Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo 聽that he will step down from his post by the end of the year in order to return to South Africa, his home country.
“Part of my plan is to return to South Africa and lend my support to the growing struggle for a just energy future,鈥 Naidoo said in the statement. 聽
Naidoo, whom I profiled for the April issue, was recruited in 2009 to turn around what was then a struggling environmental advocacy organization. The group was perceived as being both too northern and stunt oriented. During his tenure, Kumi confronted both issues. He cooperated behind-the-scenes with corporations to realize change but also wasn鈥檛 afraid to resort to direct action campaigns when negotiations failed. To fix the organization鈥檚 鈥渘orthern,鈥 problem, he redirected people and funds away from traditional European environmental strongholds to the global East and South where, Naidoo says, the climate war will be won or lost.
This move initially created friction within the national branches of Greenpeace in the Netherlands and Germany. Last year, members of the Dutch national office asked Naidoo to reexamine his role following a minor scandal involving one of Greenpeace International鈥檚 top officials flying regularly between Luxembourg and Amsterdam on the company dime. Then, in December 2014, Greenpeace activists led by members of the German office entered a protected area near Peru鈥檚 Nazca Lines, sparking international outrage.听
Naidoo doesn鈥檛 have a new job lined up yet. 鈥淭here are various options and I don鈥檛 want to make any decisions now,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 very clear about is that I want to be in South Africa to help the country transition to clean renewable energy future.鈥
Last December, just after the Nazca fiasco, Naidoo鈥檚 Skype away message read: 鈥淎ll I want for Christmas is a New Year.鈥 It appears he鈥檚 now taking steps to ensure a change. I spoke with him yesterday, after the news of his resignation broke. He told me he came to the decision between late February and early March, and that it was primarily a function of being drawn to South Africa. He doesn鈥檛 have a new job lined up yet. 鈥淭here are various options and I don鈥檛 want to make any decisions now,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 very clear about is that I want to be in South Africa to help the country transition to clean renewable energy future.鈥澛
He also said Greenpeace鈥檚 board of directors didn鈥檛 push him out, and that the Nazca Lines stunt and its fallout had 鈥渁bsolutely nothing鈥 to do with the decision. I found this hard to believe, given the intense scrutiny Naidoo faced and his own deep anger over the event, which appeared to fly in the face of everything he stands for. Still, he was adamant. 鈥淲e鈥檝e faced lots of challenges and attacks,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hen the Arctic 30 happened鈥濃攁n event that saw members of Greenpeace 鈥斺渟ome said that was too risky. These are challenges that come up in a risk-taking organization.鈥
But what of Greenpeace, a 44-year-old organization going through a prolonged mid-life crisis? Yesterday, Kalee Kreider, a former advisor to Al Gore, tweeted, 鈥淚f past is prologue, GP will now reverse some of the changes,鈥 referring to the plan to focus on Asia, Africa, and South America. I asked Naidoo about that. Would the organization revert?
鈥淣o, no, no.鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat was the key question I was asking myself. People had to go through a process to get to this point. But when I could answer that there is absolute commitment to this without any part of the organization being hesitant, that was the key part of me feeling comfortable to make this decision. It is all on track and there won鈥檛 be a slippage.鈥 There will, however, be a new boss, and new bosses usually make their own changes.