On 17th September soft drinks giant Coca-Cola committed to use coolers and vending machines free of climate-destroying HFC gases in all official venues (in Beijing and the six co-host cities) of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will mark the first time Coca-Cola has committed to providing HFC-free insulation and refrigerants together with the energy-saving EMS technology. The 6,350 climate-friendly coolers and vending machines will stop 45,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, equivalent to taking 218,000 cars off the road for two weeks of the Games. The commitment came as result of continuous joint efforts to advance sustainable refrigeration from Greenpeace and Coca-Cola since 2000. Other large commercial refrigeration users must now follow Coca-Cola’s good example – the climate can’t wait!  More

On 19th September a Greenpeace delegation headed by Gerd Leipold, International Executive Director, and including Jamie Choi, a Korean working for Greenpeace China, met with UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon to talk about climate change. He admired what we do and how much impact we have made on the issue on climate change. He recognised the pressure that Greenpeace supporters like you can generate and asked us to mobilise you to call for action ahead of the crucial Kyoto meeting in Bali in December. We have many activities planned over the next months to push world leaders to strengthen the Kyoto Protocol at the meeting – keep a look out for what you can do to help

Read Jamie Choi’s personal account of the meeting here

“How much ancient forest do you have in your home?” On 6th September we launched a Chinese version of our ‘Good Wood Guide’ in Beijing to alert mainland consumers to the destruction caused to forests across the Asia-Pacific region by illegal logging. ‘Bad wood’ is still widely used in all sorts of everyday household products. Could you sleep on a bed knowing that its’ production helped displace indigenous peoples from the forest, or that orangutans had died for the floorboards that you walk on? An area of forest the size of a football field disappears every two seconds! There are enough ‘good wood’ alternatives, we don't need to trash the ancient forests,

Click here to choose the right wood and make a difference!

Greenpeace highlighted China’s potential as a global powerhouse for solar energy earlier this month with the launch of the ‘China Solar PV Report’. Solar energy is clean, safe and renewable and China’s abundant resources of solar energy could improve the country’s energy security and help to slow climate change, putting China on a sustainable future development path. Driven by the international market and domestic policies, China’s solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is booming and China is now among top 3 solar PV producers worldwide. However, about 90% of these products are exported to Europe, US and Japan etc. The on-grid solar PV market is still at a relatively early stage.

The China Solar PV Report, jointly released by China Renewable Energy Industry Association, Greenpeace China, European PV Industry Association and WWF at the Solar World Congress in Beijing 17-24th September, predicts that China’s installed capacity of solar PV could generate enough electricity to displace more than 30 large-scale coal power stations.
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Download the “China Solar PV Report” here