{"id":68360,"date":"2024-07-18T11:43:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T09:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=68360"},"modified":"2024-07-18T12:19:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T10:19:43","slug":"investing-in-new-gas-infrastructure-is-like-stepping-on-the-accelerator-of-a-car-heading-for-a-cliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/68360\/investing-in-new-gas-infrastructure-is-like-stepping-on-the-accelerator-of-a-car-heading-for-a-cliff\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in new gas infrastructure is like stepping on the accelerator of a car heading for a cliff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What we need to do is pull the handbrake. As newly (re-)elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) hold their first plenary session from 16 July, Greenpeace is urging them to consider a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n

The shift to the right in Europe is a threat to the urgent action we need to stop the climate crisis from spiralling out of control. The results of the European elections should not overshadow the crucial fact that Europeans rank climate and the environment as the second most important issue<\/a> for the EU to tackle after security and defense. As the number of far-right MEPs in the EU Parliament has risen, democratic parties across Europe must now come closer together and respond to people\u2019s expectations by doing what is necessary to stop the climate crisis from escalating further.<\/p>\n\n

\"Protest
Greenpeace activists protest in front of the Lower Saxony state parliament in Hanover against planned gas drilling near the North Sea island of Borkum where the Dutch company One-Dyas wants to develop a gas field in the immediate vicinity of the UNESCO World Heritage.
\u00a9 Insa Hagemann \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The science is clear \u2013 we need to stop digging and drilling for fossil fuels if we are to avoid the worst of climate chaos. Expanding and building new fossil gas infrastructure would be a complete disaster, yet that is exactly what fossil fuel companies are trying to do all across Europe. Europe\u2019s politicians must say no.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s time for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure projects<\/h2>\n\n

As extreme weather events increase across the world, leading climate scientists are afraid that global heating will break the 1.5\u00b0C threshold governments agree to limit it to, and foresee \u201ca semi-dystopian future\u201d<\/a>. June 2024 was the hottest June on record, which makes it the 13th consecutive month for which the global average temperature reached a record. All around the world, communities, their livelihoods and the nature we rely on are being devastated by floods and droughts, fires and storms. And Europe is not spared. Recent events include floods in Poland, hailstorms in Spain, extensive flooding and landslides in Switzerland and northern Italy\u2026<\/p>\n\n

\"Protest
Greenpeace activists in Vienna protest against the drilling activities of the OMV project in the Neptune Deep in the Black Sea.
\u00a9 Mitja Kobal \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

People\u2019s safety is at risk, and yet fossil fuel companies are spending billions<\/a> on new fossil fuel infrastructure, much of it supported by taxpayers\u2019 money too. They are planning new liquefied gas terminals, pipelines, gas power plants and even new drilling projects, when governments should be massively expanding renewables and improving energy efficiency.<\/p>\n\n

In Europe alone, fossil fuel companies are currently pushing for infrastructure projects that would increase the EU\u2019s capacity to import liquefied gas by 136%<\/a>! According to Global Energy Monitor, the potential emissions associated with the planned liquefied gas terminals could be almost 950 million tonnes of CO2<\/sub> per year: as much as the total climate pollution of Germany and the Netherlands<\/a> combined in 2022. Overall in 2022, a tiny 7.3%<\/a> of the investments of 12 of Europe\u2019s biggest fossil fuel companies went towards green energy. The remaining 92.7% funded fossil business as usual, and expansion of dirty projects.<\/p>\n\n

As Europe’s major fossil fuel companies continue to put their profits before people\u2019s safety, they are also facing public anger<\/h2>\n\n

People all across Europe are calling out their lies and holding them accountable for the climate disaster we’re facing. Recently, they have made their voices heard inside and outside the annual general meetings of major fossil fuel companies in Spain, Norway, England, France, Austria\u2026 It is clear that wherever the fossil fuel industry goes \u2013 whether a new drill site or a conference centre \u2013 there will be resistance.<\/p>\n\n

\"EU
Greenpeace activists join a protest march in occasion of the European Gas Conference in Vienna. Greenpeace is protesting against the fossil fuel industry\u2019s plans to \u201cfuture-proof gas\u201d in the face of climate disaster.
\u00a9 David Visnjic \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Because investing in new gas infrastructure is like stepping on the accelerator of a car heading for a cliff. What we need to do is pull the handbrake. The fossil fuel industry cannot be trusted with our future, it must be stopped in its endless greed for more and more fossil fuels, and be held to account for the destruction it has already caused. <\/p>\n\n

We need to break free from the fossil fuel industry. It is a matter of safety, and a matter of justice for present and future generations. It’s time for politicians to act. Let\u2019s start with the most basic decision possible: let\u2019s ban new fossil fuel infrastructure projects. Right now.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBan new fossil fuel projects\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The European Union and its member states must treat the climate and ecological emergency like the existential crisis it is.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Add your name\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What we need to do is pull the handbrake. As newly (re-)elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) hold their first plenary session from 16 July, Greenpeace is urging them to consider a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":68364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"Fossil Free Future","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"Oil","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[89,65],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-68360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-climate","tag-energy-revolution","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68360"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68362,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68360\/revisions\/68362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68360"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=68360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}