Greenpeace Pleads for Adriatic Drilling Not to Go Ahead with Message on Dubrovnik Walls

(photo: Greenpeace)

Greenpeace activists have sent a clear message to the Croatian government on what is one of Croatia’s most recognisable landmarks – the Dubrovnik walls….

In the early hours of Saturday morning Greenpeace activists projected a range of messages on Dubrovnik’s famous St. John fortress wall in 8 languages; Croatian, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek, Slovenian and Hungarian.

‘tourism or oil’, ‘quit dirty energy – plenty of sun’, ‘the winter is coming – the rigs should not’ ‘S.O.S for Adriatic’…were some of the 50-metre plus messages beamed onto the wall.

“At a time when the whole world is turning to renewable energy sources, (Croatian) Minister Ivan Vrdoljak is aggressively and non-transparently rushing the signing of thirty agreements, which will leave the Adriatic to foreign oil companies. Drilling in the Adriatic will directly threaten our sea, tourism and fisheries. The majority of Croatian citizens recognise the risks, which was highlighted in a recent survey,” said Marko Gregović, head of the energy and climate campaign at Greenpeace Croatia.

The Greenpeace action this morning in Dubrovnik is part of the global ‘Paradise project’ campaign which is promoting renewable energy sources in the Mediterranean as an alternative to fossil fuels.

“While Croatia records a record summer for power consumption, we fail to take advantage of the sun to produce clean energy. Today we have the paradoxical situation where the entire sunny Croatia still has less solar power than the ski town of Maribor. To make matters worse, the current action plan is that by 2020 we will have 7 times less per capita of installed solar capacity than poor India. For investment in solar energy there is huge interest, but investments depend on good legal framework that currently does not exist. Therefore, we ask the government to urgently provide conditions for massive investment in solar energy exploitation,” said Gregović.

U.S-based Marathonoil, Austria’s OMV, Italian multinational ENI, London-based Medoilgas, and INA, owned by the Croatian government and Hungary’s MOL, have all been awarded licences to explore and exploit 29 block areas, ranging from 1,000 – 1,600 square kilometres, eight in the northern part of the coast and 21 in central and southern Dalmatia.