New Government, Fossil Solutions?
Today, March the 28th at 11 a.m. Green Action activists, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung held a protest action in front of the Croatian Government building on St. Marko’s Square to protest against the new block of the coal power-plant that is to be built in Plomin.
The activists dumped coal on St. Marko’s Square as a sign that it will bury Croatia and in that way make it impossible to make long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, which Croatia will be obligated to do as a member of the European Union. With the banner “New Government, Fossil Solutions” they asked the government whether it will side with old solutions, because more was expected from this government.
Green Action sent a letter to the Croatian Government on February 27th demanding to “make public the official position of the Croatian Government regarding the project of building a new block of the coal power-plant Plomin, especially regarding the choice of fuel and technology“. As the government has not responded even to this day, one month later, we have decided to do a protest action in which we demand that the government finally explain its official position.
In the Croatian Spatial Planning Program from 1999, in article 3, subsection 18, it states that “Until the year 2015 no thermal power-plant fuelled by coal, nor nuclear power, shall be built nor possibilities for it investigated in Croatia”. Hence, the construction of a new block of Plomin is contrary to the Spatial Plan.
The project is being introduced as “A reconstruction... with means to modernize and increase capacity”, which is an unacceptable misdirection of the public and an attempt to circumvent the conditions of the Spatial Plan.
“We expected a new vision of development from the new government, and not the revival of ancient fossil projects. The attempt to present Plomin C as a reconstruction of the existing plant, Plomin 1, gives us enough means to stop the project by juridical means”, said Toni Vidan, coordinator of Green Actions energy program.
We wish to believe that during the formal process of environmental impact assessment the construction of the power-plant will be abandoned.