Greenpeace activists boarded the vessel Atermon today as it berthed in Port Tauranga, preventing 30,000 tonnes of coal from being unloaded. The Indonesian coal is to be burnt at Genesis's Huntly Power Station, fuelling global warming by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Activists climbed the ship's side, preventing the coal from
being unloaded, and displayed banners reading 'Reject polluting
"This shipload of dirty old coal is just the tip of the iceberg.
Genesis is negotiating to import one million tonnes of coal every
year, on top of a recent deal struck with Solid Energy for 11
million tonnes of coal over the next eight years," said climate
campaigner Vanessa Atkinson.
"The Government must step in and cancel current negotiations for
the importation of one million tonnes of coal every year. State
owned enterprises such as Genesis must be brought in line with
government policy and invest in clean renewable energy such as
"New Zealand is moving into a phase where we will be burning
more coal for electricity generation than at any other time in our
history. In this age of climate change we need to be rapidly
phasing out fossil use not increasing our dependency on coal - the
most greenhouse gas polluting of all fossil fuels."
"Over the next eight years, Genesis plans to increase the amount
of coal it burns at Huntly by about 19 million tonnes. This will
release an additional 45.6 million tonnes of climate changing
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."
"While the Government is trying to tackle agricultural
greenhouse gas emissions, they are also hypocritically consenting
to Genesis increasing climate pollution. Many fine words have been
said about renewable energy as the future for New Zealand, yet
Government actions continue to embed more dirty coal into our
• Genesis has publicly stated that they will be running Huntly
Power Station on 80% coal and 20% gas. Three years ago it ran on
only 20% coal
• Burning coal produces 72% more carbon dioxide than burning
• It takes 1000 trucks to move this shipment of 30,000 tonnes of
coal. This volume of coal can be burnt within 30 hours when Huntly
runs at full capacity.
"Globally we need to break our fossil fuel dependency to avoid
dangerous climate change. As part of this, our Government should
develop an electricity system from 100% renewable sources,
decommission fossil fuel power stations and actively bring on line
clean alternatives," concluded Ms Atkinson.