Oslo, Norway, July 17, 2002 -- A controversial experiment involving dumping 5.4 tonnes of liquid carbon dioxide in the sea off Norway this summer has been postponed in response to growing international opposition.
The dumping of industrial waste at sea, including CO2 derived from fossil fuel use, is illegal under both the London Convention and the OSPAR Convention. Norway is a member of both these conventions.
"This experiment threatens international laws designed to stop the ocean being used as a dumping ground. It must never happen," said Truls Gulowsen, Norwegian Greenpeace climate campaigner.
A consortium of research institutions from USA, Norway, Canada, Australia and Japan funds the experiment, designed to test disposing of greenhouse pollution in the ocean. A similar project has already been rejected by Hawaii due to public protest. The consortium announced today that they were postponing their plans until after the Environment Ministry had considered environmental, political and legal concerns raise about the project.
Over the last few weeks' serious concerns have been raised in Norway and internationally about this project. Two weeks ago, after Greenpeace drew attention to the proposal, the OSPAR Commission recognised the seriousness of this issue and agreed on the need to come to a common position on this as soon as possible.
CO2 is the world's biggest industrial waste product. Most comes from the burning of oil, coal and gas and it is the primary cause of climate change.
"The consortium had expected it could rush through approval for this project very quietly without anyone knowing about it," said Gulowsen. "To stop these unsustainable proposals once and for all, the Norwegian Environment Minister must now officially reject the proposal. This is the only way to avoid the attempts to dump vast amounts of CO2 into the oceans and encourage even further use of climate changing fossil fuels."
As part of its Choose Positive Energy Tour in the lead up the World Summit in Johannesburg the Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior will arrive in Oslo on Tuesday. Greenpeace will meet with Norwegian Environment Ministry officials and organisations opposed to ocean dumping on board the Rainbow Warrior this week.
Download an Adobe Acrobat PDF of the Greenpeace report on ocean dumping of CO2 by clicking on this link:
http://www.greenpeace.to/pdfs/co2dump.pdf
Read more about the campaign to stop CO2 dumping in Hawaii by clicking on this link:
http://www.kahea.org/
Read about the London Convention (Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972) by clicking on this link:
http://www.londonconvention.org/
For more information about Greenpeace in general, visit www.greenpeace.org.
