Climate Action E.ON at the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam

Supported by the Rainbow Warrior, a hundred of our volunteer activists occupy the construction site of the new E.ON coal-fired power plant at the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. They halt construction for 10 hours before they are all arrested by the police. Special police cut their chains and neck locks and remove everyone from the site by the end of the day. E.ON is ignoring all science around climate change by insisting on plans to construct eight new European coal-fired power plants. The plant in Rotterdam is intended to be the first, even though it has not yet been granted the necessary permits. The previous evening the activists put up tents, next to the building site, to bear witness to the unfolding climate disaster. Then at first light they move onto the site, paralysing the construction of the plant. 'Civil disobedience, like occupying a building site, is completely justified when compared to the impact on the climate of a new coal plant. The consequences for the climate from this coal plant would be so dramatic, that urgent action is needed now', states Meike Baretta, Head of Climate and Energy campaign Greenpeace Netherlands. Coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels, is responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Coal-fired power stations undermine European targets to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020. E.ON has so far remained silent, despite Greenpeace’s request that it commits to reducing its CO2 emissions. The actions in Rotterdam are part of Greenpeace's global Quit Coal Campaign.