Borkum: Protest against gas-that is about the “climate camp”

With a “climate camp”, Fridays for Future and German environmental aid want to demonstrate again against natural gas promotion in the North Sea near the island in the coming days. On Thursday, the first activists and environmentalists from Emden made their way to the island by ferry. “This time we are not only with a climate strike on Borkum, but with an entire protest camp that will go until Sunday,” says Yasin Hinz from Fridays for Future. The organizations expect more than 200 participants to protest.

The protest of climate activists is directed against the natural gas plans of the Dutch energy group One-Dya. There have been a dispute for years for the gas funding, which takes place over a funding platform built around 20 kilometers before the island. The natural gas field is located under German and Dutch sea floor. On the Dutch side, one-dyas has been promoting the first gas since March, and it will start soon in the German area.

While supporters see energy safety strengthened by the additional, domestic gas, environmentalists and insulans fear damage to the marine environment and see climate protection goals in danger.

At the camp, workshops, concerts and readings are planned with climate activists Luisa Neubauer. There will be a demonstration at the Inselbahnhof on Friday. The police are expecting around 150 participants for the registered protest, as a spokeswoman said. Most recently, Fridays for Future demonstrated in July on Borkum against gas production.

With their new protest, Fridays for future and environmental aid want to increase the pressure on the federal government. “Of course we hope that with this protest camp we can draw all the attention again on Borkum and that we can ultimately prevent these gas bores,” says Hinz. He also referred to a new expert opinion commissioned by the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, which supports the position of environmental groups.

In the legal opinion published on Thursday, the Hamburg lawyer Roda Verheyen has the assessment that the international law contract, which was recently concluded between Germany and the Netherlands, is contrary to the border under the border. According to this, new fossil support projects, such as before Borkum, are incompatible with the goals of the Paris climate protection agreement and the climate protection requirement in the Basic Law, the report says.

The agreement is a prerequisite for the fact that natural gas can also be funded on German territory. However, an associated contract law still has to pass the Bundestag and the Federal Council.

The Greens’ parliamentary group vice in the Bundestag, Julia Verlinden, renewed the criticism of her party in natural gas promotion with a view to the legal opinion. “The Federal Republic must not conclude an agreement on fossil projects that completely ignore climate protection and may even be contrary to the constitution and international law.” It is now in the hands of the Union and the SPD to stop the gas drilling project by not agreeing to the Contract Act.

However, the current coalition of the CDU, CSU and SPD has agreed to use the potential of conventional gas funding in Germany “in the coalition agreement.

In addition to Fridays for Future and Environmental Aid, representatives of the Jusos and the Green Youth Lower Saxony also want to take part in the protest on Borkum, as the youth organizations announced together. The planned gas funding in front of Borkum is in direct contradiction to the climate goals and the responsibility towards future generations, it said. “It creates new fossil infrastructure in a highly sensitive area.”

Court decisions could still stop the gas funding. Because the German environmental aid, other environmental associations and the island of Borkum are complaining of natural gas promotion before the Lower Saxony Higher Administrative Court. Although the legal proceedings are still pending, the responsible Lower Saxony State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) had approved an immediate enforcement at the beginning of this week. The authority cited several reasons for this, but above all called energy safety.

This means that one-dyas can now also promote gas from the German sea floor. The group plans to start a hole in German territory in December. Gas could probably be funded there in 2026. So far, the environmental aid has left open whether it will also go to court because of the instant enforcement.