Our emphasis has been on the continued research to inform policy makers and key stakeholders. The first of its kind in Southeast Asia, True Cost of Coal is a series of comprehensive research on the external costs of coal in our focus countries. In 2014, we released the ‘True Cost of Coal’ (TCC) reports in Indonesia (two reports), Philippines and Thailand.

Greenpeace hopes that the evidence generated and shared will be a valuable tool to ensure a broader debate and to guide policy makers and industry leaders in their decision-making framework for nations’ energy plans.

In 2014, Greenpeace Southeast Asia was able to halt coal plant projects in Indonesia and Thailand. In Indonesia, we built and sustained substantial local opposition to the proposed coal project in Batang. We ensured that the company responsible did not meet the financial deadline and managed to derail the development.

In Thailand, Greenpeace along with 22 other organisations set up the “Protect Krabi Network”, encouraging Thais and tourists to support the protection the Krabi’s unique environment. Over 50,000 online activists signed the petition to show their support in safeguarding the rich and healthy biodiversity of Krabi’s natural resources from destructive coal power plant and coal sea port projects. As a result, the Thai Cabinet approved the Declaration on Krabi Environmental Protectorate, pushing back the Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) process and temporarily halting operations of the Krabi Coal Plant.

Ranked by the UN as the third-most vulnerable country in the world to climate change, the Philippines is very much “a nation at risk”, often depicted as the poster child for the impacts of climate change with freakish extreme weather events like super typhoons battering the country every year, killing thousands, displacing millions and costing billions in damages. For this reason, Greenpeace Southeast Asia launched the Climate Justice campaign in 2014 to seek redress from the world’s biggest polluters - holding them accountable for their contribution to the climate crisis. The campaign emphasizes that while countries like the Philippines adapt and try to rebuild from the impacts of climate change, we also must take steps to ensure that typhoons and cyclones will not become the new way of life for future generations.

We partnered with other NGOs and mobilized thousands of people, including those that are bearing the brunt of climate change and are fighting for their survival, in shining the spotlight to the perpetrators of climate change: the big polluters and their respective governments for bringing us to the brink of the climate crisis. We launched this work through a 1,000-km climate walk dubbed “A People’s Walk for Climate Justice” from kilometer zero to ground zero which culminated in Tacloban on Typhoon Haiyan’s first year anniversary.

In December 2014, the Philippines was once again struck by a super typhoon- Hagupit, (translated as ‘lash’). Responding to the crisis, Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo travelled to the Philippines, standing in solidarity with the Filipino people, to ‘bear witness’ to climate impacts and to deliver a message to the international community that climate change is not a future threat to be negotiated, but a clear and present danger that requires urgent action now.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia also conducted a rapid response operation to the affected communities of Eastern Visayas hardest hit by Hagupit.  The initial response was the distribution of portable solar systems to households and evacuation centers in Catbalogan and Basiao Island, Samar, as well as in Taft, Eastern Samar.  Following this, a seed delivery mission to farming communities in Dolores, Eastern Samar, was made possible with our partners in the Ecological Agriculture movement.

2014 was a strong year for our regional Forest campaign with five major companies committing to No Deforestation policies, a welcome result three years into a long term campaign. Three companies made partial public commitments and two made major commitments to implement forest protection policies. 

A major breakthrough was Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader which committed to No Deforestation policy across all operations (including for third parties). Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) continued to strengthen its Forest Conservation Policy implementaion across its third party suppliers. Together with Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN), 5 big palm oil companies operating in Indonesia (Golden Agri Resources, Wilmar, Asian Agri, Cargill and Musim Mas) signed the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP), calling the Indonesian government to support the implementation of their ‘No Deforestation’ policy within the policy and regulation framework.

In November 2014, Indonesian President Joko Widodo took up an invitation from Greenpeace and other local NGOs to visit fire-prone peatlands in Riau Province. Here, the President personally assisted in damming a peat drainage canal, he pledged to review and cancel concessions and vowed to protect Indonesian forests and peatlands ecosystems. Greenpeace Southeast Asia will hold him to account to his promises.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia scored an important victory in the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region.

Last year, the European Union gave the Philippine government a warning through a “yellow card” system as a possible non cooperating country in the fight against IUU fishing. Greenpeace Southeast Asia, together with its partners, then lobbied the government to revamp and strengthen its outdated national Fisheries Law - enabling a curb to illegal fishing in the Philippines, and to champion the rights of the millions of small-scale fisherfolk who have been affected by years of rampant illegal and destructive fishing practices of the commercial fisheries.

In Indonesia, Greenpeace Southeast Asia was able to exert influence to force a response on the use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). There was strong political will by the country’s fisheries management to enforce significant policy reforms including the drastic reduction in the number of FADs to be deployed out at sea; a moratorium on new foreign fishing licenses; and management of transhipments at sea which has been the source of many problems such as illegal fish laundering, human rights violations and the propagation of shark finning.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia organized the first Philippine Shark Summit bringing together representatives from government, scientists, academics, divers, resulting in the passing of a local resolution against possession, catching, and trading of sharks, which led to numerous hotels and resorts in Cebu to remove shark fins from their menu.

With our allies and through our online petitions, our actions forced Philippines Airlines and Cebu Pacific to commit to stop the transhipment of shark fins and other shark products from all their flights. We also sent our demands to Thai Airways and Garuda Indonesia and these airlines have also made commitments to stop transporting shark fins.

In Thailand, Greenpeace strengthened ties with local fishing communities, and engaged with seafood consumers to raise awareness on the problems of overfishing in the Gulf of Thailand. Greenpeace also organized a Sustainable Seafood Festival in Bangkok to raise awareness among eco-conscious Thai’s, encouraging consumers to prioritise sustainable seafood alternatives.

In order to feed our issues into the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) meeting in January 2015, Greenpeace Southeast Asia organised a regional seminar on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) for negotiators, policy makers and key stakeholders to influence their implementing agreements in the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction.

Thanks to public pressure, over 30 companies, from Aldi to Zara, have committed to Detox. In the textile sector alone, 18 major fashion companies representing 10% of the retail fashion industry have begun eliminating toxic chemicals. This is having a ripple effect across the globe.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia participated in the launch of the Little Monsters report in 2014. Aimed at mothers and eco-conscious consumers, the report revealed how hazardous chemicals were found in children’s clothes and shoes made by major brands including Disney, Burberry and Adidas. As a direct result of the report, Burberry committed to toxic-free fashion and made a commitment to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain by January 2020.

In May— and just in time for the Football World Cup— Greenpeace challenged global sports brands like Adidas to act upon its Detox commitment and rid its supply chain of hazardous toxic chemicals that further pollute waterways.

Through the use of a smart phone app – La-Ola wave, Greenpeace invited sports fans to pressure Adidas to commit to maximum Detox performance. La-Ola wave was so widely successful, that the brand announced and released its Detox roadmap a few weeks after, and committed to eliminating hazardous chemicals from its products and supply chain, scoring a ‘goal’ for the planet!

Agriculture in the region is important for the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security for small holder farmers and as an important economic base for Southeast Asian countries.

Chemical intensive agriculture and the move to commodity based farming systems and industrial food production systems (evident in monocropping, the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), synthetic fertilizers and pesticides), threatens our unique agricultural biodiversity, cultural heritage and important economic base. As the region increasingly experiences the negative impacts of climate change in food and agriculture, it has no choice but to move towards a more resilient system as exemplified by ecological farming - to secure our food and nutrition needs.

In 2014, Greenpeace Southeast Asia started to transition from working solely to stop GMOs and repositioned its work in the broader food-agriculture-nutrition-environment-climate change nexus by introducing ecological agriculture as a working solution to address food and nutrition security amidst climate change impacts in the region. At the same time, continuing with its work in challenging GMOs by addressing food and nutrition security.

Greenpeace regionally launched the Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) report and promoted MAS or ‘Smart Breeding’, a form of biotechnology for conventional plant breeding, producing new varieties of crops, without the uncertainties and potential risks that GMOs pose.This innovative biotechnology looks to the future, but is already being practiced by farmers,and making a positive impact on their lives today as it helps them to manage a number of different challenges- from disease-resistance to climate adaptation. All these activities were directed at calling the attention of the Philippine’s Department of Agriculture to reconsider its support to GE ‘golden’ rice and instead provide more investments in ecological agriculture. By the end of the year, there were more than 25,000 signatories calling the Department of Agriculture to stop the commercial approval of GE ‘golden’ rice and instead advance ecological agriculture.

In December 2014, two weeks after the strong typhoon Hagupit destroyed the agriculture of Dolores, Eastern Samar, ecological farmers with support from Greenpeace Southeast Asia and other organisations shared ecologically grown rice and vegetable seeds, as well as organic fertilizers to farmers in Dolores.

Greenpeace Indonesia launched the 100% Indonesia campaign, to raise public awareness in an attempt to push the presidential candidates to commit to environmental issues. Given Indonesia's significance in some of the most pressing global environmental issues, it was imperative the environmental agenda be top of mind for Presidential aspirants. 100% Indonesia campaign was able to infuse environmental issues and Greenpeace campaign messaging into election discourse, during May to October 2014. By conducting a series of community, online and other media activities, we managed to catch the attention of the presidential candidates as well as gain public attention.

Traditionally issues under discussion during elections have revolved around politics, the economy and social issues. In the 2014 elections - influenced by our media coverage and extensive lobbying - environmental issues, (with Greenpeace as the lead environmental organisation), were at the forefront of public debate. Both presidential candidates subsequentially announced strong environmental protection commitments.

After the election, the 100% Indonesia campaign focused on positioning Greenpeace as an important stakeholder in environmental issues for the new Indonesia government. The Ministry of Forestry and Environment, the President’s Office, as well as parliament has been inviting Greenpeace expertise in the planning and the development of regulations and policies that are related to the environment.

Southeast Asia has an increasing role in global decisions and ambitious economic growth; we are also home to some of the worlds’ worst cases of environment destruction. We realize that our region is a dynamic, increasingly influential region where environmental protection is paramount. Greenpeace Southeast Asia plays a critical role in ensuring that enviromental issues can not be ignored and provides working solutions that can impact on the region.

In 2014, over and above the extensive work in Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, Greenpeace Southeast Asia seeded work in other countries in the region. Some positive outcomes included: