Greenpeace’s Summer 2024 report charts a year of rising public pressure, major global wins, and escalating battles with Big Oil and plastic polluters, as activists push governments towards decisive environmental action.

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PLASTIC CRISIS: PUBLIC OUTRAGE DRIVES POLITICAL PRESSURE

This year’s Big Plastic Count saw 224,381 UK households tally their weekly waste, exposing a staggering 1.7 billion pieces of plastic discarded every week. Findings reached national headlines and spurred nearly 30 MPs to support a strong Global Plastics Treaty.
Children from 12 primary schools delivered the results directly to MPs in Westminster, underscoring the urgency for change.

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Despite public concern, 58% of UK plastic is still incinerated, producing more CO₂ per tonne than coal and disproportionately impacting low-income communities. Greenpeace says only cutting plastic production at source will fix the crisis.

DOVE & UNILEVER UNDER FIRE OVER TOXIC SACHETS

With the Global Plastics Treaty entering its final negotiation phase in South Korea, Greenpeace has launched a high-profile campaign urging the public to boycott Dove.
Despite its “Real Beauty” branding, Dove continues to flood countries—particularly Indonesia and India—with billions of non-recyclable plastic sachets, contributing to floods, toxic burn-pits and severe local pollution.

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Unilever’s CEO held talks with Greenpeace after 140,000 supporters demanded action, but the company has made no firm commitment to phase out sachets. Activists say Dove’s public image “glosses over a very dirty truth.”

OCEANS IN DANGER: THE SARGASSO SEA MISSION

A major focus of this edition is Greenpeace’s expedition aboard the Arctic Sunrise, gathering scientific evidence to secure protection for the Sargasso Sea, one of the world’s most unique ecosystems, home to baby turtles, eels, whales, sharks and rich sargassum forests.

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The UN’s historic Global Ocean Treaty—agreed in 2023—needs 60 governments to ratify it by June 2025. Few have done so. Greenpeace warns the Sargasso is threatened by:

Industrial long-line fishing

Plastic debris

Climate-driven changes

“Ghost gear” abandoned at sea

Scientists used environmental DNA, underwater microphones, and seabird tracking to document biodiversity and the impacts of destructive fishing, highlighting why the region must be among the first global ocean sanctuaries.

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SHELL LAWSUIT: ACTIVISTS REFUSE TO BE SILENCED

After Greenpeace occupied a Shell oil platform in 2023 to protest new North Sea drilling, Shell launched a sweeping lawsuit intended to intimidate activists.

Public backlash has been immense: 23,000 donors contributed nearly £1 million to Greenpeace’s legal defence. The organisation says Shell is trying to censor evidence of its role in decades of climate damage—a move the High Court has allowed Greenpeace to challenge.

The case has become a PR disaster for Shell, drawing celebrity support, mass signatures and millions of online views. Greenpeace vows to keep fighting: “Silence us? No chance.”

GLOBAL WINS: GAS FIELDS, PLASTIC BANS & FISHING TRANSPARENCY

The bulletin highlights several international victories:

Netherlands: Groningen Gas Field to Close

Europe’s largest gas field, linked to 170,000 damaged homes and health issues, will permanently shut down after years of activism.

Nigeria: Lagos Bans Single-Use Plastics

Home to 15 million people, the state imposed a major ban on single-use plastics and styrofoam, long blamed for flooding and wildlife deaths.

Senegal: Long-Opaque Fishing Sectors Exposed

The new government published its full fishing-vessel registry after a multi-year transparency campaign.

International Tribunal: Emissions Declared Marine Pollution

A landmark ruling classifies greenhouse gas emissions as marine pollution under the UN Law of the Sea.

CLIMATE VOTE MOVEMENT: 190,000 VOTERS MOBILISED

Ahead of the general election, Greenpeace supporters recruited 192,676 climate voters, knocked 42,564 doors, and started 15,795 community conversations, pressing all parties to commit to climate leadership.
Campaigners promoted the 6 Ws of Climate Leadership, covering warm homes, wind power, wildlife protection, workers, clean transport, and global ocean protection.

SCIENCE & FORENSICS: THE GREENPEACE LABS

Based at the University of Exeter, Greenpeace’s Science Unit documented:

Heat-related deaths linked to fossil fuel emissions during COP28

Noise pollution impacts from oil drilling and deep-sea mining

Microplastics in Alpine lakes

New eDNA findings from the Sargasso expedition

Their independent research continues to shape major global environmental negotiations.

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THE ARCTIC 30: A DECADE ON, A REMINDER OF PEOPLE POWER

The bulletin revisits the story of the Arctic 30, the activists arrested at gunpoint by Russian forces in 2013.
The BBC’s recent On Thin Ice – Putin vs Greenpeace retells how international pressure—from legal challenges to global protests and even Paul McCartney—forced Russia to release them.
Greenpeace says the case shows “nothing is stronger than people power,” especially as Big Oil attempts to silence environmental activism today.

CONCLUSION

The Summer 2024 bulletin paints a world at a crossroads: governments slow to act, corporations doubling down on pollution, and climate disasters escalating.
But it also shows a global movement growing faster, louder and more united than ever — from schoolchildren in Westminster to scientists in the mid-Atlantic and communities confronting plastics and fossil fuels worldwide.

Greenpeace’s message is blunt:
“Opportunity is everywhere. But only if we keep pushing.”