Friends of the Earth Australia media release. June 26, 2019

The Big four banks who were found to be exploiting Australians in the royal commission have been exposed in new research by Friends of the Earth to be financing even worse practices overseas. During the 2010–2018 period, the big four Australian banks had a total financial involvement (across loans, underwriting, bond holdings and shareholdings) of at least US$6.4 billion(AUD $9.5 Billion) in six major companies involved in the palm oil supply chain. Approximately $928 million (AUD$1.3billion) of this would be directly exposed to the palm oil business, given that these companies are involved in a number of business sectors of which palm oil is one.

Media Release ‒ 25 June 2019 ‒ Friends of the Earth Australia

The ABC's Media Watch program last night took aim at Australia's pro-nuclear propagandists and the extreme bias of Australia's nuclear 'debate'.

Media Watch discussed HBO's hit miniseries 'Chernobyl', which tops IMDB's list of the greatest TV shows of all time, and took aim at Andrew Bolt and others for trivialising the death toll (discussed here) and for ignoring the broader impacts of the disaster such as the permanent relocation of 350,000 people and the thousands of children who suffered thyroid cancer due to exposure to radioactive fallout.

Geneva, Switzerland — Today, 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. The amendments require exporters to obtain the consent of receiving countries before shipping most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste, providing an important tool for countries in the Global South to stop the dumping of unwanted plastic waste into their country.

After China banned imports of most plastic waste in 2018, developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have received a huge influx of contaminated and mixed plastic wastes that are difficult or even impossible to recycle. Norway’s proposed amendments to the Basel Convention provides countries the right to refuse unwanted or unmanageable plastic waste.

The Hague - Friends of the Earth Netherlands will deliver a court summons to Shell to legally compel the company to cease its destruction of the climate, on behalf of more than 30,000 people from 70 countries.

Reacting to the news that Adani has decided to self-fund the entirety of its Carmichael coal project, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth affiliate member group, Market Forces, Julien Vincent said:

22 May 2018

Environmental Organisation Friends of the Earth (FoE) today expressed concerns over the registration of the larvicide “Sumilarv Granular Insect Growth Regulator” (Active Constituent: Pyriproxyfen) commonly used for control of mosquitos, midges and latrine flies.

Pyriproxyfen is an extremely powerful synthetic hormone, that is highly persistent, active at very low concentrations, and interferes with developmental processes in a very wide range of organisms.

Press release:

Melbourne, 5 April 2018: Friends of the Earth Netherlands takes the first step in legal action against Shell to stop the destruction of the climate. This ground-breaking case, if successful, would significantly limit Shell's investments in oil and gas globally by requiring them to comply with global climate targets.

"A vital stepping stone towards 10,000 jobs"

The Andrews government have this morning announced the first big solar farms in the state as well as auctions to bring 650 megawatts of new projects online to kick off the legislative push on the Victorian Renewable Energy Target. 

The genetically modified (GM) crop industry is not happy. It’s been over 20 years since the introduction of the first GM crops to Australia and the majority of our food remains GM free – because quite frankly we don’t want to eat GMOs.

However, the GM crop industry has a plan.