Bellona Foundation

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The Environmental Foundation Bellona
logo
legal form Non-profit foundation
founding June 16, 1986
founder Frederic Hauge , Rune Haaland
Seat Oslo , Norway
motto From Pollution to Solution!
main emphasis environmental Protection
Action space Global
people Nils Bøhmer (chairman), Alexander Nikitin
Employees approx. 60
Members approx. 4,000 supporters
Website bellona.org

The Bellona Foundation is an international environmental protection organization headquartered in Oslo . It has offices in Brussels at the EU and in Washington, DC There is an independent organization in Saint Petersburg .

According to the statutes, the main objectives are to work to promote ecological understanding and to actively advocate the protection of nature, the environment and health. The focus is on the dangers posed by nuclear energy, crude oil and natural gas, climate change, the resources of renewable energies and energy efficiency.

history

Bellona was founded on June 16, 1986 by Frederic Hauge and Rune Haaland and is an independent, non-profit foundation that aims to advocate greater ecological understanding and the protection of nature, the environment and health. Their trademark is civil engagement, combined with a high level of professional competence and a long-term strategy. Hauge is still President of the Foundation today.

In the early days, the association was mainly concerned with the investigation and prosecution of illegal and harmful emissions, buried poison barrels and similar forms of "environmental crime" - a term that was first introduced by Bellona in Norway and is now part of the legal terminology in Norway.

Environmentalists in red protective suits who tackled environmental criminals with non-violent actions quickly became Bellona's trademark. In the course of a short time the foundation became Norway's best known environmental protection organization. Later, direct actions were increasingly combined with interdisciplinary scientific studies, and improvements in environmental legislation created new work opportunities for the organization and new forms of sanctions against the perpetrators.

Today Bellona is also working to find realistic and workable solutions to the environmental, energy and resource problems facing humanity as a whole. The most important work areas of the organization today are energy (especially renewable energies, more effective energy use, handling of CO 2 , energy transport and hydrogen technology), fish farming and fishing, environmental management, as well as the special environmental problems in Russia. The organization consists of atomic physicists, journalists, technicians and engineers, biologists, economists and geographers, who work in an interdisciplinary manner and often in dialogue with research institutes, other organizations and business to find pragmatic solutions to various environmental problems. Over the last twenty years Bellona has published almost 200 studies and reports on environmental conditions and problems in Norway and internationally. The organization also publishes current environmental news and background information in Norwegian, Russian and English on its website.

The association represents the Norwegian environmental movement in the " EEB " (a platform for cooperation between European environmental organizations) and in the corresponding Russian "Socio-Ecological Union". Bellona is also, as the only Norwegian environmental protection organization, directly accredited by the leading council of the UN environmental program UNEP . In Brussels, Bellona sits on the EU Commission's Expert Council for the implementation of emission-free power plants and also heads a working group in the Commission's technology platform.

Russia

Bellona's involvement in Russia began in 1989 when the Norwegian organization, together with residents in Pasvik, Finland ( Finnmark on the border with the Soviet Union ), demonstrated against sulfur emissions from the nickel works in the Soviet city of Nikel on the Kola Peninsula . Years later, the organization also demonstrated against attempts at nuclear explosions on Novaya Zemlya and began to map the sources of nuclear contamination in Russia. This work received great international attention, especially when Bellona was able to draw attention to the unsafe conditions around the world's largest nuclear facility in Tomsk in Siberia in 1994 .

Bellona Murmansk

In 1994 the independent non-governmental organization Bellona was founded in Murmansk . Since then, she has experienced ever new difficulties with the Russian domestic secret service FSB . In 1995, the former officer of the Russian Northern Fleet, Alexander Nikitin, published a report on the unsafety of the fleet with its 270 nuclear reactors. A number of other reports on nuclear problems, particularly in northwestern parts of Russia, have been published. Bellona organized several meetings with politicians from Russia, the EU, the USA and Norway on the subject, as well as hearings in Brussels. To date there are great risks from unsecured nuclear waste in Russia.

On October 12, 2015, the Murmansk organization disbanded after being entered as a foreign agent in the register of non-commercial organizations by the Ministry of Justice in March .

Ecological Law Center "Bellona" Saint Petersburg

In 1995 the independent ecological legal center "Bellona" (Экологический правозащитный центр "Беллона") was founded in Saint Petersburg . This is intended to provide legal advice and support to environmental activists. It also offers information and expertise on environmental protection problems in Russia. 16 journalists, lawyers and scientific experts currently work for the center as employees, as well as over 50 volunteers every year. The executive director was Nikolai Rybakov (2008-2015). In addition to the problem of nuclear safety, the work on renewable energies in Russia as an alternative to the numerous dangerous nuclear power plants is a special focus of her work.

There is also a large Russia department at the headquarters in Oslo.

Brussels (European Union)

Bellona opened its Brussels office in 1994, shortly after a majority of the Norwegian population voted against Norway's membership of the EU. Pollution knows no national borders, and regardless of whether Norway is a member of the EU or not, important decisions are made in Brussels. Bellona would like to influence this and in the first few years a lot of time was spent informing the EU system about the dangers associated with the unsafe storage of nuclear waste in Russia . In the later years the climate problems became more and more important and today Bellona Europa is primarily active in lobbying the EU decision-making bodies on energy and climate issues. In any case, Bellona has meanwhile gained influence over the EU system and the head of Bellona, ​​Frederic Hauge, is among other things deputy head of the European Technology Platform for the Handling and Storage of CO 2 ( ZEP ).

Viewpoints

Climate change

Much of Bellona's work today deals with the fight against climate change. Bellona sees three solutions to the climate challenge: Firstly, the handling and storage of CO 2 , secondly, improving the effectiveness of the use of energy and thirdly, renewable energies. In order to move forward with solutions to the problems, Bellona has professionals with a broad spectrum from research, environmental movement, industry and business. Bellona's professionals are working to keep the climate debate in the spotlight both in Norway and internationally.

In summer 2008 Bellona hosted the “CC8” conference at Hafslund Hovedgård in Sarpsborg , together with Hafslund ASA and the Club of Madrid , an association of former heads of government. Some celebrities attended the conference, such as Lord Nicholas Stern , Kjell Magne Bondevik , Gro Harlem Brundtland and Ricardo Lagos . In connection with the conference, Bellona presented the report “How to Combat Global Warming” (German for “How to combat global warming”) . The report describes the “Bellona scenario”, in which Bellona demonstrates with all available technologies for reducing emissions that global emissions of greenhouse gases could be reduced by 85 percent by 2050.

In 2009 the second conference ("CC9") took place. The patron and guest speaker was Robert Francis Kennedy junior .

Handling and storage of CO 2

The separation and storage of CO 2 is part of the climate debate today and is recognized by many as an important weapon in the climate fight. Bellona began to bring up the handling of CO 2 and corresponding techniques as early as 1991, but large parts of the international environmental movement were opposed to the separation and storage of CO 2 and largely still are today. On the one hand, the safety of storage is being questioned and, on the other hand, many environmental groups believe that technologies for CO 2 capture and storage will only delay the transition to a future society of renewable energies. Bellona, ​​on the other hand, believes that in regions where renewable energies cannot make the necessary contribution to reducing emissions in the foreseeable future, CO 2 capture and storage can be a necessary interim solution until renewable energies have been sufficiently expanded. Fossil fuels, especially coal, will still have to be available in the future in order to meet the world's energy needs quickly enough.

Due to the large-scale availability of renewable energy in Europe, Bellona sees the role of CO 2 capture and storage here rather as a necessary climate measure for the process industry. In addition to the use of alternative raw materials and fuels (biomass), as well as direct and indirect electrification (where possible, and electricity from renewable energies available), the capture and storage of CO 2 can reduce emissions from industrial processes that are otherwise unavoidable. In order to reduce costs for branches of industry, Bellona is pursuing the strategy of a joint transport and offshore storage infrastructure for CO 2 , which can be used by various industrial emitters in the surrounding countries.

cases

Environmental crime

In the first year of its existence, the organization ensured that environmental protection was put on the agenda in Norway, for example by directly digging up environmentally hazardous waste. Too many companies in Norway and abroad had leaking pipelines and buried toxic waste and Bellona's specialty was showing up for unannounced inspections with media representatives in tow. Bellona introduced the notion of environmental crime to the Norwegian language and provided a slew of reports and evidence against the criminals. PCB, dioxin and mercury scandals were exposed without interruption and some of the most important direct actions were against

Reports to the authorities also often brought things forward in the long term - for example, Borregård in Sarpsborg had to pay a fine of 500,000 Norwegian kroner in 1993 for the prohibited emission of mercury through leaking pipes, which had been reported by Bellona three years earlier. The mining company Titania was required by the authorities to create a landfill for their waste material and thus prevent the uncontrolled sinking of around two million tons of waste into the sea each year. These days, environmental crime is no longer so ubiquitous, but Bellona continues to have staff working on issues related to environmental toxins and contaminated soil and water.

Oil production in the north

In 1993 the association took action against oil production in the Barents Sea for the first time by getting in the way of the Shell platform “ Ross Rigg ”. The fight against the possible damage or destruction of unique marine areas by the oil industry was very important to Bellona and is set to become even more important in the years to come. With StatoilHydro at the helm, various oil companies are pushing to drill for oil off the islands of Lofoten and Vesterålen . Together with local forces and other environmental organizations, Bellona has built a strong alliance against the oil companies. The arguments against oil production are both about safety - people fear the consequences of possible releases of oil into the environment - and about the fundamental incompatibility of the oil industry with the business of fishing, fish farming and tourism.

Alexander Nikitin

Alexander Nikitin started working for Bellona in 1995 and was arrested by Russian security forces on February 6, 1996 and charged with treason and espionage. The arrest sparked a long trial against the former Russian submarine captain and co-author of the Bellona study “The Russian Northern Fleet - Sources of Radioactive Pollution”. The trial was banned in Russia and the Nikitin case has received enormous international attention. In the years that followed, almost all of Bellona's forces focused on fighting for the release of Alexander Nikitin. In 1999 he was finally acquitted by the highest Russian court. This was the first case in which anyone had won against the security policy of the FSB before the Russian Supreme Court. Today Nikitin heads Bellona's environmental law office in Saint Petersburg.

Sellafield

When it was determined in 2004 that all emissions of the radioactive material technetium (Tc-99) from the Sellafield nuclear facility must cease, this was one of Bellona's greatest successes. The reprocessing facility in the north of England has treated nuclear waste for decades and has caused huge pollution of the sea. Its worst time was in the 1970s, but the release of Tc-99, which started in 1994, was also extremely problematic.

Tc-99 is a substance that accumulates in individual organisms such as seaweed or lobsters . In 1996 the substance was tracked all along the Norwegian coast and traces of nuclear waste were found all the way up to Svalbard . In addition to the vocal protests against the poisoning of Norwegian waters, Bellona nuclear physicists set out to investigate the causes and possible solutions.

At a conference in 2003, Bellona presented calculations that showed that a separation method was practically possible and not just storage of the uncleaned secretions on land, as the British authorities wanted. After ten years of struggle, the technetium is now being separated using a new cleaning method and then stored separately on land.

The nuclear reactor is now closed, but nuclear waste is still being processed by the THORP (Thermal Oxides Reprocessing Plant) in Sellafield. This facility has had numerous accidents and uncontrolled spills and Bellona is demanding that all nuclear waste processing in Sellafield be stopped.

Algae reactor / carbon negative technology

In 2008 Bellona signed a cooperation agreement with the Dutch company AlgaeLink , which has developed a tank system for the automated production of bio-oil from algae. According to the company, 20 times more fuel can be produced from algae than from rapeseed or other oilseeds in the same area. The algae can also be grown in areas that are not suitable for the production of food and the conception does not necessarily come into conflict with the growing need for food. The algae reactor is four by six meters in size, holds 3,000 liters and can be operated with both fresh water and salt water. A power plant with controlled CO 2 handling, which burns the fuel from these algae, could become “carbon negative” because the CO 2 emissions from biological material are part of the natural cycle as the starting point. If parts of this CO 2 emission can then also be captured, bound and deposited, less CO 2 would end up in the atmosphere than if the product from the algae were not burned at all, but remained in the natural cycle.

Web links

Commons : Bellona Foundation  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Russian Northern Fleet Report ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. bellona org  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bellona.org
  2. ↑ Two decades of legal harassment dissolve Bellona Murmansk as a Russian NGO bellona.org
  3. ↑ Bellona Saint Petersburg (Russian)
  4. ^ Manufacturing Our Future: Industries, European Regions, and Climate Action - Bellona.org . In: Bellona.org . ( bellona.org [accessed September 14, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Website of the Dutch company Algaelink ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.algaelink.com