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This leaflet was distributed in Nicosia in September 2021.
Keep them in the ground! No to hydrocarbons extraction! No to East Med! NO to new fossil fuel research and opening new reserves!
It is common knowledge now that for climate change the main responsible is the burning of fossil fuel. The IPCC report in August confirmed it once again. The UN and the EU and all their governments have starting to set goals to cut the emissions by 50% until 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
However these goals have been put on paper but not really in practice. The governments of the Eastern Mediterranean countries, Cyprus included, continue to base their plan for cutting fuel emissions to hydrocarbon use and extraction.
In order to meet these targets, to keep the overheating of the planet to just 1,5 degrees above the pre-industrial levels, the consumption of natural gas has to be cut by 90%. But even if they want to keep the temperature to 2 degrees, we need globally a plan to consume just the 16% of the already extracted/known fossil fuel reserves! This means that any new extractions should stop now!
Natural Gas is not as friendly as the ruling elites wants us to believe. It may produce 50% less carbon dioxide than oil but extracting natural gas produces huge quantities of methane, a gas that is 35 times stronger in affecting climate change.
What is more, a project even like Aphrodite or Glafkos needs about 20 years of continuous production at the quantities on the basis of which the investment decision was made to yield the expected profits. So if the production starts in 2023 as it is calculated, then it will start producing profits to the companies in 2043! Are they going to stop it in 2050? No! We need to stop it today!
NO to war for gas! NO to conflict between our countries!
One year ago, Greece and Turkey naval forces were face to face in Kastelorizo, on the brink of a hot episode.
The Cypriot people have suffered a lot from the dispute of the greek-turkish, and greekcypriot-turkishcypriot ruling elites and will be the first to be influenced if a hot episode in the Eastern Mediterranean or the Aegean sea between the Turkish and Greek army erupt.
The negotiations of the Cyprus problem reached a dead-end in 2017, around the time that Exxon Mobil announced that the findings in field 10 maybe the biggest of all the fields of the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus. Since then any discussion from the ruling elites on restarting the negotiations is about natural gas.
The agreements with Israel sacrifice basic human rights, as with the case of the 19year old British woman who was raped by 12 Israelis, but accused of public mischief to protect the name of the rapists.
Both sides go forward with inter-governmental agreements that bring more army to the island and more tension between the communities.
The gas will never bring peace! It will always be the apple of discord, no capitalist have “shared” “peacefully” natural resources. And we have the examples of all the wars in the Middle East to prove it.
The working people, the youth, has nothing to gain from this warmongering atmosphere. We demand to stop the armament, invest in health and education – not in war!
Energy for us! Not big business! YES to climate justice and peace!
The majority of energy that is being produced in the world is not consumed by working people!
54% is consumed from industry
26% from transportation
7% from trade activities
Only 13% of the energy produced is consumed by households.
At the same time many households don’t have the “luxury” to consume energy for their basic needs!
46% of the working people in south Cyprus cannot afford heating!
We must stop the destruction of the local and regional environment for energy projects. In the distribution of energy, we must ensure energy justice by distribution according to social needs, not profit.
We must end private ownership opportunism in energy by returning energy production and distribution to public ownership.
Μας σκάβουν τον λάκκο / Kazma birak / don’t dig it!
Cooperation against extractions and war
In September 2020, a call for peace and climate justice was responded by 69 environmental organisations in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey and thus the campaign “Μας σκάβουν τον λάκκο- Kazma Birak” was created. The campaign is open in individual activists or groups that would like to support and participate. Contact us! Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/noextractionsnowarcy