As Poznan continues, it's chimney climbing time

Posted by jamie — 2 December 2008 at 1:25pm - Comments

Greenpeace climbers make their way to the top of the Pątnów power coal fired power station chimney near Konin, western Poland.

Two climbers plan their ascent © Greenpeace/Rose

As the climate negotiations rumble on at Poznan in Poland, down the road at the coal power plant a group of Greenpeace climbers have scaled 150 metres up the chimney stack to hang 'Quit coal' banners, while another group has blocked the main entrance gate.

One of the climbers is Will, one of the Kingsnorth Six who were recently acquitted on charges arising from a similar action at (where else?) Kingsnorth power station in Kent - in fact, Will is providing the photos from the top of the chimney.

To get a flavour of what it's like at the top of a Polish power station in the middle of winter and the reasons for being there, here's a repost from our Climate Rescue blog (where you can follow all the latest developments from the action and the meeting in Poznan) from Gavin, one of the climbers:

I've stepped away from the UN climate talks and joined up with our climb team here in Poland to get a first-hand view of the biggest driver of climate change - coal. Fourteen of us climbed a smoke stack this morning at a massive coal power station 1.5 hours from Poznan, near the climate rescue station.

The sheer scale of the place is huge - trains bring coal in from the huge open mine next to the rescue station, and two of the five smoke stacks including the one we are on are burning it, belching a toxic stew of gases including the one posing the greatest threat to the planet - carbon dioxide.

The scale of this place mirrors the sheer scale of tackling climate change, especially in a place like Poland where more than 90 per cent of electricity comes from coal. But if anyone doubts that solutions to climate change are possible, then the 17 knot gusts of wind that are gently swaying the platform I am perched on should be enough evidence as to the power of wind. If only Poland would harness it.

At his opening speech at the UNFCCC negotiations yesterday Polish prime minister Donald Tusk played lip service to climate change, and recently committed some financial help for renewable energy. But this is far too little, and not the energy revolution we need to see. And meanwhile Mr. Tusk's government continues to undermine EU efforts to put a strong package of climate measures in place. If he succeeds, then Europe will fail, UN climate talks in Poznan could falter, and catastrophic climate change will loom closer. We will stay up here for the next days until we get some clarity that Poland and the world is serious about climate change.

Regards,
Gavin & the Greenpeace climb team

About Jamie

I'm a forests campaigner working mainly on Indonesia. My personal mumblings can be found @shrinkydinky.

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