Choose Positive Energy action at Sual coal power station
Action in the Philippines!
Five activists were arrested and a warning shot fired, during a peaceful action at the Philippines' biggest coal-fired power station, in the province of Pangasinan.
The Sual power plant was built with funding from the UK, France and the US, and runs on coal from China, Indonesia and Australia. It was listed as one of the five most problematic power stations in the country last week, by the Philippine Government.
Five activists from the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise climbed the crane at the Sual dock, where a shipment of coal was being unloaded, and hung a banner reading 'Clean Energy Now'. The shot was fired as activists tried to paint on the ship unloading coal and no one was hurt.
Why is the West pushing its deadly mistakes on Southern nations?
This follows last week's protest in the Philippines against the proposal announced by European union Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio, that the Johannesburg Earth Summit be used to push polluting coal and nuclear projects on the developing world.
Traditional Filipino papier mache harvest giants, originally used by labourers at harvest celebrations to mock their Spanish overseers, rallied at Manila Harbour - to mock neo-colonial Western governments, who dump dirty energy on poor countries under the guise of 'development aid'.
The world's governments are supposed to be discussing sustainable development when they meet in Johannesburg on 26th August. They know that the demand for electricity in developing countries is growing. But they also know that the European nuclear industry is on its knees, crippled by spiralling costs and a growing radioactive waste mountain, and that burning coal contributes to global warming.
So why is the European Commission obscenely pushing its deadly mistakes on the developing world in this way? Do they not know that affordable, modern, legitimate renewable energy solutions are readily available?
And why is the UK government complicit in this energy colonialism?
All over the world, governments have allowed themselves to be bought out by corporations. And Labour is no exception.
Tony Blair claims to be in the vanguard of efforts to tackle climate change. And yet his administration funds enough dirty coal plants in the developing world to cancel out half of the UK's emissions reductions under the Kyoto protocol. The UK/French corporation Alstom is planning to fund coal-fired power stations in the Philippines, and to gain massive profits.
Coal-fired power plants are built by British companies, and underwritten by Whitehall's Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD). They are responsible for an annual 13.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions, since Labour's stewardship of the ECGD began in 1997. And the ECGD has not funded one single renewable energy project.
Further details on ECGD dirty dealings are contained in a new Greenpeace report: Exporting Pollution: double standards in UK Energy exports.
Persuade Tony Blair to Choose Positive Energy!
Greenpeace and The Body Shop have teamed up to challenge world leaders to deliver safe, clean, renewable energy to the world's two billion people who live without modern energy sources. We are demanding they commit to this at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. Our demands are realistic - the technology, resources and markets are already there - the political will is not.
The Greenpeace ship, The Arctic Sunrise has begun a tour of South East Asia, to support the people who want to reject polluting negative coal and nuclear energy.
