Ravenna, Italy – Greenpeace Italy's activists disrupted a golf game part of the OMC Med Energy Conference & Exhibition in Ravenna, where fossil fuels executives and ministers of Mediterranean countries are meeting.[1] The activists crashed the game to hold fossil fuel companies to account for the deaths and damage they are causing by driving the climate crisis and conflicts, in pursuit of more oil and gas for their own profit.
Early this morning, activists from Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Spain, dressed as dinosaurs with fossil fuel companies' logos, entered the golf course where OMC delegates were playing, mocking their reckless unsustainable behaviour and participating in the game. Other activists displayed a banner reading "Stop playing with our lives" and carried hand banners reading "End the age of fossil criminals", "Oil & gas = War and conflicts" and "End fossil crimes" in English, Italian and French.
Anna von Gall, Greenpeace Germany project leader for Climate for Peace said: Worldwide, we see a thread connecting fossil fuels, increased militarisation and conflicts. Fossil fuel companies are driving the climate crisis, and fueling wars and conflicts in pursuit of oil and gas, and we must hold them accountable for the deaths and damage they are causing. We need to remove the fossil fuel industry's social licence to operate and achieve a peaceful transition to sustainable energy."
Chiara Campione, Head of the Climate Unit for Greenpeace Italy said: "Like dinosaurs, fossil fuel companies belong to the past. While millions endure the consequences of climate chaos, oil and gas executives gleefully pursue larger profits, treating both people and the planet as mere commodities. The age of fossil fuels must come to an end. Governments, legislators, and the courts must hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for their crimes, compelling them to stop drilling, start paying and take responsibility for the havoc they've unleashed."
The extraction of fossil fuels such as gas and oil, and the installation of fossil infrastructure, promotes militarisation and fuels geopolitical conflicts worldwide, as the recent Greenpeace Italy report on the Eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline project outlined. States in the region have invested heavily in armament, geared specifically to defending their maritime interests and protecting current and future fossil fuel infrastructure projects. Several times, disputes over maritime borders and the exploitation of fossil fuels in the EastMed basin have prompted the deployment of military vessels.
In the last year, we have seen how dependence on Russian gas and oil in the European Union has played a significant role in the invasion against Ukraine by financing Russia's military aggression. Despite the rhetoric about energy savings, efficiency and renewables, Europe's political priority has been to maintain flows of fossil fuels through new partners, irrespective of the geopolitical and environmental risks involved. For the most part, the lessons of Europe's reliance on unreliable regimes and the long-standing association of fossil fuels with conflict are being ignored.
Greenpeace is calling on fossil fuel companies to stop their climate wrecking activities, including their involvement in new fossil fuel projects. They must also stop investing in and developing all fossil fuel infrastructure and instead take complete responsibility, because the rush for oil and gas has been triggering conflicts and increasing the needs for military defence of fossil fuel assets.
