Newswire Editor’s Note: This action actually took place on 13 May, our busy-bodies just slacked on posting it. Props to GroenFront!]
‘Team Coal Busters’ kicks off Amsterdam Climate Games with occupation of coal plant conveyor belt Early this morning, a group of activists have occupied a conveyer belt of the Nuon/Vattenfall-owned coal fired power plant in the port of Amsterdam, also dropping a banner that said ‘STOP COAL’ from the 15-meter high structure.
The group, which calls itself ‘Team Coal Busters’, declared their opposition to the large scale use and import of coal in the harbor of Amsterdam. Raymond Stantz, spokesperson for the Coal Busters: “Coal fired power plants are the biggest source of man made CO2 emissions. This makes coal energy the single greatest threat facing our climate. If we want a liveable climate, there is simply no room for heavily polluting coal fired power stations like this one owned by Nuon/Vattenfall. The large scale transshipment of coal that we have here in Amsterdam also has to end as soon as possible.”
After Rotterdam, the harbor of Amsterdam is the biggest coal importer of Europe. Per year, over 18.5 million tons of coal are shipped in from Colombia, Russia, the U.S. and South Africa, for combustion in the Netherlands but mainly destined for further distribution by rail and river transport to German coal fired power stations.
Today’s protest was the first action during the preliminary round of the ‘Climate Games’, a large scale decentralised direct action game that targets fossil fuel and industrial agricultural infrastructure in the port of Amsterdam. The Climate Games are being organised for the second time by GroenFront!, the Dutch branch of EarthFirst!. Last year over 100 people, divided into over fifteen teams, took part in the action. This year, hundreds of people are again expected to descend on the city, to both take part in the Climate Games on July 4th as well as the ‘Ground Control Agriculture and Climate Action Camp‘ that will take place between July 1st and July 8th.