Greenpeace holds a protest at the Philppines headquarters of the European energy company Alstom.
On the day of its annual general meeting in Paris, the French-UK
energy company Alstom faced international action from Greenpeace,
as activists in Manila protested against the multinational's
participation in climate changing coal-fired power stations in the
Philippines.
At Alstom's head office in the Philippines, activists wearing
business suits and snorkelling gear, unfurled a banner reading
"Alstom: Global Warming Contractor!" in French and English.
Protesters held placards showing the impacts of climate change,
including rising oceans, increased flooding, drought and coral
bleaching.
"Unless fossil-peddling corporations like Alstom stop dumping
dirty conventional technology on the South, and switch investments
to renewable energy, global warming will continue to threaten the
economies of developing countries," said Athena Ballesteros,
Greenpeace International climate campaigner in South East Asia. "It
is time for Alstom to meaningfully embrace viable sustainable
alternatives such as solar energy and wind power."
Alstom has provided the equipment for numerous coal plants in
the Philippines, including a notorious mercury-spewing 600-MW plant
of NAPOCOR in Calaca, Batangas; a 203-MW coal plant in Naga, Cebu
and the1200-MW behemoth of Sual, Pangasinan. Alstom is also a major
supplier of the highly controversial and corruption-tainted Three
Gorges Dam of China. With estimated gross earnings of about 23
billion Euros last year, Alstom is one of the major players in the
global energy market.
"The majority of Alstom's resources are used to produce
equipment to process fossil fuels, which are responsible for
climate change," said Laetitia Demarez of Greenpeace France. "Less
than one percent of Alstom's resources go to developing renewable
energy alternatives. This is shameful. Alstom will be held
accountable to the growing impacts of global warming across the
world."
Greenpeace also called on Alstom to withdraw from the proposed
50-MW coal plant at Pulupandan, in the Philippine province of
Negros Occidental. Despite the cancellation of the project's
environmental permit and the freeze of its investment registration
papers, Alstom continues to insist on joining the project. The
province of Negros Occidental has vast renewable energy resources.
Commercially viable wind power from one site alone in Negros
carries a 180-MW potential capacity.
"It is high time for Alstom to take the lead in climate
protection by channeling its investments towards renewable energy,"
said Red Constantino, energy campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast
Asia. "Clean energy's contribution to sustainable development is
indisputable. Alstom should play the role of renewable energy
leader in countries like the Philippines instead of pushing for
large-scale polluting power plants. We welcome renewable energy
investments but we reject the expansion of coal investments."
Greenpeace today announced that its ship MV Arctic Sunrise will
arrive in the Philippines on July 17, on the southern leg of the
Choose Positive Energy tour. The ship will visit the Philippines
and Thailand, where communities are rejecting the dirty energy
technology of coal fired power stations, and demanding clean
renewable energy fill the growing demand. The Greenpeace flagship,
the Rainbow Warrior, is presently campaigning in the North Sea
against nuclear and fossil fuel energy on the northern leg of the
Choose Positive Energy Tour.
The Choose Positive Energy Tour is part of Greenpeace's
countdown to the Johannesburg Earth Summit. Greenpeace is
campaigning for world leaders to make a decision at the Summit to
supply renewable energy to the 2 billion people who currently live
without electricity. Shifting massive subsidies from climate
changing fossil fuels and to environmentally friendly renewables
and ensuring that the social and environmental costs of fossil
fuels are reflected in their prices are essential to start the
renewables era protecting the climate. The Choose Positive Energy
tour will illustrate that renewable energy is ready and able to
replace