Today Green Action (Friends of the Earth Croatia) activists performed a protest performance entitled „Climate Chaos“, in Zagreb. The performance was part of the world-wide Day of Action against coal, organized in over 50 countries. This performance illustrated future, but also current, impacts of climate change in Croatia, and the rest of the world.
Green Action demands that the Croatian Government stops investments into ancient technologies, which are based on fossil fuels. Further use of coal as a source of energy will accelerate and amplify the effects of climate change. Specifically, we demand that the Croatian Government stop the TPP project „Plomin C“, and withhold support for the construction of the coal TPP “Ploce”. Besides being economically absurd and unfeasible, these projects would have a huge negative impact on the local population's health, and would contribute to global climate change.
World governments have agreed that it is necessary to stop the global temperature rise at 2ºC, so as to diminish the effects of climate change on agriculture, fishing and tourism. If we are to succeed in this, even according to World Bank reports, 80% of current fossil fuel reserves must stay under ground. The Croatian Government must become aware of the effects of climate change on its own development, and create a more proactive and progressive local and international climate policy. A strong transformation of energy use, food production, and natural resource consumption, is needed to allow the transition into a low-carbon society.
Scientists in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have confirmed earlier this year, with absolute certainty, that humanity's use of dirty and unsustainable energy policies has caused climate change. This is evident even today, while the effects can be felt even in Croatia. Extreme weather, such as draught, heat waves, or floods, are no longer rare, but are becoming increasingly more frequent. The poorest are hit the hardest by such weather, and it affects all aspects of society, from the economy to food and water. Because of this, Croatia has suffered its worst agricultural damage in 2012, due to the worst draughts in 50 years. This confirms the projections of impacts on the Western Balkans and the Mediterannean.
Temperatures have breached previous records in the period between April and October this year. Each of these six months was, globally, the warmest since records exist, which was confirmed by NASA. Increasingly frequent floods take their toll in human lives, which was sadly the case this year in Croatia, and in neighboring countries. There was also significant economic damage, estimated around 400 million Croatian Kuna (around 52,5 million Euro), while the estimated agricultural damage was around 100 million Croatian Kuna (around 13 million Euro).
Therefore, Green Action demands that the Croatian Government gives up on coal use, which is undeniably leading us into climate chaos, and opts for a low-carbon way of development!
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