Direct Actions

Yesterday, the World Energy Congress opened in Rome. Among the attendees was Italy's prime minister, and one of the main sponsors was ENEL, Italy's biggest energy company whose main shareholder is the government.

The World Energy Congress has a plan that lets global warming emissions keep increasing until 2030, and proposes an expansion of nuclear power. ENEL for its part plans to get around the inconvenient fact that nuclear power was voted out of Italy in a referendum 20 years ago by building a new reactor in nearby Slovakia instead of in Italy.

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Just a very short update from Kingsnorth:

The chimney crew are all down; they were arrested when they reached the bottom. The conveyor belt team were held overnight and most of them are still in police custody, although I've just heard that five of them have been released. We reckon the rest of the conveyor belt team will be released in the next few hours.

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Anyone with vertigo, look away now. This was taken a couple of hours ago, as climbers at the top of the chimney at Kingsnorth coal fired power plant finally went over the edge of the 200-odd metre high chimney. There's a knee-wobbling video of this moment on Moblog.

As I write, the climbers are still painting the side of the 200-odd metre high chimney. By first light, there'll be a message urging Gordon Brown not to give the green light to the first new coal fired power station to be built in the UK in over 30 years.

So far, two people - from the conveyor belt team - have been arrested, with the rest of the team likely to follow one by one (it's a slow business).

More updates to follow in the morning - in the meantime, here are a few of my favourite images from today:

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We've taken over Kingsnorth coal fired power station in Kent to send a message to Gordon Brown: don't bottle it on climate change by giving the green light to the first new coal plant in the UK for over 30 years.

Just after 5am this morning, 50 Greenpeace volunteers took over the plant. One group immobilised the huge conveyor belts carrying coal into the plant then chained themselves to the machinery. As I write, a second group is climbing a 200 metre ladder up the chimney, with supplies to hold it for several days and force it off the National Grid.

Why are we there?

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels; it just isn’t fit for purpose in the 21st century. No new coal fired power station has been built in the UK in over 30 years but now Gordon Brown may be giving the green light to a new coal rush.