Rainbow Warrior blocks coal shipment in Lyttelton
At 1600 hours today we cast off our mooring lines and sailed the Rainbow Warrior across Lyttelton harbour into a position alongside the Hellenic Sea. With anchors at our stern and bow we will set ourselves in place to block it from leaving port.
A few days ago the Hellenic Sea arrived in Lyttelton and docked near the Rainbow Warrior. This thing is almost 250 meters long and makes the Warrior look like a sailing dinghy.
As with all our actions this is a peaceful engagement. We mean no harm to the crew or the vessel but we do intend on stopping it leaving port for as long as we can.
The crew have been in Lyttelton for some days now holding open days and talking to people about climate change, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. About the need for emission reductions, the need for personal action and the need for good strong climate policy from all political parties.
So you can imagine how appalling it was to witness the port machinery come alive and begin vomiting thousands of tons of dirty old coal into the belly of the Hellenic Sea. It’s been going non stop for several days now. It’s a LOT of coal.
Where does it come from all that coal? Where is it going? Who can be shipping such gross amounts of fossil fuels out of New Zealand? We did a bit of digging and came up with, what can only be described as, dirt.
The dirt on coal exports
It turns out that that this coal comes from the West Coast. It’s mined and shipped to Lyttelton by Solid Energy – a Government owned company. From here it is shipped offshore to places like India and Japan where it is burned in various ways but always with the same result – climate change.
There are some awful double standards at work here. At the same time as it eagerly tells us and the world how clean and green New Zealand is, the New Zealand Government is making millions of dollars from Solid Energy exporting coal.
Climate change is a serious problem and we are fast running out of time to act, yet New Zealand continues to mine, export and burn coal in gross quantities, and there are plans to expand all three activities.
In NZ we’ve made some good progress in addressing our emissions.
We now have a 10 year ban on new fossil fuel electricity generation, and a 90 per cent renewable energy target for 2025. Marsden B was canned. We have the beginnings of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). There’s still a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
But all this is completely undermined if NZ is exporting coal in increasingly large amounts.
This is not what people expect of our Government. We had over 1000 people come through the Rainbow Warrior in Lyttelton alone. We talked to them all about climate change and it was clear that people want action. People do see the danger of not doing something to curb our greenhouse gas emissions and they are willing to act themselves but they want and expect good leadership from the Government and other political parties.
That is why we are taking action today.
I’ll keep you posted as things develop.
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Woohoo!!!! Go you guys! Awesome work! Glad to see the rainbow warriors out there once again putting it all on the line for climate change. Good luck for the rest of the action and the rest of the tour. Wish I could be there. Kia kaha!
“the people” would prefer a bit more science and a lot more empty rhetoric.
Watching you guys from our garden on the hill above the port. You make me proud. Well done, we’re with you all the way.
Congratulations Greenpeace. The statement by Damien O’Connor that countries will just purchase their coal elsewhere is totally hypocritical! If we sold nuclear weapons no doubt his response would be the same! No one said dealing with global warming would be easy. Coal is a major component of global warming. We have claimed the credit for being at the forefront of “cleaning up the planet” Are we going to put our money where our mouth is or just bullshit around like Damien? Greenpeace is showing the way.
Carey
Unpure New Zealand
sorry guys but in all honesty i feel quite angry that you guys stoped the ship in lyttletown harbour. im all for saving the whales but this action was disgusting we all burn fire wood -coal to keep warm and we all burn fossil fuels in our daily travels to an from work or play the rainbow warrior runs on diesel an oil gets a service etc. if you feel disgraced about the use of goal why dont we go nuclear ? id rather not ..i would like the idea that we can improve on cleaning things up a bit . eg plastic waste etc there are some compays out there that are trying eg cleaner fuel emmisions and factorys secondry burning and such . its a hard nut to crack but i do feel annoyed this action was taken . are you going to stop oil tankers next?or dangerous goods shipments. cheers john .. south island nz
Hi John – thanks for your comment. You’re right – we do all use energy in lots of ways and much if it does come from fossil fuels which ultimately contributes to climate change – - and we need to start reducing the amount of energy we use.
Our action in Lyttelton is part of a much wider campaign in which we are pushing for the Government and energy companies to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.
Of course this can’t happen over night but everyone needs from the Government through industry to you and I needs to be doing what we can.
There are lots of moves in the right direction. Electricity is increasingly being generated from renewable sources. There is a ban on new coal fired power stations. NZ has a renewable energy target of 90% by 2025.
The point we made by stopping the coal shipment was that while on the one hand the Government is making all the right noises they are displaying terrible double standards by allowing Solid Energy’s expansion of coal mining and exportation.
Can you tell me where does New Zealand’s coal supplies come from? I had someone tell me that it comes from Indonesia, is that true? We don’t get to use our own coal? Is that right?