A Dutch conglomerate plans to drill for gas in the North Sea. The Federal Council will decide on the necessary agreement on Friday.
epd | The climate protection movement “Fridays for Future” (FFF) will protest this Friday in eleven state capitals against gas drilling off the east Frisian island of Borkum. In Berlin, two petitions are to be handed to the President of the Federal Council, Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD).
Background is the vote in the Bundesrat on gas drilling in the North Sea taking place on the same day. The Bundesrat decides on a so-called unitarization agreement between Germany and the Netherlands. This forms the legal framework for cross-border gas production in the North Sea. The corresponding law still has to be approved by the Bundestag.
The activists are calling on the state governments to oppose the agreement. “Affordable, secure and clean energy from wind and sun is the future, not the destructive gas drilling from which only the corporations profit,” said Nele Evers of FFF.
Unlimited Drilling
The environmental association BUND urged the Lower Saxony state government to reject the agreement. The bill would enable an unlimited number of new natural gas drillings in the border area – in immediate proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea.
Susanne Gerstner of BUND Lower Saxony said that Germany, with the pact, relinquishes its right to enforce stricter environmental standards for its territory, “and thus places its own sovereignty and the concerns of the environment, nature and climate protection in Germany at the service of a Dutch fossil-fuel corporation.” Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) has spoken out against gas extraction. Broadly supported also by the Environmental Committee of the Bundesrat, whose members include the environment ministers of the states.
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