Coal is the worst polluting of all fossil fuels, and the single
greatest threat facing the climate. Coal-fired power stations
undermine European targets to cut emissions by 30% by 2020. Energy
company E.ON plans to build eight new coal fired power plants
across Europe. The Rotterdam plant is intended to be the first,
despite the fact it has not yet been granted the necessary permits
(1).
"E.ON is blindly ignoring the science that clearly tells us coal
is the biggest danger to our climate." said Agnes de Rooij,
Greenpeace International Climate and Energy campaigner. "Today's
action took the message that this is unacceptable, directly to
them."
Prior to today's peaceful occupation, the activists set up a
camp to bear witness to the unfolding climate disaster at the
Rotterdam construction site. Today's action is part of a European
wide campaign against E.ON, in the past month alone recent protests
include:
A nine boat flotilla let by the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow
Warrior sailing into the site of the Kingsnorth coal fired power
plant in the UK. [2]
A peaceful occupation of the site of a proposed coal fired plant
in Antwerp, Belgium[3]
Halting loading to an E.ON owned coal plant in Sardinia, Italy
[4]
In September, a British Crown Court jury acquitted six
Greenpeace activists on charges of criminal damage after they
scaled the chimney of E.ONs coal plant in Kingsnorth, Kent [5]. The
jury decided that shutting down the coal plant was justified in the
context of the damage to property caused around the world by CO2
emissions from Kingsnorth. NASA's top climate scientist, James
Hansen, spoke in their defence and former Vice-President of the
United States Al Gore has urged civil disobedience to stop the
construction of new coal fired power plants [6].
The actions in Rotterdam are part of Greenpeace's global Quit
Coal Campaign. The Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, is engaged
in a ten-month "Quit Coal" expedition, which started in March in
New Zealand and is currently in Europe. Further a Climate Rescue
Station has been established on the edge of a vast coal mine in
Poland, in the run-up to crucial UN climate negotiations in Poznan,
Poland, this December.
Greenpeace welcomes the ruling of the US Environmental
Protection Agency's Board of Appeals that new coal fired power
plant must include the best available technology to restrict CO2
emissions: creating a legal limbo which is in effect a moratorium
on new coal power in the United States. [7]
Quitting coal is essential to a meaningful deal to save the
climate. European governments must show leadership by phasing-out
coal in their own countries. Greenpeace's Energy [R]evolution shows
how renewable energy, combined with greater energy efficiency, can
cut global CO2 emissions by 50% and deliver half the world's energy
needs by 2050 [8].
VVPR info: Agnes de Rooij, Greenpeace International Climate and Energy Campaigner, +31 6 41 45 66 74 Andre van der Vlugt, Press officer Greenpeace Netherlands +31 6-25031015 Meike Baretta, Campaign Leader Climate and Energy Greenpeace Netherlands +31 6-52062972 Greenpeace International Photo desk, +1 206 300 6511, picture.desk.int@greenpeace.org Greenpeace International Video desk, +31 646197322, Greenpeace International press desk +31 20 718 2470
Notes: Notes [1] See http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/coal-the-eu-and-eon [2] See http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/greenpeace-armada-descending-kingsnorth-power-station-20081029 [3] See http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/greenpeace-uses-4000-windmills [4] See www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/energy-revolution-sardinia-20102008 [5] See http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/kingsnorth-trial-verdict100908 [6] See http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE48N78A20080924 [7] See http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=78902.0 [8] See http://www.greenpeace.org/energyrevolution