WePlanet

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WePlanet
Founders
Amardeo Sarma,Rudy Rabbinge [nl]
TypeInternational NGO
Purpose
HeadquartersAugust Reyerslaan 80, 1030 Brussels
Region
Worldwide
Methods
  • Advocacy
  • Lobbying
President
Adam Blazowski
Secretary General
Karolina Lisslo Gylfe
Advisor
Mark Lynas
Websiteweplanet.org

WePlanet is an alliance of environmental organizations from 16 countries (originally Finland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, with newer branches being created in the UK, Portugal, Kenya, Uganda, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Ukraine, Italy).

These organizations are associated with an ecomodernist environmental philosophy, which means they favor pragmatic, evidence-based and science-backed solutions to address the problems created by the environmental crisis. Advocating the benefits of technical progress for the environment, WePlanet is spearheading a trend that is gaining popularity among a new generation of green activists in northern Europe.[1] This stands in contrast to most older environmental NGOs and established green parties, which have often stuck to anti-technology positions inherited from the 20th century, even though the urgency of climate change should have, according to younger ecomodernist activists, lead them to question the relevance of this ideological legacy[2]

WePlanet was launched as "RePlanet", the original name under which it was known until 2023, but changed its name because of potential conflicts with existing brands as the movement expanded to new countries.

Campaigns[edit]

Nuclear energy advocacy[edit]

This is the most visible rift between the newer environmental organizations like WePlanet and the older established ones.[3] WePlanet and affiliate national organizations are known for advocating nuclear energy as a safe, dense and clean source of energy that is more indispensable than ever for decarbonisation by way of massive electrification. This has led to several campaigns to oppose shutting down existing nuclear power plants, among which a 2023 open letter to chancelor Olaf Scholz, initiated by WePlanet (Replanet at the time) and signed by two dozen scientists and Nobel laureates,[4] calling on him to continue operating the last remaining german nuclear power plants.

Another campaign has been for the inclusion of nuclear energy under the EU "green taxonomy".

A campaign urging Greenpeace to, at last, take into account the climate emergency to abandon its entrenched opposition to nuclear power has been lead by a group of young activists from WePlanet, casting Greenpeace as, by contrast, an "old-fashioned" organization clinging to the long-held and seemingly unchangeable positions of its 1970s founders.[2]

"Switch off Putin"[edit]

In the wake of the war in Ukraine, WePlanet has issued two reports under this title,[5] advocating strong restrictive measures to curtail import of oil and gas from Russia,[6] as well as limitations on the use of biofuels to address the food crisis resulting from reduced exports from Ukraine.[7]

New Gene Technologies advocacy[edit]

In january 2024, on the occasion of the discussion and vote by the EU parliament of new regulations applying to organisms modified by "new genomic techniques" (arising from the use of the newer CRISPR-based gene editing tools), WePlanet initated an open letter to EU lawmakers,[8] signed by thousands of scientists among which 34 Nobel prize winners (including CRISPR originators Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier), advocating how indispensable these techniques are to address, among others, the new challenges arising from the environmental crisis and calling them to "reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering".

Reboot Food[9][10][edit]

As advocated by, among others, George Monbiot,[11] much of the world's land dedicated to the production of meat, with a huge impact on biodiversity and climate change, could get progressively rewilded if new technologies such as precision fermentation were used to produce protein, with a gain in efficiency of land-use by a factor of around 40000.

Affiliate national organizations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "A long overdue moment? "RePlanet are the pro-nuclear, pro-GMO vegans who have come to shake up the environmental movement"". The Guardian. 9 March 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b "Young climate activist tells Greenpeace to drop 'old-fashioned' anti-nuclear stance". The Guardian. 29 August 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Nuclear Power's Rebound Causes Rift Among Environmentalists". The Wall Street Journal. 2 September 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "A guide: The end of Germany's nuclear power". World Nuclear News. 14 April 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Switch off Putin".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Ban European flights and car use in cities to hurt Putin, Strong measures by Europe could quickly deprive Russia of oil and gas income worth billions, report urges". The Guardian. 8 April 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "RePlanet calls on EU to ditch organic targets and for governments to lift bans on genetically modified crops". The Guardian. 13 July 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Nobel laureates call on EU to relax rules on genetic modification". The Guardian. 19 January 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Reboot food campaign".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Replace animal farms with micro-organism tanks, Advocates of plant-based protein say 75% of world's farmland should be rewilded to reduce emissions". The Guardian. 12 November 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Monbiot, George (2014). Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-197558-0.
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