The Bellona Foundation is an independent, non profit, science based environmental organization, founded in 1986. Their main objective is to combat problems of environmental degradation, pollution-induced dangers to human health and the ecological impacts of economic development strategies.
They work towards international co-operation and legislation to protect nature and improve the environment, in support of the public's right to enjoy clean air, soil and water, and to guarantee the provision of correct information about threats against the environment.
Bellona strives to inform the public, and in particular lawmakers, opinion leaders and the media about environmental hazards, and helps draft policy responses to these problems.
Their aim is to present feasible solutions to the environmental challenges facing us. As an ideal objective they strive to find the solutions that constitute the least impact on human activity.
They believe in technological development and improvement. They believe that it is possible to solve the environmental challenges in a constructive and progressive way, and that the industries will be able to adapt to new challenges, providing they get proper long term and predictable framework conditions.
The Bellona Foundation has branches and offices in Norway (Oslo), Russia (St. Petersburg and Murmansk), USA (Washington DC) and in the EU (Brussels). The Foundation is also the initiator of the Environmental Rights Center in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Areas of Work:
Nuclear Issues, Fossil fuels, Russian human rights issues, Arctic, Climate Change, CCS, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Projects
Their current projects are: Sahara Forest Project, Ocean Forest, BEST, Smart City and R&Dialogue.
Sahara Forest Project
The Sahara Forest Project AS aims to create innovative environmental solutions to food, water and energy shortages in desert conditions. The company’s technologies are creating arable land in some of the world’s hottest places. The Bellona Foundation holds shares in the SFP.
Ocean Forest
The Ocean Forest Project is a partnership between the Bellona Foundation and the Lerøy group. It aims to develop and establish new forms of biomass production tied to aquaculture, while at the same time finding solutions to the environmental impacts of aquaculture industry such as fish farming. The company will cooperate with a wide specter of researchers and technology providers to reduce the costs of biomass production at sea, as well as to develop products for food, feed, energy and raw materials for industry and agriculture.
BEST
Bellona launched the Bellona Environmental CCS Team (BEST) in 2009 in order to continue its efforts to ensure the efficient and rapid deployment of environmentally sound CCS. It is a solutions-oriented partnership with leading European energy and a technology company which works to further strengthen political leadership to support the deployment of CCS. The team aims to accelerate the demonstration CCS and to contribute significantly to making CCS a commercially attractive technology.
Smart City
A Smart City wants to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In collaboration with Bellona and Siemens the cities develop concrete plans for how to use energy smarter, and raise awareness amongst the citizens related to energy efficiency. Currently, Bellona is collaborating with Norway’s three largest cities, Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo.
R&Dialogue
R&Dialogue focuses on the dialogue between research and civil society, including industry, NGOs and public authorities, when moving towards a low-carbon society. The project takes place in 10 different European countries and on the European level in Brussels. It gathers stakeholders from all sectors and technologies in order to address social, technological and economic aspects and learn from each other. R&Dialogue aims to develop both national action plans and a European vision for the way forward.
