The need for a bold response from a nation that considers itself a world leader in tackling climate change has never been clearer, yet on too many fronts, the UK government seems intent upon repeating the mistakes of the past. From runways to new coal fired power stations, the government’s plans for resurrecting the icons that are the principle cause of climate change continue, despite the breadth of opposition marshalled against them.

Within this context, the government's consultation on a new renewable energy strategy for the UK stands as a promising beacon of light. After years of timidity and failure, this consultation shows some small but encouraging signs that the government might just be starting to recognise the scale of potential for renewable energy in the UK.

As a contribution to the government's consultation process, this report systematically catalogues the history of initiatives, obligations and mechanisms introduced by the Labour government over the last decade to encourage renewable energy in the UK, providing a comprehensive critique of Labour's approach. It sets out clear recommendations for how the government can redress the missed opportunities over the last 10 years, and at last turn the UK into the renewable energy powerhouse it is so well placed to become, leading the world in showcasing the real solutions to the challenges of climate change and energy security.

This report details the range of existing and emerging risks that BP and Shell face from their expansion of production in the Canadian tar sands. We believe the risks are significant for BP and Shell shareholders, and that investors should question the companies more deeply on their tar sands strategies and call for greater transparency regarding the assessment of the mid to long term viability of these projects. Investors should call for full disclosure of the risks involved in the tar sands strategy in a carbon constrained world and the development of new tar sands projects should be halted.

The science of climate change is unequivocal – to avoid catastrophic impacts, industrialised countries like the UK must make steep and urgent reductions in their carbon dioxide emissions. This means that it is unacceptable to build new unabated coal-fired power stations in the UK.

This joint statement from Greenpeace,  WWF, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB calls on the government to:

• focus on renewables and energy efficiency;
• introduce greenhouse gas emissions standards;
•  introduce emission standards for existing plants from 2020;
• keep a clear focus in any CCS demonstration programme;
• introduce strong legislation on CO2 storage and transport.

The demand for timber from the international marketplace, including the UK, is a key driver in this destruction. This timber can be used for high value products like flooring or end up as ‘throwaway' products like plywood. In recent years, Greenpeace has repeatedly exposed the use of illegal and unsustainable plywood from the threatened rainforests of the Brazilian Amazon, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea being used as hoardings around UK construction sites.

This guide sets out why companies must respond to this issue as a matter of urgency. It shows how to avoid unsustainable plywood and also provides a step-by-step guide to obtaining socially and environmentally responsible timber, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Buying FSC certified timber is the best way to ensure your timber comes from responsible sources.

If the government is serious about renewables and energy efficiency, Britain doesn’t need to build major new power stations to keep the lights on, according to this report released today by independent energy experts Pöyry.

The report finds that, if the UK government is able to achieve its commitments to meet EU renewable energy targets and its own ambitious action plan to reduce demand through energy efficiency, then major new power stations (burning either coal or gas) would not be needed to ensure that Britain can meet its electricity requirements up to at least 2020. The report also concludes that a strong drive for energy efficiency and renewable energy can reduce emissions and assist energy security.

A Greenpeace briefing on the government's internal audit ("Response to the Business and Enterprise Committee Funding the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority") and follow up report ("NDA Budgetting Shortfall 2007-08: Lesson Learned"). These reports expose massive cost overruns, amateurish bureaucratic cock-ups and complete chaos within the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - the organisation charged with cleaning up the UK's lethal radioactive legacy.

This report highlights the urgent need for global palm oil consumers and investors to support Unilever's call for an immediate moratorium on deforestation and peatland clearance in Indonesia.

This report focuses on Unilever, which shares major institutional investors with other leading corporations including Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Kraft. Not only do these corporations share investors, they also share growing carbon liability within their raw material supply chains through the expansion in the palm oil sector in Indonesia.

In November 2007, Greenpeace released Cooking the Climate, an 82-page report summarising the findings of a two-year investigation that revealed how the world’s largest food, cosmetic and biofuel companies were driving the wholesale destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands through growing palm oil consumption.

This follow-up report provides further evidence of the expansion of the palm sector in Indonesia into remaining rainforests, orang-utan habitat and peatlands in Kalimantan. It links the majority of the largest producers in Indonesia to Unilever, probably the largest palm oil corporate consumer in the world.

Against a continuing background of diminishing and over–exploited marine resources, aquaculture has been widely held up as a panacea to the problem of providing a growing world population with ever-increasing amounts of fish for consumption. With the expansion of the industry, however, the tendency has been for methods of production to intensify, particularly in the production of carnivorous species. This has resulted in many serious impacts on the environment and human rights abuses.

Find out why a new generation of coal-fired power stations would undermine – perhaps fatally – Britain's chances of meeting its climate change targets, and what the real solutions to climate change and energy security are.