Bellona Foundation

Description

The Bellona Foundation is an international, science-based environmental organisation headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

It was founded in 1986 as a direct action protest group opposing pollution from Norway’s oil and gas industry, and has since grown into a technology- and solution-oriented organisation. It has offices in Oslo, Brussels, Berlin and Vilnius, and employs engineers, ecologists, physicists, chemists, economists, political scientists and journalists. In 2022 it ended its activities in Russia and moved staff to a new Vilnius office to help Ukraine with environmental problems caused by the invasion.

Bellona works to develop and promote practical solutions to climate change, pollution and environmental degradation, acting as a bridge between industry and decision-makers. It has observer status at the UNEP Governing Council, the UNFCCC and the IMO, and has attended UN climate negotiations since 1992. It has long promoted carbon capture and storage technology, and in the 1990s it exposed unsafe nuclear waste storage at a former Soviet naval base.

The foundation also owns Bellona Holding, which invests in green industry ventures including a seaweed and aquaculture company and a battery technology company. Bellona describes itself as an independent watchdog that investigates and reports environmental crime. It works with the public, politicians, businesses, media and other organisations, both in Norway and internationally.