Greenpeace and XR climate activists storm Amsterdam Schiphol airport and block private jets
Dutch border police arrested hundreds of climate activists who stormed the private jet area of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and sat in front of the wheels of aircraft to prevent them from leaving. More than 100 protesters from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion entered an area where private jets are kept, as part of a day of demonstrations in and around the airport organised by environmental groups to mark the start of the COP27 talks in Egypt. Greenpeace says Schiphol is the largest source of CO2 emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually. Around 200 activists were arrested, and there is video of many escaping on bicycles, while the police try to catch them on foot (one activist received a head injury). The airport says the usual greenwashing stuff about becoming an emissions-free airport by 2030 etc (conveniently ignoring the flights) and being net zero by 2050. Blah blah. The Dutch transport minister, Mark Harbers, told parliament last month that his office could not control growing private jet traffic, and the government was considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy. Private jets emit greatly more CO2 per person than even on commercial planes.
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Climate activists storm Amsterdam airport and block private jets
Sitdown protests are part of a day of demonstrations in and around Schiphol airport
By Charlie Moloney (The Guardian)
Sat 5 Nov 2022
Dutch border police arrested hundreds of climate activists who stormed Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and sat in front of the wheels of aircraft to prevent them from leaving.
More than 100 protesters, wearing white suits, entered an area where private jets are kept on Saturday as part of a day of demonstrations in and around the airport organised by environmental groups.
Dewi Zloch, the Netherlands campaign leader for Greenpeace, one of the groups involved, said: “We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets.”
Greenpeace says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12bn kilograms annually.
Extinction Rebellion was also involved in the action. Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying “Restrict aviation” and “More trains”.
About three hours after the protest began, border police started arresting activists, some of whom were dragged to waiting buses after passively resisting arrest, AFP reported.
“We take this very seriously,” Dutch border police spokesperson Major Robert van Kapel said.
“These people are facing charges relating to being in a place where they should not have been,” he said, adding that prosecutors will now formulate the exact charge.
The activists were taken to various border police offices around the airfield where they were being processed and identified, Van Kapel said.
Van Kapel said no commercial flights were affected by the protest.
There were also reports of border police tackling several activists on bicycles as they tried to escape.
Greenpeace said police were “far too heavy-handed against the activists on bicycles” and that at least one person received a head injury.
Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aimed to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and it supported targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
On Friday, in response to an open letter from Greenpeace, Schiphol’s new CEO, Ruud Sondag, conceded that change needed to happen faster.
The Dutch government announced plans in June to cap annual flights at the airport at 440,000, about 11% below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.
The transport minister, Mark Harbers, told parliament last month that his office could not control growing private jet traffic, and the government was considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy.
More than 120 world leaders are due to attend this year’s UN climate talks at the Red Sea coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which start on Sunday.
Extinction Rebellion has been warning of the environmental impact of air travel for many years and in October 2019 a protester climbed on to a British Airways plane at London City airport and was seen lying on top of it. Other activists staged a sit-in at the airport entrance during the third day of protests in London at that time.
This article was amended on 6 November 2022. The annual cap of 440,000 announced by the Dutch government related to the number of flights, not passenger numbers as a previous version said.
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More than 200 climate activists arrested at Schiphol, all activists gone
5.11..2022 (NOS)
More than 200 activists from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion were arrested this afternoon and tonight at the airport site at Schiphol-East, where private jets take off and land. At around 7:15 PM, the Marechaussee reported that all activists had been removed from the site.
According to a spokesman for the Marechaussee, it is by far the highest number of arrests ever at Schiphol. Hundreds of military police were deployed. The demonstrators are transferred to various locations in and around the airport.
The activists are registered and identified. Not everyone had an ID with them. “We take it seriously,” says the spokesman for the Marechaussee. Ultimately, the Public Prosecution Service decides what will happen to the activists.
At around 1 p.m., climate activists broke into the grounds and took their seats under private jets to prevent them from taking off. Some activists chained themselves to aircraft.
The activists of Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion climbed fences with ladders, among other things. Others broke through the fence. According to a Greenpeace spokesperson, more than 500 protesters tried to stop the private jets. Some cycled across the site.
Cat-and-mouse game, the activists cycle away from the military police: Video
After the Marechaussee arrested several dozen activists around 4 p.m., it took a more heavy-handed approach, for example pulling demonstrators from their bicycles. Greenpeace says in a statement that it is “shocked by the unnecessary violence”. According to the action group, one person was injured in the head during an arrest.
Mayor Marianne Schuurmans of Haarlemmermeer, which includes Schiphol, was critical of the protest to the ANP. “This has nothing to do with the demonstration as agreed. This action is prohibited, dangerous and punishable.”
Medical flight
The EBAA, the European trade association of the corporate flight sector, is outraged by the action. According to the spokesperson, people often think of private jets as “the rich and famous who want to go to Ibiza”, but medical flights and repatriations are a large part of their work, among other things.
The spokesperson states that a medical flight has been diverted today because of the demonstration. However, further details are not disclosed for privacy reasons. “We therefore find this action unacceptable,” said Román Kok, spokesman for the EBAA.
Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace Netherlands say in a response that no incoming flights have been blocked. “According to the authorities, the Oostbaan has been accessible all day. We have been in close contact with the authorities during this day so that we can make room for necessary flights. We regret that this flight would have been diverted. That was because of our action not necessary.” Schiphol confirms the activists’ story.
Kok says that the pilot with a patient on board has decided to divert because of the many people on the platform. “He couldn’t guarantee safety otherwise.”
From this morning, activists protested at and near Schiphol. The protesters started their actions at Schiphol Plaza, before a protest that was registered and approved by the municipality of Haarlemmermeer.
They walked from Schiphol Plaza to the construction site, where a new Schiphol terminal is to be built. Environmental organizations and residents’ groups around Schiphol want the number of flights at Schiphol to be reduced by at least half.
Disruptive action
Greenpeace had already announced that there would be a “disruptive action”. That turned out to be the action against the private jets. Private jets were targeted because flights with those planes are the most polluting, according to Greenpeace.
The new director of Schiphol, Ruud Sondag, had called on Greenpeace yesterday to keep the action “tidy”. That call went wrong with the environmental organization, the organization called Sondag’s request “crowded”.
Climate activists block private jet runway at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam
By Amy Cassidy, CNN
November 5, 2022
Hundreds of climate activists breached a runway Saturday at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to try to stop private jets from taking off, in the latest demonstration by protesters aimed at drawing attention to the climate crisis.
Greenpeace Netherlands said “more than 500” Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion activists were at the airport, one of Europe’s largest, on Saturday afternoon, in a press release. A spokesperson for the Schiphol security forces could not confirm that figure.
There were about “more than 300” activists, the spokesperson of The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, the military force guarding the airport, told CNN.
Robert Kapel, acknowledged it was a “big scale” demonstration but said air traffic was unaffected as the runway was exclusively used for private jets and no flights are scheduled until late Saturday night.
“This morning activists gathered in the forest nearby, carrying flags and banners with slogans such as ‘SOS for the climate’ and ‘Fly no more.’ At the same time another group reached the airport from the opposite direction with bicycles,” Greenpeace said.
Images from Greenpeace show groups of dozens of demonstrators sitting down on the tarmac by multiple planes on the runway. Further images show demonstrations inside the terminal.
More than 100 arrests “and counting” have been made so far, Kapel said. He added that he thinks all arrests will have been made by 10 p.m. (local time), which is when he said the first flight is scheduled to take off. Security forces have blocked off the area and made it inaccessible from other parts of the airport, he commented.
Protesters “plan to keep air traffic from the private jet terminal grounded for as long as possible,” Dewi Zloch, spokesperson of Greenpeace Netherlands, said in a statement.
She continued: “The airport should be reducing its flight movements, but instead it’s building a brand-new terminal. The wealthy elite is using more private jets than ever, which is the most polluting way to fly. This is typical of the aviation industry, which doesn’t seem to see that it is putting people at risk by aggravating the climate crisis. This has to stop. We want fewer flights, more trains, and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets.”
Greenpeace warned authorities there would be some kind of action at Schiphol weeks in advance, Zloch, who was on the scene, told CNN. They did not disclose the exact location, she added.
Schiphol Airport CEO Ruud Sondag said activists should “feel welcome, but let’s keep things civil.”
He was responding to a previous letter from Greenpeace and stated his objective was to achieve “emissions-free airports by 2030 and net climate-neutral aviation by 2050”.
“However, this is only possible if we all work together”, Sondag said in a statement published Friday.
“Coming together for our environment, the government, and for society, clear laws, regulations, and proper permits are a necessity. We need clarity on that soon,” he added.
Elsewhere in Europe, two climate activists were arrested in Madrid in Spain after they each glued one of their hands to the frames of two Goya paintings in the Prado Museum on Saturday.
There was no apparent damage to the paintings, but the suspects are being charged with public disorder and damages, the Spanish National Police press office for Madrid told CNN.
The suspects, two Spanish women, wrote “+1,5C” on the wall between the artworks, which were Goya’s masterpieces “Las Majas,” according to the police.
They described themselves as a “collective of civil disobedience and direct action in the fight against the Climate Crisis through the adoption of a food growing system based on plants.”
“Last week the UN recognized the impossibility of keeping ourselves below the limit of the increase, of the Paris Accord, of 1.5 degrees (C) temperature, with respect to pre-industrial levels,” Futuro Vegetal wrote in its tweet.
Security guards at the Prado quickly alerted the National Police, which has a unit dedicated to protecting the perimeter of the famed museum, and officers made the arrests in just minutes, the Police press office said.
The Paris Agreement, which was adopted by 196 parties at the United Nations’ COP 21 in December 2015, aimed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The protest comes just a day before the COP27 climate conference is due to start in Egypt.
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Extinction Rebellion in the Netherlands says:
Stop private jets! No bullshit-flights!
The government has decided that Schiphol should shrink to a maximum of 440,000 flights per year, but this does not include private jets. The exemptions that apply to Schiphol and for private flights show exactly where the problem lies in tackling the climate crisis. Schiphol Airport is one of the biggest polluters in the Netherlands, yet almost half of the Dutch population never sets foot in a plane.
The wealthy ‘jet set’ is responsible for most of the flights and the highest carbon emissions, and nothing is being done to stop them. They are allowed to just carry on producing huge amounts of CO2, while people who are less well off suffer the burden of the climate crisis. This is unfair and unacceptable. It is high time aviation starts complying with the Paris climate agreement.
Our demands
- Stop polluting and develop a climate plan for no more than 1.5 degrees
- Scrap unnecessary (short haul) flights
- Stop greenwashing advertisements and CO2 offsets
- Set legal climate rules for aviation
- Give flying a fair price
Read here our full Call to Action and learn about all the ways Schiphol Group is furthering inequality, worsens the life of people all around the globe and is exempt from regulations.
https://extinctionrebellion.nl/en/sos-voor-het-klimaat-live/
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