Citizen opposition to the MidCat gas pipeline for not taking into account the energy crisis or the climate emergency
Citizen opposition to the MidCat gas pipeline for not taking into account the energy crisis or the climate emergency- The platform in response to MidCat has been reactivated due to the intentions of some countries and actors to revive a project that supports a fossil energy model and that goes against climate objectives.
- They deny that it can respond to energy security in a context of depletion of fossil fuels, much less with the urgency and current technological limitations.
This Thursday the “Resposta al Midcat” platform, of which Ecologistas en Acción is a part, along with other social and environmental entities, held a press conference to explain the reasons why it continues to oppose the gas pipeline. At the press conference, held before the Generalitat of Catalonia in Girona, they explained that "they have had to be reactivated due to the intentions of the Spanish and German governments, and to which the Catalan president Pere Aragonès or the employers' association have joined "Spanish, to go back to betting on a project already shelved four years ago due to the high cost, its dubious profitability and the lack of French interest."
In addition to the reasons that already led them to oppose it at the time, and in the face of the new context of climate emergency and energy crisis, the platform wanted to highlight that continuing to develop gas infrastructure does nothing more than “continue financing a fossil industry, which only benefits to energy companies, construction companies and banks” and “that distances us from the community objectives of decarbonizing the economy and reaching carbon neutrality in 2050.”
Likewise, they have wanted to deny some information given these days by the different interested actors, especially in reference to energy security or stopping dependence on Russian gas. In this sense, they have stated that through MidCat only a little more than 2 % of Russian gas could be replaced, becoming dependent on countries that are also no guarantee of the future, either due to geopolitical issues or because the reserves of this fuel will reach its peak of extraction in a few years.
Referring to the statements of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, the platform has proven that there is no capacity to carry out this work in less than a year, as the French government had also already declared, nor is it viable to use it to transport hydrogen. . A hydrogen, they have clarified, that today is mostly non-renewable and fossil, and that requires an energy expenditure to generate it much greater (between 2 and 3 times) than the energy obtained from its combustion.
Finally, they have made it clear that this is not an opposition only from the territory, or from very specific sectors of the population, but that our future is at stake, and that the scientific community has been warning us for some time about the need to a change of course in energy policy and abandoning fossil fuels. Its spokespersons have called on society and countries to defend common interests above individual interests. And they have urged the Spanish, German and Catalan governments, as well as the European Union, to “oppose projects like these and continue looking for solutions without ignoring the depletion of fossil fuels, betting on combating the Climate Emergency, the preservation of the territory and accepting current and future technical and technological limitations.”
In response to questions from the media, the spokespersons have stressed the platform's determination to oppose MidCat and have advanced that they are reorganizing and are preparing mobilizations and actions if the idea of building this, or any other, gas pipeline project goes ahead.
