Vincent De Brouwer is taking over as director of Greenpeace Belgium after Michel Genet who resigned last year. De Brouwer, 56, is a civil engineer and wants among others to address the causes of environmental problems rather than the symptoms.
He started his professional career in the NGO-sector before joining the banking sector. Today, he decided to take up the challenge of the environment. "It’s a crucial problem that we don’t attach enough importance to," said the new director of Greenpeace Belgium in an interview to the news agency Belga.
Vincent De Brouwer says that he will work in line with what is done internationally by Greenpeace. “I think we can say that, in the last 30 or 40 years, Greenpeace has won some battles, but the fight for a better environment is not yet won, even if it seems that the governments are finally taking up the challenge.” He is referring to the climate change conference (COP21) in Paris last December.
He thinks that not enough is done to address the root cause in the fight for a better environment. "One of the main causes is corporate power at the expense of democracy. Today, democracy is increasingly replaced by corporate interests. We must reflect on how reverse the direction.” He proposes to support initiatives such as cooperatives. "We need to do more in this regard. Politics needs to be shaken up."
The Brussels Times
