9th of May, 18h30
“Shaping together a bright energy future”. Under the veil of credo’s of this sort, three of Europe’s biggest gas Transmission Grid Operators (TSO’s) are prone to make the renewable energy future as injust as the fossil present is today. Discover in this webinar the neocolonial nature of the energy future that Fluxys, Enagas and Snam are planning for us. Hear also from activists from “ReCommon” (Italy), “Ecologistas en Accion” and “ODG” (Spain) and “Vredesactie” (Belgium) – organisations active in the countries where also the headquarters of these companies are based – where their weak spots are, and how we can pressure these companies to pursue a more just path.
The role of our gas Transmission Grid Operators is to ensure that households and productive clusters have access to energy. In itself a legitimate and necesary task. Unfortunatly, our TSO’s have moved far beyond their initial purpose. While climate urgency demands a move away from fossil fuels, our TSO’s continue to use their political leverage to ensure subsidies for new fossil gas infrastructure. And in their pursuit of profit, they haven’t hestitated to make long-term deals with dictators and bellicose states around the globe, subsequently financing war and repression.
In an attempt to secure their position in the energy market, these same companies are now stoking up the hype around green hydrogen. Not only do they create misleading narratives on how much of a real solution green hydrogen is to cope with the climate disaster we are facing. They also started making plans and signing deals with countries in Latin America and North and Sub Saharian Africa, to secure Europe’s access to energy. In spite of big local energy needs, this renewable energy would be exported in a very squandering way. Once again, deals are being made by European governements with authoritarian regimes, connecting our energy consumption with repression.
Tune into this webinar to learn about concrete cases from Enagas, Snam and Fluxys that depict these dangers ahead of us, and to get inspired on how we can pressure these companies to respect both climate necesities as well as human rights.
Speakers:
Elena Gerebizza: Elena is researcher and campaigner of ReCommon, a collective based in Italy who challenges corporate and state power responsible for the plunder of territories, and works to create spaces for change in society. Elena is working on the campaign targeting the Italian TSO Snam, opposing the construction of long distance gas and hydrogen transport infrastructure like the SouthH2Corridor from a climate and social justice perspective.
Josep Nualart Corpas: Josep is project manager and researcher on energy transition and hydrogen in the Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG), an organisation based in Barcelona, and participate in different local, national and global spaces and networks to denounce the impacts of the current energy model and propose initiative for a democratic and just energy trasition.
Mattijs Van den Bussche: Mattijs is campaigner at the Belgian peace organisation Vredesactie. Currently, he is working on the “Stop Fuelling War” campaign, aiming to cut the close cooperation between the Belgian TSO Fluxys and the Russian LNG-industry, thus stopping an important financial contribution to the Russian war effort in Ucraine.
