Reject the Gala-Obrovac Sinjski solar power plant project!

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Zelena akcija/FoE Croatia organised an action today in front of the Ministry building in Zagreb. They held banners with the inscriptions: “Reject the environmental study” and “Stop fueling genocide with our nature”. “We fully support the local community of Cetinska Krajina, which opposes this project due to its impact on drinking water, forest, biodiversity, and we demand its halt. We do not understand how such a project was even considered”, said Bernard Ivčić from FoE Croatia.

FoE Croatia advocates for renewable energy sources, but it is very important who implements them and how. "The solution is not for a large corporation to level 252 hectares of untouched nature with excavators, but for degraded and already anthropogenic areas to be used. It is also important to encourage small producers, not one large one", Ivčić said.

The project is planned in a hydrologically sensitive karst area, within the II. zone of sanitary protection of the source, only 1.5 km above the Kosinac water pumping station, which supplies drinking water to the population of the Cetinska krajina region. Strict regulations apply in this zone - felling of forests and removal of the soil cover are prohibited. “However, the project envisages the removal of a large area of ​​forest and undergrowth, which will result in the loss of the natural filtration function of the forest soil and vegetation. This significantly increases the risk of contamination of the water supply system”, Ivčić emphasised.

Furthermore, the project area is surrounded on the north, west and east sides by the borders of the Dinara Nature Park, and in places the distance is only about a hundred meters. The environmental impact study lacks a serious analysis of the project's effects on this area, although it is legally protected. According to expert opinions, the project area should have been included in the Park's scope, but the Ministry neglected this when determining its borders.

"We wonder how this very area, where the project is planned, was left out of the Park's scope. To make things even more absurd, in order to connect the solar power plant to the grid, it is necessary to build a transmission line that is not even included in the county and local spatial plan", Ivčić commented. He added that the transmission line would pass in almost its entirety through the Dinara Nature Park and the Natura 2000 and Ecological Network areas, while the impact of its construction on these places has not been analysed.

Direct impact on nature isn’t the only factor in this story. The investor, a domestic company Aureus Solis, is actually a subsidiary of the problematic Israeli corporation Enlight Renewable Energy, whose solar and wind power plants are located in the occupied Golan Heights, the occupied Negev, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Envelope. "Among others, it has implemented the largest Israeli renewable energy project, Wind of Genesis, in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. In Croatia, it already operates the Lukovac wind farm in Split-Dalmatia County", explained Marija Mileta from FoE Croatia.

According to numerous evidence, Enlight is responsible for the exploitation of natural resources and production in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, providing electricity through renewable sources to illegal Israeli settlements and the production of such settlements because illegal settlers come to these areas due to a new source of energy. "This company also maintains close relations with the Israeli army and has installed numerous solar panels on the roofs of their bases. This is the same army that has killed at least 57.600 Palestinians in Gaza so far", Mileta said.

In its historic ruling from July 2024, the International Court of Justice made it clear to states that they must refrain from entering into economic or trade relations with Israel, but also take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that help maintain Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. "It is very clear that, by entering into investment relations with Enlight Renewable Energy, Croatia is violating international law", Mileta said.

FoE Croatia advocates renewable sources, but not in the hands of investors who use them as a tool for occupation and control. "Enlight Renewable Energy cannot greenwash its complicity in the occupation of Palestine and part of Syria, as well as the genocide in Gaza. It is unacceptable for Croatian institutions to issue permits to such a company! Therefore, we demand that cooperation with Enlight be terminated", Mileta concluded.