Thousands of people mobilised for Global Frackdown last week to call for an international ban on fracking – over 200 actions in 25 countries on six continents took place. Visit the Global Frackdown website for an overview of amazing actions and pictures from all over the world. Young Friends of the Earth Europe groups also joined in, taking part in a whole host of actions demanding a frack free Europe.
We are now entering the second week of Reclaim Power: Global Month of Action on Energy which will see actions confronting the dirtiest industry of all – the coal industry!
Action against the coal industry- Week 2 of Reclaim Power
It is time to raise our voices and unmask the dirty lobbies who shamelessly pressure and influence national governments in decision making. The two biggest world coal summits are taking place this year in Europe, within less than a months time. The first one organised by CoaltransEvents has already started (20-22 Oct), with 1,600 coal lobbyists currently meeting in Berlin. A few days ago Push Europe responded to the CoaltransEvents Managing Director as he expressed his ‘concern’ over Reclaim Power plans. Read their response here.
Secondly, during the high profile UN climate talks in Warsaw this November, the International coal and climate summit will also be taking place in Warsaw, as an attempt of the coal industry to influence the international climate negotiations and place ‘clean coal technologies’ as a solution to the climate crisis.
Both these events are opportunities for us to draw attention to the false claims that coal can be part of a clean energy future.
Ideas for action
This week, a broad coalition of German NGOs are organising a protest at the Coaltrans conference, calling for a clean future with renewable energy and without coal. In this second week of Reclaim Power! Young Friends of the Earth Europe is calling for actions online to show solidarity and to bring a strong message to the coal summit and to participating corporations. There are various ways, listed below, that you and your groups can get involved, depending on your time and capacity.
Additionally, you can take part in Reclaim Power this week with any action idea of your own, related to the coal industry, or any other form of good/bad energy you want to highlight. Find out more on the Reclaim Power website.
- Social media storm (Monday – Tuesday 21-22 October) #DisruptCoaltrans
We are aiming to disrupt the coal conference’s social media channels as much as possible, while we are also asking people to tweet at the World Bank demanding the end of financing dirty energy projects. See suggestions for tweets on European Reclaim Power page.
Targets:
@CoaltransEvents
#DisruptCoaltrans
@WorldBank
https://www.facebook.com/coaltrans - Protest in Berlin (Monday 21 October)
If you happen to be in Berlin on Monday join our friends protesting at the coal summit! More info here: http://www.gegenstromberlin.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Coaltrans_Flyer.pdf - Stunts at the participating companies’ offices (All week 21-27 October)
You can find an extensive list of participating companies at the Coaltrans world coal conference. You can join others in staging a protest at one of these companies offices. - Solidarity pictures (all week 21-27 October)
We are also asking friends to take a picture of themselves individually or as a group with a simple message and submit it here: http://pusheurope.org/reclaimpower/submit/ or send via email. It can be simple or creative it’s up to you – simple such as a sign saying “Coal Kills” or “Stop coal” or creative such as a group photo spelling out a message against coal.
Read more about these action ideas here: http://pusheurope.org/reclaimpower/peoplevscoal/
Whatever you will be doing, let us know and make sure to send us pictures, video or text.
