SAVE THE DATE: Friday 29th May – Tuesday 2nd June 2015
Reclaim the Power has collectively made a decision to hold our Spring action camp near Didcot Power Station, Oxfordshire from Friday 29th May to Tuesday 2nd June, as part of a global weekend of action on corporate power ahead of the UN climate talks (COP21) in December 2015.
Why Didcot?
They blew up the coal-fired section of Didcot last year as new EU emissions legislation had made it unprofitable – a partial win for the climate movement. But now, corporate lobbyists are pushing to weaken this legislation and the government plans to build a round of new gas-fired power stations and frack our countryside to supply them. Come and tell them NO WAY and take direct action to shut down the industry on a national day of action.
Didcot is owned by RWE Npower, one of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies that are lobbying against tougher climate regulations to protect their profits. RWE also plan to exploit large open-cast, lignite coal fields in the Rhineland, Germany – where there will be major protests this summer.
More fossil fuels will line the pockets of corporate-government elites, push people further into fuel poverty, threaten local communities with fracking and other dangerous extreme energy extraction and trash our climate targets. We already have the technologies we need to go carbon neutral by 2030, and to build a renewable, democratic and decentralised energy system. It’s time to act: for system change not climate change.
Stop the return of coal. Let’s finish the job.
Stand in solidarity with affected communities; say NO to fracking and the dash for gas.
Take action on the corporate stranglehold on the global climate deals.
AT THIS ACTION CAMP:
You’ll find workshops, music, action training and planning – and a national day of kick ass direct action on Monday 1st June. See here for more details.
Want to help build the camp? GET INVOLVED.
Reclaim the Power is a non-hierarchical grassroots network of regional groups around the country. Regional groups are taking on different aspects of building the camp. To find out where your nearest group is and when they are meeting contact info[at]nodashforgas.org.uk .
Our next national meeting is on Saturday 9 – Sunday 10th May at Grow Heathrow in West London.
Background to Didcot:
Power stations like Didcot emit the same CO2 per day as the 20 least polluting countries combined. Globally, 50% of gas reserves must remain unused for the next 35 years to meet the target for restricting warming to 2°C and avoid catastrophic climate change – but the government want to frack the countryside and pump shale gas into gas-fired power stations.
There are two powerstations at Didcot. Didcot A is a half-demolished coal-fired station dating back to the 1960s. Didcot B is a gas-fired powerstation constructed in the 1990s.
In 2013, the same year that the Didcot A was shut down; the UK lowered its emissions by 2.6%, which is attributed to the decline in our use of coal and gas. Sustained campaigning and direct action at Didcot by climate activists in 2006 and 2009 resulted in this enormous victory for the climate movement.
Didcot’s owners Npower (UK) vowed to comply with EU emissions rules by closing seven fossil fuel power plants by 2023; but corporate lobbyists want to scrap EU legislation designed to reduce emissions across Europe, and the government now plans to build even more gas-fired power stations.
Didcot B survived a serious fire last October 2014 but the lights didn’t go out because renewable energy was able to take up the slack.
IT’S TIME TO PULL THE PLUG ON FOSSIL FUELS