Mobilization for Climate Justice

Posts Tagged ‘europe’

Mark Tran and David Adam of the the Guardian/UK report that direct action stopped the planned new Kingsnorth coal plant in England.

Environmental campaigners were celebrating tonight after controversial plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent were shelved, as the company behind the scheme postponed the project and blamed the recession.

E.ON, the energy group, tonight effectively threw in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, blaming the recession.
In a heavy blow to the government’s plans to promote energy from coal, E.ON said lower demands for electricity due to the recession had pushed the need for the new plant in the UK to around 2016.

The company said, however, that it remained committed to the development of cleaner coal and carbon capture and storage “which we believe have a key role to play alongside renewables, gas and nuclear in tackling the global threat of climate change while ensuring affordability and security of energy supplies”.

While the company described the decision as a postponement, the announcement effectively scuppers the whole project, green groups said.

Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest.

full article here
and here

Shortly after G20 protesters were attacked by police at the University of Pittsburgh, on September 26 about 1,500 people took direct action to shut down one of Copenhagen’s coal fire power plants. The SHUT IT DOWN action plan had been openly announced several months earlier and Danish police had been gearing up for massive use of force to trial new anti-protest laws. Around 100 protesters managed to get inside the power plant. Although at that point the plant should have been shut down due to safety regulations, it was kept running.

Around 100 people have been arrested. One person so far has been charged. The action was widely and positively covered in Danish news. The protesters regard this act of mass civil disobience for climate justice an encouraging success and a positive trial run for the actions surrounding the COP 15 climate conference in December in Copenhagen (On Dec 16, RECLAIM POWER!).

Action pics:
http://modkraft.dk/spip.php?article11552

For google-translated movement and mainstream news about Shut-It-Down:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmodkraft.dk%2F

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F 2Fpolitiken.dk%2Findland%2Farticle797115.ece

For the original Danish versions go to:

http://modkraft.dk/

http://politiken.dk/indland/article797115.ece

Rising Tide North America has released a U.S. version of the “Deal or No Deal” newspaper – a witty and incisive primer about the UN climate process that emerged from the UK Climate camps.  It includes information on the COP meetings, and some insights and suggestions about how we can relate to the December COP15 meetings happening in Copenhagen.

RTNA will be distributing these papers across North America and at upcoming mobilizations.  For more information, visit

DOWNLOAD “Deal or No Deal” COP15 Primer – (US Version)

[caption id=”" align=”alignright” width=”300″ caption=”Participants from the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Protest Belgium for their recent planting of a genetically engineered test plot.