Friday October 30th
With our ship the Rainbow Warrior, Spanish activists boarded a coal ship on its way to the coal fired power plant in Alcudia (Mallorca) and demanded their President Zapatero show climate leadership at the EU Summit still ongoing in Brussels.
And an update from activists involved in ongoing coal blockade in Poland:
Journalists with us at the blockade are focusing now on the EU Summit in Brussels and the fact that Poland is threatening the agreement with its potential veto against financial decisions - most importantly the financing for poorer nations to adapt to climate change. We expect a very cold night but activists are OK and ready to spend second night at the blockade.
And it seems the Wall Street Journal is also covering the Unofficial International Week of Quit Coal, already! with a post called 'Clean Coal: The Future's Not So Bright'
"Some of the countries with the highest hopes for carbon capture and clean coal are starting to freak out at the yawning gap between what’s needed to make it happen and what’s actually being done."
'Freak out' - then wake up and follow the advice of the activists still blocking coal shipments in Poland: Coal is the past. Climate solidarity is the future.
Thursday October 29th - Start of entry
Okay - there is no such thing as the International Week of 'Quit Coal, already!'. But, if it did exist it would have been this week - with the actions in Spain, Poland and Sweden all demanding an end to coal in the interests of the climate I think we could at least christen the week of October 26 - November 1 2009 the Unofficial International Week of Quit Coal, Already! (Or: UIWQCA - catchy, I know.)
The EU Summit, on the other hand, does exist and is happening this week, where one of the most prominent issues on the agenda will be an agreement on how much money the EU will give to developing nations to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change. Perhaps expectations for this EU Summit can best be summed up by this headline: 'EU limps towards difficult summit'.
In contrast, our activists are making their expectations clear:
In Sweden 30 activists and 18 tonnes of coal spent Wednesday at the Swedish Prime Minister's office - telling him that he cannot be a climate leader while he allows Sweden's state-owned energy company to invest in coal power.
In eastern Poland 7 activists are still blocking a coal terminal - therefore stopping all coal (mostly from Russia) shipments from being offloaded. They plan to block these shipments of dirty coal until the end of the EU Summit in order to tell their PM Donald Tusk and all EU leaders meeting this week at the Summit that 'coal is the past, it is time for climate solidarity'.
Climate solidarity means quitting coal, cutting emissions - and putting down enough money to help poorer nations adapt to climate change. Climate solidarity does not mean putting down a token amount of financing for poorer nations and then continuing to use dirty - and emission heavy - sources of energy like coal.
Despite the cold and the wind the activists blocking coal shipments in Poland are feeling good and intend to stay it out! You can expect more updates from the (Unofficial) International Week of Quit Coal, already! here - the week of saying no to coal isn't over yet ...
In the meantime - you can add your message and your demands to those of our activists. The UN Climate Summit is now less than 40 days away. Everyone on the planet should be represented there, but obviously we all won't be there personally - instead you can send yourself there via a virtual package - an Action Pact. This Pact includes a message from you - to our leaders.
Our activists have sent theirs. Send yours today.
