Greenpeace Applies to Run Atlantic Frontier Oil Development

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

     17TH LICENSING ROUND FINAL DAY:
     
     GREENPEACE APPLIES TO RUN ATLANTIC FRONTIER OIL DEVELOPMENT 
    
     At a cost of stlg3,000 Greenpeace has applied for a license
to manage the       area covered in the Government's 17th round
of oil development.      
     "Our plan is to do what the Government should do and set
aside these       22,000 square miles instead of drilling for
oil", said Greenpeace       Deputy Executive Director Chris
Rose.  "Our aim is to set a precedent       where the Government
has failed to act".
     
     Greenpeace has pointed out that, whereas it is Government
policy to       limit fossil fuel, its energy policy is to
increase fossil fuel       development.
     
     The Greenpeace application requests that the organisation
be awarded       the blocks as operator and guardian of the
area.  Greenpeace will not       exploit the area for oil
because of the insanity of allowing new       fossil fuels to
contribute still further to human made climate change.       
Rather, the area will be thoroughly investigated to produce a
better       understanding of its marine life and ecosystem.
     
     Quoting the President of the Board of Trade's  (DTI) own
announcement       on the 17th round, Greenpeace states, "We
hope that, as outlined in       your official announcement, you
will judge our application `against       the background of the
continuing need for expeditions...and with due       regard to
environmental considerations'".
     
     Greenpeace is arguing that the world does not `need' these
further oil       expeditions and simply cannot afford them in
climate terms.      
     The EU has set a policy objective to keep global mean
temperature rise       below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-
industrial levels.  This temperature       was defined by the
United Nations Environmental Programme as `an upper       limit
beyond which the risks of grave damage to ecosystems and of    
  non-linear responses are expected to increase rapidly'.  This 
     effectively sets a carbon budget on the world.
     
     
     
     
     
     MORE/...
      ...Greenpeace applies to run Atlantic Frontier/2
     
     
     
     Taking the EU's 2 degree limit and assuming that, in the
best case       scenario, the climate is less sensitive to the
effects of CO2, the       total carbon budget can be calculated
as 585 billion tonnes of carbon.        This carbon budget
allows the world to burn only half the       `recoverable'
reserves (those already identified).  To meet safer eco      
limits, even less can be burnt.
     
     Speaking about the application, Chris Rose said, "Human
made climate       change has to be stopped and meeting eco
limits means placing a limit       on fossil fuels.  Opening
22,000 sq. miles of pristine ocean  for new       oil
development is hardly a limiting exercise - it's madness fuelled 
     by greed".
     
     Greenpeace has fulfilled all the requirements of the
application       including providing a workplan which details
an in-depth scientific       study of whale movement in the
area.
     
     The organisation has today written to the President of the
DTI Ian       Lang, outlining the justification and need for
taking a non       interventionist approach to the management of
the Atlantic Frontier.        The letter highlights the
importance of his decision in relation to       government
commitments to the climate convention.
     
     ends
     
     
     Notes to correspondents:
     
     1)  Copy of the letter to Ian Lang and the Greenpeace
application       available on request.
     
     2)  The licensing round also includes some area in the
North Sea and       the South West of Britain.
     
     3)  Map of the Atlantic Frontier licensing area available
on request.      
     4) Carbon cycle models indicate that to keep world average
temperature       rises below 1 degree Celsius over the next one
hundred years would       require no more than 225 billion
tonnes of carbon to be released into       the atmosphere - this
would allow stabilisation of carbon dioxide in       the
atmosphere at 330 ppm. Pre-industrial levels of CO2  were about 
     280 ppm and present concentrations are 360 ppm. This budget
for fossil       fuels assumes that their is no net contribution
to CO2  concentrations       from deforestation.
     
     
     For further information please contact the Greenpeace Press
Office on       0171-865 8255/6/7 or 0171-359 4837