‘Parar o Gas” accuses company of “criminal activities”
Masked activists daubed the front of the EDP building in Lisbon this morning with yellow paint in protest over the energy company’s increased “brutal profits” last year.
EDP reported profits of €679 million in 2022 – 3% up on profits from the previous year.
Said the movement going under the name ‘Parar o Gas’ (Stop Gas) “This morning, supporters denounced EDP’s €679 million profit in 2022, a year marked by extreme drought caused by climate change and rising bills and prices, felt by most people in Portugal”
Parar o Gas accuses the energy sector company of “criminal activities” for “continuing to import gas into Portugal, having gas import contracts until at least 2040, and for producing electricity through fossil gas in two combined cycle power plants” in the country.
“EDP has known for a long time that burning fossil gas, as with all fossil fuels, is the cause of the extreme climate change we experience and which continues to worsen,” says the movement, which advocates 100% renewable and affordable electricity for all people by 2025 “as an alternative to climate collapse and austerity”.
The protest, which looks from the media coverage to have been fairly bland (possibly staged very early this morning), also set out to “invite people to take to the streets tomorrow, Global Climate Strike day – and on April 1 for a demonstration “for the right to housing”.
With so many protests underway, the group also encouraged people to take part in “civil resistance on May 13” which, it pledges, “will block the main entrance of Portugal’s fossil fuel gateway, the LNG terminal in Sines”.
Says the group: “The increase in the cost of living and the climate crisis are the responsibility of GALP, REN (energy grid) and EDP (…) The high prices throughout the economy are the consequence of fuel company profits. While we continue to use fossil fuels, climate change will worsen to the point of no return. We have to stop these criminals and their crimes with our hands…”
On a day when protestors in the Algarve literally chased government dignitaries (in their cars) through the streets, forcing them to mount pavements to escape, it’s another sign of the ‘dissatisfaction’ bubbling through society that President Marcelo has warned about.
Source material: LUSA
