Over the next months, the European Commission and Parliament will review their voluntary joint Transparency Register that entered into force June 2011. The register continues to have a large number of shortcomings, due to its voluntary nature. Hundreds of companies, consultancies and law firms involved in EU lobbying remain unregistered.
Friends of the Earth Europe's new film, documenting the efforts of local communities in Madagascar to protect their island home from tar sands development, was premiered in Europe last week at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Recommendations from the European Resource Efficiency Platform (EREP) on how Europe can transition to a resource efficient economy fall far short of what is needed, according to Friends of the Earth Europe.
The platform, established to provide advice on how to improve resource use in Europe, released its first policy recommendations today. It involved a broad range of stakeholders including Friends of the Earth Europe.
Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland took part in a mass rally on Saturday ahead of the G8 summit this week to draw attention to the threat that fracking poses to local communities.
The environmental campaigners took part in a mass march in Belfast City Centre with trade unions, anti-poverty groups and other civil society organisations under the banner 'Another World is Possible.'
Friends of the Earth Europe, alongside FERN and Birdlife Europe and 30 other NGOs, criticised an industry-dominated international agreement on forests today. The Forest Convention to be signed by European countries this fall will be detrimental to the health, carbon carrying capacity and biodiversity levels of European and international forests according to the organisations.
Concerns about possible negative effects of an EU and US trade agreement are the subject of a letter sent to European Trade ministers today.
Friends of the Earth Europe, the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) and Eurogroup for Animals today wrote to the 27 ministers to raise concerns about the threat a deal could pose to environmental, consumer, and social regulatory standards.
Activists from Friends of the Earth Europe posed as an imaginary energy company, Drill4All, and set up a fake drilling rig outside the European Commission today, to pretend shale gas was extracted in the centre of Brussels and highlight the possible negative environmental and local impacts of Europe's dash for unconventional gas.
Friends of the Earth Croatia celebrated today with the news that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have cancelled a €123.2 million loan to Croatian electricity company HEP for the construction of the controversial Ombla hydroelectric plant, near Dubrovnik.
The power-plant, heavily reliant on the EBRD loan, would be constructed at the source of city's river Ombla – a potential Natura 2000 area with rich biodiversity, and the source of drinking water for Dubrovnik city.
The Climbing for Climate Justice Everest expedition – organized by the Save the Himalayas Campaign and Khangri Media, in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public successfully climbed Mount Everest to demand climate justice from the top of the world.
"This expedition aims to draw attention to the disastrous impacts that climate change is having on our precious ecosystems as well as local communities," said Prakash Mani Sharma, executive director of Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands took over 11,000 orders from across the Netherlands for the first production run of their new ‘Kleine Hoefprint’ (Small hoof-print) cheese – demonstrating a real demand for high quality cheese with low environmental impact.