{"id":58299,"date":"2023-02-07T07:04:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T18:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=58299"},"modified":"2024-07-12T11:42:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T23:42:32","slug":"shell-threatens-activists-greenpeace-sends-more-climbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/shell-threatens-activists-greenpeace-sends-more-climbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell threatens Greenpeace protestors with jail and fines: Greenpeace sends second boat and more climbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amsterdam, Netherlands \u2013 <\/strong>Shell has attempted to silence Greenpeace International\u2019s peaceful occupation of its oil and gas platform at sea, by hitting the campaign group with an injunction late on Friday, February 3, threatening up to two years\u2019 jail time and fines.[1] <\/p>\n\n

But today, Shell\u2019s heavy-handed legal tactics failed, as Greenpeace International successfully went ahead with plans to escalate its protest by adding two more climbers to occupy the company\u2019s oil and gas platform \u2013 using other boats unaffected by the court order. <\/p>\n

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Protestors are demanding that the company stops expanding oil and gas production around the world, takes responsibility for fuelling the climate crisis, and pays up for the climate destruction it is causing everywhere. <\/p>\n\n

At around 9am (CET) in the Channel, the Greenpeace France-chartered Merida trimaran and two small boats approached the White Marlin heavy-lift vessel, which is carrying Shell\u2019s 34,000 tonne oil and gas platform to the North Sea.<\/p>\n\n

Dramatic footage shows an escort vessel staying close to the activists. This boat is owned by Boskalis, the company Shell has contracted to transport the oil platform.<\/p>\n\n

Two Greenpeace International climbers, Pascal Havez from France, and Silja Zimmermann from Germany, used ropes to board the Shell-contracted ship from one of the small boats, owned by Greenpeace International.<\/p>\n\n

They joined four other activists \u2013 Carlos Marcelo Bariggi Amara, from Argentina; Yakup \u00c7etinkaya from Turkey; Imogen Michel from the United Kingdom; and Usnea Granger from the United States \u2013 who have been occupying the oil and gas platform since Tuesday, January 31.<\/p>\n\n

Three other ally activists \u2013 Nonhle Mbuthuma from South Africa; Hussein Ali Ghandour, from Lebanon; and Noa Helffer, from Italy \u2013 joined the protest from the Merida, bearing witness and brandishing banners with the message: Stop Drilling. Start Paying. <\/p>\n\n

It comes after Shell announced record profits of $39.9bn on Thursday, February 2. <\/p>\n\n

Hussein Ali Ghandour, from Lebanon, speaking on board the Merida, said<\/strong>: \u201cI come from the driest region of the world that is warming twice as fast as the global average. Across the Middle East and North Africa, droughts, raging forest fires, flash floods and other climate disasters are now part of our daily realities, aggravating our social and economic woes.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt is big polluters like Shell that bear the historic responsibilities for this loss and damage. The climate justice clock is ticking and polluters must stop developing new fossil fuel projects and pay for the decades of devastation they have caused around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Climber Silja Zimmermann said:<\/strong> \u201cWe will not let Shell silence us. The world needs to hear about Shell\u2019s ongoing plans to further heat up the planet, increasing climate devastation without paying a cent towards rebuilding the carnage we\u2019re seeing. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cAnd we have bad news for Shell: people everywhere are rising up in resistance, because we no longer accept reliance on fossil fuel companies that are making our lives worse.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living with increasingly sweltering summers, a lack of rain is destroying forests and affecting farmers and with expensive energy bills it\u2019s getting harder and harder to put food on the table. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhole workforces and entire communities are exposed to the boom and bust of volatile oil and gas markets. And in Germany, floods in 2021 killed 180 people, with reconstruction costs of \u20ac30bn. Enough is enough. Shell must stop drilling, and start paying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Noa Helffer, from Italy, speaking on board the Merida, said<\/strong>: \u201cWe know the climate crisis is hitting hardest in countries that are the least to blame; and in Europe we stand in solidarity. \u201cGrowing up in Italy, we saw waist-high flooding sometimes, and conversely there\u2019s been times where it didn\u2019t rain for months, and farmers were left with only dried leaves.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cShell\u2019s profits are our loss. It\u2019s time to make polluters pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Late Friday evening, Shell delivered a court order granted \u201cex parte\u201d, meaning Greenpeace was not given advanced notice, nor a chance to offer a defence. This undermines the fairness of the legal process. <\/p>\n\n

The injunction stipulates:<\/p>\n\n