Reports this week of a massive haze of pollution over Asia were
a timely reminder of the need for Thailand to break free from the
path of fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy, Greenpeace said
as its ship Arctic Sunrise, arrived in Bangkok today for the Choose
Positive Energy tour.
This week the United Nations Environment Program reported that a
massive cloud of pollution more than 3km deep was covering part of
Asia. The report said the brown haze was caused by dramatic
increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries
and power stations, emissions from millions of inefficient cookers,
as well as forest fires and the burning of agricultural waste. The
haze, which is disrupting the climate, damaging agriculture,
affecting monsoon rainfall and contributing to death rates from
respiratory illness, was expected to intensify as Asia's population
increases.
"As world leaders prepare to meet in Johannesburg later this
month for the Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, this is a
clear reminder that energy is both a development issue and an
environmental issue," said Penrapee Noparumpa Greenpeace Southeast
Asia climate campaigner, speaking in Bangkok. "This is why
Greenpeace's Choose Positive Energy tour has come to Thailand to
support local people's struggle against coal-fired power plants and
their demand for clean electricity from renewables."
"Like other developing nations, Thailand has a fast growing
demand for electricity, but proposals to meet this demand with
greenhouse-polluting fossil fuels such as coal are only going to
worsen the problems of climate change."
Greenpeace opened the Thai leg of the Choose Positive Energy
today tour by calling on the Prime Minister, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra,
to revoke all approvals for two proposed coal fired power stations
in Bo Nok and Ban Krut in the Thai province of Prachuab Khiri Khan
(PKK). The plants, which have been postponed for two years, are
proposed by US company Edison, with Japanese and Hong Kong backers,
and would be fuelled by Australian coal.
"We want Prime Minister Shinawatra to put the final nail in the
coffin of the proposed PKK coal-fired power plants," said
Noparumpa. "It's not enough that they have been delayed. Thailand
must send a strong signal to northern governments and corporations
that South East Asia does not want old fashioned dirty technology
dumped here. This could be the dawn of the renewables era in
Thailand - a new sunrise through the haze."
The Choose Positive Energy tour promotes clean renewable energy,
such as wind and solar, and supports the people of South East Asia
who reject polluting negative energy, such as coal and nuclear
power. In the North Sea, the European leg of the Choose Positive
Energy tour has just ended, after documenting climate change
impacts on glaciers and promoting wind energy.
"Our tour will also highlight the fact that Thailand has clean
energy alternatives and that if harnessed could meet the country's
future energy supply in a sustainable way," said Noparumpa.
"Global warming will continue to threaten the economies of
developing countries for as long as northern countries dump their
dangerous old fashioned technology on us," said Noparumpa. "The
worst of these nations, Australia, the US and Japan are putting
pressure on the Thai government to be allowed to push their
climate-disrupting fossil fuels technology on us."
Greenpeace is campaigning for governments to make a commitment
at the Johannesburg Earth Summit, to provide clean and affordable
renewable energy to the two billion people around the world who
currently live without electricity.
Find the UNEP report at www.unep.org
VVPR info: Pictures will be available on request from John Novis on +31 20524 9580