Lots of of environmental activists blocked private jets from leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday in an indication on the eve of the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt.
Footage showed Greenpeace and Extinction Revolt activists cycling across the planes on the transport hub, before others sat down in front of personal jets to stop them leaving.
Lots of of other climate activists occupied the airport’s important hall and carried signs that “more trains” and “restrict aviation”.
Dewi Zloch of Greenpeace Netherlands said the activists want “fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and personal jets.”
Military police said they arrested quite a lot of protesters for being on the airport’s grounds without authorisation.
Responding Friday to an open letter from Greenpeace, Schiphol’s recent chief executive officer Ruud Sondag said the airport is targeting “emissions-free airports by 2030 and net climate-neutral aviation by 2050. And we’ve got an duty to cleared the path in that,” but conceded it needed to occur faster.
The Dutch government announced plans in June for a cap on annual passengers on the airport at 440,000, around 11% below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.
Environmental activists block private jets at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport
(NOS)
Dutch transportation minister Mark Harbers told parliament last month his office couldn’t control growing private jet traffic, and the federal government is considering whether to incorporate the difficulty in its climate policy.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries kicked off the UN climate summit in Egypt today with an agreement to debate compensating poor nations for mounting damage linked to global warming.
The agreement set a constructive tone for the Cop27 summit within the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where governments hope to maintain alive a goal to avert the worst impacts of planetary warming.
The climate talks begin under a cloud of skepticism that world governments are usually not doing enough to handle global warming.
A UN report released last week showed global emissions heading in the right direction to rise 10.6 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010 levels.
Scientists say those emissions must drop 43 per cent by that point to limit global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial temperatures as targeted by the Paris Agreement of 2015.
Additional reporting by agencies
