Amsterdam, Netherlands – Over 80 leading global health, environment, and food advocacy organisations including Greenpeace International, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and the World Organization of Family Doctors have issued an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) urging a review of international drinking water standards for nitrate to protect public health from the growing threat of agricultural pollution.

Amanda Larsson, Global Project Lead for Agriculture at Greenpeace said: “Water should be life-giving, not life-threatening. We cannot protect human health without protecting the groundwater and rivers that sustain us. Governments must take decisive action to curb the growth of intensive livestock farming and actively support producers in transitioning to ecological farming practices – ensuring that clean, safe drinking water isn’t a luxury but a guarantee.”

Timed to coincide with World One Health Day, marked by the WHO and three other UN bodies to highlight the interdependence between human, animal, and ecosystem health, the coalition is calling on the WHO Secretariat and its Guideline Development Group to formally prioritise nitrate for full evaluation in its upcoming review of global drinking water quality guidelines.[1]

The letter argues that current guidelines are outdated and risk exposing the public to a range of adverse health risks. The existing guideline of 50 mg/L NO₃ (11.3 mg/L NO₃-N) was established in 1958  specifically to prevent infant methemoglobinemia, also known as “blue-baby syndrome”. However, a growing body of 21st-century epidemiological research links chronic, low-level exposure to nitrate in drinking water to increased risks of colorectal cancer, preterm birth, and birth defects at concentrations far below the existing threshold.

Dr Pratyush Kumar, Chair of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) Working Party on Rural Practice said: “Studies now link nitrate in drinking water, at levels well below the current WHO limit, to bowel cancer and premature birth. As a rural family doctor, I support the call to update these limits so that farming families can trust the water they drink. In low-resource areas, that must come with international support, helping communities achieve both chemical and essential microbial safety.”

Last year, an international expert panel commissioned by the Danish government concluded that current international standards are insufficient to protect public health, recommending a dramatic reduction of the national nitrate limit to 6 mg/L NO₃ – nearly ten times lower than current WHO benchmark.[2] Following its 2026 election, Denmark committed to revising its national limit in line with this scientific advice. Intensive livestock production and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers are among the primary drivers of nitrate leaching into groundwater and surface water worldwide. Beyond human health risks, excessive nitrogen runoff degrades freshwater ecosystems, accelerates soil degradation, and drives biodiversity loss. 

The coalition points to the benefits of source water protection for human and ecosystem health, climate mitigation and nature protection and encourages the WHO to adopt a ‘One Health’ approach to drinking water nitrate guidelines – one that considers broader ecosystem and long-term public health impacts alongside traditional toxicological limits.

Because national governments generally peg their own drinking water standards to WHO guidelines, the coalition’s open letter emphasises that an updated WHO standard is vital for global policy reform.

Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food said: 

“Industrial food production is highly dependent on fossil fuels, particularly via synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. This dependence is contributing to climate change, polluting drinking water, harming health, and leaving us vulnerable to volatile energy prices and costly imports. Updating WHO guidelines to reflect the latest science can go hand in hand with a shift towards agroecology – protecting public health, reducing fossil fuel dependence, and building more resilient, self-reliant food systems.”

ENDS

Notes:

Full letter is available here.

Greenpeace media briefing on nitrate pollution in drinking water available here. Organizations wishing to join the open letter can email people.power@greenpeace.org  

[1] World Health Organization. (2026). Guidelines for drinking-water quality: Fourth edition incorporating the first, second and third addenda. 

[2] Evaluation of the parametric value for Nitrate in drinking water. Report delivered to the Ministry of Environment and Gender Equality of Denmark on November 24, 2025.

Contacts:

Joe Evans, Global Comms Lead for Agriculture, Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387, joe.evans@greenpeace.org 

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

Amsterdam — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US are preparing to file their appeals of the absurd US$345 million judgment in Energy Transfer’s abusive SLAPP lawsuit after the North Dakota District Court denied a motion for a new trial today. From the biased jury through the flawed verdict form, the trial in Morton County was marred by major errors. The Greenpeace defendants will appeal this case to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Greenpeace International General Counsel Kristin Casper said:

“We continue to demand accountability for one of the largest miscarriages of justice in North Dakota’s history. Since the District Court refuses to right the wrongs committed at trial, we will next appeal the many wrongly decided and unresolved errors in the case to the North Dakota Supreme Court. We will never stop trying to ensure the rights and freedoms promised under the US constitution are protected.”

“There remains no question the Greenpeace defendants were denied a fair trial. We will not rest until justice is served and Big Oil can no longer use and abuse the legal system in North Dakota or anywhere else.” 

Energy Transfer’s back-to-back SLAPP lawsuits are attempts to erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, punish solidarity with the ongoing resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and intimidate environmental activists from speaking out against Big Oil companies.  

Marco Simons, Greenpeace Inc. and Greenpeace Fund General Counsel, said:

“Speaking out against harm is not an injustice — but denying us a new trial after the widely documented improprieties in that courtroom produced a damages award with no evidentiary basis, absolutely is. The law is on our side. We will continue protecting people and the planet through the appeals process, and we will challenge this unjust and unfounded damages award at every opportunity. So long as the courts apply the law, we will prevail.”

The cases have been monitored by numerous observers worldwide, and received scrutiny by legal experts for inconsistencies, flaws, and unfair proceedings. Among the numerous egregious flaws documented in the North Dakota District Court trial:

1. The Greenpeace defendants could not receive a fair and impartial trial in Morton County, whose residents experienced direct, disruptive impacts during the historic Standing Rock protests.
2. Seven out of nine jurors that decided the case had clear ties to the fossil fuel industry, direct experiences with the Standing Rock protests, and/or preexisting negative views of the Greenpeace defendants.
3. Despite the fact that thousands of individuals and hundreds of organisations were involved in actions at Standing Rock and speaking out against DAPL – and North Dakota law clearly requires damages to be split among everyone who contributes to alleged harms – the jury and the court assigned 100% of the claimed damages to the Greenpeace defendants. 
4. The jury’s verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence on each and every count. 
5. The jury verdict was tainted by the court’s admission of inadmissible, prejudicial information. 
6. The jury was improperly prevented from hearing relevant, admissible evidence that was favourable to the Greenpeace defendants. 
7. The jury was provided erroneous and incomplete instructions and a flawed verdict form.

ENDS

Contacts: 

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

Join the Greenpeace SLAPP Trial WhatsApp Group for our latest updates

London, United Kingdom – Activists on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise have successfully placed giant boulders onto the seabed in the Southern North Sea – the UK’s most bottom-trawled offshore Marine Protected Area (MPA) – forming an underwater barrier to prevent the destructive fishing method. 

Using boulders signed by UK MPs and prominent figures including actors Simon Pegg and Benedict Cumberbatch, the Greenpeace UK activists formed an underwater barrier effectively closing 116 km² along England’s east coast, as new analysis by Greenpeace UK reveals bottom trawlers spent at least 37,200 hours in 2025 alone fishing in this MPA – created to protect harbour porpoises.[1][2]

A new Greenpeace International report found that at the current rate of progress, it could take 265 years to fully protect 30% of the ocean, which scientists say is the minimum required to give it a chance at recovery. The report shows only 3.5% of the world’s ocean is currently fully or highly protected, and just 1% of UK waters.[3] 

Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK said: “Destruction on a huge scale is happening near our shores out of sight, in places we’re told are ‘Marine Protected Areas’. Hulking great ships prowl our oceans day after day, stripping them of fish and killing precious wildlife like dolphins, sharks and sea birds.

“With our ship and a movement behind us, we’re doing what the government isn’t: Protecting our seas. We’re setting a bold challenge to ministers: Ban destructive fishing across all our protected waters at home, and lead the charge for a network of global ocean sanctuaries across the Atlantic.”

New analysis from Greenpeace UK shows that in 2025, bottom trawlers and dredgers churned up a cumulative 55,600 km² of seabed inside the UK’s Marine Protected Areas, equivalent to almost the size of Croatia.[4] According to the findings, trawlers and dredgers spent at least 115,000 hours towing gear along the seabed inside these MPAs in 2025 – the equivalent of more than 13 years of non-stop fishing.

Despite its status as a ‘Marine Protected Area’, there are currently no restrictions on fishing activity in most of the Southern North Sea MPA, meaning bottom-trawlers, dredgers and other industrial vessels threaten the porpoise population daily. The Arctic Sunrise will remain in the area to monitor any other types of destructive industrial fishing.

Governments around the world committed to a global target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. The Arctic Sunrise action comes as progress towards this target is revealed at the UN biodiversity conference (CBD COP17) in Armenia. 

ENDS

Photo and video are available in the Greenpeace Media Library

Notes: 

[1] Estimates based on an analysis of data from Global Fishing Watch. Methodology and calculations are available on request.

[2] The Southern North Sea MPA is identified as an area of importance for harbour porpoise.

[3] Press release: At current rate it will take 265 years to reach crucial target to protect 30% of the ocean – but sanctuary networks could save it. Report: WELL CONNECTED: Protecting the Atlantic High Seas through an ocean-wide sanctuary network  

Just over 10% (43 out of 378) of the UK’s MPAs are fully protected by law from destructive bottom-trawling.

[4] Greenpeace UK analysed Global Fishing Watch data on apparent fishing activity in 2025 and found that bottom-towed fishing gear was dragged across a cumulative 55,600 km² of seabed inside the UK’s offshore Marine Protected Areas. This figure counts every pass of the gear, so seabed trawled more than once is counted each time. It measures the total amount of bottom trawling, not the area of seabed that was trawled. Repeated trawling in an area compounds the damage to the ecosystem.

Contact:

Greenpeace UK Press Office, press.uk@greenpeace.org, 0207 865 8255

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

Note: This release was edited on 2/11/2026 to correct the equivalent size of seabed area inside the UK’s Marine Protected Areas churned up by bottom trawlers and dredgers in 2025 to almost the size of Croatia.

Amsterdam – Greenpeace has called on governments meeting at the UN climate change conference COP31 next week to take urgent action to transition away from fossil fuels and step up climate finance as two major reports warned of the growing risk to the world’s cryosphere from global heating. 

The reports from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) outlined the large-scale and in many cases irreversible impacts to the the world’s melting ice sheets, permafrost, glaciers and sea ice as the global temperature edges towards an overshoot of the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C global warming goal.

Dr. Jerry Jose, Senior Scientist at the Greenpeace International Science Unit said: “The accelerating loss of ice is an emergency demanding immediate and far-reaching action to limit the extent and duration of a 1.5°C overshoot. What we must understand is that the impacts to the cryosphere during overshoot are irreversible in most cases in human relevant time scales and will have global implications. 

“What was once viewed as a far-off consequence of climate change, the world’s melting ice is now impacting everyday life: accelerated global sea-level rise, reduced water security and worsening mountain hazards. The question now is how fast these changes will happen and what decisions governments take to reduce the rate of ice loss and avoid the worst impacts of overshoot.”

The reports, Overshoot and the Cryosphere: Averting Global Meltdown – a ‘thematic’ companion to the UNEP’s recent Limiting Overshoot Report – and the accompanying report State of the Cryosphere 2026, examine the impacts of overshoot on the cryosphere and outline the threats which may exceed the limits of adaptation and cause extensive loss and damage.[1]

In combination, the UNEP and ICCI reports detail a range of actions to reduce global temperatures down from overshoot to slow down the rate of sea-level rise to an ‘adaptable’ level, potentially halt and partially reverse glacier, snowpack and sea ice loss and to limit the damage from impacts such as the destabilisation of permafrost. 

Avinash Kumar, Deputy Program Director at Greenpeace South Asia said: “These reports highlight how the heartbreaking tragedy from the glacier collapse in Nepal might not be the last and reinforce why action is needed now more than ever. More than 1,500 lives were lost in the August mudslide and although the UN’s Loss and Damage fund has contributed USD$20 million in aid for Nepal, the reconstruction bill is close to USD$5 billion. This is what climate injustice looks like.[2]

“But the costs of global inaction should not be borne by the families, communities and governments of nations struggling to recover from one disaster after another. Instead, all governments around the world must respond to disasters like this not only with emergency relief, but also with action to prevent the next one and that starts at COP31.”

At COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, Greenpeace is calling for concrete progress on the just transition away from fossil fuels, alongside scaled up climate finance to fund the transition in developing countries, making those most responsible for climate pollution pay for the crisis they’ve caused. Greenpeace is also calling for the implementation of developed countries’ commitment to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035, aligning with the $120 billion Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) agreed at COP30 in 2025.[3]

ENDS

Notes:

[1] UNEP: Limiting Overshoot
[2] UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage 
[3] Greenpeace: COP31 Priorities and Expectations

Contact:
Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International, Climate Politics Communications Manager, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org

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