Not sure how they expect to get through the winter. Apparently needing LNG is a lie. Sticking to their guns, but all I can think of is lemmings. I'm not making light of this. I think winter in Europe is going to be a tragedy for the marginalized but a huge part of the population can't see it. I hope I'm wrong.
They descended from the side of Germany’s iconic Elbphilharmonie building. A German liquefied natural gas site was ruled out. And thousands of residents from across Europe filled the streets of Hamburg, Germany, in a week-long protest calling for a more sustainable society.
At the heart of their movement is this warning: liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not the solution to the energy crisis magnified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As Russian military aggression in Ukraine reaches the six-month mark, governments and energy industry lobbyists, including Canada, are floating the idea that adding LNG capacity could help offset Europe’s dependence on Russian oil supplies and natural gas. But there is backlash to the idea, with one protester in Hamburg suggesting that investing more in LNG would be “climate suicide”, exacerbating already high levels of carbon in the atmosphere.
“There’s generally the idea that Europe needs LNG to stay warm in the winter, and that’s really a lie,” Toni Lux told CBC News from the site of a protest camp set up this week in northwest Hamburg.
A few thousand people have camped out at the System Change Camp, a festival-like gathering organized in a park northwest of downtown Hamburg in August 2022. Many are climate activists, calling for less reliance on liquefied natural gas. (Kenny Sharpe/CBC)
“Climate Crime”
Lux is with the German climate activist group Ende Gelnde, which along with 40 other groups, joined together to create the System Change Camp. Since Monday, around 6,000 people from all over Europe have taken part in the festival-like atmosphere, tenting, working and sharing ideas at Hamburg’s Altona Volkspark.
Many of these ideas have focused on alternatives to expanding LNG reliance, which the German government is considering as a response to the energy crisis sweeping Europe.
However, Lux said energy policy must remain steadfast in the transition to renewables, saying more terminals would be a “crime against the climate and people”.
Toni Lux is a member of the German activist group Ende Gelnde, one of dozens of groups gathered for this week’s protests to find alternative energy solutions. (Kenny Sharpe/CBC)
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, sanctions imposed by Europe and the West have prompted retaliation by the Kremlin for sending energy supplies. Germany, in particular, has been hit hard as it relies heavily on Russian natural gas pumped through the Nord Stream pipeline, which has been reduced to around 20% of its usual supply since July 27. (The Kremlin blamed the reduction on technical issues, saying Western sanctions affected its ability to get turbines from Canada and perform other maintenance work on the pipeline.)
The EU is urging countries to cut natural gas use by 15% by next March
The European Union has proposed a voluntary target for member states to reduce natural gas use by 15% by March in order to prepare for possible further gas cuts from Russia. It said a complete Russian shutdown during an average winter could reduce average EU GDP by up to one percent if countries do not prepare.
As Germany’s coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation, Michael Link has previously visited Ottawa promoting the need for more LNG and other trade between his country and Canada. Link said that while he understands it takes years to build infrastructure for LNG terminals, the need is urgent.
“I’m not just talking about Germany,” he told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos. “Italy, the Netherlands, many of us in the European Union are really in dire need of secure democratic energy suppliers. And I think that would be good news for Canada as well… because I see Germany and Canada and the European Union as a whole as ideal partners”.
Could Canada Increase LNG Exports?
In June, Reuters reported that the German government officials, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are interested in Canada’s LNG export potential, suggesting that Scholz and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on the sidelines of a G7 summit.
At the same time, the news agency reported that federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson spoke with Canadian LNG companies with established infrastructure about whether they could increase exports to meet demand from Europe.
European climate activists continue to protest today after thousands of people demonstrated in Hamburg, Germany in a series of escalating protests over a week. pic.twitter.com/WMZpbMwDlU
—@kscSharpe