OSLO: Some 200 climate activists including Greta Thunberg of Sweden blocked Norway’s largest oil refinery on Monday in a protest demanding an end to the country’s oil industry, organizers and police said.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion sat on the road, blocking the entrance to the Mongstad refinery in Bergen on Norway’s southwestern coast, while kayaks and sailboats obstructed the port’s entrance.
“We are here because it’s crystal clear that there is no future in oil. Fossil fuels lead to death and destruction,” Thunberg said in a statement, adding that oil producers like Norway “have blood on their hands.”
The burning of fossil fuels releases planet-heating carbon emissions.
Police said they were at the scene monitoring the situation from around 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT).
The activists said they plan to continue with a string of protests in Norway throughout the week.
The Mongstad refinery is owned by Norwegian oil giant Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian state.
The activists demanded that Norwegian politicians present “a plan to phase out oil and gas.”
Norway, western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer, is regularly criticized for its oil and gas production.
Oslo insists its industry provides jobs and develops know-how, and stresses the importance of guaranteeing stable energy deliveries to Europe.
Equinor has said it intends to keep its oil production in the country stable at 1.2 million barrels per day until 2035, and expects to produce 40 billion cubic meters (52 billion cubic yards) of gas a year by 2035.
Greta Thunberg, activists block Norway oil refinery
https://arab.news/4vuqa
Greta Thunberg, activists block Norway oil refinery
- Activists from Extinction Rebellion sat on the road, blocking the entrance to the Mongstad refinery in Bergen on Norway’s southwestern coast
- Norway, western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer, is regularly criticized for its oil and gas production
Treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended VP is further eroding peace deal, UN experts say
- The experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country
- “Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said
UNITED NATIONS: The treason trial of South Sudan’s suspended vice president is further eroding a 2018 peace agreement he signed with President Salva Kiir, UN experts warned in a new report.
As Riek Machar’s trial is taking place in the capital, Juba, the experts said forces from both sides are continuing to confront each other across much of the country and there is a threat of renewed major conflict.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the UN Security Council last month that the crisis in South Sudan is escalating, “a breaking point” has become visible, and time is running “dangerously short” to bring the peace process back on track.
There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, but the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions, when forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
More than 400,000 people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement that brought Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. But implementation has been slow, and a long-delayed presidential election is now scheduled for December 2026.
The panel of UN experts stressed in a report this week that the political and security landscape in South Sudan looks very different today than it did in 2018 and that “the conflict that now threatens looks much different to those that came before.”
“Years of neglect have fragmented government and opposition forces alike,” the experts said, “resulting in a patchwork of uniformed soldiers, defectors and armed community defense groups that are increasingly preoccupied by local struggles and often unenthused by the prospect of a national confrontation. ”
With limited supplies and low morale, South Sudan’s military has relied increasingly on aerial bombings that are “relatively indiscriminate” to disrupt the opposition, the experts said.
In a major escalation of tensions in March, a Nuer militia seized an army garrison. Kiir’s government responded, charging Machar and seven other opposition figures with treason, murder, terrorism and other crimes.
The UN experts said Kiir and his allies insist that, despite having dismissed Machar, implementation of the peace agreement is unaffected, pointing to a faction of the opposition led by Stephen Par Kuol that is still engaged in the peace process.
Those who refused to join Kuol and sided with Machar’s former deputy, Natheniel Oyet, “have largely been removed from their positions, forcing many to flee the country,” the experts said in the report.
The African Union, regional countries and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, have all called for Machar’s release and stressed their strong support for implementation of the 2018 agreement, the panel said.
According to the latest international assessment, 7.7 million people — 57 percent of the population — face “crisis” levels of food insecurity, with pockets of famine in some communities most affected by renewed fighting, the panel said.
