Press
You are welcome to report about our action, in the days before or right from site of action. We are happy to give interviews. It’s also possible to accompany activists into the action.
Press contact: press[at]decoalonize-europe.net
Press releases
1 Preface
By the time a lump of coal arrives in a European coal-fired power station it has travelled a long way.
2 Hard coal – a dirty business
Coal is the world’s dirtiest source of energy, one of the world’s worst polluters, and a major contributor to the climate catastrophe.
3 Climate justice – why it’s not just about CO2
“We’re all in the same boat, and it’s sinking”, you may have heard climate activists say.
4 Extractivism and neo-colonialism – the pillars of fossil capitalism
Valentina Bekrinova, an indigenous Shor woman who lives in Russia, and Narlis Guzmán Angulo, an Afro-Colombian woman from Colombia, told us their stories for this book (see chapter five). The two women come from different countries and continents, and their struggles...
5 Sites of devastation – where the coal is mined
Most European countries are relying heavily on coal imports to fuel their power stations. The coal travels long distances to be burnt in Europe, generating profits for European companies and cheap electricity for European consumers. As European coal industries have...
5.1 Black snow – coal from Russia
No other country exports more coal to central Europe than Russia. Russia has only recently turned into a hard coal exporter. But the pace at which it has done so is frightening. Within ten years, the country has become the third largest exporter worldwide and...
5.2 Tearing down mountains – coal from the USA
European coal also comes from the USA, where coal is mined in the Appalachian Mountains, in the West, and the Mid-West of the country. One particularly destructive form of coal mining practised in the USA is Mountaintop removal (MTR). MTR involves the blasting away –...
5.3 Draining rivers – coal from Colombia
"I wish that people became more aware of where their coal comes from. And about the consequences”, says Luz Angela Uriana Epiayu, mother of Moisés Daniel, a young child who is seriously ill with lung disease. Statements of this kind are often heard if you talk to the...
5.4 On stolen land – coal from Australia
The Wangan and Jagalingou people are the First Nation of the Country in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland where the Adani company is currently planning a new coal mine, the Carmichael coal mine. The mine is the most controversial mining project in Australia,...
5.5 “Our coal, our energy” – Turkey’s shift to coal
With the hashtag #BiziKömürümüzBizimEnerjimiz (#ourcoalourenergy), the Turkish state has massively pushed (and subsidised) coal-powered electricity generation. Turkey is a net energy importer (importing three quarters of its energy), and its budget deficit and...