Wolfsburg, 04.06.2021. Since dawn, about 40 climate activists of the initiative „Runter vom Gas“ (unplug VW) have been blocking a black coal plant and a construction site at the automotive factory of Volkswagen. Some of them chained themselves to diggers and rails to hinder Volkswagen’s operations. Others roped down a portal scraper with banners. They demand an immediate energy and mobility transition.
The Volkswagen group is the second largest automotive corporation of the world. Despite the Corona pandemic, they made more than 10 billion Euro of profit in 2020. But in times of the climate catastrophe, the automotive business earns lots of criticism.
An activist from the blockade says about this: „We race into inevitable climate catastrophe. For years it has been clear that we need a mobility transition. Corporations like Volkswagen don’t care, they rather fuel the crisis to make more profit. Instead of hoping that electric cars will save us from the climate crisis, we should insist on better solutions: free public transport instead of motorized individual traffic, car-free bike-friendly cities, and massive improvements to the rail network. As neither corporations nor the government are acting on this, today we stop the production of the wheeled climate destroyers ourselves!“
The blocked coal plant supplies the automotive factory with power, it processes about 900.000 tons of black coal per year. The simultaneously blocked pipeline construction site is supposed to enable the switch to fossil gas. Not only the activists criticize this, also the German Institute for Industry Research (DIW) describes the ongoing switch to fossil gas as a bad idea, fossil gas as a fossil resource can’t play a role in a climate neutral energy system.
An activist from „unplug VW“ says about this: „To face climate change appropriately, we need to turn away from fossil resources. The switch to ‚fossil‘ gas is no solution in the climate crisis, this is just a greenwashing campaign by Volkswagen. We need to get away from capitalist climate destruction and exploitation. The profits of corporations like Volkswagen can never be more important than a climate just planet and a future worth living. This is why we are here today.“
Another activist from the blockade adds: „Here on the outside, Volkswagen switches from harmful coal to just as harmful gas, while on the inside they produce fat cars every day, which pollute the cities and contribute to climate crisis. Nowhere else can you see so well, how reluctant corporations and the government are changing their actions. That’s why we decided to set an example here, as part of the decentralized action days for a socially and environmentally just mobility transition.“
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