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ENVIRONMENT

Greenpeace blocks Russian oil delivery off Denmark

A dozen Greenpeace activists in kayaks and swimming in the water blocked the transfer of Russian oil between two tankers off Denmark's coast on Thursday, the environmental organisation said.  

Published: 1 April 2022 11:30 CEST
Greenpeace blocks Russian oil delivery off Denmark
This Handout photo made available by Greenpeace shows one of their activists holding an anti-war placard as they float in the water in front of the supertanker Pertamina Prime off the coast of Denmark on March 31st, 2022. Photo: Kristian Buus/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

Greenpeace organised the action to call for a ban on the import of fossil fuels from Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine.

“At 11am, activists began the blockade of the supertanker Pertamina Prime, preventing the other ship Seaoath from approaching it and blocking the transfer of oil,” Greenpeace spokeswoman Emma Oehlenschlager told AFP.

Both ships are Russian.

Eleven activists rode kayaks or swam in the icy waters off of Frederikshavn, some of them carrying signs calling on governments to “stop fuelling the war”.

The activists painted “Oil fuels war” on the hull of the Pertamina Prime.

Some 100,000 tonnes of crude oil were to be transferred between the two ships.

In the past two weeks, the Danish branch of Greenpeace has carried out several actions against Russian vessels conducting oil transfers, though this was the first successful blockade.

“This is the only time we’ve managed to stop the delivery. In the other instances, the tankers either diverted or accelerated”, Oehlenschlager said.

“They will now maintain the blockade as long as possible to make sure the ships can’t get close to each other to carry out the transfer”, she said, urging Denmark to ban the transfer of Russian oil in its waters.

Greenpeace Denmark tweeted on Friday morning that activists were now being removed from the area by North Jutland Police.

READ ALSO: IN NUMBERS: How much trade does Denmark do with Russia?

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ENVIRONMENT

Danish waste company forced to import rubbish from abroad

The high-tech Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant is running out of rubbish supplies from the local region and will have to start importing from outside Denmark. 

Published: 12 June 2022 14:02 CEST
Danish waste company forced to import rubbish from abroad

When ARC’s incinerator, Amager Bakke, opened in March 2017, it was one of the most modern green energy plants Denmark had ever seen.

The high-tech waste plant is designed to destroy huge amounts of trash from Copenhagen and convert it into energy which is used to heat thousands of homes in the region. It is one of two plants which play a major role in Copenhagen’s ambitions of meeting zero carbon requirements by 2025.

But now, ironically, as municipalities have become very efficient in waste sorting and recycling, the plant is quickly running out of its most important raw material: rubbish.

This has impacted the plant’s finances, so now the five municipalities behind ARC have agreed on a plan that will both improve the economy and provide heat for the capital’s homes: waste from surrounding countries will be shipped to Denmark and burned at the Amager Bakke plant.

READ ALSO: EU countries need better recycling, Copenhagen agency finds

Until now, the owner municipalities had blocked ARC’s ability to source waste through imports, but the agreement provides a waiver to allow imports to be increased until the end of 2025 to keep the furnaces running. 

In a press release, the five owner municipalities state that the increased imports will also increase CO2 emissions – but: “The alternative is that the municipalities will have to recycle less waste, that ARC’s finances will be worse – and even that there may be a need to import gas, which comes from Russia, among other places.”

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