Feature story - December 15, 2006
Twenty Greenpeace volunteers yesterday climbed the 250-meter-high chimney of a power plant in Porto Tolle, Italy. They're protesting Italian energy company ENEL's plans to rely on coal for Italy's energy future. Several activists have now occupied the site for nearly 48 hours.
ENEL is the greatest CO2 emitter in Italy and is actually trying
to convert two of its biggest oil power plants to coal: one is
Porto Tolle, while the other is near Rome.
Update Climbers left thechimney on Saturday
16th December. Nearly 2000 "cyberactivists" joinedthem in virtual
protest at the plant, and Economy Minister PierluigiBersani agreed
to meet with Greenpeace. Bersani agreed to turn downENEL's request
for an increase in their carbon emissions cap. Ineffect, this
means the Porto Tolle plant will get no emission licenseand cannot
convert to coal. The agreed cap will, however, allow theconversion
of the second plant in Civitavecchia. We will continueefforts to
have that conversion overturned as well.
These projects will result in a CO2 emissions increase of about
21 metric tonnes; a backwards step for a country struggling to make
its commitment to carbon reduction under the Kyoto treaty.
We're demanding that the Government phases out any coal-fired
power station projects and starts supporting strong development for
renewables. Italy is far away from reaching a target of 25% green
energy by 2010.
More information from Greenpeace Italy
Check out the breaking news, video, and images from this ongoing occupation. (In Italian)