This article originally appeared on Greenpeace Brazil’s website.

Given the magnitude of the disaster unfolding in Rio Grande do Sul, Greenpeace Brazil is commiting to contribute right now to alleviating the suffering of the people of the state, as well as to continue demanding climate action – with even more strength! – so that tragedies like this do not happen again in the future.

The size of the disaster that struck Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil shocks, saddens and generates indignation. The death toll quickly passed a hundred; even as hundreds more count the injured and those who remain missing. Thousands of people had to leave their homes, children were lost and traumatized, animals drowned or were rescued in dramatic situations, millions of people were impacted. In short, the emergency is palpable, painful and heartbreaking.

At Greenpeace Brazil, we have team members from Rio Grande do Sul, with family and friends in the region, as well as two groups of volunteers in the state — one of them, based in the capital city of Porto Alegre. Since we first received news of the landslides and floods, we have seen an immense network of solidarity forming across the country. Being a part of this movement – ​​whether in welcoming our team, or in providing direct local support – gives us hope that solidarity can be a force for transformation.

Greenpeace Brazil is in direct contact with local organizations and our volunteers in the state to support emergency demands, understanding needs and acting to address them. This translates, for example, into supporting the setting up of solidarity kitchens to prepare lunch boxes, purchasing hygiene products and food, sending a team to the field to support logistics, purchasing and distributing thousands of drinking water filters, and providing support for impacted Indigenous Peoples, among other actions.

To continue growing this chain of solidarity, however, Greenpeace Brazil needs your support! We have already started the emergency aid operation, but its size and impact depend on the number of people we mobilize in this large network. Unfortunately, the impacts of the tragedy are not short-term, and the needs of the people of Rio Grande do Sul are many.

It is important to highlight that 100% of the amount raised in this campaign will be allocated to support actions for victims of the floods in the south of Brazil. You will be able to follow our deliveries, actions in the field, transfers, etc. – with absolute transparency through Greenpeace Brazil’s website and social media channels.

It is time for solidarity and Greenpeace Brazil will continue to provide support as long as necessary. If you are in Brazil, please help us increase our capacity to help if you can.

A look to the future

Repeatedly, we have denounced politicians and decision-makers who work to dismantle environmental protection, whether by relaxing the rules for licensing new projects, rolling back existing protections, pushing into permanent protected areas, or stating that expanding oil and gas production in sensitive areas is essential. In short, the list of anti-environment decisions and actions – unfortunately – is immense.

All of this has consequences. It is as if we are creating new disasters with each new law of this type approved in the Legislature, with each sanction by the Executive, with each defeat in the Judiciary.

I repeat: we are creating future disasters instead of acting to reduce the impacts of those experienced in the past and which we can no longer avoid.

Much more is needed for our cities to become safer and more resistant to extreme climate variations and to prevent tragedies like this from recurring. We need to talk about adaptation!

Unfortunately, extreme weather events like the one that is currently plaguing Rio Grande do Sul are becoming more intense and frequent. To face such climate emergencies, we need concrete public policies that aim to adapt cities and create a solid culture of prevention. We are talking about budget, prioritization, seriousness and coordination between the municipal, state and federal spheres in Brazil.

We will only be able to avoid the worst of the climate crisis, which destroys lives and dreams and is cruel especially to those who already live in vulnerable conditions, if we face it responsibly. To achieve this, we need to implement a robust adaptation and mitigation plan, prioritizing a truly fair energy transition.

Know that Greenpeace Brazil will not rest until we win this battle. We hope you will also join this fight, which is fundamental to changing the direction of what we are committing to our own lives. When millions come together, the result – as we are seeing now – is encouraging. May this also be the case in the structural challenges that we will face from now on.

Carolina Pasquali is the Executive Director of Greenpeace Brazil

Every time they are in the spotlight for the disastrous effects of their business, fossil fuel companies serve up the same old fraudulent arguments. Tired of their bogus excuses? So are we. Here are their most common lies and the facts to counter them.

False Excuse #1: “We’re only responding to consumer demand”

This is one of the classic arguments for climate inaction from fossil fuel companies: deflecting their responsibilities onto consumers rather than engaging in a real energy transition. No altruistic desire to meet the needs of the population here. They are simply prioritising their profits (in 2023, while people struggled to pay their energy bills, fossil fuel companies made record-breaking profits) and betting on the profitability of oil and gas, at the expense of the environment, the climate, and our health.

They are even doing everything they can to keep us addicted to gas. In Europe, fossil fuel companies have cynically used the war in Ukraine and exploited fears of an energy crisis to push fossil gas as the only solution to avoid it, and con European states into massive, unnecessary investments. We’ve seen this with TotalEnergies’ LNG terminal in France, or OMV’s Neptun Deep gas drilling project in Romania, among other projects.

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False Excuse #2: “Gas is a transition energy”

The idea that fossil gas is a clean or low-carbon energy is completely false. It is a fossil fuel, just like coal and oil, and it already accounts for 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Its consequences are not limited to the climate: environmental damage, biodiversity destruction, human rights violations, geopolitical conflicts…

And contrary to what gas companies often claim, a fully renewable energy system does not need fossil gas. In 2018, Costa Rica ran on renewable energy alone for 300 days. Many studies also show that a 100% renewable energy system is already possible in many countries, including Germany or the Philippines. Eliminating gas can be done by replacing gas with renewable energy solutions through electrification, reducing overall energy demand through efficiency and sufficiency, and developing energy storage and demand flexibility.

False Excuse #3: “We won’t move away from fossil fuels overnight”

To justify their climate-damaging activities, fossil fuel companies constantly use this ‘wait and see’ argument. Remember, they have known about the climate crisis and the damage they are causing for decades, yet they continue to bet on fossil fuel development.

The climate crisis is escalating. To stay within the 1.5 degree target, all new gas, oil and coal projects must be stopped immediately and fossil fuels must be phased out by mid-century, with industrialised countries taking the lead. We won’t move away from fossil fuels overnight, but we need to do so quickly. For this energy transition to succeed, it has to meet the needs of the population, to ensure a fair transition for workers, and it needs to start now.

False Excuse #4: “We’re investing a lot in renewable energy”

It’s crystal clear: fossil fuel companies intend to remain so for as long as possible. While they use renewables in their advertising to greenwash their business, actual investment in renewable energy is minimal. Only 7.3% of 12 major European oil and gas companies’ 2022 investments went towards green energy – the remaining 92.7% was funding fossil business as usual, and in some cases even its expansion. The share of renewable energy in these 12 companies’ energy mix in 2022 was on average below 1%. And globally, oil and gas companies currently only account for 1% of all global investments into clean energy.

These numbers clearly show that the fossil fuel industry does not play a role in the global energy transition and cannot be taken seriously. Many fossil fuel companies have even announced plans to further increase oil and gas production in the coming years.

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False Excuse #5: “We contribute to the economy and improve living conditions in developing countries”

The exploitation of oil and gas primarily serves the private interests of fossil fuel companies. Fossil fuel projects developed in Global Majority countries – often by corporations headquartered in Global Minority countries – are part of a neocolonial logic. Corrupt elites often pocket the revenues while local communities suffer the dangerous consequences of fossil fuel extraction. Expanding fossil fuel extraction in Global Majority countries also locks countries and communities into a toxic fossil-fueled economic system.

In Yemen, TotalEnergies’ oil activities are reportedly causing serious contamination of soil and groundwater, with catastrophic health consequences. In Uganda and Tanzania, people are being dispossessed of their land: it is estimated that over 118,000 people will be displaced by the EACOP and Tilenga projects. Overall, fossil-fuelled human rights abuses are widespread, as Greenpeace Belgium has shown.

False Excuse #6: “If we don’t do it, others will”

This is a classic derailment strategy. The response “but what about the other companies” is whataboutism, a technique of responding to an accusation by making a counter-accusation or raising another issue. Moreover, this is not reality. In 2018, Greenpeace France mobilised to stop the TotalEnergies project in the Amazon reef. Following this decision, no other company has started oil exploration in this protected area.

Lisa Göldner is the Lead Campaigner of Greenpeace’s Fossil Free Future, based in Germany.

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Demand an end to the fossil fuel industry crimes and justice for all who are impacted by their dirty business.

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Stockholm, Sweden — Shopping online may be convenient and time-saving, but it comes with a price. According to a new report by Greenpeace Sweden, Amazon, Zalando, HelloFresh and other big players are connected to the destruction of old-growth forests in Sweden. The report illustrates how the increased demand for throwaway products like packaging paper and cardboard for shipping products bought online fuels nature destruction and harms Indigenous People’s rights. Greenpeace urges companies to clean up their supply chains and actively support stronger EU nature protection regulation, before Europe’s last remaining unprotected old-growth forests are gone for good.

Erika Bjureby, Programme Manager at Greenpeace Sweden, said: “I have lived in the Amazon rainforest, and I see a lot of similarities to what is happening right now in Swedish forests. We are destroying some of Europe’s most important ecosystems to produce throwaway products like cardboard. It is absurd. To stop this, big players in the e-commerce sector must  ensure that their suppliers stop providing them with raw material that originates from clear-cut old-growth forests. They must shift towards reusable shipping solutions and encourage the EU to protect these precious ecosystems before it’s too late.”

Online shopping is booming, with the e-commerce sector being a major user of cardboard to package and ship their products. According to the Swedish Forest Industries, in 2022, more than 60 percent of all timber in Sweden was turned into paper products. The new Greenpeace Sweden report illustrates how this is becoming a big threat to Swedish old-growth forests, which are crucial for biodiversity, the climate and Europe’s only recognised Indigenous People, the Sámi.[1]

Through field investigations and the use of wood trackers, big players like Amazon, Zalando and HelloFresh, together with about a hundred other companies, have been connected to suppliers linked to the destruction of valuable Swedish forests. Their supply chains are linked to Swedish pulp mills which are responsible for the destruction of several old-growth forests, according to the investigations carried out by Greenpeace Sweden. This inevitably means that companies tied to these pulp mills are exposed to the risk of selling their products in packaging that has been made from clearcutting of some of Europe’s last remaining precious old-growth forests that should be protected according to the EU’s biodiversity strategy, the report concludes.

“The number of companies we have discovered with links to destroying vital old forests indicates how systemic this problem is. Although Swedish pulp and paper producers claim that they don’t source any material from unsustainably logged forests, our report shows that they don’t live up to these words and mislead their customers. Clearcutting is the dominant harvesting method used in Sweden and the authorities say themselves that they have no option to investigate all logging areas, which allows old-growth forests to be destroyed and turned into single-use products like cardboard. The companies need to be aware of this and act accordingly,” added Bjureby.

Greenpeace encourages companies, especially those tied to the e-commerce sector, to:

• Clean up their supply chain to exclude old-growth forest raw material
• Actively support stronger EU nature-protection regulation to ensure that they do not get locked into the same problems in the future
• Work towards eliminating the use of single-use packaging

ENDS

Photos and video from the investigations in Swedish forests can be accessed from the Greenpeace Media Library.

Notes:

[1] EPRS (2020). International Year of Indigenous Languages –Sami people and languages in the EU, European Parliamentary Research Service, January 2020 

Contacts:

Christopher Engberg Dahl, Communications Officer, Greenpeace Sweden, christopher.dahl@greenpeace.org, +46791421453

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

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