Asia and global warming
In a major breakthrough, the Thai National Economic and Social Advisory Council of the Prime Minister's office has committed to review the Government's energy policy. We are ending our blockade of the Map Ta Phut coal facility.
"Greenpeace considers this a major victory for the Thai people," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia spokesperson Tara Buakamsri from the sit-in which had disrupted the plant's operations today. "Thailand has a vast potential for clean, renewable energies such as modern biomass, wind and solar. It's time to shift government policy towards them."
The Rainbow Warrior's South East Asian Energy Revolution campaign entered its third day of activity today at one of Asia's largest coal-fired power plants. Activists from Thailand, the Philippines, and the United States climbed the loading crane of the BLCP coal plant at Map Ta Phut in Thailand and unfurled banners demanding the plant's immediate closure on Wednesday, calling on the Thai government to phase out coal power and to commit to renewable energy. On Thrusday they added a camp on an electricity pylon, and on Friday blockaded the entrance to the plant.
Coal is the main cause of climate change in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Greenpeace demands that construction on this site be stopped and a thorough review of the Thai Government's coal-driven energy plan be undertaken immediately," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia spokesperson Tara Buakamsri from the camp. "We will stay here until our demands are met."
When it comes to climate change, Asia is a place of particular opportunity and threat.
Catastrophic droughts across Thailand this year cost the country US $193 million and untold human suffering. The Thai government has set a target of delivering 8% of its energy from renewables by 2011, a goal which we don't believe the government can meet if it continues to divert funding from renewables into coal.
Renewables can provide 35 percent of Thailand's energy supply by 2020; there already exists enough biomass to power 25 percent of the country's electricity needs.
"Climate change is a reality but so too are the solutions," said Jean-Francois Fauconnier of Greenpeace International aboard the Rainbow Warrior. "Wind, solar and modern biomass power are already big business not only in Europe but also in China. The potential in Thailand is equally huge.
"International financial institutions like the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation should stop financing coal. They continuously talk up their support for renewables yet we've seen very little in the way of funds being re-directed towards those energies. It's time for less talk and more action."
Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior is in Bangkok on the Thailand leg of its 10-week Asia Energy Revolution Tour, exposing the impacts of climate change and promoting the uptake of renewable energy like wind and biomass. The tour started in Australia and will end in Thailand.
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