++ Ende Gelände ends a successful week of action ++ Major gas consumers and liquefied natural gas terminal construction site blocked ++ Port of Hamburg paralyzed for nine hours++
Ende Gelände has enden its week of action for climate justice and against the expansion of fossil infrastructure. From the 9th to the 14th of August 2022, with actions of civil disobedience the alliance for climate justice has drawn attention to the connection between climate crisis and colonial economic structures.
On Thursday, a group of climate activists already blocked the access gate of the artificial fertilizer manufacturer Yara in Brunsbüttel, Schleswig-Holstein, one of the major gas consumers in Germany. On Friday, Ende Gelände followed suit and occupied the construction site for the planned liquefied natural gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony. The action week culminated in blockades in Hamburg on Saturday. About 2000 activists blocked central rail and road connections in the port of Hamburg, an important transhipment point for oil and coal.
Luka Scott, spokesperson for Ende Gelände, said: “This week we have shown that the climate justice movement is full of power. Anyone who still invests in fossil infrastructure in 2022 will have to reckon with our resistance. We stand closely together against fossil capitalism and colonial exploitation. With us, there will be no fossil rollback.”
The German Government has decided to build twelve liquefied natural gas terminals and have them operated by energy companies until 2043. Fossil gas accelerates global warming more than CO2 due to its methane content. It has also been decided to restart coal-fired power plants that have already been shut down. The Government justifies this with the necessity to become independent from Russian gas.
Charly Dietz, also a spokesperson for Ende Gelände: “The construction of new gas infrastructure is a gift to the fossil fuel industry. The big energy companies are crisis profiteers. They have multiplied their profits, while in the coming winter many people will not know how to pay their electricity and gas bills. We are not in an energy crisis, but in a capitalist distribution crisis. Subsidizing the gas industry now with billions instead of protecting consumers from energy poverty is a scandal and audacity to all who fight for climate justice.”
International activists from the Global South also participated in the action. According to the Climate Justice Alliance, the blockades in the port of Hamburg were intended to draw attention to the connection between the fossil fuel industry in Germany and colonial exploitation in the Global South. With its large camps and mass actions of civil disobedience, Ende Gelände has become a formative actor in the discussions and actions on coal and gas phase-out, climate crisis and climate justice.
