04 April
2008 - International — In a rare case of
judicial farsightedness an Italian court
has thrown out injunctions against 12 of
our volunteers who took action against Italy's
most polluting coal power plant. The court
ruling even stated that the protest was
'justified due to the danger the coal plant
to the local area'.
In November 2007 we
paid a visit to the Brindisi Sud coal power
station, which belches out nearly 15 million
tons of global warming pollution every year,
to label it as the number one Italian cause
of climate change.
Local police responded
by slapping unique injunctions on our 12
volunteers declaring them "socialmente
pericolosi" (a danger to society) and
banning them from the local area for three
years. Normally only convicted criminals
or mafia associates are considered a "danger
to society". This was the first time
that Italian police have used such an injunction
for a peaceful demonstration.
Clearly the real danger
to society is massive coal plants releasing
millions of tonnes of global warming pollution
every year. In response hundreds of Italians
also declared themselves "banditi"
for the climate, posting their pictures
on our website in support of the volunteers.
When the injunctions
were contested in the Court of Lecce the
judge over turned the injunctions and stated:
"The demonstration had justifiable
and appreciable motivations in the high
environmental risk the power station poses
to the whole area ... the action has been
a reaction to the polluting threat of the
power station, which negates the nature
of the intrusion, which in another case
would be unacceptable".
With Italian state and
energy companies seeking to expand coal
power in Italy, this is clearly someone
who can see the huge danger of coal expansion.
He would do a much better job than the politicians
currently in charge of Italian energy policy,
like the Ministry for Economic Development,
Mr. Pierluigi Bersani.
The local community
of Brindisi are also taking a stand against
the polluting coal plant. The town council
has even proposed a motion to give the ex-bandits
honorary citizenship.
No climate for old coal
Globally plans for new coal plants have
been hitting the buffers. The most polluting
form of energy generation is finally coming
under more scrutiny. Only vested interests
are refusing to acknowledge that new coal
will blow any chance of meeting vital climate
targets. The plan for the first new coal
plant in the UK for decades has been delayed.
In the US, of the 151 coal-fired power plants
in the planning stages during 2007, 59 proposed
plants were either refused licenses by state
governments or quietly abandoned. In addition,
close to 50 coal plants are being contested
in the courts, and the remaining plants
will likely be challenged when they reach
the permitting stage.
We need an Energy Revolution,
not new coal. That means investment in clean
energy and enhanced energy efficiency measures.
Investing in renewable energy like wind
energy and solar power, or in combined heat
and power plants - which take the excess
heat created by electricity generation and
make it available for heating rather than
letting it dissipate into the atmosphere
- can deliver the CO2 savings we need.
Coal has no future if
we are to tackle climate change - coal's
massive carbon emissions are the real danger
to society.
