of the ocean from destructive human activity, but it’s something that the fishing industry has been lobbying against for years. 

Greenpeace is calling on governments to curb the influence of fishing industry lobbying before it’s too late, and ensure that fully protected high seas sanctuaries can be created without delay. Governments must therefore impose a maximum 120 day time limit for the review of sanctuary proposals, this would prevent the organisations that control high seas fishing, and fishing industry interests, from stalling the process. These Regional Fishing Management Organisations (RFMOs) have always protected the interests of the fishing industry, overseen the decimation of biodiversity and destruction of entire ecosystems, and therefore must not be allowed to tie up ocean protection in delays.[2]  

Governments have committed to protecting 30% of the ocean in the next four years, a target that scientists say is the absolute minimum required for the ocean to bounce back from decades of destruction. Making sure that the process of creating sanctuaries isn’t tied up in delays will be vital to this progress. 

It is in the best interest of the fishing industry that RFMOs retain their power over the high seas. That’s why during the Ocean Treaty negotiations, they lobbied governments hard to ensure that the Treaty wouldn’t undermine RFMO power. They even tried and failed to remove fishing activity from the scope of the Global Ocean Treaty altogether. This would have been a disaster for ocean protection.

ENDS 

Notes: 

1. The next round of Ocean Treaty talks, the Third Preparatory Commission (Prepcom 3), will begin at the United Nations in New York on 23 March. They are extremely important as key recommendations will be made on how the first Ocean COP (expected some time before January 2027) can deliver the protection needed to allow the ocean to recover from decades of destruction.
2. Out of an assessment of 48 high seas fish stocks we know to be in the high seas 75% were considered depleted or overfished in 2016. 
3. The fishing industry has been actively lobbying against ocean protection measures and to protect its profit margins for decades. Last year, InfluenceMap found that nearly all major seafood companies lobby against ocean protection. Twenty-nine of the 30 biggest seafood firms analysed were pushing policies that clash with global biodiversity goals. Behind the scenes, the same players were working to block the creation or expansion of ocean sanctuaries. 
4. A full media briefing is available.

Contact:

Florri Burton, Global Media Lead, Oceans Are Life, Greenpeace Nordic

 +447896523839, florri.burton@greenpeace.org 
Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

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The report, Beyond Extraction, shows that public transportation, improved recycling programmes, and advanced battery technologies are the real critical solutions for a green transition. It concludes that limiting global warming to no more than 1.5°C does not require sacrificing the deep sea or critical ecosystems on land. Governments should focus on reducing demand for raw materials, finding smarter ways to make things, and deploying clean energy rather than opening the deep sea to industrial exploitation.

Greenpeace International deep sea mining campaigner Ruth Ramos said: “Lines have been crossed on the land that need never be crossed in the deep ocean. Now we know: not only does deep sea mining run against science, ethics, people and the planet, it’s not even needed for a renewable transition. What is needed is for the nations of the world to unite against rogue actors like The Metals Company and Donald Trump and their affronts to international law and cooperation, and instead keep moving towards a global moratorium on deep sea mining. Imagine if humans could have protected the world from the harms of the fossil fuel industry before it even started – that is the opportunity when it comes to deep sea mining: it is a historic privilege, and one we must now embrace wholeheartedly.”

For years, the mining lobby has argued that the green transition is impossible without extracting cobalt, nickel, and manganese from the seafloor. This study finds that: 

• Ambitious recycling could reduce the total demand for the nine key transition minerals by up to 45% by 2050. Recycling can reduce primary nickel demand by up to 48%
• A combination of factors including shifting from private car ownership to more public transport, smaller, more efficient EVs, and different battery choices, can reduce cumulative mineral demand by 23%
• The rise of advanced battery technology such as lithium iron phosphate batteries (which do not contain nickel or cobalt) can significantly reduce the demand for certain minerals

Elsa Lee, head of biodiversity at Greenpeace International, said: “We cannot build a green future on a foundation of neocolonialism. Tech and mining giants are using the ‘fossil fuel playbook’ to spark a global resource scramble that threatens Indigenous lands and vital ecosystems. But we don’t need ecocide to power a green revolution; we need a transition that respects both people and the planet. Mining magnates claim that destroying biodiversity is the price of progress, but we refuse to repeat the extractive mistakes of the past. A truly just energy transition must respect Indigenous rights and protect the wonders of our deep ocean, not sacrifice them for profit”.

As part of the report, potential mineral reserves were compared with areas on land and in the global ocean that – due to their exceptional environmental, ecological, and social importance – must be off-limits to mining. These include, amongst others, peatlands, mangroves, intact forest landscapes, protected areas on land, small islands and uncontacted, or voluntary isolation, tribal territory. The analysis finds that there is no need to mine these off-limits areas for an ambitious energy transition.

The report calls on global governments to:

1. Acknowledge that the “mineral gap” must be addressed through responsible political leadership and innovation
2. Support the market scaling of alternative battery chemistries that bypass conflict or deep sea minerals
3. Implement Extended Producer Responsibility to ensure 100% of minerals in old batteries re-enter the supply chain

A global moratorium on deep sea mining is the most responsible precautionary approach to address science gaps, protect the global ocean and uphold international law. More than 40 states, including the UK, now support a moratorium on deep sea mining, along with 950 scientists.

Greenpeace UK has launched a judicial review against the UK government which publicly backs a moratorium. It argues that the Business Secretary’s approval of the transfer of two major deep-sea exploration licences in the Pacific from UK Seabed Resources Ltd (UKSRL) to a new mining company, Glomar Minerals, may breach international and domestic law. It has filed its claim in the High Court of Justice. 

The report contradicts the UK government’s main argument for continuing to sponsor deep sea exploration licences: that it has the “potential to contribute to the global demand for critical minerals to support the energy transition to net zero”. 

Erica Finnie, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: “The UK government is talking out of both sides of its mouth – claiming to be an ocean champion while quietly handing the keys to the seabed to private profiteers. This legal warning is a wake-up call: you cannot solve the climate crisis by destroying the very ocean ecosystems that help stabilise it. If the government is serious about protecting our oceans, it must stop the greenwashing, stop propping up the mining industry, and speak up in favour of a global moratorium on deep sea mining on the global stage”.

ENDS

Note to Editors: 

A concise briefing document is available here. 

Photos are available in the Greenpeace Media Library

1. The full report (available on request) includes detailed data on nine key minerals: cobalt, copper, dysprosium, graphite, lithium, manganese, neodymium, nickel, and vanadium.
2. Greenpeace continues to highlight that the current state of ocean science and the high environmental risks mean that no ‘mining code’ could make deep sea mining compatible with protecting the marine environment.
3. A press release about Greenpeace UK’s legal challenge is available here.

The post New study: Deep sea mining “not even needed” for green energy transition appeared first on Greenpeace UK.

“Right now, there are dozens of tankers carrying billions of litres of oil trapped in the Persian Gulf as mines are being laid and missiles are hitting ships. This is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. A single oil spill in the Gulf could damage this fragile marine habitat beyond repair with devastating consequences for people, animals, and plants in the region, adding to the terrible human toll this illegal war has already taken on local communities.

“The US-Israel attack on Iran and subsequent strikes by Iran on neighbouring Gulf countries has shown once again that our dependence on fossil fuels is a constant threat to peace, security and prosperity. When oil and gas prices surge, fossil fuel giants rake in more profits while everyday people are hit by higher costs for heating, electricity, transport and food. 

“Greenpeace is calling on all parties to de-escalate tensions and pursue peaceful, diplomatic solutions and on governments everywhere to urgently shift away from fossil fuels towards distributed renewable energy systems where the risks of conflict are reduced rather than amplified.

“From Venezuela to Iran, we’ve seen how Trump’s stated desire to control resources – especially oil and gas – is playing out in violent foreign policy. In Trump’s illegal war with Iran, the only winners are the oil and gas companies.”

An investigation by Greenpeace Germany has analysed the blocked Strait of Hormuz using ship movement data and satellite imagery and simulated the potential consequences of oil spills in the Persian Gulf if tankers are damaged. At present, the oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf are carrying at least 21 billion litres of oil.

“Greenpeace simulations show how an oil slick could spread if the stranded tankers are damaged in an attack. The Strait of Hormuz and adjacent waters are home to pristine coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows. This is an ecological ticking time bomb and represents an enormous risk that further increases instability and human suffering in the region.” 

ENDS

Satellite images available in the Greenpeace Media Library. Link to interactive map 

Notes: 

[1] Greenpeace Germany is tracking larger oil tankers above 80.000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) and 100 metres length. Interactive map and accompanying article: How oil tankers stuck in the Strait of Hormuz south of Iran threatens the Gulf ecosystem

[2] You can’t blow up the sun: 4 reasons renewables are a security imperative

[3] In Trump’s illegal war with Iran, the only winners are the oil and gas companies 

Contact: 

Nina Noelle, crisis communications and international relations manager, Greenpeace Germany, +49 151 10622733, nina.noelle@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

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