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On November 27, Greenpeace activists climbed a 180 metre-high chimney at Belchatow, the largest climate polluter in Europe and one of the largest coal fuelled power plants in the world, to demand climate action and a coal phase out.

Greenpeace said political leaders meeting next week at the UN climate talks (COP24) in Katowice, Poland, must take responsibility and address the global climate crisis and take urgent, immediate action.

Discussions at COP24 will take place in the wake of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC), which in October made it clear that we only have 12 years left to act decisively on climate change if we’re to stay within the 1.5 degrees Celsius target.

Greenpeace activist from Poland Marek Józefiak said:

“We are pushing nature to the brink and now she’s pushing back. A climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes, and political leaders who have the power to change the course of events must lead us towards a solution.

I am from a mining family, we have been connected to coal mining for generations. There is no future in coal. What we need is a just transition from coal and fossil fuels to renewables. A just transition that respects people and the environment, guaranteeing a better future for all. If it wants to be a responsible COP24 host, Poland must move beyond coal, stop promoting false solutions and drive ambition at Katowice. ”

Representatives of climate vulnerable nations – the Philippines and Indonesia – joined Greenpeace activists in Belchatow to remind political leaders of the real effects of climate change: people losing their lives, their homes, their relatives, not being able to care for their families and not having access to food and water.

Climate activist Joanna Sustento said:

“Climate change is not about statistics and numbers in a news report. Before typhoon Haiyan, I had a happy life, a good job, a loving family. It was all swept away in a few minutes and I am the only one left behind with my brother. But even in the biggest of tragedies, hope can be found, and we are now millions across the world standing up to fight for basic human rights to a stable and healthy climate.”

From Germany to Vanuatu, from the Netherlands to the US, Canada and Peru, people are mobilising worldwide, protesting against lack of adequate climate action. It is now up to governments to stop promoting false solutions and financing polluting utilities, they must move beyond coal and fossil fuels and drive climate ambition at Katowice.

Source: Greenpeace International