Archives: Blogs

Get In With the Global Frackdown: Send a Postcard to Parliament

Thank you for your interest, no further action on this issue is needed. Unfortunately, the report was approved on 25 October by 66% of MEPs.

By Frida Kieninger

foodandwatereuropeoct25votenolngFor the Global Frackdown of 2016, Food & Water Europe offers people around the globe the chance to send postcards to Members of the European Parliament with a clear message: “NO liquefied natural gas (LNG)”.

On October 25, the plenary of the EU-Parliament will vote on the report “on the EU strategy for liquefied natural gas and gas storage.” It will most likely call for a significant expansion of LNG infrastructure in Europe and for a reduction of all barriers to global trade in LNG.

We don’t want imported fracked gas in Europe and call for a rejection of the report if it does not clearly recognise the dangers of natural gas, particularly obtained by fracking, for communities, the environment and the climate.

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Hitting The Wall: How European Institutions Insist On Privatizing Greek Water

By David Sánchez

foodwatereuropegreekwaterrightsBrexit was a real shock here in Brussels. For the first time, a member state decided to leave the club. It was really tempting to expect a reaction, a debate about the role of EU policies in this collective failure. But this European Union captured by big companies and ruled by a dogmatic neoliberal elite keeps doing business as usual. What happened in the last few weeks in Greece was another brutal example.

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You Can NOT Frack Here

By Andy Gheorghiu

Food & Water Europe will organise the Global Frackdown.
Returning October 2016
Global Frackdown

The Global Frackdown 2016, an international day of action to challenge the oil and gas industry and ban fracking worldwide, will take place on October 15, 2016. Around the world, for the fifth year running, participants will be shouting “Ni ici, ni ailleurs” — “not here or anywhere!” — in support of a ban on fracking.

The joint demands are simple and mirror the need for critical change on our planet:

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Reversing The Tide: Spain Moves Into Water Remunicipalization

By David Sánchez

Food and Water Europe El Agua No Es NegocioJust one year ago we were arguing about how Spain was still resisting the last wave of water privatization, as a result of austerity policies and debt, seasoned with corruption scandals.

But as a result of the local and regional elections a year ago, the tide changed. As a reaction to the long-term crisis, attacks to public services and corruption in traditional parties, many citizen movements organized to run for the elections, with great success in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Ferrol, Santiago, Cádiz, Coruña and Valencia, among others.

One of the key achievements of those movements was to introduce in the public sphere the debate on how to manage public services, like water. By the end of 2015, 57 percent of the population in Spain received their tap water from a private operator. One of the most worrying consequences is that more than 500,000 families receive water cut off warnings every year, according to data from the Spanish public water companies association.

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About the Nonsense of Going for US LNG (Part II)

By Frida Kieninger

FoodwaterEuropeFridaKieningerTruthTelling

In part II of my LNG blog, I will give a deeper insight into the blatant irrationality of shipping US liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe while calling it an opportunity for energy security, sustainability and flexibility.

I already pointed out the myths around the hype concerning LNG imports to Europe. I explained how LNG is no better and maybe worse for the climate than using coal or oil, and how billions spent for building LNG import infrastructure would be wasted trying to out-bluster Russia, while switching to gas imports from countries with their own questionable records and futures. I pointed out that only around a quarter of the EU’s LNG terminals are currently used, but that the Commission, with a long history of relying on overestimations of gas demand, plans to build more LNG infrastructure.

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About the Nonsense of the EU’s LNG Import Plans (Part I)

By Frida Kieninger

FoodandwaterEuropeFridaKieningerTruthTellingThe European Union is one of the biggest importers of fossil fuels in the world and the second largest importer of natural gas. Norway and Russia are currently the most important exporters of natural gas to the EU. Beyond the political and economic pitfalls of such dependence, climate science is clear that we must keep the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground. The European Commission, however, is holding up liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the answer to the question of how Europe will meet its energy needs. This is short-sighted and wrong.

LNG is super-cooled natural gas, condensed to 1/600th of its volume so that larger amounts can be transported and stored. The “EU strategy for liquefied natural gas and gas storage” was presented by the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, and it is quite disturbing.

I decided to examine more closely their mantra of “security of supply”, “flexibility”, “diversification of supply”, “competition” and “sustainability”, and sure enough, if you look at the truth behind the much-praised LNG imports, the strategy unravels. Unfortunately, the majority of Members of the EU Parliament seem to have a largely uncritical stance towards LNG, happily repeating the Commission’s claims.

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