LNG Croatia is destroying the climate and our future

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Activists of the Zelena akcija/FoE Croatia and the Extinction Rebellion Zagreb held an action at the headquarters of LNG Croatia to point out the harmful effects of the further expansion of the Krk LNG terminal on and the construction of new gas pipelines. They covered the board with the name of the company with a large banner listing its sins.*

"This company and the Croatian Government are trying to portray the Krk terminal as a kind of savior in the current crisis, and gas as a fuel needed in the transition. But what they are really doing is condemning us to long-term dependence on fossil fuels, damage to our health and the climate, and above all, they are making money from pollution", said Marija Mileta from FoE Croatia.

Recently published scientific studies from the USA have revealed very worrying consequences of using gas in households. "Gas stoves, which many people have at home, can emit large amounts of benzene, a chemical linked to cancer, above, say, the level of second-hand smoking or even above the levels found near oil and gas plants", explained Mileta and added: "Apart from of that, gas stoves were found to be responsible for more than 12 percent of all cases of asthma in children in the US”.

Today's action is a continuation of the recently held Adriatic climate camp on Krk Island, during which a peaceful protest against the expansion of the capacity of the LNG terminal was organised, and in which more than a hundred activists and locals participated. On that occasion, part of the activists non-violently entered the area of the LNG terminal, to which the security guards of LNG Croatia reacted with violence, exceeding their authority. "Today we came to tell LNG Croatia that their violence and state repression of climate activists will not stop our fight against their harmful projects", said Sara Matić from Extinction Rebellion Zagreb, the initiative that organised the camp.

Despite the peaceful and non-violent protest without causing any damage and the unnecessarily rough and illegal behavior of the security guards, 26 activists were detained. This shows that the police and the government, i.e. HDZ (the political party in power), are not here to protect citizens, but the private interests of dirty companies.

"United in the climate movement in Croatia, Europe and the whole world, we will fight more and more loudly against the fossil fuel industry and the repression of the capitalist system and the state that protect its profits. We will advocate that resources and investments are directed towards local renewable energy and degrowth", Matić added.

What we need are healthy, renewable energy sources owned by local communities. "Instead of investing in dirty gas and companies like LNG Croatia, the government must provide us with access to the energy of the future, such as solar, and not the past."They must take climate change seriously, the severe consequences of which we witnessed this summer, while we still have time to make a change", Mileta concluded.

The action was held on the occasion of today's Global Day of Action to end fossil fuels. More than 650 protests and actions in 54 countries will take place this weekend in solidarity with the climate march in New York on September 17 ahead of the UN summit on the Sustainable Development Goals.

*You have no future with us:

we make money from pollution
we are violating the rights of protesters
HDZ protects us
and the gas poisons your families