After five years of campaigning against the construction of the harmful coal power plant 'Plomin C', we achieved a big victory! The Minister of Economy, Tomislav Panenić, has stated that the realisation of this project has been canceled. We are sure that after convincing arguments against the construction and the circumstances that occurred, the Government had no other choice but to stop 'Plomin C'.
In the campaign we have been extensively indicating the harmful environmental and health consequences, low economic feasibility and the negative impact of this project in terms of climate change, as well as incompatibility with EU's regulations, constantly advocating for the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. We organized around 40 actions, performances, lectures and other events, made a few of studies about the legality, and the economical and energy efficiency of the project, we also initiated 3 court cases and 1 case was sent to DORH (the Croatian State’s Attorney Office), sent around 10 letters to potential investors and banks arguing the harmfulness of the project, organized a big campaign before the advisory (local) referendum in Labinština, communicated with the European Commission pointing out that the planned contract of HEP (Croatian Power Utility) with the Japanese investor is unacceptable... All of these activities, in conjunction with the increased European practice of abandoning coal, have made the current situation where the realization of the project 'Plomin C' is no longer possible. With this, Croatia is saved from a power plant that would run on imported coal, pollute the air for the next 40 years, while producing extremely expensive electric energy and contributing to climate change.
This project started 7 to 8 years ago and was promoted by the old HDZ (Christian Democrat or centre-right) government and later, with the same enthusiasm, by the 'Kukuriku' coalition government (centre-left), as well as some ministers in the current government (right-wing). With the discontinuation of 'Plomin C', a space for a big step forward in the energy sector has finally been created. It will now be necessary to ensure a good Energy Strategy and a Strategy for low-carbon development, which can't include new coal power plants, but must be based on energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.
We send a big 'thank you' to all the citizens that supported us in this big campaign. As a reminder, the idea of constructing this power plant was rejected last year in a referendum by 94% of Labinština's inhabitants, and according to a research conducted by IPSOS agency two years ago, 64% of Croatian citizens were against the 'Plomin C' project. We will continue to keep track of the process and try to ensure a good energy policy in Croatia, which won't allow projects like 'Plomin C'. If some unreasonable, incompetent or corrupt government official decides to restart this project, we will surely know how to respond and continue our campaign.
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